I haven't seen much discussion here about the crafting systems in SWTOR...I'm on the fence whether I want to even try the game or not at this point. I haven't been able to follow it's development at all over the last couple of years, so I really know next to nothing about it. I was a huge fan of SWG when it first came out, and I think I spent more time gathering and crafting in that game than anything else, so those elements are pretty important to me. It's one of the things I really felt WoW lacked back when I was playing it...crafting was not appealing to me at all because everyone crafted identical items, the only difference between players were whether they had a certain recipe or not. It really made me long for a crafting system as deep as Star Wars Galaxies had, where every ingredients' stats for every component contributed to the final stats of the item you were making, and players became known for their quality food, weapons, armor, whatever. I don't expect SWTOR to have a system as deep as that, but just wanted to give you an idea of my experience and what is fun to me. 
 
My main questions are: 
 
1. How deep is the crafting in SWTOR? Can you compare it to either World of Warcraft style crafting or old school SWG crafting, or is it somewhere in between? 
 
2. How do you think the player economy is going to work, and how will player-crafted items fit into the economy overall? 

last time i played the beta was about four months ago, but when i was playing the crafting system was more like wows if i remember right. it might have even been worse then wows but i cant really remember too much about it. how the crafting is gonna work in terms of player economy i imagine will be almost identical to that of wows. in the idea of a couple really good crafted pieces at max rank that will sell pretty high but that is about it. i dont know how accurate this information will be cause like i said i never really paid much attention at all to the crafting.

Questions I'd like to know as well. 
 
Anyone know if it is too late to preorder to get the head start?

um... it's not a traditional crafting system....  you get crew skills, then you can send your crew out to gather materials and craft items for you...  but it kinda works like wow, if you have the materials, recipe and the skill, then your companion can craft it for you.
 
 
  

Here's how it works.

There's 3 types of crew skills: Gathering, Crafting, and Missions. You can have 3 total, and it can be any combination with one rule: Only one crafting. So you can have 3 gathering, 3 mission, 2 gathering & 1 crafting, one of each, etc.

Gathering is basically gathering from WoW: Click stuff to gather stuff. Get mats.

Crafting is also similiar.

Missions are kind of what they sound like, you send your companion on a mission, that can take several hours (this works out of game too, so it progresses while you're offline).

Gathering and Missions both contribute items used to craft, although gathering gives more. Missions have other benefits (some offer light/dark side points, money, schematics, consumables, etc)

But the best part is, these skills apply to all of your crew. So, for example, let's say you take Biochemistry, Bioanalysis, and Diplomacy. you can send 3 of your five crew members on Diplomacy missions, which will bring you medical supplies, money, and some light/dark side points. They do this whether you're online or off, or whether you're on your ship or not (they leave your ship to do it). You can also, while in the world, command the last member in your ship (5 crew members, 4 on the ship, one with you) to craft - remotely, on your ship, while you're questing or doing a flashpoint or whatever.

Then, you can have your companion who's questing with you scavenge for you (or bio-analyze, in this example). So while you kill stuff, they'll run up and get matts from you, instead of you having to do it yourself after every kill like in WoW.

Alternatively, have all 5 craft at once! or all 5 on missions! Etc.

It's a pretty cool system.

@tekmojo said:

Questions I'd like to know as well. Anyone know if it is too late to preorder to get the head start?

You'll still get the headstart, but you probably will only get 1 or 2 days. The later you pre-order, the less of a headstart you get - but you DO get a headstart.

I didn't play SWG, but I know WoW.  One way TOR differs from WoW is in how most rare recipes are learned: reverse engineering.  Reverse engineering is destroying your crafted items to possibly learn new, better recipes.
So, say you're a Biochem and can make the Compact Medpac.  Each Compact Medpec you reverse engineer has a chance of teaching you the Prototype Compact Medpac recipe.  Each Prototype Compact Medpac you reverse engineer has a chance of teaching you the Reusable Compact Medpac recipe.  You're going to have to focus your effort and materials towards that one item if you want it.
If you want to have that "I'm the best Biochem on the server!  I'm a unique snowflake!" feeling, I don't know how that's going to pan out until I see a lot more of the game.
 
Besides that though, as others have mentioned, crafting feels significantly different by how it's handled by your companions.  The most hands-on you get is when you're out in the game world and stumble upon gatherable materials; otherwise everything happens behind the scenes.  During the beta, it helped me feel productive even when I wasn't doing anything directly.  I could be sitting at my desk eating lunch and gathering crafting mats simultaneously.  Your companions will even work when you're logged off, so it gives you a reason to check in even if you only have enough time to give them orders.  I loved it in that regard.

I'd say that it at least takes a lot of the grind out of crafting and gathering. Instead of you having to go out and spend time doing it, send your companions! It frees up that time letting you quest or do flashpoints, raids, warzones...etc.

@MB:

I recommend watching this video, as it covers the crafting system incredibly thoroughly and clearly:

1. At the core of the Crew Skills system, you'll see something that is reminiscent of World of Warcraft's recipe-book crafting style. But I think Bioware adds a fair bit of nuance and complexity to make the experience far less brain-dead for the aspiring crafter. For instance, the more your companions like you, the faster they'll craft. Or, every appropriate crafting profession has the ability to reverse-engineer their specialized type of item, gaining some of the materials back in the process. Reverse-engineering a crafted item has a chance to net you a more powerful schematic of the same item. Practical example: leather bracers (green quality) may gain you leather bracers (blue quality). Reverse-engineering those blue-quality bracers may even net you a purple-quality version of that same item. The bracers will still have the same core stats, but they'll be scaled in power to suit the new rarity level. This all amounts to a simple, heart-warming fact for avid crafters: if you invest the time into it, you may find yourself walking around in purple gear while levelling.

2. It's tough to say how the base weapon/armor crafting will work out. Giving purples to low-level item crafters may make things incredibly interesting. But I think with the modification system, given that items scale to the main mod put in them, Cybertech crafters will be stinking rich. If a player finds a customizable piece of gear that they love, they can theoretically keep outfitting it with new mods and it'll scale all the way from level 10 to level 50 because of this scaling system.

Also, the idea of forcing the 'I MUST EAT EVERYONE' Khem Val companion to slave over a sewing machine all day: priceless.

Also also, as an ex-SWG crafter, I feel your frustration with how crafting has turned out. I will say that this system is by far the most refreshing crafting system that I've seen in a modern-day theme-park MMO. I just hope you aren't expecting a Jump to Light Speed space game. It's fun, diversionary, and nets you some pretty fat XP, but it's nothing more than a solid Starfox clone. That said, it has been hinted at that Bioware has a significant project underway to alter/improve the space game in some meaningful ways.

Example of this reverse-engineering rarity/schematic upgrading business:

Might Hilt 2 (green)

Might Hilt 2 (blue)

Advanced Might Hilt 2 (purple)

I liked the crafting system soooo much better then WoW's. Having your companions able to do stuff while your doing a run or questing or logged off or just doing nothing is soooo much better then WoW in every way. There is no comparison.