I am already seeing assumptions made by my previous post in a different light. But, I assumed that would happen.

"Naturally, EVERY recipe requires at least one resource, and therefore it requires at least one "noun" skill. The skill will match what type of resource is being used. A helmet made of steel and fabric will require, at minimum, metal working and textile working skills."

That combined with the assumption that Oil is a next-tier Herbs, both corresponding to the Alchemy skill, is proven wrong when oil starts showing up in armor recipes. These recipes don't require the Alchemy skill, or the table.

"Furthermore, if you have the armorer and the carpenter in the shop, adding the blacksmith would be entirely worthless."

There I failed to appreciate that recipe times vary with skill level, and that they vary a lot, and you can shave off full minutes by having the Blacksmith's extra numbers in the mix. Does that detract from the whole objective of having a versatile shop? Personally, I don't care. I go with well-rounded over specialized every time. It has practical benefits in Shop Heroes like that I can fix any quester a new piece of gear at any given time. Might change strategy later, but for exploring a mysterious game I'd still call versatility the thing to do.

Also, I described a "chain" of workers and skills, but it looks a whole lot less elegant when the higher-level workers are added to the picture. Fletcher shows up with Arts And Crafts plus Woodworking of all things. I had hopes that they would all curve back around full-circle to form like this perfect bead necklace of alternating crafter beads and skill beads. I'd wear that. But as a 4th day noob I'm still not actually clear on what the overall picture looks like.

Details are starting to fill in on the wiki. Go help out:

http://shop-heroes.wikia.com/wiki/Shop_Heroes_Wikia