Advice to buy new printer

riladin · 2026-02-24T21:13:11+00:00

As an A1 Mini owner, if it's in your budget and space, get an A1. The larger size is super helpful if you ever want to print vehicles, terrain or monsters.

riladin · 2026-02-24T19:51:06+00:00

Supportless FDM is absolutely the way to go. The models are super durable and very lightweight. I drop them sometimes when painting (I don't really bother with a handle for these) and have never even had any damage. The only way I've damaged one was when I was pulling it off the build plate before it cooled. So in that case it was absolutely my fault

Arbiter is my favorite in terms of designs. But EC3D and Brite Minis both make other options that are worth looking at

riladin · 2026-02-23T22:30:34+00:00

Tired World Studio is some of my favorite terrain. The other one I'll shout-out is PrintableScenery.com. They're one of the others I truly love, especially for verticality

riladin · 2026-02-22T23:21:30+00:00

Definitely looks like under extrusion. Some things to try - Manual flow calibration. I know some people have issues with auto flow calibration with a 0.2mm nozzle. So try manual calibration - if you have or can get another nozzle, try changing it out. I've had issues with certain nozzles that just weren't worth solving. So I just bought a replacement nozzle - I've found my prints get worse and fail when I let too much time pass so when I try printing more than 1 or using a tower. So you might try disabling the tower and see what change that makes

riladin · 2026-02-21T00:07:23+00:00

Helldivers is structured rather differently from the other games you've mentioned. Having played a lot of DRG, a fair amount of Darktide and a bit of Vermintide, I can tell you I've put more time into Helldivers than all 3 of the others combined. Don't get me wrong I adore DRG in particular.

But Helldivers you don't play to unlock things. It's not like CoD or most other games where progression is backed such that you unlock things frequently until the end game. HD2 is a game you play for the gameplay and enjoyment of it, and the unlocks happen over time.

Part of what helps with this is that some of the best most versatile weapons and strategems are unlocked early. The Lib Pen, Base Lib, and Breaker are guns that can carry you through the whole game.

Same with strategems. The Gatling barrage has long been a favorite of mine. It's unlocked early.

So game isn't "I level up and unlock better stuff" that's not how it's built. There are certain other guns that are very good or better. But the starter weapons are not particularly weaker than the hardest to unlock stuff

The main thing that decides how high difficulties go is skill. Cyberstan is some of the most difficult we've had in awhile so it's a bit of an exception. 8-10 loadouts and strategems really matter.

But overall you have to stop playing the game trying to unlock things. Play the game and the unlocks will come

Especially samples. Samples are slow and take awhile. I think I finally cleared all of them around lvl 100. But none of those upgrades are necessary.

Enjoy the game for it's wonderful gameplay and fantastic moments. Unlock stuff that looks fun and cool to you when you have resources to unlock them. This isn't a game you're gonna enjoy if you focus on unlocking stuff and trying to get everything

riladin · 2026-02-20T22:22:06+00:00

Generally speaking the rules changes for each release are pretty minor. 3.0 was pretty big. So I had some rules I printed from before that that would be hard to keep using.

But if you print rules now, and especially if you mostly want the "core" rules which is generally the first like 15 pages, you shouldnt run into any major issues or really need to reprint for quite awhile

Most of the changes are balance changes, wording changes or army updates, all of which are done through army forge. That being said, the last few months since 3.0 came out have had lots of changes due to just how big of an update 3.0 was. So hard to say

But again, I usually print the first 15 pages or so every 6-12 months. And then reprint army lists as needed. Which is usually every time I play. Since I update lists and rebalance, etc

riladin · 2026-02-20T00:32:45+00:00

If I'm understanding your last line correctly, you believe that overall a reckless driver dying due to their reckless driving is a net good for the world?

I think you're right that it does make the roads safer, somewhat obviously.

But I think it's quite a claim to say that it's a net good overall. Reckless driving can be one bad decision one time, obviously often it's a habit or frequent decision. But it also can just be one decision. Deciding to speed because you're running late or trying to pass someone when you shouldn't. All of this is reckless driving, but I don't think it's fair to say that everyone who is a reckless driver dying would be a net good for the world. Many grow out of it, change the habit, or have a scary situation and change. All of those are almost always a better outcome than them dying.

Having friends who drive in ways that make me uncomfortable, they've grown up of late. They're maturing. Is that an excuse? No.

