How's that going to work? Is there a mod that lets you upgrade vanilla tools?
I am planning on several things. However, vanilla tools will not be upgradeable; once you have a new material, you just make a new tool. The XP mechanic is also going to be disabled; while it was pretty cool to have, it depends on Tinker's Construct, which has essentially said that they will no longer support the 1.7.10 version, except to fix critical problems. Since RotaryCraft doesn't seem to be updating to 1.8 anytime soon, and since RotaryCraft, not Tinker's Construct, is the core of this modpack, I decided to remove the dependency on a no-longer-supported mod.
For now, I'll be using Iguana's Tinker Tweaks to manipulate vanilla tools to follow the new progression, but they cannot be directly upgraded, nor can they gain experience. Eventually, I'll be moving the progression logic to Block Properties, so the tweaks, which depends on TiC, will no longer be needed.
There are other features I'll have to find replacements for, and some I've already found, but need to test. The enchantment table will once again be the main method for adding abilities to tools (aka leveling), and the vanilla anvil will repair enchanted tools (and I may be adding a feature to the table where the anvil can repair tools using one ingot of compatible metal).
I plan to experiment with Tool Utilities to add things like 3x3 mining and right-click placement to tools, Enchantment Plus for making the enchantment table more controllable (akin to manually adding modifiers to tools), and "Mine and Blade: Battlegear 2" will add additional weapons and shields, as well as provide a 2-handed interface similar to later versions of Minecraft. This would also bring the progression in-line with Railcraft's and RotaryCraft's steel tools, as well as the bedrock tools. Keep in mind that these are just things I'm going to experiment with; there's no solid expectation of using them at this time.
Even with the new progression, Tinker's Construct is not going away; it's just not going to be central to the progression anymore.
Man, I dunno how I'd afford to make decent amounts of jet fuel without The Vegan Option's resin and blaze rods.
If you went through the whole process of advancing to the point where you can produce jet fuel, then you're welcome to it.