How bout instead of having to craft an entire new tool. We can upgrade based on what we have. Adding upgrade trees in the process. Of course you can build the first tool again if you want to go the other way, or you can "go backwards" on your crafting. Edit: 6/7/2012 I was thinking that upgrading the weapons could work on a build tree based system.
Are you saying that you should be able to upgrade the stats of an item without having to craft a completely new item?
Personally, I like the idea of getting new and better tools/equipment. If I continued to upgrade the same wrench I'd probably get bored unless I found a new and improved wrench with electromagnetic grip. I think it would be cool to modify the stats of tools to a certain extent, though. It would be neat to be able to max out the stats of a particular tool before finding a better version to replace it. That way when you find somebody with that same tool, even though everything is going to have random stats your tool's stats can be slightly higher, giving you and edge over your opponent.
It would be nice to upgrade your weapons / tools, but unless new weapons and tools are very expensive, or these upgrades are very inexpensive, i don't know why you'd really want to upgrade a wooden sword when you could be getting a iron sword in a few more minutes of mining
I'd say the idea's nice if degree of upgrade would be limited. For example, you get a primitive iron pickaxe. It's possible you could improve it with coating of some stronger metal which not makes sure the pickaxe is useful and in top condition but allows the tip to retain it's sharpness. Thus, you have improved pickaxe. Later, you can also modify it and add some electronics allowing the pick to release a directed sonic way of proper frequency allowing struckt material to be more easily broken through. But, it may be final upgrade and if you want to mine faster and generally have something even better, you need to create a completely new tool, like, say, sonic jackhammer. If it would be done like this, I'd certainly support the idea.
Weapon/armor/tool upgrades like that would be very cool. You may need to upgrade items you all ready can build to make them better as you may not yet have the materials/technology necessary to make a better/higher tech item.
