Base kit upgrades that are also skins is a really cool idea.

I'm not a big fan of the idea for compressing lower tier commods for higher tier ones either. It kind of breaks both the lore and the market potential for higher tier commods.

Prospecting is REALLY good for tier 2/3 resources, but you have to invest a little time into it.

How does it break the lore?

Well, you're making Energon (energized very rare material thats formed in suns) from a tier2 commod like gold. That just makes no sense whatsoever.

Fakes >.< so you build your ship with fake adamantium. Wonder how that would hold up lol xD

let's go back to basics. first incorrect point: Energon from gold can't happen. let me explain to the person who said that what Alchemy even is:

In olden times, quite likely the renaissance, there was a man who could make lead into gold, but never said how. in more modern times, when gold began to become sparse, alchemy was created as the science of how to do what that man did. only recently has that become possible, though.

the whole point of Alchemy has always been, no matter when or where, to turn something into something more valuable.

Out from thin air and with no sources to back me up, I'm quite sure Alchemy isn't a science, and there has been no lead into gold conversion, ever. Alchemy is love potions and other kind of scams from the old days and mentioned often in movies, such as creating gold..

By leveraging Chemistry knowledge, you might change some stuff into other stuff, but lead into gold is still not possible. Creation of matter (atoms) which exists on the periodic table, such as gold, is done in the stars. For something, like gold, even our star (the sun) is far from enough.

Creating molecules on the other hand like going from oil to plastic is far easier, and might be what you guys are referring to?

Though later in the history of the universe and humankind, there might be science that leverages suns to create atoms, molecules, materials and so forth.

Just my thought on the matter

I stand corrected and learned something. Not too bad.

“It would cost more than one quadrillion dollars per ounce to produce gold by this experiment," some scientist dude said.

As technology advances the cost to produce it goes down. Assuming that cost to be static is literally one of the most stupid assertions I have yet seen someone make. How much do you think it would cost to build a 50 inch LED TV in the '50s (provided you went back in time and showed them how), and how much does it cost today? The answer is that the production cost would be a small fortune back then, but only a few hundred dollars today, because the technology has evolved allowing for easier access to the required materials and production.

Is alchemy a long way away from fruition as a means of producing precious metals from common ones? Yes. Will it have come a long way by the time we have mastered interstellar travel (the era in which this game is set)? Undoubtedly.

The reason TVs are cheaper to manufacture nowadays is that we have the proper equipment to do so, not to mention that we are reaping huge economies of scale. I guarantee it would still be expensive as hell to synthesize all your own materials and build a single LED TV from scratch.

On the other hand, converting one element to another runs up against simple physics. You are talking about coercing certain atoms to split/fuse. All the R&D and economies of scale will not change the amount of energy required for that.