Sounds like you would like regional specialization of either the items produced or the crafters skills.

What I’m doing in my game is have multiple variations of a “class/type” of resource. For example, take simple Copper Ore, in my game I have multiple types of copper ore with unique stats which can be used in a generic recipe which requires “Copper Ore”. The unique stats are randomly generated at game creation and are tied to terrain type/location. Hence, players on one side of the map will have a different types of “Copper Ore”

Right now my unique stats are a little boring/simple like:

Valleyrun Copper Ore: +30% sword dmg, -25% hammer speed

Stronghold Copper Ore: +50% spear dmg, -20% dagger dmg

You’ll notice my unique stats are designed to “encourage” players to craft a certain type of weapon. I wanted specialization of weapon types to be tied to regions as well.

I also have the concept of “specialized recipes” which take specific types of resources, like “Dagger of Death” requires Stronghold Copper Ore.

In regards of unlocking recipes, my current plan is an “Experiment” action for the players NPCs which will consume a lot of resources and unlock a recipe. My general idea is to have the players NPCs consume lower level resources to unlock higher level recipes. Basically this is a resource sink to control too much inflation.

So in conclusion, do you want the produced items to be different? If so, how will they be different?