You know, whenever you get around to rethinking crafting from the ground up, you should consider that it's kind of begging to be made into a CXP tier. If you could level up crafting over a much longer range of skill levels, and if you did something like making patterns actual bound items that crafters have to own a full set of in order to craft things, you would open up a lot of potential for crafting related quests and rewards (rare patterns, making Mk XII stuff craftable at T4 crafting, making DOFFs with active roster passives that boost quality or heavily discount material inputs needed for items, etc.)
This could make crafting a more tangible role for players. It would require some changes, like moving the dilithium cost from individual items into much higher cost for making schematics only (but allowing players to craft items using only tradeable materials after they buy a schematic with dilithium). But I'm sure a lot of people would be very excited by a more diverse and rewarding crafting system overall, and by a system that gives players a reason to seek out dedicated crafters.
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