the crafting system is at best, old. Seen it before on various servers. While there is a PotM flavor to it, it is still the same ol' click, re-click slowly go numb system. Yes, it takes away from Rp, unless of course you find someone to go insane with you as you click away. There are a few things that could be changed to make crafting less of a pain. Just my opinion, your mileage may vary.
1st. allow crafted items to be sold for value, rather than 1 gp. First, crafted Weapons are by far the best, shame the merchants of PotM don't know it.
Second, because crafted potions are devalued, you have now 2, to 3 instances of potions, even though they are the same. They do not stack, and its annoying as hell to sort it out in the inventory. 3rd, and probably the most interesting is that a player has to wait for some Player merchant to sell it at whatever cost they pull out of their posterior. Usually said cost is rounded to 1000ish for convenience, and after finding the player selling it, and seeing that the cost is above what is had, or worse paying out the "sum" you find it at the Vistani for 1 gp. Silly.
2nd, Give xp for crafting. it doesn't have to be for everything crafted, tie it to the crafting level and at each craft level achieved, give a fair amount of actual XP.
3rd. Switch over to all crafted gear, including what is dropped from spawns. this makes the most sense, overall. Whats the point of making some nice magic weapon to fight a shape shifter, if a better one is available constantly from the same old drop. From the module point, its less resources that need to be there. From the DM point, its less stuff to shift through when handing out rewards. from the build team point, its less stuff to deal with.
4th. Sell multiple crafting items. a item that turns into 10 bottles on use. or 50. or 100. Add extra component drops. why is it that after years of collecting herb, my char can only get 1 usable part from a plant? or the miner can only get one piece of ore? shouldn't he know how to hit it to get it out? isn't that more realistic?
5th. Change the trees to a invisible small object and place the way-point that spawns them in a tree. The trees are a pain to fight, or walk around as they tend to suck the cursor into a bogus click.
6th Add portable crafting to the game. why can't a character set up a cauldron? they can set up a fire.. same with smelting.. for hundreds of years humans smelted on a open fire, near where they mined the ore.
7th. Potions, potions, potions. With all the unique scripted systems here, why are all the potions the standard bio spell scripts? Why not add potions that boost skills for a limited time (for lower levels) Potions that protect from paralysis, fear, and disease, rather than just remove it. How about potions that boost your stats by 1-2 for 100 seconds? or potions that turn you into "normal" animals that you cant turn back from until it wears off? many untapped possibilities here, that could greatly enhance RP.
8th. Probably the most important.. change one of the metals that is used in crafting weapons to be useful against undead. Allow multiple metals to be crafted together. A weapon could be good for undead and shapeshifters, and still within the "item power limits" of PotM.
While my ideas/suggestions/rantings above are my strong opinion, I fully understand that I am not a member of the build team, nor on the staff, so take it as you will. If said builders or staff have questions feel free to PM me.. I am always glad to help out, or explain further. that being said, I am enjoying PotM. The players, and the staff are the best I have come across in MP. See you in game.