Fruition Online- Crafting
There are many crafting skill types. I take a lot of inspiration from an MMO and a 1 (sometimes 2) player console RPG. One of the best games I ever played, and not just because it has the best crafting system in a game I've seen yet. Possibly tied with the MMO.
Anyway.
In that RPG, you could craft any weapon or piece of armor out of any material. Can you make a cloak out of stone? Yes. Can you make plate armor out of cotton? Again the answer is "yes". I don't think this was dumb. Yeah that stuff sucked, but you COULD. That's the point I'm looking at.
Let's expand on it, shall we? Okay. So each material has a "Material Bonus" for both attack and defense items. Also, you can craft furniture and stuff out of whatever as well. Because materials in games, even mine, don't actually do their true material thing (brimstone won't burn down a wooden house, as example) so we can even make furniture out of whatever materials you've got, or choose. Because you can craft individual parts to your house (see Personal House Map) you can even make a castle from ice. That's fine.
Now, mostly I'm gonna focus on four aspects of crafting: Material, Basic, Enhancement, and Orbs.
Basic
There are three qualities of craft, just like material, and yes, they go by the same name.
If you try to craft something at a higher difficulty than you should be attempting at that stage, and you succeed- it is probably going to be Low quality.
If you try to craft something way easier than you should be at the stage you're at, it'll probably be Exceptional.
Because of how I'm doing things, sometimes low quality skill is desired for a certain piece. That rule needed to come about because in an MMO I was playing, either you have the best skill in the game, or no one talks to you. This way that isn't the case. You can also 'lock' your skill to be unable to gain so you can stay low.
Enhancement
You can use mechanical enhancements on weapons and armor, and such changes take up the 'Mechanical Upgrade' slot. You can also enchant stuff, which takes up the 'Magical Upgrade' slot. You cannot remove or switch around these upgrades.
If you change your mind, make, or get something better (a spell, part, etc) than you'll have to make new stuff and add it onto that. It's how the game market flows!
Orb
Remember I said that materials have their own special bonus? Well you can very rarely get an Orb. They can be found as loot, but more likely to get them by crafting. Smelt a lot of money into ingots, and then craft daggers with them? You might randomly get a Gold or Dagger Orb.
Each weapon has its own list of specials (see Combat) and each material has its own too (as stated). What if you want to make a Fire-Enchanted Greatsword out of Meteorite? Do it. What if you want to use a Cloth Orb on it, so its material special switches to Cloth (unable to make killing blows)? What if you wanna switch Greatsword Special 1 to a ranged weapon's special 1, so you can attack with a sword at range? That's fine too. Don't judge a book by its cover, or a sword by its chainsaw blade and healing enchantment. It might not even hurt.
Material
There are three qualities of material. Low, Normal, and Exceptional.
Low quality materials are heavier than Normal, and have durability penalties. That means your stuff is guaranteed to break faster than Normal because it sucks.
Exceptional quality is therefore much lighter and is harder to destroy, on purpose or otherwise.
Even saying all that, it doesn't mean that any quality is ALWAYS BETTER than the others! It depends on what you're making, why, and your own skill level.