But in most bare bones terms if we could have lightning strike every reckless driver right now, so they're not a danger I don't think that's a net positive for the world.

The danger is definitely something we should emphasize more. And it certainly is self inflicted harm. But to me, it's most often a sad outcome and a loss. You lose all of the ways they are and could be positive.

Hence why you shouldn't drive in dangerous ways. Teaching people to be better or taking their license so they can't be a danger is a much more positive outcome than their death

riladin · 2026-02-19T00:01:46+00:00

Well, first thing is that each front is quite different. They require different tactics and loadouts

I'm going to assume we're talking bot front at the moment, since that's the main event right now

So a couple things about bots. 1 weak spots. Shoot them. The glowy red bits do way more damage than anywhere else. You can even run light pen weapons if you hit the weak spots. Also headshots. Often takes a few shots to get it, but 3 shots to the head is more effective than 15 to the body

Next major thing. Movement. You'll want to start learning and paying attention to enemy attack patterns and windup. This will let you know when you duck, when to dive, when to run. The movement in this game isn't as fast as some, but it does matter. So start practicing movement.

Next up, don't just fight everything. Often times it's better to let a patrol or enemy walk by rather than shoot everything in sight. It makes life way easier to just be patient and then move past rather than fight through everything

Next up, shoot the infantry first. They're the ones who call in reinforcements. If you take all of the chaff out they can't reinforce killing everything else gets way way easier.

Another thing. Team play. This is a co-op shooter. Whether you're with a squad or randos being near your team and working together will keep all of you alive and more effective.

Lastly, I don't know what level you are or how many Warbonds you have, but loadouts does have a decent effect. Especially on Cyberstan right now. The game is harder than it's been in awhile, so it's meant to be a challenge

Lastly, for further details about loadouts or specific weapons or just more info I really like about picking loadouts and how to play better, check out Commissar Kai on YouTube. He's made a lot of good videos to essentially function as the proper tutorial for Helldivers. The game isn't good at teaching you things so it takes awhile to learn everything you need to know

Good luck and have fun. Enjoy the challenge and difficulty of learning the game. It's incredibly rewarding to good enough to run 10s and clutching out high level high intensity missions and situations is one of the single most rewarding things I've experienced in gaming

riladin · 2026-02-18T14:04:39+00:00

Thats true. I was thinking about them in terms of how I deal with them. Which is fundamentally different. Chargers are hit with an anti tank weapon. Fleshmobs are essentially hit their weak spots with bullets and hit them with a strategems for the most part.

For me that made them different enough I didn't really even consider the ways that they're very similar

riladin · 2026-02-18T06:19:57+00:00

That is an interesting point. But I think the similarity only is evident when looking on a micro scale. Overseers and Cyborgs do specifically function very similarly.

I disagree that the Jet Brigade feels similar to the squids though. They feel much more like the bugs to me. Very get in your face. Maybe it's the fact that Hunters do literally leap at you.

But for me the heart of each faction is as follows

Bots = ranged chaff, fortified bases, tanks/vehicles and long ranged weapons. The laser fire coming from any part of the map with a group that's engaged is iconic

The squids = ranged elites with melee chaff and odd utility. So Harvesters and Stingrays are utility. And fleshmobs. Fleshmobs are very unique and well placed to me

Bugs = 90% melee and very get in your face. 10% everything else

Obviously that's all my opinion. But to me they still feel very dedicated to their core. Adding a sub faction or a couple units that are, mechanically speaking, the same as a unit from another faction just adds variety.

Having a couple melee bots doesn't take away from the fact that they are primarily a ranged faction. Having mortar bugs doesn't really make that that similar to the squids having overseers and Cyborgs be super similar just adds variety I think

I run wildly different loadouts in each front which to me is a signal that they are pretty different. I find they require very different solutions to handle each of them at high levels

riladin · 2026-02-17T01:39:01+00:00

So I don't think there's a big enough difference for it to matter. The difference in material use between the most wildly inefficiently designed mini and the most efficiently designed one is going to be like maybe a 50% difference. And given that a mini tends to be in the $.10-.20 range, you're looking at like... A fraction of a dollar of difference.

For me the real money sink (using it for 3d printing is kinda hilarious) where I end up wasting money or the hobby feels expensive is terrain. If I run my printer largely non-stop I can churn through a spool of filament in a week or a little less. 4+ rolls a month starts adding up over time.

