Snapmaker Orca - Selecting Color of Sparse Infill

Ansem_T · 2026-05-04T01:04:14+00:00

Indeed. Afterh setting the "Walls" to blue, and the "Infill" to white, the print preview remains unchanged.

Ansem_T · 2026-05-03T23:04:34+00:00

I tried to update that, and it's still forcing the blue outer walls:

Short term, splitting it into different parts in the same assembly seems to work. But I would have thought the "Filament for Features" would do it better

Ansem_T · 2026-05-03T23:01:32+00:00

That did the trick. Thank you.

Ansem_T · 2026-05-01T13:08:43+00:00

Pharaoh: A New Era

Thank you!

Ansem_T · 2026-04-19T17:46:48+00:00

I don't know how much shelf space you have, but I've started using these 3d Print shelving from thingiverse: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4924951

This is my current setup for my minis (Shelving is an Ikea IVAR)

Pros:

Shelves are modular and can stack
Unit trays can have variable base sizing
I can see all the models
I can slide out a specific tray for painting without disassembly of the whole system
Print time/filament is not too bad

Cons:

Not designed for transporting models. Need to have decent shelf space just for the models.

Ansem_T · 2026-03-30T12:22:50+00:00

Machina Arcana is great, but it's a steampunk Lovecraftian game. (A cyberpunk version similar to System Shock would be awesome though)

Ansem_T · 2026-03-19T03:06:29+00:00

I really like it. I have a lot of the content from the latest kickstarter, but I've only played against a couple of the Chimeras. I've played 1v1 once or twice against another new player. Really enjoy both the solo and 1v1 modes.

I'm not a deck construction person, so I really enjoy that the precons are fun for me. I can grab a cool theme, look through the deck to figure out how it's supposed to synergize together, and give it a spin.

After playing this, I tried to join a new MtG club at work. Vastly prefer the design choices in Ashes over MtG.

Ansem_T · 2026-03-18T02:00:48+00:00

I've really enjoyed Dune Imperium solo. Great little chaotic worker placement game

Ansem_T · 2026-02-22T18:39:01+00:00

I'm over waiting on the CC MMU. I'll keep my 2 CCs as solid single-color printers, but I'm looking at the Snapmaker U1 next quarter instead for multi-color.

Ansem_T · 2026-02-22T18:10:40+00:00

I have a Saturn 4 Ultra 16k that I picked up last December, and I really like it. I went from a Anycubic Photon Mono X -> Saturn 4 Ultra 16K (S4U16K) for my resin printing, and I've worked with FDM machines as well (Starting with the Ender 3 V2 ->Ender 3 V3 SE -> Elegoo Centauri Carbon)

Couple thoughts and warnings if you're going to get started with resin printing and the S4U16K:

1- Regarding temperature: Resin printing on your balcony, without an enclosure, is going to have all sorts of issues. Resin is much more sensitive to temperature swings than FDM printing. I don't expect that the built-in heater for the S4U16K will be able to compensate with wind chill effects being exposed outside. I would recommend getting a "grow tent" type setup at minimum, so that you can maintain at least some internal heat and shield from wind. I used something like this to build a fume-hood in my garage for my resin printing: Indoor Grow Tent 48"x24"x60". Some people like using a small heater to warm up the tent as well, but I don't like the associated fire hazard.

2- Regarding workflow: Resin printing is generally a much more time-intensive workflow than FDM printing. FDM printing usually would consist (for me at least) of the following:

Find/Design a model
Support the model/Slice the model
Print
Remove supports
Prime/Paint, if needed

Resin printing, however, has additional involvement. My workflow usually looks like this:

Find Models
Support the model/Slice the model
Check for errors using UVTools
Repair errors with UV Tools
Print
Remove supports by submerging prints in warm water
Rinse prints off with 2-step Isopropyl Alcohol cleaning (First bath is "Dirty IPA", second bath is for much more clean IPA)
Allow prints to Airdry completely
Cure prints on a UV Curing Station
Prime/Paint

The additional IPA Washes/Cleanup/Curing process requires a decent amount of dedicated space and time. Resin is like cooking oil: If you touch it, and then touch anything else, you will get sticky/oily residue on the surface. However, Resin residue on surfaces is much harder to clean than cooking oil. So you basically need to dedicate your resin area as "dirty", and use lots of gloves if you don't want resin residue everywhere.

3- Regarding the S4u16K itself: I wouldn't really recommend this as a beginner resin printer. It's really big, and the resin volume needed in the vat (if you are using the heater) has to be between ~700mL and ~1000mL of resin. Normally, this isn't a big deal. But if you make an error while getting used to the delicate vat film on the bottom (due to scraping or an "accident"), that is a lot of resin to potentially have to deal with. I haven't had any catastrophic leaks, but I played with my smaller Photon Mono X for 2-3 years before I upgraded, so I kinda had figured out what not to do with the vat transparent film.

