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After connecting, the player will spawn on one of the habitable planets in the system (server). On a brand new server, the player(s) will have nothing. They will build from wood to iron, on their way they will see blocks that are very not vanilla. After iron they will be able to make basic mechanical things, similar to the cheaper things in Voltz. Among these new things are simple drilling equipment which will take the place of diamond "tier" (diamond exists but is not as good). Also will be basic industrial machines, fossil-fuel generators, transport belts/pipes, material processors (higher ore yield, more efficient alloy making, create basic mass-produced building material (sheet metal plates that are weaker than stone/metal blocks but are much cheaper). With these new things, would come more advanced (overall better) levels that use more components, more new materials from the previous tiers. This trend would continue the entire game.

Players would "unlock" new tiers by researching. Research can be done by players or NPCs. On crafting tables, there would be a button leading to another screen. This is similar to the enchanting GUI, on the right are new technologies, on the left is an input along with a research point counter. In order to avoid people power-gaming RP and then unlocking FTL travel immediately, there is very few techs available. Listed would be a few really early techs such as a motor, metal alloy, etc that would have a small description, item portrait, RP cost and of course the title of it (the title would be science-y, so like instead of "Coal Generator" it'd be "Fossil Fueled Thermal Electricity" or whatever). Techs would be slightly grayed until the RP needed is available, while upcoming ones would be entirely gray. A mock-up is presented below. You can see that Research Points are displayed in a counter, this would increase as items are researched, and decrease from unlocking new techs. Better items would yield higher RP. Not included is a button to return to the normal crafting table, a button to begin researching the item, a progress bar used by both techs and items, and the "Tier" which is the equivalent "age" the player is at depending on what has been researched. Techs are client/faction specific, so RP and unlocked techs act like enderchests, and when joined to a faction everyone else can then work with the chest (researching items and new techs are controllable by faction leaders as an anti-grief feature). When starting off or during lulls in activity, a hint-like text will appear to help the player. Shown is a hint telling him/her that iron is a good item to put in. These hints could be easily turned off in the game options.



RP and techs are constant regardless of interface used to reach them, the only way to research more than one thing at a time is to use NPCs (or the player equivalent in multi-player factions). These are NPCs that you (or the faction) has hired and designated as Researchers. Researchers require equipment in order to generate things, and do so autonomously at the players' discretion. Techs and items can be queued, and in order for progress to happen. To do starter tech, all is required is that they are designated as scientists, assigned to a building (NPC-specfics are addressed in the Non-Player Character section) with a crafting table in it (the first equipment needed), and a research queue. As tiers progress, their equipment must be compatible. When their equipment becomes outdated, techs and items pertaining to the equipment will cease availability. Upon this happening, they will notify their superior(s).