I would love to seen the developers (either here or in Announcements) lay out the current philosophy for the low level crafting game. We are seeing a bunch of recent changes and previous (possible) false starts and (I at least) are getting a bit confused.

Back in the good old days we could count on some low level tasks to get us started in a school. Yes, they were a bit primitive and a grind, but they boosted our initial level rather quickly (past the very slow XP phase). Then we saw the NT blacksmith get fancy with tasks that were more fun and actually gave us some cash and formula.

Now, we are starting to see starting tasks (and in some cases the low level trainers) go away. It seems Mining/Gathering tasks are gone for good and we have lost Standish and his low level tinkerer tasks. Is this a trend?

I am not necessarily asking for the master plan, but only a sense of the current direction. And I am most certainly not expecting any schedule commitments. However, it would be nice to know where the game is headed.