I think the crafting system at the moment is pretty stale. It should be more progressional. So to change that, all craftable items and structures should be assigned to a certain level. Patterns will still have a skill level requirement in order for them to be learned. Patterns will also have colored names to represent their skill level.
Anyway, the low level crafts will be the easy crafts to make (require little resources that are easy to find), but they eventually will become unrewarding. With that in mind, the higher level crafts will be the crafts that are more difficult to make (require many resource which are difficult to find), but they will be more rewarding. In addition, these levels will determine the probability for a player to earn a skill point in that craft.
Craft Levels
These colors would appear on the item/structure's text.
Gray- You're way above the level required. You have no chance of getting a skill point.
Green- You're slightly above the level required. You have a 25% chance of getting a skill point.
Yellow- You're around the same level as the craft. You have a 50% chance of getting a skill point.
Orange- You're slightly below the level required. You have a 75% chance of getting a skill point.
Red- You're below the level required. You have a 5% chance of getting a skill point.
Purple- You're way below the level required. Only patterns can be this color to indicate that it cannot be learned until you reach a higher skill level with your craft.
As your skill level goes up in the craft, the colors will change depending on the levels assigned to the crafts.