Cult Citizen

[icycalm]

https://www.reddit.com/r/starcitizen/co ... odin_thing

I'm already tired of the discussions about the Odin founders thing as I'm sure you are too. I don't care who got in or whether there are F5 wars, I had a ton of fun writing this dumb thing for my submission, assuming either I'd be unsuccessful or unable to afford the ship. So I applied to try and amuse someone, maybe you'll find it amusing, too.

An aged and weather’d spacefarer,
Whom stood ‘fore judges three,
“By this long beard and burn-scarred suit,
now why shouldst heed thou me?

The DefenseCon doors are open wide,
the founders’ chairs are fill’d,
the Odin waits her captains true,
the verse’s first to wield.”

He holds them with his glitt’ring eye,
the Anvil judges three,
“I have a ship,” said he, “and yet
no ship is there like she.”

I sailed the black ‘fore Stanton’s sun
Had lit a single moor,
Whenst ArcCorp bare a rumored port,
Crusader’s name unsure.

I’ve felt the pull of jump-point well,
And swallowed, spat anew,
Have watched my Cutlass burn to slag
Amidst the Halo blue.

I’ve hauled the cargo none would touch
Cross’t Yela’s cracking ice,
I’ve parleyed with the Nine Tails fleet
Still liv’d to pay the price.

I’ve work’d the Idris bow to stern,
Mann’d gun for Hammerhead,
Nurs’d Carrack home through burning void
With half her engines dead.

But never, mark me, captains, never,
Have I a’fore felt the pull,
As when ye bellowed Odin Great,
First battlecruiser hull.

A ship to shame the Bengal’s keel,
A ship to hide the heavens,
A ship to bear All-Father’s name
The spear, the eye, his levin.

Grant me her bridge, give me her guns,
Gift me her lamp-lit decks
I’ll tell her glory in the dust
Of all her foes ‘ere wrecked.

I’ll head the wing through Hurston’s smoke,
I’ll prowl at Aaron’s edge,
I’ll keep the line when others break
and keep the captain’s pledge.

I’ll teach my crew the ancient ways
to sing through pain and fire,
to steel their hearts ‘ere shields go down
and sister ship’s a’pyre.

For I have been the fleet’s right hand,
And I have been the prey,
And I have been the salvager
Who pick’d the bones away.

O every voyage has taught me this:
A ship bears more than steel.
She is the dream of those aboard,
the bargain captains’ seal’d.

So weigh my words, lords, weigh them close
Just started, far yet from done,
The kill shots and the mercy runs,
The bloody years to come.

And if ye deem me worthy, lords,
Of Odin’s maiden flight,
I’ll bear her name through every storm
Forever bear her light.”

The Mariner paused;
his glitt’ring eye
did dim, but did not close.

“Choose ye well,” he said.

“The Odin sails

“Whenst but the worthy goes.”

Crazy to write all this when other people got accepted with “uwu gib ship”.

Great read tho. Good job!

[Adjudicator]

I am reporting that I just received the email from CiG stating that my account, and CULTCLONE-2's account, are welcome into the next phase of the Odin Founder's Club.

[icycalm]

Damn, we even got a clone in there. Great job.

I am tempted to try crowdfunding this. We have several ways we could do it. I mean shubn just hit 25k on his account and the ship only costs 5.9. Collectively we must be well over 60 by now, so if everyone melted something and sent you 1k each, that's it, we got the Odin with store credit. I would send you 1k credit without hesitation if everyone else agreed to follow suit.

My only doubt is whether there will be enough Odin stock on credit, or if it will be tiny to motivate people to spend cash, in which case all our melting might end up being for nothing, and we'll get very disappointed and lose some ships to boot. So I dunno.

Really the only reason to push for the concept pledge is the 5 paints lol, otherwise I am sure they'll give us plenty more chances to buy the ship in the years leading up to release. But if there is a Nightbreak paint in these 5... it will mean we'll never be able to get it if we don't buy the ship now.

