The tech tree makes no sense. We can do better.

Matter manipulator upgrades are badly needed, yeah. And the pickaxe stays in the game for much longer than it should.

 

I agree with OP .although it's not a huge brokegame mechanic, it would help with the cool-ness of Starbound and differentiating this game from the standard Minecraft-minerals)

to all of you complaining that the this is going to give all the good items to the player too early in the game, listen here
1.) The player can have the materials, but not the technology to do anything with them. so this isn't going to change the item progression much
2.) for the actual advanced items (the sci-fi electronics and machineries), you're going to need rarer materials, like Platinum, Gold, Silicon, etc. which along with Copper are all useful in electronic circuitry and industrial applications (for example, the highest heat conductivity of any known mineral is Diamond, and you use a lot of rare minerals as catalysts in refineries and chemical plants, which could be equivalent in-game to crafting chemical compounds or refining ores/oil)

and once you get to the higher tech levels, you can just start to fill-in science fiction elements and materials, like 'super-durable alien alloy crafted from Friezite alien ore from Planet Fries', or futuristic plastics made into armour and such

 

Ooooohhhh I REALLY like this idea, it not only fits with the sci fi theme, but opens up a lot of room for elaboration into starbound's "canon" physics, Maybe in starbound's world, gold turns red when compressed 100X and conducts plasma or something like that, and solarium makes electricity at 100X, the possibilities are endless, and it is certainly more creative than colored iron upgrades. I give this comment a 9/10, and the only reason it isn't higher is because you didn't elaborate on how this would apply to other materials.