[2023] After all this time why isn't there a Scrapping machine?

We have a scrapping mechanic of course, and we have a station (workbench) that remotely handles a task you can do out of your backpack. So I can't think of a good reason a scrapper would go against the dev's vision.

One argument I can see for it not being needed is, if you're using a scrapping workstation it implies you're already back to your base, in which case you might as well toss scrappable items directly into your forge(s) for a better yield. That is to say, scrapping is intended mainly as a way to get space back in your inventory when you're in the field, making a scrapper not so useful. And items that scrap to parts are rare enough to not tie up your backpack crafting queue for long.

Originally posted by Crater Creator: We have a scrapping mechanic of course, and we have a station (workbench) that remotely handles a task you can do out of your backpack. So I can't think of a good reason a scrapper would go against the dev's vision.

One argument I can see for it not being needed is, if you're using a scrapping workstation it implies you're already back to your base, in which case you might as well toss scrappable items directly into your forge(s) for a better yield. That is to say, scrapping is intended mainly as a way to get space back in your inventory when you're in the field, making a scrapper not so useful. And items that scrap to parts are rare enough to not tie up your backpack crafting queue for long.

More importantly, items that scrap to parts scrap almost instantly. This is because scrapping time is dependent upon material yield- It's roughly 0.75 seconds per material that would be yielded from the process, so for items that scrap to parts which always give parts, it's about 2.25 seconds, ish.

Where scrapping becomes a time consuming task is particularly the brass objects that yield HUNDREDS of brass, each of which take multiple minutes per item in the stack. But, It's important to note here that scrapping an item carves off 25% of it's material value- So when you're back at base, as Crater says, you should be preferring to directly melt such brass items into your forge to get 100% of it's value, rather than scrapping it and losing 25% of it.

Scrapping is by and large an on-the-spot task because you're making the active choice to sacrifice 25% of the yield in return for getting that inventory slot back now, not later.