[icycalm]

https://www.reddit.com/r/starcitizen/co ... viewer_and

I played around with the Starjump Fleetviewer and just realized how incredibly small my Kraken will be...

The 890J was the biggest ship in game for a long time, with the Carrack in second place.

The Idris, the Polaris and the Kraken already look like toys when around a Javelin or the Odin, not even talking about comparing them to a Bengal.

That's ridiculous scale! Just wow.

Reclaimer was the largest, until the 890 released. Carrack was never in second.

Good image to have handy in this thread so we know what we're talking about in respect to capitals sizes. It's missing the Pioneer tho.

The Odin is a nice halfway point between Javelin and Bengal. I think we'll be getting the Javelin after the Kraken since parts of it are already done for SQ42. It's even possible they'll surprise-release it on Squadron's launch.

[icycalm]

https://x.com/CShockbreaker/status/2057750246885662958

[icycalm]

https://x.com/QuattroBaje3na/status/2058361243744841870

ANVIL ODIN DROPS TOMORROW

The Anvil Odin limited hull sales drops start tomorrow, May 24th!

If you are trying to secure an Odin during DefenseCon 2956, you need to know exactly when your regional window opens. I have converted all 6 release waves across common time zones so you don't miss your launch window.

Check the infographic below to lock in your exact local time, prep your hangar, and get ready.

Funding stands at $993,097,234 right now. Less than 7M left to hit one billion. Looks like the Odin will get us there by the end of its sales waves.

[Adjudicator]

Following up from the above, my main account has managed to acquire the Anvil Odin Battlecruiser.



An account can only have one instance of this pledge. I got an error message when I tried to add another Odin into my cart out of curiosity.



The images of the Odin in its standard and pledge bundled liveries, as observed in the Pledge Store and my web hangar:

Anvil Odin stock appearance:



Odin - Blockade Paint:



Odin - Stormchaser Camo Paint:



Odin - Harbard Camo Paint:



Odin - Trooper Paint:



Odin - Resistance Paint:

[Adjudicator]

In retrospect, I was cautiously optimistic about the Odin preselection chances for my main character and CULTCLONE-2. I was expecting only one or none to succeed. Both did get accepted.

I will share the preselection essays. My strategy was a "high-low" one. One short and simplified essay submitted by CULTCLONE-2, and for my main account a longer one that also builds upon my personal experiences.

For CULTCLONE-2: The essay was short and kept to what is already known about the naval concept of a battlecruiser.

The Anvil Odin, being the big battlecruiser concept from the initial pledge funding, would be an ideal investment for an organisation looking to expand its member count in the future.

Although a battlecruiser is not a light/escort/fleet carrier, a ship of that size should have some hangar capability for integrated picket craft/ships roughly analogous to helicopters/VSTOL aircraft. Modern contemporary battleships of the present era, during their twilight years, had assigned craft/drones to work as spotters/early-warning detection.

A large capital ship would also have a very prominent and functional fleet flag officer/command facilities. I expect my organisation's leader or assigned fleet commanders to be able to use it to have proper command, communications, control and coordination capability.

Being a large ship, I would expect a degree of customisation/update/upgrade capability as well. Perhaps one upgrade pathway allows atmospheric operations in standard gravity, while another upgrade trades some speed for an armour upgrade and reclassifies it as a fast battleship, similar to Imperial Japan's World War 1 Battlecruiser Kongō undergoing two refits, in 1929, up-armouring her into a battleship, and the second refit in 1935, replacing her boilers and turbines and reclassifying her as a fast battleship.

I would expect the Anvil Odin, as a capital ship approved for civilian sale, to be able to be refit by enterprising players and organisations in a similar manner to extend its service life and capability for even further future engagements.

For my main account, I spent a few more days carefully recalling my personal experiences, and also referencing not just other science-fiction intellectual property, but also my Legacy Praetorian Pack and Idris standalone pledge.

