I'd been wanting to post about "crafting" basically because it seemed to me that this was an alternate (to monster or player bashing) reason-to-play which attracted a different, but just as intense, kind of player.

Then I came accross the set of posts in the "why isn't tl2 so popular?" thread, about economy and then about economy+crafting.

Some deep ideas swirling around there...

• Do you think we should explore a crafting system as part (maybe even a MAJOR part) of the solution towards better loot? 
  
• Should we go so far as to think of "an economic system" in TL, based on crafted items?

One intermediate idea along this (dangerous ) path could be a better trading system. I always thought it'd be better if you could somehow browse what other players had made available for trade, make an offer for the other player to consider, then meet-up only for the actual trade.

...keep in mind that TL2 can't really support an 'economy' due to the ease of cheating and the unregulated element mods add.

Hmm yeah, that's pretty much a game-ender isn't it?

Well, staying in the realm of theory (we don't have to build it, right?), might there be ways around this?

Crafting should be an option for better loot not THE option for better loot.

I agree with this. And of course the Item Overhaul mod will address the better-loot issue. But if you can get great loot exploring and killing things, what then would you craft? Put more generally, how else could a mod make crafting rewarding?

surely will love the 'crafting' mechanism, I wish you continue this project
don't mind with cheating, people already mature enough to choose their method to feel the true gaming experience