First off let me say that I really like the game, the controls are good, space really feels like space, combat is intense and looks fantastic, so in general I think the game is top notch. Just one thing that has felt weird from the start is crafting.

At first I thought the crafting system is rather innovative, as in quite different and therefore maybe good. And I still think this overall, but now that I have some 15ish hours in the game crafting gives me a weird feeling.

Probably the main part of this weirdness is the fact that the recipes seem to have an order in which you can unlock them. Let's take primary weapons as an example: unlocking the Coil Gun takes far more 'crafting data' than unlocking the Rail gun, or the Autogun. Which is weird, because the game has 10 guns and none of them is inherently better than another, they shine all in their respective circumstance. In other words they are all equally good and therefore the fact that there is an order to unlocking the recipes strikes me as weird. The problem is even stranger when it gets to modules. Why does it take significantly more 'crafting data' to unlock the Scanner than it takes to unlock the Shield, for example.
Suggestion A: remove the order all together. When I have enough 'crafting data' let me unlock a recipe of my choice.
Suggestion B: instead of the order make a 'Do research' button that takes the 'crafting data' and opens a random recipe that I did not have yet. It could do that based on rarity. So 'Do uncommon research' for 70 'crafting data' opens a random uncommon recipe that I do not have yet among primary weapons, secondary weapons, modules. This way there is still some sort of order, but it still feels like the recipe that I want could be the next one that opens, and not a million 'crafting data' away for no reason at all.

The 'Improvise' option is strange at best. It gives a random item for a certain rarity. When do I want that? Crafting I think exists to fill up a hole in the equipped inventory. If a nice shield does not want to drop, you can always craft something. Perhaps it is meant to be some sort of gambling option, which is not bad per se, but now it feels like a way to believe you may bypass the recipe unlock order problem. Maybe I get the gun that I want now... oh no I did not.
Suggestion A: after addressing the recipe order issue above, maybe 'improvise' can be removed?
Suggestion B: Gambling in a game like this is fine, but then it should perhaps be implemented in a way that gambling works in Diablo 2, there is an npc and you can gamble on a type of item and get a random (sort of) rarity, usually crap. Maybe Marie the flying duchess can be convinced to host a gambling bar?

Some minor things:
Crafting materials can only be found by dismantling items, perhaps there should be other ways to acquire them. The 'crafting data' perhaps not, but the materials could be available in shops.
Maybe there should be a way to upgrade the materials, for example 10 circuitry can be changed into a power coupling or something like that.

Thanks for considering my ideas.