Large space warships have always fascinated me since a young age. SDF-1 from Macross/Robotech Macross Saga was the earliest space-capable warship from my childhood memories. Seeing the large capital ship/carrier being able to transform and defend itself was the moment I realised it is not merely about the fighters, but also their mothership and its crew that are important.

This seed sprouted, and was nourished by other science-fiction. Star Wars, Gundam, Space Battleship Yamato and Legend of Galactic Heroes, and, most ironic, yet prominently, BattleTech/MechWarrior. The Aerotech component of the BattleTech game is extremely niche in the fanbase, but as serious fans on the game's forums will attest, the Aerospace and Space Warship component are extremely important in that universe, since space and air superiority guarantee that there will be no invasion force landing at all, or be rendered ineffective long before they make planetfall.

One forum post summarises it: "An interstellar nation without a fleet isn't a nation for long".

Paraphrasing further posts elaborate that, without interstellar ships, interstellar nations are more like island chains than contiguous polities. With ships, the person with a navy is in charge over the person without, and the person with the strongest navy is in charge compared to the lesser navies.

Without ships, you cannot move troops, supply them or support them, rendering them useless for power projection. Without power projection there is no standing army, no ability to defend your territory to consolidate gains or protect what you have.

This expression crystalised and reinforced my passion for space capital ships.

The Anvil Odin, being the battlecruiser concept from a Kickstarter funding milestone is an attractive option for players intending to work with or create a large organisation.

A large capital ship would also have a very prominent and functional fleet flag officer/command facilities. I expect my organisation's leader or assigned fleet commanders to be able to use it to have proper command, communications, control and coordination capability.

As my fleet already has an Idris-M, Idris-P and other ships as part of my Praetorian package, I plan to have the battlecruiser as a cornerstone flagship. This battlecruiser will not be alone as it will be accompanied by other ships as part of a battle group. A large capital ship without escorts is a gross waste of lives and resources.

Contemporary naval purists will scoff at the term "battlecruiser" as it is an obsolete concept which is a cruiser armed with battleship ordnance, but not its armour and shielding.

Battlecruisers have historically fared badly when tasked with a straight-up engagement, as demonstrated by the Battle of Jutland in World War 1, leading to the loss of HMS Indefatigable, Invincible and Queen Mary on the British side and for Imperial Germany, SMS Lützow was irreparably damaged and scuttled.

I still believe the Battlecruiser class does have a lot of potential. I foresee future upgrade paths available to Anvil Odin ship owners in-game, just like historical battlecruisers get refit and upgraded through their lives.

Examples: Kongō-class battlecruiser: The four ships of that class were interwar battlecruisers up-armoured as a battleship in their first refit, and to a fast battleship in their second refit.

USS Lexington and Saratoga. Originally envisioned as battlecruisers, the interwar naval treaties led to them being rebuilt as aircraft carriers, which was also the case for Imperial Japan's Akagi—an Amagi class battlecruiser that was converted to an aircraft carrier.

There would also be the potential to sacrifice firepower and up-armour the ship, following the World War 1 Imperial Germany doctrine of sacrificing gun power in exchange for better protection.

These very different refit options show that the battlecruiser has plenty of flexibility and potential for its owners and users, not only on the battlefield, but also off it, as it is hoped that ship modifications and refits can be customised to tailor the ship to suit the needs of the player's organisation and fleet.

Why multiple capital ships? The answer is also in how real navies work: Three ships are as good as one ship, and one ship is none, since a navy ship in active duty requires maintenance, refit and overhaul throughout its life. One is in active duty, one being shaken down and under training post-refit/maintenance, and one undergoing maintenance and repair.

Logistics is important to keep a naval fleet running, but so is the warship's ability to project power. They are needed in active duty to ensure that the free flow of goods and services throughout the nation is not restricted, as it is the lifeblood of the nation.

