@tom97 and everyone

Sigh, well I guess this would be interesting. Just like any game or even KSP with their tech trees. Being able to have the option to play powder toy in a cave man to scientist way through having to discover elements via arrangements of what you already have would be interesting. The problem I find is the notion of what makes it better for someone to say they built an awesome single core FILT computer on this 'element discovery mode' than someone who months prior when you started 'discovering' used all the elements that already exist to make something much more powerful which he has been developing for so long without taking the unneeded time to 'discover them.'
Claiming that your computer is more interesting because the already existing elements used in it were 'discovered' by you isn't really effective and only shows how patient you are.
The whole 'element discovery' TPT life has already technically been implemented in the actual Feedback Page itself, hasn't it? The universe like ours is one where it consists of a set of base materials: using what we have now or then, putting them together into new things that benefit us, and once and a while we find new ways to put together what we had to make something new or 'discover' a new element with new properties or a new property in an old element (AKA, FILT mechanics, CRAY improvements, things the 'gods' bestow on us, the whole Feedback Page bout). As per computing, I'd rather imagine that we take 'discovery' to the level of our present element set and making them do new things or putting them in new ways we didn't try before to get things much faster, as I am doing with A3SFTT FILT computing. Stuff concerning that field of 'development and discovery' I mostly likely have on my Element Improvements for Computing thread.

On the other hand, to have an option to have a resource system in the powder toy would be something completely new and wonderful, but also intrusive of the powder sandbox world, but yeah, a whole new and interesting game. To improve on your idea of discovery of elements by combining previous ones, we could convert this all into some sort of 'resource tree' and construct an abstract universe where we get stuff from. Every electronics element must be 'manufactured' from previous elements and we must use the elements we have to produce the equipment and facilities to use them. Having new powder servers or branches of individual 'worlds, universes or playing civilizations' players in secluded groups must work together to harvest the base resources of their 'planet' to work up in the levels to get access to the high up materials necessary for making new technology. There would be a whole range of things and devices to choose from and one civilization could choose either to compete with or help another civ out.

We could even have abstract populations that we must manage and 'give shelter to'. City saves would be more meaningful. Shelter saves or facility saves would be more meaningful. Factories too would be much more meaningful. The cache (catch?) is that now, no matter can be created or destroyed and must be mined from somewhere, be it on our planet, the 'sun,' a moon or through invading another planet, haha. Players group together to form a government above their 'data people.' Things can be done but only your people can do it; you just tell them what to do, give them the technology and design the facilities and methods through which they will complete a task.

What I see is to potentially bond the whole powder toy community together with this upgrade to the game, one side of the powder GUI for the old classic saves then a click away and you're in The Powder Universe, a portal to all the existing groups AKA governments and civilizations, each specializing in their own field, creations and interests, perhaps even manufacturing materials for others. If not planets, we could have multiple groups, nations, or companies assigned to one world giving each other the resources and technology they need based on their own specialized preferential knowledge. Then you could have a powder economy with gold and such mined from your planet. Every gold pixel you plan to place will have a cost, origin and derivation.

Certain saves can be built in different scales. Cities with 1 meter per pixel and computers being much smaller. Some saves only editable by 'game managers' could have new element pixels representative statistically of another world or emulating/compacting/consolidating the aspects or features of another creation. Being able to produce complete 2D universes that account for virtually every level of detail in the entire universe, just using the original TPT mechanics and a load of GUI game mechanics enhancements. 

Now a group of TPT players who worked together from the beginning to build up a civilization capable of space travel and powerful powder computing technology, let's say your FILT computer whose inputs and outputs plus processing can be emulated by a single pixel in another save with a different scale to build up a component that becomes yes another pixel in another save to make another device or complete product that is produced in a factory run by lovely 'WAX citizens' hehe that cost money to pay in the form of gold you mined with other equipment that cost more hard labour and resources, cities, infrastructure, logistics, a practical application for everyone's saves to allow them to fit all into one beautiful universe that we all created together. 

The Powder Universe. Essentially a giant item creating, resource gathering, economy, government, population and technology design civilization management game, essentially almost just like the ideas I've been developing for a very large scale 3D civ management game with both abstract and 'slightly physicalized' game mechanics in the last few months except that a complete 2D particle based physics and game engine plus server and GUI framework already exists for it. Wunderbar!  People of all personalities, fields, interests, abilities, proficiencies, and reaches of the world working on putting together all aspects of a universe of our own creation. Quantum physics 'geeks, dare I say; I could happily be one if I had the time to understand the mathematical formulation of it' at the bottom making actual use of that subatomic particles mod someone made to produce baryonic matter, chemists 'figuring out' the chemical composition of BIZR or INST, scientists doing other work, leaders designing society, engineers developing computers and other stuff, businessmen or people into economy managing virtual powder toy companies and businesses, your average joe making great things and finding new stuff they like whilst having an educational ride through everything that makes this world tick.

If we dare go this way, it means pushing TPT to a brand new, educational MMO level type collaborative design, administration and creation game.

That's that.

~

Sorry if I went off in a tangent, but yeah, this all came out just from reading your idea, tmo97. Great post. (Now from the ideas popping into my mind, a very great post that made me happy, as well as even more burdened with yet another idea enterprise to occupy my daily 'thinking and processing ideas all my waking hours' routine.)

Sorry for the 'delay' in making this response. Hope that brings cheer to you.

*Woah, just noticed that was a big comment, and yep, much more where that came from an increasing, even just for this one root of ideas.

I would volunteer to script this :)

~with help from others~