I'm sad :(

[Kabooa]

Just out of curiosity, what do you consider the best crafting experience? Obviously this is a subjective question so, no one can say "This game was the best and this game wasn't" because it'll differ from person to person. Perhaps, for the OP this crafting system was the best.

In terms of complexity and depth, FF14 is only a slight bit ahead of Warcraft because you have to actively make the craft 'high quality' to be worth it. Other than that it's standard get stuff, make stuff; Fairly standard across RPG games like Guild Wars, Diablo, Aion, Warhammer and so forth.

If we limit it to online games, I'd go for classic SWG. You still get stuff to make stuff, and you still make components to make into bigger items, but the key difference is that battle equipment had several categories you invested your 'experiment' points in. For FF14 comparisons, it's basically allowing you to select the secondary stats your item will come out with.

The gathering system was also a balance of automation and effort; You had to actively go out and survey materials (The quality changed week to week, as well as the location) but once you did, you plopped down auto harvesters and checked in once a day or so. This in turn enabled the above crafting of literally tinkering away in a laboratory both for mass production (Automated factories using a schematic you design) to personalized 'master crafts' (Using rare materials to amp the crap out of a blaster rifle for your favorite Stormtrooper).

You could also literally name and provide a description of your item. Was it a 'better' system is hard to answer, but it was leaps and bounds beyond FF14 in terms of accessibility, flexibility, and tingly goody feelings while being several generations behind

It's also worth noting this system of mass production was allowed because items perma-broke; Mass produced items used for daily activites and your rarer 'mastercrafted' items for e-peen dueling.

/nostalgia