One thing I would like to add about low-level crafting/etc, is that the gather rate is so painfully.... slow.

1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1..... ugh. It can take 10 minutes to fill a 1000 bulk max pack, and when you finally drag it to the smelter/saw/whatever, you find that you can only make 20 processed resources. Heh. Those 20 processed resources will only do what, 3-4 finished items?

Once you get to where you can get 4s and 5s from Tier I, it is okay; it will only get better, and you can pick and choose which tier of resources to go after (choosing not to do anything Tier II until you're 3:1 is usually considered very wise), but when you first start out -- especially with NO cargo disk -- it is quite boring to sit there getting 1s and barely budging the meter when you do a full load (which only allows you to make 3-4 pieces of armor/weapon/tool).

I never thought of spamming crystals for XP, but it does make sense. Otherwise, the only real way to get any crafting XP whatsoever until teens, is to get someone else to donate about an hour or so, digging up Tier 1 for you, so you don't have to sit through the 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1s. Even 15 minutes from a Tier 3+ character will zip you along several levels in one lump sum.

I think the devs should give considerations of speeding up the gathering curve -- make Tier 1 easier/faster to master (maybe 100 skill instead of 200 to get 2:1 with Tier 1 resources and/or Max Gather rate), and also... please... give us Refurbished Cargo Disks for sale from an NPC. Nothing is more frustrating than getting to Level 5 in your first craft, and there are no cargo disks on the NT Connie (or you have no money -- see above), and it is starting to take _forever_ with your measly 1,000 bulk max.