Are 3D Printed Ships Not a Thing Anymore?

reotharmus · December 2016

I was so excited when it was announced in the fall that we could get 3D prints of our ships. I even picked out which one I would get printed before I owned it in game. But I haven't heard anything new in a while.

I Just popped by the website for the company that is going to do the prints and they are closed?! So is that it? No more 3D prints? I don't even get the chance?

That's disappointing. I sure hope another company steps up to fill the void on my shelf.

bergins · December 2016

Nope.

http://www.arcgames.com/en/forums/startrekonline/#/discussion/comment/13126088

evilmark444 · December 2016

salamiinferno wrote: »
I would like to address some rumors that have been floating around about the status of Eucl3d, our ship printing partner, and 3D printed ships for Star Trek Online. We were very sad to learn that Eucl3d will be shutting their doors at the end of 2016. Since we won’t have a physical manufacturer for our ships, this means that Star Trek Online will be unable to continue with its 3D ship printing initiative at this time. I apologize for announcing such an exciting new program for Star Trek Online, only to have it pulled away 3 short months later. The entire development team has been looking forward to getting their ships printed just as much as many of you in the community, and having this program end before it was able to truly spin up is very unfortunate. 3D ship printing has been a feature we’ve wanted to get into the game for years, and we will continue to keep an eye out for opportunities to bring it to the game in the future.

Steve Ricossa
Executive Producer
Star Trek Online

reotharmus · December 2016

Well. At least they were transparent about. I sure hope that another company can pull it off.

wendysue53 · December 2016

just keep reading the 'news' section every few days. things like this are posted there.

bobbydazlers · December 2016

I know that when I first see the idea I thought it was pretty preposterous, why pay silly money to get some turkey with a laser printer to print a star trek ship model for you when you can go to ebay and buy just about any star trek ship there is for a reasonable price and that is in itself a good investment for your money rather then money you will never see again.
for that reason I am not surprised to see the idea didn't last very long.

saurializard · December 2016

Well, if you're looking for a recognizable ship, yes.

Try getting a Jellyfish, a NX refit, an Aeon, a Malon freighter, a Enterprise-J or any other rare ship outside of the Eaglemoss' Official Starship collection... and when you don't live in the US or the UK. :P

And now, not a single chance to get a Baltim or a Tuterian snail model.

bobbydazlers · December 2016

the easy alternative, pick your favourite ship & get a nice close up view of it in space that you like, do a screen grab & copy the file to a memory card, take it to boots or some other outlet that will print a glossy copy of it at a nice size, buy a nice frame to mount it in and hang it on your wall.

vualá a nice representation of your favourite ship complete with an appropriate background and at a very reasonable price.

lordsteve1 · December 2016

The price of those models would have probably been astronomical anyway. 3D printing is not past the initial stages of implementation yet and as such the cost involved to the company would be huge, those weren't going to be mass produced models but bespoke art pieces almost.
Those costs would have been passed on to the consumer, together with whatever crazy markup PWE or Cryptic added.

Based solely on how much a bunch of pixels costs in STO I think you'd be looking at triple figure sums for the models.

evilmark444 · December 2016

lordsteve1 wrote: »

The price of those models would have probably been astronomical anyway. 3D printing is not past the initial stages of implementation yet and as such the cost involved to the company would be huge, those weren't going to be mass produced models but bespoke art pieces almost.
Those costs would have been passed on to the consumer, together with whatever crazy markup PWE or Cryptic added.

Based solely on how much a bunch of pixels costs in STO I think you'd be looking at triple figure sums for the models.

I was expecting a price similar to WoWs figure prints anyway, which honestly for something so customized isn't that bad imho.

bobbydazlers wrote: »

the easy alternative, pick your favourite ship & get a nice close up view of it in space that you like, do a screen grab & copy the file to a memory card, take it to boots or some other outlet that will print a glossy copy of it at a nice size, buy a nice frame to mount it in and hang it on your wall.

vualá a nice representation of your favourite ship complete with an appropriate background and at a very reasonable price.

I'd prefer 3D myself, especially since my preferred ship, the Excalibur class, doesn't quite have the quality newer ships have.

bobbydazlers · December 2016

evilmark444 wrote: »

lordsteve1 wrote: »

The price of those models would have probably been astronomical anyway. 3D printing is not past the initial stages of implementation yet and as such the cost involved to the company would be huge, those weren't going to be mass produced models but bespoke art pieces almost.
Those costs would have been passed on to the consumer, together with whatever crazy markup PWE or Cryptic added.

Based solely on how much a bunch of pixels costs in STO I think you'd be looking at triple figure sums for the models.

I was expecting a price similar to WoWs figure prints anyway, which honestly for something so customized isn't that bad imho.

bobbydazlers wrote: »

the easy alternative, pick your favourite ship & get a nice close up view of it in space that you like, do a screen grab & copy the file to a memory card, take it to boots or some other outlet that will print a glossy copy of it at a nice size, buy a nice frame to mount it in and hang it on your wall.

vualá a nice representation of your favourite ship complete with an appropriate background and at a very reasonable price.

