My thoughts on crafting

[Jeckyll]

I agree with what you said chojinuk. However all that just reinforces my point that we are punished for getting our skill level up to max.

Low skill level but high stats = consistently higher than skill level stacks
High skill level with high stats = consistently lower than skill level stacks

It is somewhere around level 90 (+ or - a level or two) where this dynamic changes.

It doesn't matter what the system is because it is that system that punishes you. Don't get me wrong I love the game. All I'm doing is pointing this out.

You don't actually need to hunt mutants. They give you the same stuff that normal animals give and I'm not real sure but I believe the same amount of the same stuff. I know that the power comes into it but afaik (and I could be wrong) that is the only real difference. So basically you can happily hunt the normal animals and get all the same stuff. It's a challenge to hunt a mule deer in starter gear just as it's a challenge to hunt a shadow bear in master gear.

Don't get me wrong I like and use good quality armor and weapons because they definitely help. With my new guys once I can make HQ or VHQ sets of a style I like (for each individual character) I will equip them with it. What I'm saying is you can get along just fine without it.

As thurgond said we see people leave because they burn out getting one or two skills to 100 as fast as they can. The get to 100 is the holy grail that is hung out there and I've seen people just grind away to get there on one, two or more skills and what for?

We are missing the point. There is a game to play here and you could probably spend years actually playing it and not get a skill up to 100. Sure it's nice to get to 25 in basketry and tools to get a storage bin and saw but after that just play. You will need to grind some still but also you will need to make things and skill levels will rise and you are actually making things for a reason not just to destroy. Playing the game might just make the grind less of a grind.