So i’ve played a game called Satisfactory.
As you progress through the game you unlock alternative recipes, sometimes these recipes are more efficient sometimes just more convenient based on the availability of resources.
A lot of people have been feeling the T1 Resource GRIND. And as a result the trading post has the highest price of T1 resources while orichalcum is usually at 0.01 starmetal similar or slightly higher.
For example, to make an orichalcum ingot an alternative could be 16 orichalcum ore 1 starmetal ingot. Removes less need for the lower resources but more of the highest resource to make it.
The point wouldn’t be to eliminate T1 resources entirely, but to create an alternative refining recipe that in some cases will be more convenient but potentially less efficient.
Recipes could be found through the world in chests, Satisfactory does something similar, and then your refining skill would allow you to use your recipes, right now refining skills do nothing other than lvl 50 100 150 and 200 for unlocks.
There are alot of options for alternative recipes, even using the rare resources instead, ie voidmetal, fae iron etc as all those rare resources below T5 are essentially useless.
1 voidmetal + 4 starmetal to make a starmetal ingot etc.
Each stage of refining could potentially have 1-2 alternatives. Sometimes could even skip a stage of refining entirely, such as 5 steel ingots 8 orichalcum ore to make 1 orichlacum ingot etc.
All numbers above obviously examples of what the alternate recipes could be, but i believe this could all be balanced accordingly, to raise the value of higher tier resources and eliminate endless requirement of T1 mats but still giving them a place in the game.