3D Ship Printing AMA 3/16/18 - 10AM PT

ambassadorkael · March 2018

Hey folks,

Tomorrow we'll be having an AMA, right here in this very thread, with some of the fine folks from Cryptic and some of the designers and technical folks from Mixed Dimensions, our partner in 3D Ship Printing. If you want to go ahead and start asking questions now, feel free.

From Cryptic:
Executive Producer Stephen Ricossa
Lead Ship Designer Thomas Marrone
Core Producer Max Krembs

From Mixed Dimensions:
Chief Executive Officer Mo Taslaq
Chief Technical Officer Baha Abunojaim
Creative Director Zuhair Abdulhadi

vinny · March 2018

Cool, why can't I upload my NX Refit?

smokebailey · March 2018

Question: Can we get the various color patterns on the ships one can do in tailor?
and can we mix parts, like a TOS connie with a TMP engine?

Also, what of slender bits, like the spikes on some of the TOS ships, like the cage connie, the nx refit, and the pioneer?

And what of the 'glowy spinnies' like the end capes of the TOS ships in game?

jtoney3448 · March 2018

I have a question, the intro special prices, are these meant to be cheaper then later on, what was meant wasn't quite clear. What are the projected prices down the road after this has been out a while. Because if they are going to be a decent a mount cheaper down the road, why should anyone jump in now? And if they are going to be more expensive after they have been in production a while, how is that justifiable? Why are the tax rates so insanely high for a good of this type? For the price that these are going for currently they really should have a lighting option for necells and deflectors.

At the current prices they seem aimed solely at wealthy players aka whales. Will there be say a smaller 8" version that is much cheaper made for lower income players, or is the 12" going to remain the only size?

lnblade · March 2018

Do you anticipate the Brigid hull being made available for printing at a later date, or is it permanently unavailable?

mirrorchaos · March 2018

These questions are bound to be asked, may as well bring it up just for the purpose of justification, explanation and make it clear to everyone.

First question: Why are the models so expensive to produce? to the average person, it is rather prohibitive.
Second question: is there a half sized version that is much cheaper aimed at those who don't have such disposable income, but can still have something for themselves?
Third question: What are the prices going to be like after the introductory period?

duncanidaho11 · March 2018

What do the ships taste like? (probably a question for Kael)

cuchulainn74 · March 2018

I'm curious if color codes, Pantone or another, would be available for those choosing to self paint the primed ships.
Also, will there be a gifting option available that allows someone to give a prepaid order to a player?

Very excited by this, thank you guys for the hard work to make it a reality at last!

spartanreyes · March 2018

Hey, If we click on the "3D print this ship" button in game are we automatically locked in to buy? How do we know the exact price for our specific ship build? I think we all need to know more about how that whole process works, please and thank you.

legendarylycan · March 2018

the company is called 'cryptic' for a reason - they didn't think about questions like this when releasing the initial batch of info

ambassadorkael · March 2018

spartanreyes#7677 wrote: »

Hey, If we click on the "3D print this ship" button in game are we automatically locked in to buy? How do we know the exact price for our specific ship build? I think we all need to know more about how that whole process works, please and thank you.

When you click "3D Print this ship," you are taken to an order screen where you can choose whether to buy or not. Right now, all ships are the same price.

ambassadorkael · March 2018

vinny#6447 wrote: »

Cool, why can't I upload my NX Refit?

Are you using bitdefender? That's been stopping some uploads.

ambassadorkael · March 2018

smokebailey wrote: »

Question: Can we get the various color patterns on the ships one can do in tailor?
and can we mix parts, like a TOS connie with a TMP engine?

Also, what of slender bits, like the spikes on some of the TOS ships, like the cage connie, the nx refit, and the pioneer?

And what of the 'glowy spinnies' like the end capes of the TOS ships in game?

Yes! We worked hard to make sure the ships that you print are YOUR ships, with all of your color patterns and custom parts.

