Not sure if there is idea like this out there, i have seen few involving armor/weapon smelting but.... Concerning ore farming/grinding it would be great for encouraging space exploration if some items found in labs/temples etc could be smelted into its basic materials. Golden statues and totems into gold bars, metal doors and crates into iron and so on. To assign ore/bar value to items and to get mats from it. Could balance it so you cant get lot but then enough to get you going for exploration and still get something from it. Could be great to smelt wooden items and get coal. Also need to make special smelting station that would need pixels or coal to smelt. Just a thought...
I'm not against this but not really for it either. I haven't ever experienced a shortage of ore that wasn't my fault (made the wrong thing or refined it into pixels not knowing I needed it), and I don't grind for tons of it. But it certainly doesn't hurt the game.
Would like to add that that would be another reason to visit low lvl planets as it would be easier to get them then lets say lvl 10.
