I haven't played a billion games, so my experience is somewhat limited, but has there been a game that handled training of crafting skills in a good way that didn't involve making weapons and armor you'd never use because they're crappy until you've maxed them out?That would actually be shit way in the system I proposed.
Also most people I knew knew you could click a bottom so you wouldn´t have to delete what you crafted. So ... thinking might not be your friends strong suit.
I can't think of a way around spamming wood weapons and the like which would be a meaningful change. Making it skill up faster by changing the gains on better materials like you mentioned is a nudge, but just kind of shifts the focus to finding the cheapest material which gives best gains, and you would still have to spam it to some degree. But at least it's a nudge
What do you guys think about them expanding on what they've mentioned on how skill effects outcome from 70-100 skill where you're getting in the case of armor the max mitigation and proper wgt for the armor at 70 skill, and from 70-100 you get improved durability. Maybe they adjust that curve even more so those lower skill made items are better than they have been in the past and are still decent to use, but don't last long; could be sold at a discount since they're still functional at least. You can also use that stuff yourself while you're more organically raising your skill over time since you're crafter also fights and hunts etc. That's not that exciting, but maybe it'd be another adjustment they can make.
I also just realized that if they keep the same system with skill books generally reading to 70 skill. Even if they didn't adjust the quality of lower crafted skills to be more rewarding, the changes they've already mentioned make it so by the time you're done reading the book you're able to make proper weapons and armor for general use without having to spam anything at all unless you wanted to mastercraft stuff, which I think will be something only serious crafters and traders are going to do.
I've already decided I won't be going to 100 on the tradeskills I plan to use so that I can fit more trades on my character, and since I'll be able to supply my crafter with hunting on the same character, the fact that the weapons or armor won't last as long won't mean much to me.