For ""spiky bits"" Mixed Dimension's technology takes our in-game models and makes them suitable for 3D printing - it's all magic as far as I'm concerned!

Regarding ""Glowy bits,"" Mixed Dimensions' artist will use the reference screenshots and model materials we send them to paint your ship, but the paint won't glow.

- Thomas Marrone, Lead Ship Artist - Cryptic

ambassadorkael · March 2018

jtoney3448 wrote: »

I have a question, the intro special prices, are these meant to be cheaper then later on, what was meant wasn't quite clear. What are the projected prices down the road after this has been out a while. Because if they are going to be a decent a mount cheaper down the road, why should anyone jump in now? And if they are going to be more expensive after they have been in production a while, how is that justifiable? Why are the tax rates so insanely high for a good of this type? For the price that these are going for currently they really should have a lighting option for necells and deflectors.

At the current prices they seem aimed solely at wealthy players aka whales. Will there be say a smaller 8" version that is much cheaper made for lower income players, or is the 12" going to remain the only size?

We are currently offering all ships at the base price, which is the lowest price. Different ships feature different levels of complexity and detail, which increases the time required to produce the collectible and when prices are updated it will reflect this accordingly.

Tax rates depend on and are reflective of the laws within your territory.

Thank you for your suggestion regarding the lighting option. We will investigate the possibility of adding this option for the future!

Mo Taslaq/CEO - Mixed Dimensions

ambassadorkael · March 2018

lnblade wrote: »

Do you anticipate the Brigid hull being made available for printing at a later date, or is it permanently unavailable?

We wanted to hold off on ships that use a clear "force field" element because we'd like to see if we can develop a way to faithfully reproduce that on the model. If we're able to, those ships will become available in the future.

- Thomas Marrone, Lead Ship Artist - Cryptic

ambassadorkael · March 2018

duncanidaho11 wrote: »

What do the ships taste like? (probably a question for Kael)

In accordance with our Terms of Use, these collectibles are for display purposes only and should not be put into your mouth.

Mo Taslaq/CEO

My (Kael's) answer:

Delicious. Like a morning sunrise. But if you ever eat them, you are immediately killed.

As is Romulus. Again.

Mike Fatum, Community Manager

ambassadorkael · March 2018

cuchulainn74 wrote: »

I'm curious if color codes, Pantone or another, would be available for those choosing to self paint the primed ships.
Also, will there be a gifting option available that allows someone to give a prepaid order to a player?

Very excited by this, thank you guys for the hard work to make it a reality at last!

The gifting option is a great idea! We are evaluating adding this feature to the checkout process. Stay tuned!

Baha Abunojaim/CTO - Mixed Dimensions

We don't have any plans to provide official color codes for ships, but when you export the ship we do create several orthographic renders on the order page - feel free to save those for your own reference when painting!

- Thomas Marrone, Lead Ship Artist - Cryptic

captan2er0 · March 2018

coldnapalm wrote: »

My main question before I figure out if I want one or not is what resin formula is used for the models? If I am gonna shell out hundreds for a resin model, this is kind of a must have information.

@coldnapalm check out this document on the FAQ page. It lists all the materials potentially used as well as giving the public all the MSDS sheets: https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/gameprint.net/static-files/Star_Trek_Materials_z.pdf

legendarylycan · March 2018

ambassadorkael#6946 wrote: »

lnblade wrote: »

Do you anticipate the Brigid hull being made available for printing at a later date, or is it permanently unavailable?

We wanted to hold off on ships that use a clear "force field" element because we'd like to see if we can develop a way to faithfully reproduce that on the model. If we're able to, those ships will become available in the future.

- Thomas Marrone, Lead Ship Artist - Cryptic

i would think maybe glass or a similar material mixed with some sort of chemical that glows or shimmers in certain types of light conditions might work to fake a force field effect

ambassadorkael · March 2018

coldnapalm wrote: »

My main question before I figure out if I want one or not is what resin formula is used for the models? If I am gonna shell out hundreds for a resin model, this is kind of a must have information.