[icycalm]

This is absolutely insane. I am preparing a long post about it. In the meantime, have my DM chat with Adjudicator.


Adjudicator
Anvil Odin pledge obtained.
I am writing the post for the Capital Fleet thread on the forums.

icycalm
AMAZING
I AM SO HAPPY
lol
I was just watching the SCL and marvelling at all the guns.

Adjudicator
Somehow, my Singapore friend got one too, and he knows 5 others in Singapore who got it.

icycalm
lol
Imagine 7 Odins attacking something.
You gotta get those people in our Discord.
What wave did you win?

Adjudicator
The first wave. Hence why I ended my Star Citizen session early.

icycalm
So it was Warbond?

Adjudicator
Yes, Warbond.
I am not melting my Legacy Praetorian Digital pack, or my Idris-P Standalone pledge.

icycalm
Amazing.

Adjudicator
I also note the pledge gives me the right to name the Odin.
I was originally going for Invincible, as I do like British Royal Navy history, hence my Idrises being named Indomitable and Illustrious.
The huge negative caveat is that a battlecruiser named Invincible is such a terrible callback to history, as that Royal Navy namesake was instantly vaporised by an ammunition explosion at the Battle of Jutland in World War 1.

icycalm
You can name it now?
You have to go with Cult Invincible, etc.
Is there a max number of letters?

Adjudicator
Yeah. "You can rename 1 ship."
Yes, my personal impetus for going capital warship in Star Citizen is heavily influenced from a BattleTech/MechWarrior board game official forum fan community.

icycalm
I will be adding those games and settings to Battlemaster btw.
Also the new Gundam wargame, Gundam Assemble.
https://global.bandai-hobby.net/en-us/s ... m-assemble

Adjudicator
Amazing. Your Battlemaster game can truly create an even better ultimate combined mech universe than the Japanese-anime-only Super Robot Wars series of turn-based tactics games with roleplaying elements.

icycalm
Yep, it's a lot of work, but I am getting there. You'll see.

Adjudicator
I have always wondered what would these stories be like if they actually introduced and properly weaved Western mech intellectual property with open arms.
In my childhood, I always wondered how would BattleTech/MechWarrior, Earthsiege/Starsiege series and Heavy Gear could fit in. During that time, I never knew the Warhammer IP had mechs in them until later on.

icycalm
Exactly! With the power of TaleSpire and Menyr we can now fuse together all the best franchises without waiting and hoping and begging programmers to do it for us.
We already have the rules, the assets, and now the engines. All that's needed is to put them together, and that's what I am doing.

[icycalm]

I'll have a lot to say soon, but for now just feast your eyes on the content of the official page: https://robertsspaceindustries.com/en/c ... Anvil-Odin

Lots of animation in the page so you should click through and take it all in. The aesthetic is incredible. It's completely next-level even by Star Citizen standards, let alone by programmer gaming standards. And the functionality matches it. It has an entire fucking HOSPITAL inside. Not a medbay. A hospital as in the cities lmao. And a metro with more stops than the cities!

I will say this much: If Adjudicator hadn't bought it, and I had woken up today confronted by this info and knowing we don't have one, and who knows when we'll get it, I wouldn't have had a great day, to put it mildly. To say it made my day is a gross understatement, it made my year, and I consider it a birthday present (my bday was back in January). It's by far the best present I've ever got.

We did hit one billion today btw thanks to the Odin. Twitter is full of casual gaming posts about it (check the Insomnia Twitter to see them), and even a Variety article:

As 'Star Citizen' Hits $1 Billion in Lifetime Funding, Cloud Imperium Chiefs Reveal Fan Impact, ‘Squadron 42’ ‘Closing Stages’ Game Update (EXCLUSIVE)
https://variety.com/2026/gaming/news/st ... 1236757420

[icycalm]

$9.6 million - biggest sales day in SC history (almost 3x the next highest)
https://www.reddit.com/r/starcitizen/co ... ory_almost

Imagine how high it would be if they didn't limit digital sales like they do on these big ticket items....2x...3x?

