Wow, first time the creator of a game this awesome has said something to me. -Fangasm-
Heheh. I'm very active in the forum and try to log in to the public game server from time to time. It's always nice to get feed back and interacting with the players is one of my favorite things.
FutureB has it mostly right. Where actual "skill" is involved in crafting is still to be determined... and the flexibility in weapons creation all comes down to what I can eke out of the physics engine in terms of weapon behavior. One combat system I'm prototyping, this is pretty straight forward but may in fact not work out. (It's cutting-edge experimental stuff but too cool not to try.)
At any rate, I'm 90% sure the physics engine is already giving me what I'd need to determine weapon performance even if I fall back on more cliched "click to roll the dice" style RPG combat (which I hope to avoid for a few reasons).
Best words I've ever heard a game designer say. You sir are awesome, btw, I tried joining the server but whenever I create a account the game crashes.