3D Printing vs Crafting decoratives

I don't really see why we shouldn't be able to buy shurikens, stimpacks, and other consumables. In fact, we can already buy stimpacks from specific NPC's.
It certainly doesn't harm the balance of Terraria. You're over-exaggerating an issue, making it seem bigger than it really is.

If someone has more pixels than they'll ever need, either they worked very hard to get to that point, or the pricing is completely imbalanced. The former isn't an issue, the latter can be fixed.

 

You may be right; I re-read my argument about "balance" and it seems flawed.

However, I will say this: I feel like being able to print literally anything would make the game too easy. Where's the fun in exploration if you can just grind a few pixels and print what you need? My premise may be flawed, but I still stand by my conclusion: being able to print anything would make the game less fun.

 

I'd be okay with the 3d printer working on literally everything, but I'd mostly prefer that it work on anything you can buy, decorative objects, containers, and rare uncraftable blocks.

 

It'd obviously still be there, of course. You'd need to actually scan the material in the first place, first off, and beyond that, you'd find yourself running out of pixels REALLY quickly if you were making multiples of an ore. When you're crafting, things usually cost more than one of a resource, so you'd be seeing yourself dropping in pixels.

Obviously you're going to have an easier time later on down the line when you're swimming in pixels, and even then, that would be a damn good place to dump all that extra income into, instead of making a silly pixel cost for crafting items, for some reason. Relegate the pixels to buying things in stores and making things in the 3D Printer.

Exploration itself! Crazy biomes, bunches of new items, strange creatures, more bosses, things like that. When you think about it right now, all you're doing is mining so you can make stuff so you can mine better so you can make better stuff and go to other worlds to explore and find stuff that lets you kill stuff better and then mine stuff to make more stuff and get fuel to go to another world, and that's the whole thing.

In a game like this, the exploration of new, different worlds with strange flora and fauna is the key. The benefit of having the setting be in the future is kind of diminished if you don't take advantage of awesome future tech like the 3D Printer and the Matter Manipulator (man, I really want that thing to replace the need for pickaxes and primitive tools...).

 

Let me say something in regards to exploration.

The fun of exploration should come from finding interesting and rewarding things.
Finding a book or object that explains more of the lore.
Having your character examine objects and offer their own perspective on them.
Finding a chest containing rare loot, even if it doesn't necessarily effect the game.
Taking in the scenery of an exotic biome or dungeon type.

Exploration and Grinding should never be equated, ever. One is a fun activity, another is something you do because the game forces you to do it.

Earlier today I found an avian tomb. I went through it, then I made an Avian character and went through it again to get a different perspective on what everything inside is. I like that the game would compel me to do that to begin with.

Ok, back on topic.

1. Printing weapons, tech and armor.
This makes the game easier for other people, but not yourself. You already have those weapons and armor to begin with.
It also potentially allows you to turn a profit and opens up possibilities for trading.
For example, I print off a $500 sword and sell it to a newb for $600.

2. Printing Consumables
Again, I don't view it as an issue so long as it's within reason.

3. Printing Building Materials
Building is an largely cosmetic activity for the most part.
I feel I should be able to print as many smooth metal panels or tiled roofs as I want.
Again, assuming pricing is within reason and assuming things like wood and iron ingots aren't printable.

4. Printing Crafting Materials (Iron, Titanium, Artificial Brains, etc)
This is pretty much the only place I can agree, as it would be too difficult to balance properly.

Did I forget anything?

 

ok well id have to say i like the idea of a portable version mainly because ive found myself underground and i run out of torches and wood so im practically screwed with light until some creature kills me or i just save and quit to warp back to my ship i feel that right now crafting items should not cost you money at all as you are literally making it with materials you found on a work bench you made so why would i have to spend money on it? i do think that purely decorative items should only cost like 100 pixals for items that are only good for their looks and then the more useful an item is it should cost more i also think since a normal printer uses up ink i think that the 3D printer should use up matter as it would make sense that it needs something to create the items out of! id say that any item could work but the smaller and more common the item the less matter yould get. for example a measly piece of dirt would be worth only like a fraction of a piece of matter say a tenth and to make a piece of dirt it would cost 1 thing of matter. now i know this would be hard to do but it would solve most of everyone's problems if done correctly

 

Yeah, I suppose the weird bit is that there are two different schemes used for making objects, with different currency - material v pixel. The reason for something appearing in the 3D printer seems pretty arbitrary to me. I guess I prefer material to pixels because it's more robust and encourages exploration. In a system where you can scan and 3D Print anything, you ought to skip the refinery entirely and just have ores drop set amounts of pixels like smash-crystals do.

