Why Does the Scrying Stone cost SC?

Maybe a limit on scries per day, then, but they're free? Or 1-5 free scries per day, and then they're like 20SC? 

To be honest I kind of like the fact that things cost money and aren't super accessible without it. In many other sim games there's a huge skewed economy where almost all users with very little effort can afford everything they need, which takes a lot of fun out of the game itself. I have to think about my choices more, now: will I make more money taking an option in explore where I get the potential of 6SC, or the option where I get meat and then try to sell it? Should I feed those NBW's I took as pupsitters to level them and get the proficiency benefit, or save the meat and let them leave and then get new ones in explore?

I will say I can see how it is a barrier to those with not a lot of free time or the ability to donate, but I don't have any workable solutions to suggest that get around that without currency losing a lot of value. Scrying results are at least is something you can calculate for yourself based on Grouse House guides, and doesn't affect progeny or otherwise give you an advantage in-game.

I always scry before I settle on a stud, it's nice to see who would make nicer pups between the two I'm deciding between. Though what Jay said would be fun too! It'd just take much more time. It's a very mild (can easily make back from explore) but not trivial (10 SC per litter would strongly discourage testing more than 10 litters at a time!) cost, so I imagine it's more for preserving server power than sinking currency.

@Saeginko I've never used the hunting party evaluator since I already read half the wiki before I joined so I could make sure my starting pair had genes that would go well together, newbs just gotta come prepared. XD

I work with high-end gaming servers daily at a leading hosting provider. On the one hand, I do understand wanting to keep server strain as minimal as possible - hell we're constantly mitigating CPU and SSD overuse - but on the other hand I really have to ask, if you're worried that a fairly simple script being processed a little more often than it does already is going to cause a significant strain on the server, then shouldn't you be looking into a better server? Or perhaps just simply have a cooldown on the button press? A cooldown would be more effective across the board since every single player would be subject to it rather than just the poorest players. Paying for it doesn't do much to deter running the script excessively for those who have the SC to throw at it over and over and over again, which a loooot of people do.

Personally I don't mind it costing money, but I feel like it is a tad bit steep.

It might be because if you scry a wolf enough times with another wolf and they both are carriers for a mutation, you can see the mutation pop up. So for example if you were to scry a wolf against The Moof, you could potentially get a melanin pup to pop up in one of the squares and there fore confirming your wolf is a carrier.