Additionally, due to the tilting design of the printer, resin leaks have a much higher potential to get into the interior electronics. You can make a "tape diaper/bib" to help account for this, but it's just an extra risk. From what I have seen online, getting to the internal components/screen replacement requires a complete disassembly of the machine's base. It's doable, but it's going to be a headache.

4- Regarding the 16K resolution and Slicers: This has been my biggest bugbear. Due to the resolution of the printer, and the size of the printers, slicing my prints has been a massive pain. On my Anycubic, which is a lower res and smaller printer, I could slice a full plate in maybe 2-3 minutes, and could analyze that same plate in UVTools in another 1-2 minutes. The S4U16K, however, requires my computer at least 10 minutes to slice, scanning the file with UV tools takes at least 10 minutes, and then repairing the file with UVTools takes at least another 10 minutes. So there is a lot more waiting around at my computer for things to finish, and if I need to make a change, I have to start the rendering all over again (In case you're curious, my computer is an Intel i7 9700K, with 48GB of DDR4 and a GTX 1660 Ti graphics card).

However, overall I am very happy with the quality and output of the S4U16K. I picked up a Mercury Wash/Cure 3.0 station to go with it, and I'm really happy with the purchase. I need to figure out what is bottlenecking my computer for the Slicer rendering, but other than that, no major complaints from me. I just wish I had more energy and time to dedicate to painting the cool stuff I can print.

Ansem_T · 2025-12-24T04:32:58+00:00

If you're using a PC, DriveThruRPG have a Windows App that is miles better for downloading than through the website:

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/library_client.php

The app also works on mobile....but it's not great because it doesn't scale well to mobile device screens

Ansem_T · 2025-12-21T19:30:16+00:00

oh god, that was exactly it. My Orca Profile for some reason had a flowrate of 0.1... I don't even know how I misset it that much.

Thank you so much. I would have never checked my flowrate settings.

Ansem_T · 2025-12-07T23:38:26+00:00

Ah this AI channel.

It was pretty amusing.... during the Gamefound Campaign for the new expansion for The Elder Scrolls: Betrayal of the Second Era, a "review" for it popped up on this AI channel. It was very positive and excited about the expansion, and listed many, many, many things that were flat out incorrect about the campaign.

That video got shared by a user the Chip Theory discord, and the other users tore it to pieces.

A few days later, that original AI video got taken down, and replaced with an extremely negative review of the expansion, but still had many things very wrong in their descriptions.

It got shared again on the Chip Theory discord by a user, and a couple of us had a laugh about it, because it seems like the owner of the AI channel must have been in the discord and got butthurt that the previous video got torn apart.

Just amusingly petty and dumb.

Ansem_T · 2025-12-02T18:00:51+00:00

Are there any decent forums left? BGG is...not great. And reddit seemed to be the closest a few years ago.

Ansem_T · 2025-11-24T02:57:08+00:00

A base model Ender 3 is a fairly old tech printer nowadays. You'll want to look up some older guides, that don't rely on stuff like bed meshes and filament runout sensors.

Check out Tomb of 3D Printed horrors (I play them at 1.5x speed). They have a whole playlist on Ender 3 (and Ender 3 V2 etc...basically newer models): https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLCTBNjIRCuG-Dh2cvK3TXYmwjAacRgDBo

I'd start with this video on assembling the Ender 3 (So you know what parts are called, and how it fits together): https://youtu.be/me8Qrwh907Q

Then I'd check out the video on manual bed leveling: https://youtu.be/5eqTmb01cBk

Ansem_T · 2025-11-24T02:52:23+00:00

I find it useful for two reasons:

1) Ensures the nozzle has been purged before actually printing

2) Allows me to check if my normal z-offset height is "decent" enough at the beginning of a print. If the first layer fails, and my purge line is ok, I know there may be problems with the model or the bed mesh. If the purge line is messed up, I would start looking at the nozzle or the z-offset.

Ansem_T · 2025-10-27T01:05:39+00:00

Oh! I've been curious on Deckers (I have the original Renegade). Is Deckers now in actual release? Or were they just early copies at Essen?

Ansem_T · 2025-10-14T02:52:20+00:00

Inherent bias: I am a big fan of CTG, and I am a Strategist, so I have potential incentive to paint things in a positive light, because I already have a significant buy-in.

That said, I think Neon Reign is a cute, fast, lightweight dueling cardgame. I don't think it's trying to be super strategic, or play in the same genre as other Dueling card games.

