The way to fix the crafting system is fairly straight-forward: make it useful. Even leveling, which happens so rapidly, it's not worth the time and effort to make gear. At the end, there is better gear that's easier (and cheaper) to get. The best idea I've read, and then thought about, was to refocus crafting on to what it…
That's always been my biggest beef with the game. I can even look past the MMO-tropes that have to go into the game (money, loot, etc). But the fact that violence seems to be the only answer, that you're always having to fight, and that there's no reward at all for diplomacy, exploration, or experimentation (past tiny…