I totally get why people might see material seeking as grindy, and prefer the 3D printer. I feel the same about grinding monsters for pixels. I just think that there's a certain amount of fun to be had looking for that one pocket of rare material, finding it, and finding multiple other bits of cool content on the way.

 

I would rather have a portable scanner than a portable printer. That way I don't have to dismantle a base/village and lug things back to scan everything.

 

^ This.

 

Honestly I'd like to see an end game upgrade that turns it into a full on synthesizer allowing for items not normally printable. But that's just me.

 

3D printers makes this game a bit punishing for builders.
If you want to create some furniture, then you must fight for it with shitlions of enemies. I'd prefer to mine some ore and just create furniture.

 

I like the either or situation we currently have.

Think of it this way: Ore can be made into pixels, and pixels can be used to make various things in the 3D printer that you would otherwise craft with your ore and various materials.

The 3D printer is convenient in many ways, which is nice, but you still need Pixels to use it and thus you're still going to be spending resources in some manner. I imagine the exchange rate is better if you make the items at a crafting table, assuming you can.

 

Honestly, if anything, the 3D Printer is underpowered, not overpowered.

-It only works for (mostly) cosmetics
-You have to not only pay to print, but pay to SCAN (Something that should honestly GIVE pixels)
-The pixel costs are stupidly high for a lot of things, especially considering that CRAFTING ALSO TAKES PIXELS, and often enough of them that my friends complain about having all the materials for something yet needing to grind monsters for money.

If I could change the printer how I wanted, I would do the following:

1: Make it able to scan anything of Blue quality or lower. ANYTHING. If there are things the devs want to not be printed that are currently blue, just bump them to purple.
2: Make scanning GIVE you 3/4 of the pixels it would cost to PRINT an item.
3: Optionally, make printed gear have a flat 10 or 20% reduction in effectiveness. If I make the Sword of Amazement and it has 200 DPS, make it so that the Sword of Printed Amazement has a DPS of 180 or 160. It's still very effective, but it doesn't outshine or diminish the original. This could be easily accomplished by having a 'printed' tag that is applied to an item when it is copied, and takes points out of the highest stat or stats. (So a slow weapon wouldn't get any slower, and a fast weapon wouldn't hurt less per swing) This also preserves the 'uniqueness' of the purple weapons in the game already.

My two cents.

 

In addition to this, I would love a way to be able to tell from a glance whether you've already scanned an item or not, perhaps if you held the 'ALT' key.

 

I severely disagree with scanning giving pixels. That opens up the system for mass exploitation - namely, just ransack every village and dungeon until you have every possible item of blue quality (under your system) scanned, and the tens or hundreds of thousands of pixels that would get you.

 

At which point... what, exactly, happens? You have the ability to print all of the items you scanned? That sounds like a big problem. Except... you have 3/4 of the pixels needed to print everything. So you could print a lot of things, but not everything at once.

Also, two things. One: The on-scan pixel gain could be re-tuned. Two: I'm pretty sure you can only scan a given object type once, and thus it is not an infinitely renewable source of pixels.

Furthermore, it would reduce grinding FOR pixels, something which is a problem given that they are in crafting recipes. Often in quantities of thousands of pixels for some armors.

Lastly: have you ever tried playing with effectively infinite pixels? There is not much that breaks, at least at the moment-- the most broken things you can buy are bombs from rare merchants, or weapons (That are usually white-quality) from merchants. Even stimpacks (From like, two merchants) aren't that broken in a lot of the game, since most of the time if your planet matches your armor tier, enemies will be dealing enough damage that you can't just tank them willy nilly.

 

You could mine ore and put it in the refinery. End game bars refine for way more pixels than you could get grinding enemies.

 

I think it would be cool if you could also craft decorations but you have to find the blue prints.
So you could make a cool looking base or spaceship with decorative items and still be able to save up pixels for crafting of items that allow you to advance to higher tiers.
But also keep the ability to 3D print them for those you who want it.

 

I love the printer. I think it should stay exactly as is with the exception of being able to scan storage. Storage should have to be crafted. And there should be rare recipes to craft items that can't be scanned. Other than that, I definitely think it's fine to scan regular aesthetic items and print them out for money.

But I also think there's a big difference with the 3D printer in single player VS multiplayer. In multiplayer there's vaule in being able to build and do what some others can't. Promotes trading and selling. The 3D printer in this case makes it where everyone can make everything. Anywho, I'm okay with how it is now. I've always been of the mindset you allow more and give the players the option to NOT use it rather than allow less and have no option at all.

 

I still have to find furniture to create it. There is no way to create glitch bed from the very begining (for example) if you are playing as human.