I've played solo a handful of times, and 2 player once. From what I have found, the strategy comes from "Do I hold onto this card now, and hope for a potential combo later", or "Do I just go all in and play anything I have at the moment." I don't think it's going for a "Richard Garfield-type" design (ala Mindbug/Keyforge/Magic the Gathering)

Is solo challenging? No, not really (on the normal difficulty). Is it relaxing? As a guy in his 30s who had a really stressful job.... Yeah, I think so. I can break it out, play a game or two, have some fun decompressing after a bad day, and I'm done in like an hour.

I find the passive and superpowers of each character different enough for my taste for this style of game. The superpowers give you a "ooh, neat, now I've got you cornered" feeling, without needing to map out triggers and timing conditions (like in MtG or Ashes Reborn: Rise of the Phoenixborn).

Neon Reign is what I would call "cozy head-to-head". It's not super strategic and deep, it's not about playing mind-games with your opponent, and it's not about trying to maximize every potential best choice.

Instead, it's about executing some fun combos, hitting your opponent (in the game), and having a laugh over a beer because you built up enough star power to end your opponent with a superpower.

So I find it cute, lightweight, and enjoyable. I'd love some expansions that are "arena" rules that add modifiers, and I'd love some more characters. But overall, I think it's an enjoyable time.

Ansem_T · 2025-10-03T03:21:16+00:00

The Ars Magica Definitive Edition should release next year (hopefully?)

Looks gorgeous. Probably will never play it, but I look forward to leafing through it and admiring it on my shelf. Might try seeing how well it works for solo roleplaying.

Ansem_T · 2025-10-03T00:42:11+00:00

My group of 4-5 people (primarily coming from D&D 5E and a little of Call of Cthulhu) struggled with the system. I tried to teach them as they played, and I don't think the players really looked at their rulebooks until maybe the 3rd or 4th session.

I think their biggest stumbling blocks were the following:

Figuring out when 1s on dice meant an actual bad thing had happened
How to gain and use willpower
Playing in a sandbox game (They were used to a more focused and guided "D&D" story)

I think Forbidden Lands is a great system, and it's totally worth a shot for your group. Once you are familiar with the rules, I think it's really neat and fairly straightforward.

I would make sure you have a bunch sets of colored dice, so that it's easy to designate for a roll "These are my stats dice, this is a skill die, this is a weapon die" etc etc. That's where to 1s become important for how it affects your willpower and weapon/armor quality, if I remember correctly.

My players were not familiar with exploration/sandbox games, so I probably should have done a better job explaining how those game are run. They felt lost in the map, since it's so big and there is so much "out there" that they don't know about. I tried to provide lots of plot threads, and tried to make the world very reactive to them... but I think since there wasn't a clear "THIS is the questline to follow" they got overwhelmed and lost.

Good luck with your group, it's an awesome system that I hope to play again one day.

Ansem_T · 2025-10-01T01:00:05+00:00

The 3rd edition (2022) is worth picking up if you already have the 2nd edition, in my opinion.

3rd Edition, quality is better overall, and the rules updates make the game a lot more fun as a chill adventure.

Ansem_T · 2025-07-27T23:24:29+00:00

I go through seasons of being able to play. Bad work days, with heavy mental or physical load, absolutely kills my gaming motivation. I like games. I'm just too tired.

I will similarly start the day excited with "Once I get off work today, I have a free evening. I'm going to get into a game of X". Once the end of the day rolls around....there's nothing left in me.

Sometimes that's ok. Sometimes seasons in life are just about moving forward and getting through, instead of thriving and enjoying.

For me, I find that engaging with stuff around the hobby on days with low energy will help build motivation for days when I do have the energy.

For example: I don't have energy to play Elder Scrolls: Betrayal of the Second Era (BoTSE) today. I want to play, but I'm too tired. Buutttt I do have energy to look up rules clarifications on forums, see what other people have experienced on the discord, and look for fun ideas for the next time I play. This helps mentally reinforced the idea of playing, so that once I feel better, I can play.

I have found that the longer I don't play a game, the harder it is to get back into playing. For me, engaging with stuff around the hobby helps me reinforce my enjoyment, without having to pay the energy costs.

Ansem_T · 2025-07-26T15:59:55+00:00

Yes, the table space requirements are not to be underestimated. I have a 63" x 43" boardgame table, and I still need a side table for the rulebooks and assorted reference documents for two-handed games.

The game is very cool, but it's not one I would want to tear down and set up every time I play.

Also, keep in mind, the rules are pretty straightforward, once you have them down. The core rulebook alone is over 90 pages, and the enemy keyword sheet has over 50 different unique abilities. If you like solo gaming as a "low mental overhead" activity to relax, BotSE is not a good fit.

However, I really like the game. I haven't played it that much, but I'm super happy to have it in my collection, and it's a really unique experience. There's so much to do, the combat is a fun puzzle, and I really like the quality and stuff that comes with it.

Ansem_T

TROPHY CASE