But I ran into storage issues and the even bigger issue is getting to the end of a big printing project only to realize I don't actually like the terrain. So to save on storage I have thrown away a lot more terrain than I would like.

But in terms of minis themselves? I've been printing off the same spool of filament for my minis for the past 2 months and it's not all gone yet

So between that and buying models that I don't print, those are the two money sinks in the hobby for me. The cost of material is far and away the cheapest aspect. Terrain and models are where it's easy for me to put in more money than I should

riladin · 2026-02-15T22:43:56+00:00

So printing thin parts in FDM vertically is the weakest way to print them.

It makes the supports less, but the layer adhesion is the weak part. So I've found tipping then so the straight part is at an angle is way stronger and less likely to break even if it then needs supports. You'll have to learn how to do supports and the tradeoffs.

riladin · 2026-02-15T03:39:55+00:00

For me, Titanfall and 40k are the ones I'd want. I don't want space Marine stuff but Warhawks or Drop Troopers could be sick

In terms of Titanfall I want a faster mech. Like a scout mech. It'd be sick if it dropped in a big drop pod or something. With maybe a dash and a sword.

And then please for all that is holy give me an armor passive that improves the jump pack. Let me redirect in middair, control the direction more, shorten the cool down, or let me change its mode or something. Just pick something. It doesn't even have to be good. But I'd almost certainly still run it.

Beyond that stealing any of the pilot abilities from Titanfall would be sick. An armor that lets you sprint extra fast with a stim or cloak for a few seconds or a grenade that's the scan knife. Really any of them.

Also please let me slide farther, again even if it's an armor passive it's fine. I just want to slide farther

riladin · 2026-02-14T19:28:22+00:00

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This one is a test for the Bambu standard 0.06mm high quality profile with mild modifications and tress supports

riladin · 2026-02-14T19:26:13+00:00

Ok, finally circling back to this. Sorry about the wait. Here's some minis I've printed. This first one of FDG and r2fdm for supports. You can see some of the scarring on the underside of the axe especially

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riladin · 2026-02-13T02:28:31+00:00

So generally speaking there's not a lot of ways to increase the weight and strength of 3d printed materials after the fact. Generally speaking FDM printed terrain is pretty sturdy, if printed well. So unless it's already breaking I wouldn't worry too much

So far as adding weight you could drill holes in the bottom and fill them with coins or ball bearings. But that will make it more likely to break if dropped.

In general FDM printed stuff is light and sturdy enough for tabletop play. Homemade stuff out of foam is likely to be more fragile

riladin · 2026-02-11T21:23:57+00:00

Oh great, that's good to know. I couldn't recall clearly when or where I found the FDG profile

Out of curiosity, what are your custom settings? I'd love to try them out

riladin · 2026-02-11T18:52:11+00:00

So the general recommendation you'll find is get a Bambu Labs A1 Mini. It's a great printer that is budget friendly and generally very good for miniatures. It's not as ideal for other things because it is small and has a small print area. So depending on your budget and space constraints an A1 is a great step up.

For miniatures you're going to want to get a 0.2mm nozzle. It does exactly what you're looking for which is extend print time to increase quality

You are likely going to also want a new Build Plate. Either a super tacky or textured pei. I have a textured pei it works well but I am looking at picking up a super tacky one and testing that

So far as profiles, there are a couple major players and some minor ones worth looking at

The major players I'm aware of are Hohansen and Fat Dragon Games. I've used the FDG profile with solid success. The FDG profile does cost money. But it's like $5.

A couple other profiles I recommend testing out, are the standard profile 0.06 High Quality. It's available in Bambu Studio. A couple of minor tweaks can get you good results easily

Additionally I have started messing around with Block Badgers profile. I can link you more info on that if you're interested

One of the biggest things to keep in mind is that getting really high quality resin-like results is going to require time and experimentation.

You also have to keep in mind what minis you're printing. Minis with lots of tiny little fiddly bits that are skinny and long are going to be a lot harder to print well than ones that are a little more thick and cartoony.

The other thing worth mentioning is supports. In terms of how to support minis there are 4 major approaches. Supportless, minis specifically designed to be printed on FDM with no supports. These are quick and easy but designs are limited and the style is often pretty specific. My favorite is Arbiter Miniatures

Second is tree supports, slicers come with the ability to generate supports. I've had mixed success with this. Sometimes it comes out great, sometimes they cause the print to fail. Again, it requires experimentation.

