I think there is no need to cut crafting, but there is need to maximize its potential as a fun system, and that, includes challenges, and rules to follow.
The thing that makes a game a game, and not a toy, is that you have X chance of failing at doing whatever it is you want, and that there are consistent rules and limits that let you understand how to interact with it for changing your experience.
The beginning to make the best crafting and item collection system possible, is naturally, making what you're doing most of the time fun/engaging/interesting, and it comes imo before balance, before lore, before immersion, and other things as well.
Fun is not something so complex that it always needs to appear as a result from deep examples like big quests with stories or a massive boss fight, It can come from an extremely simple thing, as long as it is built with the right psychology in mind.
I like the subject but im a bit tired to put the huge wall of text I'd want to, so excuse me and let me put this example that I think makes my point a bit:
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Shadow of Chernobyl, for those that didnt play it, is a game (FPS/bit of ARPG), where you can pick up these weird items, referred to as Artifacts, that are beneficial to you one way or another, to use them, sell them, give them as a quest item, etc.
These cant be mixed or used to craft something, but after reading almost all posts here, the main problem stated is obviously and clearly that of how the things you need for crafting to work can get boring and repetitive, worthless, and not that of the act of crafting itself, so the example still applies I believe.
Your Artifacts have limitations, such as how many you can use in your armor's belt at the same time, and the main one, how do you protect yourself from the different levels of radiation each emanates, you can use drugs and some armor, but the best by far, are special Artifacts that neutralize X amount of radiation, instead of adding more. This is not just a "beneficial or neutral" binary state, this is a "beneficial or I die" state, which makes the player happily a victim of one of the most common game design tools ever used to create fun and interesting choices and dilemmas: low risk/low reward vs big risk/big reward. In the sequels, some artifacts actually have both, beneficial effects and negative ones, forcing you to balance and sacrifice aspects even more.
Now to the fundamental part, the simplest way in which these Artifacts are gathered, apart from buying and getting them as rewards and etc, much like ingredients and loot in RPGs, is by just picking them up in the game world, but unlike herbs and loot chests, there is a catch here:
Artifacts "inhabit" dangerous zones known as Anomalous Areas, which are extremely dangerous and often lethal, requiring gear, player skill, stats, knowledge of the lore, knowledge of the systems, dexterity and more, to even survive searching the artifacts, which not only you can never be sure there are some, but also a lot of times you dont really know how they look like, and what are their effects prior to getting one.
This makes collecting the items immensely satisfying in comparison to any normal RPG that lets you just pick up stuff with no problem or rules, or that gives you the items with other already repeated systems in place, like more quests, more combat, etc.
To get these things you have to learn to navigate the area, neutralize radiation or other effects, carry health items in case of mistakes, make sure you are not followed by enemies from afar, know the dangers of each anomaly and how it behaves, and its all for that, for the Artifacts, its not something you end up doing anyway or for other reasons, again, unlike quests.
So the point is very simple, just make the core conceptual act of gathering items, and even combining them, fun or interesting or exciting or all at the same time, gathering an item isnt the monsters you defeat before, and neither the story that is told around, its just moving your char with the WASD keys and clicking once while barely aiming at the item, the core mechanics, the operative actions, and that is what needs to have challenge, uncertainty, C&C, and be fun
Later we can worry about other problems.
The thing that makes a game a game, and not a toy, is that you have X chance of failing at doing whatever it is you want, and that there are consistent rules and limits that let you understand how to interact with it for changing your experience.
The beginning to make the best crafting and item collection system possible, is naturally, making what you're doing most of the time fun/engaging/interesting, and it comes imo before balance, before lore, before immersion, and other things as well.
Fun is not something so complex that it always needs to appear as a result from deep examples like big quests with stories or a massive boss fight, It can come from an extremely simple thing, as long as it is built with the right psychology in mind.
I like the subject but im a bit tired to put the huge wall of text I'd want to, so excuse me and let me put this example that I think makes my point a bit:
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Shadow of Chernobyl, for those that didnt play it, is a game (FPS/bit of ARPG), where you can pick up these weird items, referred to as Artifacts, that are beneficial to you one way or another, to use them, sell them, give them as a quest item, etc.
These cant be mixed or used to craft something, but after reading almost all posts here, the main problem stated is obviously and clearly that of how the things you need for crafting to work can get boring and repetitive, worthless, and not that of the act of crafting itself, so the example still applies I believe.
Your Artifacts have limitations, such as how many you can use in your armor's belt at the same time, and the main one, how do you protect yourself from the different levels of radiation each emanates, you can use drugs and some armor, but the best by far, are special Artifacts that neutralize X amount of radiation, instead of adding more. This is not just a "beneficial or neutral" binary state, this is a "beneficial or I die" state, which makes the player happily a victim of one of the most common game design tools ever used to create fun and interesting choices and dilemmas: low risk/low reward vs big risk/big reward. In the sequels, some artifacts actually have both, beneficial effects and negative ones, forcing you to balance and sacrifice aspects even more.
Now to the fundamental part, the simplest way in which these Artifacts are gathered, apart from buying and getting them as rewards and etc, much like ingredients and loot in RPGs, is by just picking them up in the game world, but unlike herbs and loot chests, there is a catch here:
Artifacts "inhabit" dangerous zones known as Anomalous Areas, which are extremely dangerous and often lethal, requiring gear, player skill, stats, knowledge of the lore, knowledge of the systems, dexterity and more, to even survive searching the artifacts, which not only you can never be sure there are some, but also a lot of times you dont really know how they look like, and what are their effects prior to getting one.
This makes collecting the items immensely satisfying in comparison to any normal RPG that lets you just pick up stuff with no problem or rules, or that gives you the items with other already repeated systems in place, like more quests, more combat, etc.
To get these things you have to learn to navigate the area, neutralize radiation or other effects, carry health items in case of mistakes, make sure you are not followed by enemies from afar, know the dangers of each anomaly and how it behaves, and its all for that, for the Artifacts, its not something you end up doing anyway or for other reasons, again, unlike quests.
So the point is very simple, just make the core conceptual act of gathering items, and even combining them, fun or interesting or exciting or all at the same time, gathering an item isnt the monsters you defeat before, and neither the story that is told around, its just moving your char with the WASD keys and clicking once while barely aiming at the item, the core mechanics, the operative actions, and that is what needs to have challenge, uncertainty, C&C, and be fun
Later we can worry about other problems.
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(looking at you Lady of the Lake <.<)