Scanning for 3d Printing should be free. Paying to log items is a completionists nightmare.

You can reduce the cost to scan an item by editing the merchant.config file in assets.
(For the person that will get confused: it's a divisor, so default: { "scanFactor" : 4 } means if an item price is 40, it will cost 10 pixels to scan. In other words, higher scanFactor means lower cost. Also, a negative scanFactor will not give you money >_>)
Edit: So putting a high factor like 100000, will effectively make it free to scan things.

Personally, I think it should be free to scan.
Reasons:
1- I imagine it using electricity, not 'pixels'
2- Real 3D scanners use electricity (even the kind that slice things layer by layer)
3- I'd rather not pay to destroy an item and have to pay even more to get it back, just to have it clone-able.

If anything, I feel like it should give you pixels to scan, kind of like it's breaking it down into matter and spitting that out.
Though I assume 'pixels' are more of a currency; paying to scan = paying for a service to be done and 3D printing is like paying for the materials to print the item- it's your ship, your 3D printer, so it makes more sense to me if pixels = matter. Maybe I'm just trying to put life logic into a game balancing feature...

 

A constant cost allowes for simple math.

"i am in a dungeon and i have 312 pixels, looks like i will only be able to scan 6 things"

 

+1 from me, free scanning sounds fair

 

AGREED! scanning should be free if I am losing the item anyway!

 

YES! I KNEW there was something I was forgetting to post about. And doesn't it cost the SAME amount as printing the item? It's just ridiculous...

 

To scan with a printer IRL does it cost ink?

 

IRL Copiers don't run on ink, do they? The pixels are FUEL, not ink. So your argument is invalid.

 

No... Scanners don't run on ink. That was my point... I wasn't actually asking you. It was a rhetorical question.

Annnd yeah... My argument isn't invalid... Scanning an item just takes the machine running(usually on electricity like a scanner).

Where would pixels come into the equation? Please point this proof out for me instead of just asserting that it does. Thanks.

 

I believe you're missing the point. The printer runs on pixels as if they were electricity. It is fuel, as well as ink. At least from what I understand. That said, they could just have it run on the ship's power so scanning wouldn't cost anything but they don't seem to be doing that at the moment.

 

This would help mitigate the cost of 3d printing to be sure. We already lose the item after all.

As it is, 3d printing is too expensive to be worth anything, especially for large projects.

 

I understand that you think that they run on pixels as if they're fuel, but that makes no sense to me the way that I imagine the use for pixels to be.

I don't understand how a scanner couldn't function without pixels when they seem to be the "parts" that are put together when printing an item.
I imagine the 3D printer/scanner to be like an IRL printer/scanner where a laser shines onto/through said object and simply collects the data.
The pixel requirement seems unintuitive for what needs to be done in my mind.

 

I definitely agree.
I'm a 'completionist' myself and I like to collect EVERYTHING. However, the pixel costs to scan is absurd and prevents me from scanning everything. I end up saving everything which goes into boxes that just build up continuously.

Furthermore.... Why can we not scan everything? And some things I scan and are deleted, but I can't make?
I scanned a "Doctor Spawn" once and it just simply disappeared. I couldn't make them afterwards, which was disappointing.

But why can't I scan everything in the game? Even ore should be reproduceable if I've got enough pixels to make it. So why not?
I definitely hate that "blocks" are not scannable. I like to collect certain ones and would like to build from them but you're denied of that unless you find a large enough source to mine from.
Finding enough things like straw-blocks, bone-blocks, plant-blocks, and etc. is overly difficult because you can't scan/print them. Instead you basically have to demolish hundreds of dungeons instead, just to get enough to build a decent-sized house.

It's a bit irritating. If I've got the pixels to spend on steel-bars, and I've got a steel-bar to scan... Why can't I reproduce them?
Sure they should be very expensive to balance the game and give people incentive to mine rather than just farm pixels, but if I need 1 or 2 bars of steel/silver/gold/whatever, why should I go mine just for a couple of pieces... Why can't I print some from my magic machine that can print almost anything else?
If I can print a chair made of steel, I should be able to print a metal bar of the same material! It's just common sense.

 

While we're talking about scanning, there are some furnitures you scan and you simply learn how to craft. I'd like both as an option, maybe I don't have pixels but I have would so why can't I simply craft the table? Why do I get the crafting recipe for a flesh table when I want to scan it and print it because I don't have flesh?

 

This seems to have near unanimous support, I'm going to remain hopeful for implementation by the official release.

 

That's a fair point. You should get both the recipe and the ability to print it, if it has a recipe.

 

I vote for a constant price as well. I don't see any reason why it should be 50 for everything. I also don't see why they would do pricing like what Gubudugu suggested.

 

I also agree, scanning should be free. There isn't any logical reason to explain why we need to pay to have an object scanned. Is this like a reverse vending machine? Pay to put something in, only to pay even more to get it back out? We already pay exorbitant prices to replicate nearly all of the objects that are scannable. I think that's cost enough.

 

Well, when you scan something, the process should be breaking it down into pixels in the first place... so scanning items should GIVE you pixels... and then if the 3d printer didn't already have the formula, bam, list the formula now... it would be nice if I could turn the things that I just made from pixels back into pixels again...

 

I agree.

 

From Tiy tweet:

Yes, they are making changes with 3D printer and we can only expect good things from it.