I think this type of massive project is exactly what DOL and DOH need to stay strongclasses in their own right. Facilitating DOW/DOM classes with weapons is the bread and butter of Craft classes. But large scale, longer term progressive projects like ships, air ships etc could easily be the Crafting "end-Game" of FF14 and i think would make the supply side of classes even more attractive.

The usual issue in many games that include crafting is that without large projects besides gear is that crafting loses its "epicness" so to speak. and become a class of crank out some stuff quick so i can do other stuff. Mostly because it has no group or collective project that can motivate an entire group to work towards.

Ships, ait ships, castles and forts are all big and worth large scale projects that can put excitment into players who are playing Crafting and gathering classes. and even motivate those who would otherwise not be as interested in making clothing to pitch in and maybe even play more crafting classes because there is something epic to do with them.

FF14 has a unique chance i think to cash in on the prevelance of crafting classes and skills in this game by putting some really epic craft goals like ships.

In many games crafting is a one click system, so even building something like a ship, has no impact. But if you, as a carpenter, would be able to Fasion parts of a ship, then get on the side of a skeleton hull and put effort into working on it, to get the visual of yourself and LS working on it. and then in time, so roll out a complete ship that you know your ls worked on, but also SAW them work on, could be a level of epic crafting that i think no game has attempted.