Aotrs Shipyards Only-Games store is closing down.

[Aotrs Shipyards]

Aotrs Shipyards Bad News Update

I won’t beat about the bush.

The Aotrs Shipyards Only-Games store is closing down.

As of yesterday, I was told that the deal Only-Games had offered me in November (i.e., that I would not have to pay the subscription fee in return for taking an extra 10% of the mark-up) was not possible and that I would have to pay the £25 a month to keep the Only-Games store open.

The Only-Games store is not remotely making £25/month.

Given the Government shenanigans (i.e. that self-employed people either Get A Real Job or Be Making Too Much Money To Qualify For Any Help, No, We Don’t Care You’re Looking After A Disabled Person – and they finally), I am not in a financial position to absorb the cost from the sales on MMF or Shapeways, since those are literally my only income (and the sustainability of the Shipyards is 100% now reliant on whether, basically, MMF is going to generate enough income to even break even).

As such, the Only-Games store is going to close down, as soon as they do it.

This is, coming at this time, an enormous blow, both financially, since it cuts off a trickle of income, that, while mot much, was, like Shapeways, something. (A tenner a month would just about cover the NHS prescription contribution for my depression pills that I have to pay, because, of course, I Don’t Qualify For Help, says the government.) And also mentally, as noted I am already having a rough time (last week was an absolute disaster than made me wish I’d had the doctor last Monday do more than “only” double my prescription.)

(Obviously, given the already low sales numbers, a price increase would be counter-productive, since it means the prices would have to pretty much start by would passing Shapeways.)

So. My TheShop3D account is still there. The shop will not be deleted, so, I’m told, anytime I choose to take the subscription, the shop can come back. So the only thing I CAN do, which at least obviates me having to entirely delete swathes of material from all my stuff, is to basically say that:

1) I can take, by special commission, orders (I.e. I order and I then I have it delivered to me (MAYBE able to have it delivered to you direct, we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it). Contact me directly by any of the usual methods.

2) I have set-up a goal on my ko-fi account such that, if I receive sufficient donations, I can look at opening the store for a limited time. (I’m going to say a sensible minimum of two months, so that would require a £50 threshold).

Link here, with publically visible total.

 

That way, at least in theory, there is a way to get the physical prints in resin. Otherwise, it is the files from MMF, Shapeways or in FDM directly from me.

That is, I’m afraid, the best I can do for you.

(If you are wondering why I’m not rage-quitting entirely, that would be both unhelpful and counter=productive, because MMF and Only-Games are intrinsically linked and the staff across both are the same and the former IS kind of critical.)

 

This has, obviously, delayed the moderns release. (I was barely in a fit state to do anything yesterday after that, though I manage to fix a subtly-hidden assembly error in the VAB that was causing the wheel/axle to fail before its release this week, the only hint of a silver lining.

There may or may not be the moderns release tomorrow.

 

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