- Crafting is rarely useful. Recipes are too expensive and usually not worth it. Why would I need to learn how to create a leather jacket for $300 in Klamath, when I can buy leather armor already? Spike traps do some 10 damage. What is there to do with them?
Basically, the only thing I do craft are stimpacks and superstimpacks. (Which, incidentally, brings up the question - why Myron uses 1 stimpack to create a superstim, and player needs two?)
I'd think about making recipes cheaper, accessible earlier, and lower skill checks. Otherwise, it's hardly ever used.
You have no idea XD You can look at traps as the biggest highlght of the mod (and they were the actual reason why I couldn't play without it afterwards).
If you can buy a leather armor you're playing way above the scarcity levels you ought to be playing at. When you play at max scarcity and lowest drops, and are trapping geckos, knowing how to craft that stuff is a big deal. Crafting soup is (or used to be) better than stimpacks, it makes all the loot from the Umbra Tribe even let you get through to Modoc and Vault City (again, if you're not having problems with that, just dial up the difficulty settings a bit they're too low XD).
As for Spike Traps - they're one of the strongest things in the game. Did you notice that they actually make enemies stop? They're the closest tihng to actual crowd control in the game. You can set up any fight before it begins, like plant traps around the entrance to Metzgers, get your gang behind a wall in the building on the right and have the best imaginable fight in fallout 2 (and that's nothing compared to casing out a casino before going up, sneaking and planting traps where folks don't see you for an EVEN crazier fight). However, if you're not playing with party member control - well, you're missing out on a lot.
Not to mention that you can use spike traps to get through toxic caves, too, but again, if you're not having trouble with that - too low difficulty. At a more appropriate difficulty/scarcity and with party control they're the best thing ever, damage is unimportant.