For all of you who have been anticipating the await for the announcement of the trade skills, Dan Enright and Ben Bell were interviewed by GameSpy to see what some of the trade skills will be and how they were implemented.

Here is the skinny on the whole article.  If you want to go to the article in its entirety scroll to the bottom.

The new trade skills.
Armor - Weapon and Jewel crafting are the first to be announced.
Tailoring/Carpentry will be thrown in the mix as well.

Putting trade skills to the test.
Items that can be crafted are a combination of Vendor and Adventure components.  The players can also experiment w/ ingredients to make something new.  Each time they do they have the ability to add them to their trade journal.

Will these be unlockable or fixed through a patch?
They will be fixed through an online update.

The difference between this and the PC trade skills.
EQOA has a bigger push on their experimentation of new combinations.  It's set up in a way that players can adjust the amount of the ingredient and also unlock more recipes as time and experimentation goes on.

Supporting Class/Race/Deity specific items?
Not right away.  All recipes will be available to all characters. However the products will have restrictions as for which race/class may be able to carry them.  Overtime they will expand the customization of your characters trade journal.

Examples of Crafted Items.
The character will be able to create a wide variety of Chain Mail/Plate armor along with jewelry, weapons and shields - both mundane and magical.  The crafters can create weapons have spell effects or armor that boosts your characters stats.

Does level affect crafting?
Yes, it determines how high a skill your character will be able to craft at.  Each level has a skill "Cap" where they can no longer progress without leveling.

Pulling over for repairs?
Crafted items and such will still need to be repaired even though some may have high durability.

Am I going to going to go broke?
Crafting jewelry in the PC version of EverQuest was very expensive, will the players go broke?  Not really.. most of the basic items you can buy at vendor stores but many advanced items can be found off of monsters.

Drag and Drop no more!
The tedious drag and drop will no longer be there after you created the recipe.  You have the ability to go to your trade journal, look up the specific recipe, highlight it and click manufacture.  It will automatically create it, no more drag and drop.

Will I lose my components?
If components are not compatible you will not lose them, rather just get a screen saying they don't work.  We wish to encourage experimentation.

How many trade crafted items can be made?
5,000+ with the first initial 3, but of course we will be upgrading this in the upcoming months.

For the full article..
http://www.gamespy.com/articles/july03/eqoatradeskills/