Tools Evolution

Tools Evolution

A T3 hand welder outruns your ship-mounted one. Always has. This mod ends that. [hr][/hr]

🔧 What Does This Mod Do?

Adds an opt-in upgrade path for ship Welders, Grinders, and Drills - nothing else gets touched.

• Two paths, three tiers - Speed (Yield on drills) or Distance, chosen once per block, then I → II → III
• Genuinely end-game - higher tiers eat expensive late-game components (Superconductors, Thrust Components, Reactor Components…), and finally gives them somewhere to go besides sitting in a cargo container
• In-world tier marks - a small S1–S3 / D1–D3 marking (cyan/amber) on the block itself, so you can tell tiers apart at a glance without repainting anything

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🛠️ What Actually Changes

• Welder walls stop needing dozens of welders. A handful of Tier III units does the work a wall of stock ones used to, without the crouch-and-wait
• Grinder pits become worth building again. A Tier III grinder chews through what used to be a slow, dedicated-room-for-nothing chore
• Carving out a base cave stops being a generational project. A Tier III Distance drill turns "I'll get to it eventually" into an afternoon
• Your end-game stockpile finally has somewhere to go. Superconductors, Thrust Components, Reactor Components - resources that otherwise just accumulate now build something you'll actually use every day

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⚠️ The Catch

This isn't a free stat boost slapped on top of your tools.

• 💰 This is late-game, deliberately - a Tier III tool costs roughly a third of a Jump Drive's worth of gold, or platinum for Distance
• ⏱️ Build time scales with the upgrade - a Tier III Large Welder takes several minutes to weld up, not seconds
• 🔒 The path is locked once chosen, deliberately - Speed or Distance, not both. This is a real decision, not a formality: figure out what that tool is actually for before you commit

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🚩 How It Works

• Build and fully weld a standard ship Welder, Grinder or Drill
• Open its control panel - you'll see Upgrade Speed/Yield and Upgrade Distance
• Pick a path (you can't switch later) and confirm within 3 seconds
• The block swaps to Tier I of that path as a new construction site
• Bring the required components and weld it up
• Repeat for Tier II and III - same tool, same slot, same paint job, just further along its path

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🎮 Who Is This For?

• Base-builders who want their fixed welding/grinding rigs to actually earn their keep over hand tools
• Miners who'd rather scale up one drill's yield than juggle six mediocre ones

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💬 Feedback / Suggestions

Found a bug, have a balance idea, or want a variant? Comments here are read, but the fastest way to reach me is Discord: https://discord.gg/zn3k8fP5Dz