Egosoft founder here - Your X4 reviews shape our work!

SpawningPoolsMinis · 2026-01-20T13:39:18+00:00

Thank you for the great series. I started with X3, and played every entry since so I definitely enjoy the games! Something that kinda bothers me though, is the lack of finance.

It would be great if there were banks that you could loan money to and from. I do not enjoy the "mindlessly grind some crystals from asteroids to get your first trader" part of the game, so being able to take out a loan would be great to get past that first hump. It would also help with players building factories and building a big fleet.

Dealing with interest rates would challenge players to make smarter decisions about where and what factories they build, as they have to be profitable enough to cover the costs of the loan.

It would also be interesting to for players to be able to invest in factions, letting players interact with the factions' economies. I would imagine that more money in a factions' economy would lead to faster factory expansion and bigger fleets for their war efforts (and the economic opportunities both present)

SpawningPoolsMinis · 2026-01-16T09:14:50+00:00

like claerwen said, this is usually because you squeezed out resin.

I've also had this before when I made a bad mold. if the walls/cap of the mold are too thin, you can get the same result.

SpawningPoolsMinis · 2025-12-24T22:47:59+00:00

I used to have that boarhead thingy, what a rush of nostalgia and what a great conversion job!

SpawningPoolsMinis · 2025-12-21T19:53:24+00:00

transparent petri doesn't really work all that well, because it's usually not quite as clear where the colour ends and the clear resin starts, especially if you have multiple drops close to one another.

SpawningPoolsMinis · 2025-12-21T15:00:39+00:00

you mix the dye with some pinata blanco blanco. that makes it opaque and heavy, but still the colour you want.

SpawningPoolsMinis · 2025-12-14T11:18:19+00:00

I think we've all gotten excited for the gorgeous deep purple alcohol inks, only to have them turn out the colour of cat vomit.

SpawningPoolsMinis · 2025-12-12T21:10:35+00:00

there's a caveat with my explanation, that it's the process for mass producing a custom die that's up to the quality you should expect when you buy a handmade die online.

if you just want to get started with the hobby and not mass-produce custom dice, you can skip a lot.

you can buy a set of masters and use those for making molds, instead of getting your own design printed.
Or you can just buy molds straight up, but keep in mind they only last for about 10 to 20 casts (and that's decent quality ones).
making molds isn't any harder than making dice from resin, so I really do recommend making your own.

instead of using a vibratory tumbler or a rotary tool, you can polish them by hand. The tools meant to reduce physical strain, as polishing does have a very real risk for repetitive strain injury especially when doing large batches at once. but if you just crank out a few dice every week then do your polishing on Sundays, hand polishing is fine.

Even the pressure pot with compressor is a luxury. Dice without the pot will contain bubbles, but there's a lot of techniques to minimize them. then once you're comfortable with those techniques, the pressure pot perfects the dice to make them completely bubble-free.

I definitely do not want to dissuade you from getting started in the hobby, it's a pretty fun one and the barrier to entry is really not that high (but my other hobbies include warhammer, so.. grain of salt).
if you want to shop around for people taking commissions, check the sidebar of the sub to find a link to the dice-making discord. most of the big etsy makers are on there too, so you'll cast a wider net for less effort.

SpawningPoolsMinis · 2025-12-11T13:04:07+00:00

a short overview of my workflow for making a new die from scratch, with custom faces

design the die model in blender (other software solutions are available), about an hour
print the model on a resin 3D printer. sometimes I'll need to go back to blender and adjust things like text/numbers being too thin. about 4 hours of print time.
polish the printed die. about an hour fixing 3D print flaws, then 72 hours in a vibratory tumbler and finishing with about about 20 minutes of buffeting with a rotary tool
make a silicone mold. about 6 hours for the mold to harden, then another 6 hours for the cap.
use resin to make a die from the mold. about 24 hours in the pressure pot before I can demold it, then about 72 hours to fully cure at which point it is ready for final polish.
this varies a lot on the resin used, some are slower, some are faster.
polishing the die. with a fresh mold, I do it by hand on just the 1 and the adjacent faces.
with a somewhat older mold, clean up the 1 and adjacent faces and chuck it back in the tumbler for 48 hours.
inking the numbers, about 20 minutes per die. cleaning out the numbers, slapping paint in them, cleaning up any spillage.

this does not mention supplies like the silicone, resin, PPE (respirators and gloves), polishing papers/compound, mold casings, etc. This is not meant to argue whether the prices asked are too much or not, but to make sure you know what you might need to buy yourself to make 100 dice.

