Suggestion: Upgrades / Tiers as a mid-to-late game mechanic

Summary: More extensive options for upgrading (or replacing) basic blocks with those that have greater resource requirements but offer higher capabilities can add more variety and interest in the mid-to-late game in SE2.

Details: I believe that increasing the number of items in the game that can be swapped out with higher-quality similar items can make gameplay richer. For instance, SE2 already offers multiple tool tiers, which is great, but I think this can be taken many steps further. This may be in the form of modular upgrades, such as the speed/power/yield upgrades in SE1 for assemblers and refineries, or full swap-out of blocks such as implementation of Prototech blocks to replace their basic counterparts.

The module system in SE1, however, never extended beyond assemblers and refineries. And the Prototech blocks are strictly a late-game solution and does not extend to a wide variety of blocks. What I propose is a more gradual system, closer to SE1's Basic-Assembler-to-Full-Assembler pipeline, but for a wider variety of blocks.

For example, a base-tier camera block might provide no zoom-in capability and grainy black-and-white video. A couple of mid-tier replacements might provide a better image, a zoom capability, or a smaller (25cm versus 50cm) form factor. A late-tier replacement, which requires far more expensive components, might offer all of the features.

Similar options could be made available for thrusters and weapons systems. Weight, durability, fuel usage, thrust or rate of fire (as appropriate) might also support different variants -- each with minor cosmetic changes (or perhaps none at all) to the blocks. Some implementations may require very little modeling or graphic work; for instance, what if multiple tiers of Power Cells were available, which in turn affected the capability of batteries?

The value of this, in my opinion, is twofold: one, it gives players small but gradual incentives to improve their builds. Like real-world engineering, requirements and resources drive implementation: maybe a black-and-white camera is "good enough", or perhaps the resources available dictate that only a tier 2 thruster can be built.

The second advantage it brings is an air of mystery: whether in a PvP or a PvE situation, when opposing forces clash it's relatively easy to determine capabilities based upon quick visual identification. In SE1, for instance, small, large and Prototech thrusters are easily identified and players have a good idea of their capabilities. Now what happens when different tiers of thruster have the same form factor? This reduces the predictability of encounters, and allows for greater variety in game-generated enemies.

Thanks for your time and attention!