Hello,
I play the game for the first time (well, second time, but same week : my first try was a pure Psi-man but it was too boring and difficult to manage the regen stuff so i stoped before finding the drilling machine) with a "thief" guy, and i went also into crafting because i usually like it in most of the games. It's a bit of disappointment so far, bacause it's very costly, and all points invested into crafting are not invested into "survive" : fight and defense, mostly.
A crafter cannot "win the game". A fighter can.
Can a thief win the game ? I try but some fights seem to be impossible to avoid, and then it's super-very-hard to pass those scenes. My thief toon is now scouting the old Junkyard to find the drilling machine, and some mutated creatures seem totally impossible to avoid, frontal fight.
Also i really feel i miss a map, not a good one, but like the one on the wiki, only ingame, so i can see on what map i am. I also miss a fast travel option, and a run option when out of fight. The toon moves so slow ! And my toon has 9 dexterity and 9 agility ! Oh i'm diying of walking from one point to another.
Beside that i think i enjoy the game so far, but it needs some tweaks.