A link to the materials used can be found in our FAQs at:

https://gameprint.net/faq

Zuhair Abdulhadi/Creative Director - Mixed Dimensions

jcsww · March 2018

Who from Cryptic/PWE apparently contracted Mr. Rademaker about the Vesta being included? After Tweeting him yesterday, I get the impression that either no one contracted him at all or that no one bothered to asked him if his Vesta designs could be included.

ambassadorkael#6946 wrote: »

jcsww wrote: »

shadowfang240 wrote: »

i'd say it's fairly obvious why the vesta isn't available - they don't have permission to use it

remember, the design is owned by mark rademaker, not CBS or cryptic, so MD would have to go to him to get permission for it to be included as a printable option - and cryptic would probably need to modify their original contract with him too

Not surprising, but did they actually ask for permission? PWE tends to take the lazy way when it comes to doing things. I follow his Twitter and such and am a big fan of his work. Although I can't speak for him. I think PWE should at least approach him to see if he would be willing to permit his ship to be printed for those of us that are fans of his work.

We did, yes.

*cough* bull *cough*

ambassadorkael · March 2018

coldnapalm wrote: »

captan2er0 wrote: »

coldnapalm wrote: »

My main question before I figure out if I want one or not is what resin formula is used for the models? If I am gonna shell out hundreds for a resin model, this is kind of a must have information.

@coldnapalm check out this document on the FAQ page. It lists all the materials potentially used as well as giving the public all the MSDS sheets: https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/gameprint.net/static-files/Star_Trek_Materials_z.pdf

So...are they using the formlab or axson one for the ships? The axson resin seems like low quality but quick setting resin from what I am seeing and I have no idea about the formlab one since it's SDS sheet basically tell me nothing with a lot of not available there showing. And attempts to look more into the resin itself is returning result for the printer and not the resin itself.

To clarify, we use Axon resin for casting and Formlabs resin for printing. The base is casted and the ship is printed.

Zuhair Abdulhadi/Creative Director - Mixed Dimensions

captan2er0 · March 2018

coldnapalm wrote: »

ambassadorkael#6946 wrote: »

coldnapalm wrote: »

captan2er0 wrote: »

coldnapalm wrote: »

My main question before I figure out if I want one or not is what resin formula is used for the models? If I am gonna shell out hundreds for a resin model, this is kind of a must have information.

@coldnapalm check out this document on the FAQ page. It lists all the materials potentially used as well as giving the public all the MSDS sheets: https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/gameprint.net/static-files/Star_Trek_Materials_z.pdf

So...are they using the formlab or axson one for the ships? The axson resin seems like low quality but quick setting resin from what I am seeing and I have no idea about the formlab one since it's SDS sheet basically tell me nothing with a lot of not available there showing. And attempts to look more into the resin itself is returning result for the printer and not the resin itself.

To clarify, we use Axon resin for casting and Formlabs resin for printing. The base is casted and the ship is printed.

Zuhair Abdulhadi/Creative Director - Mixed Dimensions

That makes sense...now all I have to do is try and find out more info about the formlab resin that they refuse to give details on ><. The printers are reviewed pretty highly tho...with most of the con being it costs too damn much for the printer AND the resin.

I can try to poke around in one of the labs my design team works in sometime tomorrow while lab staff are in to see if they have any additional information beyond what the data sheets have. We have one of the FormLabs printers on hand in the lab that's set up for project use.

neoallerka · March 2018

So, can we get at least SOME indication as to why the prices on these are what they are? I mean, I play Warhammer, and even Forge World, which is notorious for needlessly expensive models, doesn't charge this much. And these are introductory discount prices? What is it? Is it licensing costs? Some kind of stupidly expensive resin? High startup costs?

3D Ship Printing AMA 3/16/18 - 10AM PT

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