I'd prefer 3D myself, especially since my preferred ship, the Excalibur class, doesn't quite have the quality newer ships have.

theres a lot of things I would prefer, more money for the hours I work being one of them but sometimes we just have to make do as best as we can so 2D might not be as good as 3D but its better then nothing.

rattler2 · December 2016

Odds are its on the back burner right now. But the fact the technology and capability exists means it might be explored again in the future.

gazurtoid · December 2016

lordsteve1 wrote: »

The price of those models would have probably been astronomical anyway. 3D printing is not past the initial stages of implementation yet and as such the cost involved to the company would be huge, those weren't going to be mass produced models but bespoke art pieces almost.
Those costs would have been passed on to the consumer, together with whatever crazy markup PWE or Cryptic added.

Based solely on how much a bunch of pixels costs in STO I think you'd be looking at triple figure sums for the models.

Yeah, I looked at the ship models from other IPs on their site. Based on the average prices of models which are in the same size range as the STO models, it looked like the price of a STO ship would start at *at least* $120 each.

Any lower and I'm not sure how they would have made any money (they seemingly went bankrupt charging even these kinds of prices).

bobbydazlers · December 2016

gazurtoid wrote: »

lordsteve1 wrote: »

The price of those models would have probably been astronomical anyway. 3D printing is not past the initial stages of implementation yet and as such the cost involved to the company would be huge, those weren't going to be mass produced models but bespoke art pieces almost.
Those costs would have been passed on to the consumer, together with whatever crazy markup PWE or Cryptic added.

Based solely on how much a bunch of pixels costs in STO I think you'd be looking at triple figure sums for the models.

Yeah, I looked at the ship models from other IPs on their site. Based on the average prices of models which are in the same size range as the STO models, it looked like the price of a STO ship would start at *at least* $120 each.

Any lower and I'm not sure how they would have made any money (they seemingly went bankrupt charging even these kinds of prices).

the very reason I realised the idea was a non starter from the get-go and I'm not the least bit shocked to see it didn't take off.

wendysue53 · December 2016

Well, the ship manufacture they were using produced 'solid' ships, so just to recover the cost of materials, it would have been a lot more expensive than what was being said. They just cut themselves out of work basically, and likely other issues.

New company with no clue what they were doing market-wise.
Really should have went with an experienced company. There are a lot of them.

Of course if you really want a 3D print ship, you can always look up how to build your own 3D printer and what programs to use. Last time I looked this process was pretty cheap, and the only major expense was the 'ink' you went with. Or you can shell out a couple of thousand and buy a cheap pre-built printer. Up to you. After that, you just have to decide whether to buy a pre-concept 3D graphics model or to design your own. Of course, there's that whole annoying 'licensing issue', but if you don't sell, it shouldn't be a problem. Then you can print up all the Fan-Art you like.

reotharmus · December 2016

I've been working on a fan design in tinkercad for a few months now. I think it looks cool in the render but I'm nervous to actually print it in case it looks terrible one done.

nikephorus · December 2016

While price point was a concern for me I admit I was kind of excited and probably would have forked over the cash to get a copy of my excelsior refit made with my customized name and registry number.

wendysue53 · December 2016

reotharmus#2285 wrote: »

I've been working on a fan design in tinkercad for a few months now. I think it looks cool in the render but I'm nervous to actually print it in case it looks terrible one done.

Don't worry about the final product. Even after you print it, you still have the finish to do, depending on what your material is. Sanding, painting, glossing, decals, stickers, tiny army-men, boots sticking out from under the front bumper, whatever.

If you're unsure what to do, you might want to look into modeling magazines or similar websites. I can't think of any of the titles at the moment, but there are a few that have decent info on how to get certain FX with a basic model.

Are 3D Printed Ships Not a Thing Anymore?

Comments

When I think about everything we've been through together,

maybe it's not the destination that matters, maybe it's the journey,

and if that journey takes a little longer,

so we can do something we all believe in,

I can't think of any place I'd rather be or any people I'd rather be with.

When I think about everything we've been through together,

maybe it's not the destination that matters, maybe it's the journey,

and if that journey takes a little longer,

so we can do something we all believe in,

I can't think of any place I'd rather be or any people I'd rather be with.

When I think about everything we've been through together,

maybe it's not the destination that matters, maybe it's the journey,

and if that journey takes a little longer,

so we can do something we all believe in,

I can't think of any place I'd rather be or any people I'd rather be with.

When I think about everything we've been through together,

maybe it's not the destination that matters, maybe it's the journey,

and if that journey takes a little longer,

so we can do something we all believe in,

I can't think of any place I'd rather be or any people I'd rather be with.