Currently in game there is little to no risk in being a pve focused crafter.

A crafing character can set his totem near reources, harvest in saftey, and once they are all depleted, abandon the totem, log off during the cooldown and place a new one near new resources.

A crafter doesnt need to leave the safezone to skill up and progress, in fact most stay at home near the saftey of their premission locked baskets to do so.

You cant even terraform without remaining inside your magical safe zone.

A combat character on the otherhand, needs to do all of his skill leveling far from any safe zone, animals are so hard to come by that other players are the better route. However if a death penalty that removes stats and skills is implimented, it puts all of the risk of the game on the combat characters.

Currently the largest tribe is full of crafters...how many crafters does one tribe need? Does a tribe of 10 or 20 need to have 15 crafters? Is this realistic in a dangerous and new world ravaged by an apocalypse? Civilizations of past relied on a few "crafters" in which to support the many "combat" people of their armies, defense of the tribe was the number one important factor of their survival, not who can weave the most baskets.

My hope is that this turns into a civilized and respectfull discussion about the purpose of a crafter heavy game, removing the no risk gameplay invloved with crafting, and why all of the risk must be plased on a player who chooses to defend said crafters, having to progress outside the safe zone and without any other means to progress other than hunting people.