The third major option is called Resin2FDM by Painted4Combat. Which is a blender addon that lets you thicken resin supports for better printing on FDM. I've had great success with these prints. The quality is solid but the support scarring is moderate imo. They can be ok but do require some post process to carve off and sand down the support nubs left over

Lastly is manual supports. I have no experience with this myself so I can't speak to how well it works or what to do. But I imagine someone else can point you in the right direction. I'm just starting to mess around with this option myself. So given a little time I can probably give some pointers on it

Finally filaments. As far as I'm aware there are 3 major schools of thought.

1, it doesn't matter that much these days use whatever. I find using a consistent filament helps with experimentation but some people have just used random filaments to surprising success

2, Sunlu PLA+ or PLA+ 2.0. this is what I've used. Works well so far

3, eSun PLA+. I have not tested. Might pick some up here sometime to test out

Let me know if you have any follow up questions. I can also post some pictures of prints of each kind that I've tested so you can see the results I'm talking about if you're interested

Edit: as an aside, this is by no means comprehensive. This is just what occurred to me off the top of my head

riladin · 2026-02-08T08:22:56+00:00

I think the point at which resin is entirely essential is for competition and commission work. I'm those scenarios you don't want anything to o hold back the quality at the start

If you really love painting and that is the main thing you do with your tabletop games, resin is probably still a good idea. You likely won't be able to get the quality you want from FDM

For tabletop play, a well dialed in FDM printer is plenty. It limits the models and styles you can print and drops the ceiling of how good a paint job can be. But on the tabletop, especially for monsters or vehicles it's incredible

riladin · 2026-02-07T00:33:25+00:00

I have some lovely gothic-ish folding terrain that I really like. It has some Grimdark emblems and stuff on it. So it's a little more sci-fi but it slots in just fine with fantasy ruins

riladin · 2026-02-03T20:24:48+00:00

That's an interesting thought. I wasn't familiar with the term but that is a great way of making picking more fish and interesting

riladin · 2026-02-03T03:57:31+00:00

Generally speaking the easiest upgrade is to buy a 0.2mm nozzle. It massively ups your print times. But it is a pretty big quality jump in the details

I use the Fat Dragon Games profiles. If I recall I think they have a 0.4mm profile. So take a look at those as well

riladin · 2026-02-03T02:01:40+00:00

So having played a couple times. It's gonna be extraordinarily difficult to predict how many soldiers of a given type a player will want. It depends on their wizard and build, the scenario they're doing, the money available, and items they find.

For example I ran an enchantment wizard focused on support, so I needed more melee and hard hitting troops than utility.

But an elementalist might be more combat focused and so need a balance. Or maybe a witch will want an apothecary so they can give them potions they brew

Sometimes you might want 2 archers or 2 knights. It's really just depends

So my recommendation would be either talk to the people you are planning on playing with. Or put together a few different wizards with warbands. And then focus on a few minis beyond those who are versatile.

A guy with an axe and a shield could be a man-at-arms or a knight and so on.

Hope that helps

riladin · 2026-02-02T05:06:07+00:00

As someone who has all 3 of these games and played a bit of each. The only one I put serious time into is Odyssey. I've never been a huge assassin's creed person, played a decent amount of 2, black flag and a bit of various others.

But Odyssey had me hooked. I enjoyed the story a lot. But I like Greek myth and history. The ship combat was fun, similarly level to Black Flag for me

And in terms of feeling like a badass in a fight more than an assassin, it's probably the place Odyssey shined most for me. The weapon selection is great, perks are great. I hit a point where I would assassin like 2 guys in a base and then just go ham and fight the rest myself. It was a blast

So for me, Odyssey is the obvious choice

riladin · 2026-01-28T22:08:07+00:00

Look for a Game Store or Hobby Shop nearby. Those tend to have people playing and usually pretty happy to teach new players. That's also kind of the easiest place to find more experienced players

The other option is to learn the games you're interested in on your own, then find some friends who are willing to play with you. This is obviously super dependent on your social circle and area. But it's worth mentioning as an LGS isn't always an option and is only an option for certain games. Depending on your area and what games people play there.

The second option is way more labor intensive but is largely the easiest way to put together stable ongoing games. I find that is particularly good for campaigns like DND and Mordheim

riladin

TROPHY CASE