I have a small suggestion for crafting. I haven't actually crafted anything yet (haven't gotten enough ingredients), so I do not know if something like my suggest is in place and maybe isn't stated by the UI. So, I apologize now if I am missing something.

 

Perceived Area of Concern:

Currently, the crafting system seems fairly robust but due to how recipes work, they seem to reward hoarding your cash until you can afford the better recipes.

 

Take this example:

It seems to be a waste to invest in "Damaging 1" or "Damaging 2" when I could just save up for "Damaging 3." If I do get "Damaging 2," for example, I will feel like I wasted money when I can afford "Damaging 3."

 

Possible Alternative:

Why not do something like this:

So, you would need to upgrade the weapon to "Damaging 1" before you could get "Damaging 2" and so on. I would do a similar change to stat boosts on Armor. So, "Strength 2" requiring "Strength 1" and so on.

 

Benefit:

This should get players to use the crafting system sooner. They would not feel the need to hoard thier copper until later and may be more open to upgrade pieces of gear as they advance though the game. To my mind, that makes the game more interesting from the get go. Such a system may necessitate toning down copper costs and ingredient requirements a bit on certain recipes but that shouldn't be too tough to do.

Yes, please, to this neat idea!

There are pros and cons to both systems, but I think I fall generally into your line of thinking. Although there is scope for separate spending to encourage tactical choice, practically speaking in a world with even semi-limited resources you are always going to save up for that top tier. And your system certainly encourages people to craft earlier.

 

Personally, I would prefer crafting to be something you choose to do on a character build level, and that just having access to it by default is a bit distasteful and pointless, but ymmv.