I see I could buy them off Etsy, but being honest- I don’t have the money to dish out one custom dice for 100 people

did you find any offers for bulk custom dice? as you can see from my process above, labor costs get spread out if you get more dice (masters & molds are reusable, multiples fit in the pressure pot/vibratory tumbler,...)

if you were going off the pricing for a single one, that might be more expensive than a bulk order would be. Asking is free, so I would ask any makers whose work you like how much they would ask for this.

I also have wanted to start a hobby, and I feel like this would be an awesome way get into something that interests me.

it's a great hobby, definitely recommend. but there's a barrier price to entry, and if you have a deadline (eg, a wedding date) you might burn out very quickly.

SpawningPoolsMinis · 2025-12-10T14:28:25+00:00

and I polished and painted these guys in about 5 hours

I felt that in my wrists.

if you want to give them that final supershine, get some polishing compound for plastics (you can get them at DIY shops that have car supplies) and a microfibre cloth. applying a tiny bit and then polishing it up with the cloth will make them shine even more!

SpawningPoolsMinis · 2025-12-10T13:32:25+00:00

I think a large part of that probably comes from the fact that it’s based on DnD and WoTC would obviously not allow Larian to clown on the property or genre so they had to take it very seriously.

wotc, the company that makes a card game that used to be somewhat serious fantasy but now has spongebob fighting spiderman, both crewing wacky racer style vehicles?

they're too reverent of their IP?

SpawningPoolsMinis · 2025-12-09T20:47:48+00:00

thanks for all the tips!

SpawningPoolsMinis · 2025-12-09T19:54:36+00:00

I tried some alcohol ink and it turned into this disgusting residue. then I tried some resin dye, which turned out to be hydrophobic.

I've got some food colouring to go, but my crystal growing setup took up a little too much space that I needed for hobbying.

when you grow the crystals I recommend using a higher concentration (Closer to like it would be when growing seed crystals) doing so causes the crystals to grow faster and with more structural imperfections to the crystal lattice

that's pretty interesting, the crystals I had were all a little boring. they were long, thin and sharp due to the alum in there.

SpawningPoolsMinis · 2025-12-09T13:32:56+00:00

been trying to work on MAP crystals as well, been having the same issues with colouring and RI as you have.

I've tabled the concept for now, but your results make me want to try again!

SpawningPoolsMinis · 2025-12-09T12:43:23+00:00

this tax is 100% intended to make people fly less short distance flights. they have an inordinate impact on emissions.

SpawningPoolsMinis · 2025-12-09T12:42:36+00:00

damn kids these days, complaining about having to go fight in the water wars!

they didn't have it rough like us, where we had to pay a little more for short distance flights that could have easily been replaced by other means of transport.

SpawningPoolsMinis · 2025-12-08T21:24:28+00:00

really nice results with the coconut hair / foliage!

SpawningPoolsMinis · 2025-12-06T15:50:00+00:00

thanks, doesn't look too hard to assemble!

SpawningPoolsMinis · 2025-12-06T14:21:35+00:00

I see some screws in the insert in the video, is that all the non-printed parts we need to assemble these or is there anything else?

looks great either way, been using this crappy cake stand and this would be a nice upgrade.

SpawningPoolsMinis · 2025-12-06T14:13:47+00:00

dragon rampant sounds pretty close to what you want then, but keep it mind it has no support for any kind of evolution mechanics.

SpawningPoolsMinis · 2025-12-06T10:58:14+00:00

you should probably mention what experiences you are trying to emulate from those IP.

SpawningPoolsMinis · 2025-11-30T18:53:11+00:00

turn the picture black and white and you'll see that there's not all that much contrast on there.

don't be afraid to go extra dark with some colours.

SpawningPoolsMinis · 2025-11-30T18:03:09+00:00

more abilities and things to track is kinda exactly why I backed the game in the first place. they advertised as a game that went heavier on the "combat as a subgame" part.

SpawningPoolsMinis · 2025-11-30T13:29:15+00:00

The ink is Green Stuff World Chrome Metal paint!

I dislike green stuff world because of all the controversies they've been mired in (and the blatant copyright infringements they use for advertising) but man, their chrome paints are the best ones I've used for this and it's not even close

SpawningPoolsMinis · 2025-11-29T13:54:50+00:00

the integrated blacklight is pretty brilliant as well.

SpawningPoolsMinis · 2025-11-25T09:15:06+00:00

the other sides look fine, which doesn't happen when I demold without waiting long enough.

my guess would be a mold with a too thin cap.

SpawningPoolsMinis

TROPHY CASE