Alright here's the lowdown on the CCU Game.
You can get HUGE discounts with this, AT LEAST 50% off vehicles' prices. But to get that much, you have to play well, and for a long time. Otherwise you can still grab smaller discounts, which are nothing to sneeze at.
At first, I wasn't bothering with it, mostly because I had no idea what to do, and it's so complex that even most people on Reddit don't know how it works. For example, I've seen people on Reddit say that to buy CCUs from one ship to another YOU HAVE TO OWN THE LOWER SHIP. Which I just found is bullshit: you can buy CCUs even if you don't have the lower ship. You go to the Ship Upgrade screen, and where it says "My ships" and "All ships", you pick the latter. The former is picked as default, so when you go to that screen you always see only your ships, which confuses people. But just above the ship list is this option, and if you choose the other one you can buy CCUs from ANY VEHICLE IN THE GAME.
Here are the latest two cool discounts that EXPIRE IN A FEW HOURS:
https://twitter.com/Sacred_iKon/status/ ... 5705567232Sacred iKon - #StarCitizen @Sacred_iKon wrote:Some sweet CCU deals dropped today with the #starcitizen Lunar new year. A great way to fill out the Galaxy CCU chain you're building.
So as you can see, as long as you buy these CCUs with real cash (i.e. the Warbond versions), you save $10-20 per CCU, and then you can chain these up along with perhaps others you will eventually buy for massive discounts. YouTube is full of videos on how this works if you need more help, and the ultimate tool seems to be this website:
https://ccugame.appThis site connects with your RSI account and shows you all the vehicles you have so you can plan optimal upgrade paths to your intended vehicles. And you can also check back daily to find out new CCU deals. People do this for months and years, and keep stacking CCUs, because for the more expensive ships, you can only buy them at certain times of the year.
There are other tools and sites to help with this, but that one is the biggest I think.
So... I haven't decided if I want to get into this. I am debating it right now. It's kind of pressing, because I need to grab these two deals above before they expire. And I might even want to grab multiples of them. Not sure if I can have multiples in one account, or if I'll need to use the clone.
Some people go even further than this... They buy these CCUs then immediately refund them, which gives them a "Buyback token" in their account, which means they can buy them back at any time. So they stack multiples of them JUST IN CASE they become useful at some point. But these Buyback mechanics themselves aren't straightforward, because there's a limit to how many you can have or how often in a year you can use them in, or even in what SEASON of the year???
Honestly, I just lack the IQ and attention span for all this shit, and above all I lack the disposable income. And something tells me that a 45-year-old man should have more important things to do with his time than spend half the year planning for discounts on space pixels.
THAT SAID, I might just buy some of this shit, I don't know lol. But at least now you know, and I know, how it's done. Sort of.
Totally seriously though: If you can COMFORTABLY afford to buy some ships, and if you enjoy doing so, I say go for it. It's the right thing to do for yourself (FUN!), for our org (POWER!) and for the game (SUPPORT!) The ONLY reason I am debating what to do is because I can't comfortably afford to buy big ships like the Hull C which clocks in at around $400. I can buy $100-200 ships, a few times a year, but I can't buy EVERY SINGLE SHIP CIG releases, including the big ones. I would LOVE to be able to buy all of them, but if I can't buy ALL of them, I question whether I should be buying any of them at all. I am that kind of all-or-nothing compulsive collector. I have other shit and projects to throw my money towards, and I am just trying to figure out the best approach.
I already have I think $600-700 into the game, and I could easily just keep melting everything and buying the latest stuff. Maybe I will do that. Or maybe not. I'll keep you posted.