Crafting is rather disappointing compared to DAI.

Yeah, I was hoping for more options, too, especially with armor. I'm also not a fan of the ranked weapons and armor, which I know is a call-back to the original Mass Effect, but that was my least favorite part of that game. I get that they were trying to bring back the RPG feel from the first ME, and the RPG inventory system from that and the Dragon Age games (or any RPG). I guess that works in Dragon Age, where you can have lots of "named" items (and even reuse the item model for more powerful items), and also have "unique" weapons and armor, since it's a fantasy game. Maybe that doesn't translate as well to a sci-fi setting, so they put armor and weapon ranks in. I don't know, I just can't seem to get behind that, but maybe that's just me.

But I did like how crafting worked in DAI, especially with weapons. You could actually see augmentations you were adding to them. They achieved the "rank" system basically by using high-quality or rare/unique materials, and I guess that's something else that doesn't translate well to sci-fi.

It's nice that you can mix and match the armor, though. Well, most of the armor anyway. The full-body armor, like Heleus Defender or the preorder Scavenger and Deep Space sets only let you change the helmet. Otherwise, for the rest of the armors, I think it's cool that the undersuit is there to keep a sort of "theme," even if you mix different arm/leg/chest pieces. Hopefully some more armors will be added in the future.

One thing that would have been nice is to craft colossus armor.

Overall the crafting wasn't bad.

The reliance on augments was a bit much. I would've liked the ability to adjust the behavior of weapons without there being drastic caveats, like how the beam emitter nerfs the shit out of any weapon it's applied to. When I first saw the augment, I wanted to take something like the Sidewinder and essentially get something as close to a Star Wars hand blaster as I could. But it just taps enemies. Some augments are a great deal of fun, but far too many have terrible tradeoffs.

I don't think that this feature should go away, but I think that it could use more flexibility and the ability to greater personalize weapons and perhaps even make something that's practically godly. Personally I don't care about "breaking" the combat by being able to wrangle parts to make a ridiculously overpowered weapon.

Some weapons are ruined by behavioral modifications, while others might be a fun novelty that aren't any more effective than their regular counterparts. The only gun I've really found to be truly entertaining with a behavioral augment is the PAW with plasma seeking rounds, because in some ways it's almost like having the Invasion power with tons more projectiles that harasses targets and can get them out of cover. For me, it's basically just anything that deals with armor and shield damage and being free from ammo crates. 

If there should be any kind of behavioral modification, it should have been something that allowed the ability to affect things like fire rate and firing modes. Like, being able to actually craft a Mattock, I would kill every Angaran baby in Heleus to be able to go full auto. 

I like the crafting system. Would've liked more armor options though. I find myself mostly using the same things though. Shield Oscilator on chest, some damage variant on legs and Power Booster on my main weapon. And always the Heleus Helmet, as it vastly superior to everything unless you play the game as a pure shooter game.

The System is similar to DA but also different...it's similar because we need materials ad projects but it's different because material do not gives bonus directly.
Bonus are given by augmentations and i find many of them very weak or useless. i like very few of them (+2 mod slots is really good)

I'd have liked more variety - as in more randomized pieces and stats of weapons and armor that could be found on each playthrough.

You're best bet is to always craft equipment in this game - I would have rather found a few pieces of random exotic powerful blueprint with special stats randomized on each play through (with maybe with +10% random boost to a stat or something), just to further differentiate each Ryder.

Why is your biotic Ryder wearing a Kett chestpiece? Found an experimental plan with a +20% boost biotic damage!

As it is, crafting is seriously missing any sense of serendipity.

Agreed with some of the criticism. My two cents

- I hate that I can't equip the weapons/armors I have on the fly but have to go to a loadout station to do that. I mean they are in my inventory! I have no problem with research and development but once they are crafted I want to be free to equip them at my preference.

- As someone who did a pure soldier run the most combat dedicated armor was the Kett one and damn it's awful looking. I wanted to use the N7 but why they made it for biotics only is beyond my reasoning. N7 isn't just a biotic thing. I want a combat focused armor from the Milky Way tech. Give me the Colossus.

- I want consumables as weapon mods that I can take away or put while on the field. ME1 had that right.

Your keyboard should have an "enter"-key. Use it.

If they would'a had the system of finding armor (that leveled as you leveled) we'd be fine. So, at level 1, you would find level I Scorpion armor. At level 10, you would find level III Colossus armor, at level 50 you could find level IX whatever armor. Or to at least speed up the drops.

Also the augments really pissed me off, whereby you have to create those as well. If they would'a had those things just be found through out the world we'd be fine as well.

If they'd have had both, we'd be golden. Sure, maybe you can create TheBest Armor in game with TheBest Augments. But it's not necessary.

Right now, it's necessary to craft both, and the game's a dumpster fire. I wanna spend my time with my companions (another issue), not stuck in some menu wondering why I don't have X material when I just played for 36 hours on one planet doing every little side quest and mining everything in sight so that the planet looks like it's been strip mined.

It's just no fun.

For a first draft of crafting in mass effect it's ok, could tweak the research data amounts that we need,
Need more options in general though for armor, viable options, not trash options.
And unrelated I wish weapons had a little more oomph to
Not damage, but more feel. Like nothing scratches the itch that firing the saber used to fill

Companion-related customization in general. It clearly got rushed out the door before BioWare got around to implementing equipment or alternative squadmate gear/armor.