I was chatting with my friend Sunborn, who is no longer a subscriber, but we were talking about crafting and Kits.
I've pasted over what we discussed:

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Custom Kits for Crafting

Disclaimer?
Custom kits are in addition to the current available kits.

Basics
Custom Kits can only be created or modified in memory alpha at a kit station. Alternatively it might be nice to allow people to use energy credits to buy a kit station, which unlocks an extra room on their star ship where they can customize kits.

A custom kit starts with, what we will call, an 'Unfinished Kit'. All unfinished kits are bind on equip. There are three types of Unfinished Kits.

1. ) Unfinished Tactical Kit
2. ) Unfinished Engineering Kit
3. ) Unfinished Science Kit.

Each type of Unfinished Kit has a rank, Mk1 through Mk X (or whatever max is at the time), and a rarity rating , Uncommon, Rare, and Very Rare. Each type of kit has a number of slots based on its Mark.


Ranks
An example of the slots available at the Unfinished Kit's rank:

MK-I. 2 rank I
MK-II. 1 rank I, 1 rank II
MK-III. 2 rank II
MK-IV. 1 Rank I, 1 Rank II, 1 Rank III
MK-V. 2 rank II, 1 rank III
MK-VI. 2 Rank I, 1 rank II, 1 Rank III,
MK-VII. 1rank I, 2 Rank II, 1 rank III,
MK-VIII. 2 rank II, 2 rank III
MK-IX. 1 rank II, 3 rank III,
MK-X. 4 rank III

Components.
What can be placed into the slots on kits are Kit Components. Kit Components are separated by Science, Tactical, and Engineering. These components are ranked I, II, and III. Rank I are considered common, while rank II are uncommon, and rank III are rare. Each component represents an ability. A Kit Component, 'Energy Weave I' might represent the ability Shield Recharge I. Placing “Energy Weave 1” into an Unfinished Kit would 'bind' that ability to that kit and remove the component from the characters inventory. If a component is added to a bound kit that kit is still bound to the player.

Rarity
The rarity of the Unfinished kit effects how many 'cross-career' abilities can be slotted into the kit. Uncommon would allow for no cross-career components, Rare would allow for up to 1 cross-career component, and Very Rare would allow for up to 2 cross-career components.

Breaking down a kit
A player can break down a Finished Kit (disassembly). The player can choose one component they wish to 'focus' on keeping and they are all rolled to see if the components are destroyed or saved. The success rate should be based on the rank of the skill, of the slot it is in, as well as the the rank and rarity of the Unfinished Kit it was slotted into.

Focusing on a component makes it more likely that a player will save that component.

A Rank III ability in an Uncommon MK IV, the lowest MK kit a Rank III component can be slotted in, would have an extremely low possibility of being saved, even if the player was focusing on saving it. However a Rank 1 Ability in a Rare MK X kit would have an extremely high probability of being saved. The component the player if focusing on saving would receive a flat percentage added to the possibility of being saved.

Destroyed components are converted to a little bit of energy credits, not enough to make it profitable to destroy components, or even to buy new ones.

Alternatively it could be completely random.

Miscellaneous

• When a player finishes a kit it is nameable, and signed by the player that created it. If the player has not equipped it, the kit is Bind On Equip, and can be sold and traded to other players.
• Components can be found in chests, drops, bought at the exchange, from shady Ferengi dealers who have a few random ones in stock, or traded for some of the various currencies in the game. They may also be crafted in memory alpha
• Components received in drops are based on the race and the classes of the mob killed. A Klingon Tactical officer is more likely to drop tactical components, if he has a melee oriented kit on then he is more likely to drop melee oriented components.
• Unfinished kits can be found in chests, drops, or crafted in memory alpha, or traded for some of the various currencies in the game.
• Unfinished Kits can be upgraded to a higher Mark, and perhaps to a higher rarity at memory alpha. Finished kits can also be upgraded, but the components remain the same.

Sunborn, no longer subscribed, still keeping an eye on things, hoping things get better.
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My notes: I think this would be a great addition to the crafting system of STO. It would also be a nice complimentary system to go with the UGC.

/me supports this idea.

I am of mixed views on this. I like the idea that the kits are bundles. It means people have a selection of abilities rather than picking the N best ones. It leads to some diversity. I do, however, feel it lacks a Sar Trek feel to it on soem level. This is especially the case where much of the abilities are just equipment varieties. There were not many instances of leading bridge officers being unable to use a particular piece of equipment, although someone else mght have been better at it.

May I suggest that rather than customising kits players should be able to craft abilities as single use disposables. These could come from otehr classes too. Not only would it permit a greater variety of abilities among players without eroding the core kit system, it would help cerate a more dynamic economy. E successful economy in MMOs is dependent on consumables. Check EvE Online to see a genuinely successful player driven ecoomy. Finally if these were crafted items that would give crafters a sense of purpose.

Not everything would need to be available in this format, of course, but some items it makes a lot more sense than others. The infinity grenade satchel is a truly odd concept. There is no rason grenades could not be issued to non-security personell if the situation warranted it, for example. So to with basic medical equipment etc.

Finally, this would be a great way to introduce new abilities into the game in a limited way. Particularly abilities that may fall between classes or outside the remit of the current templates. You could have 'Romulan plasma grenades' with different stats to normal ones. Or Borg tricorders etc...

thank you for finally posting this idea!!

one thing i'd like to see expanded however is specific type(s) of damage. as an example using engineering:

1) turrets that fire plasma, anti-proton, or even tetryon beams.
2) shields that are specifically designed for a specific damage type.
3) more hand-to-hand options. for example, martial arts (Devs, look to champions online for the hand-to-hand options & simply convert them over).

i'm not sure what the science kits do, but suitable variations for the science captains should be included as well.

hope the devs read this and act on it.

(OP - send a copy of this to jupitercolony.com as well).
G.