You had to write AN ESSAY to earn the right to F5 War all the other essay-winners.

Can we see a breakdown by ship? Is that data that they release?

No, however the spikes in the money tracker shortly after each Odin wave went live (5pm, 9pm, and 1am UK time so far) indicate almost all cash was spent on Odin concept.

My post here showed it was $993.6m just prior to the first Odin wave (it's now $1003.1m) https://reddit.com/r/starcitizen/commen ... 10_minutes

I'd estimate 1800+ Odins cash-purchased at $5k each.

I mean fuck. What do you people do for a living and can you hire me?

[ysignal]

I melted my Praetorian Pack in favor of the Aegis and Drake complete packs. In doing so, I lost the Polaris, Idris-M and 890 Jump (as well as a few distant concept capitals like the Pioneer). In their place, I now have the Idris-P, Kraken, Kraken Privateer and Javelin. I also bought the Idris ‘T’ Kit and still have the Polaris as a loaner for the Krakens and the Nautilus.

[icycalm]

Wow that's a radical move. I mourn the loss of the Idris-M, but let's face it, we still haven't got ourselves in a situation where it would have made a difference over the P, and in exchange for this downgrade we get two Krakens and a Javelin. The Pioneer's loss isn't a great deal either because we still have two of them. Same with the Polaris, as we still have three even before adding your loaner. Same with the 890J. You can just buy one of them in the game for aUEC, it doesn't even require a Wikelo grind.

Regarding Adjudicator's Odin purchase, the loaner for it right now is a mere Idris-P, but we expect it will be switched to a Kraken next year with the Kraken's release, and a Javelin later with the Javelin release. So next year we will have FOUR Krakens lmao. And with the Javelin's release THREE Krakens and TWO Javelins. Absolutely insane stats for such a small org like us. Definitely punching way above our weight class!

So, disregarding loaners, this is how our cap fleet looks currently:

1x Odin
1x Javelin
3x Kraken (2xBase, 1xPrivateer)
4x Idris (1xM, 3xP)
3x Polaris
2x Pioneer
1x 890 Jump

We really have all the bases covered, and the most important ones covered several times over. Because the most important are the "usable" ships like the Kraken, Idris, Polaris and Pioneer. These are cap ships you can almost use daily, while the Odin and the Javelin will only be pulled out on rare occasions when we have all hands on deck, and probably even allied hands like the French guys.

What could we use more of, if people felt compelled to spend more?

Whatever has a 1x next to it. You really don't want to have to rely on a single person being online to operate a certain ship, so if you can turn the 1x to 2x you are massively increasing the vessel's operability for us. But as I've said many times before, don't let my analysis stop you from buying what you want. If you want an Idris, buy an Idris, even if we already have 4 of them. It's a lot of money to spend on something other than your greatest desire. I just feel compelled to provide an analysis from the perspective of org effectiveness and efficiency, but don't mind me and do what you like.

[Adjudicator]

4.8 The very best Odin essays :)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRwEZacOjso



This YouTube video shows that some of the essays that were accepted are embarrassing. I had a good laugh at both myself and at the nature of the marketing.

Best comment:

Can you imagine the poor sap who spent hours writing a serious letter, begging CIG to allow them to spend 5k?

Someone who actually took the writing assignment seriously.

Only to read "big ship go boom" was enough.

This comment made me realise the selection process is not as simple as it appears:

My essay was literally about Odin dying to the wolf Fenrir during Ragnarök in battle. Obviously history & lore went over CIG's heads, much like how ships don't match the CIG lore. The only people I knew accepted had over 3k spent asking for the ship please.

My Singapore friend, whose Anvil Odin pledge raised his Concierge level from Wing Commander to Praetorian, wrote this essay, which was accepted:

I like big ships and I cannot lie. I own an Idris and a Kraken, and the Odin would make a good replacement for the Javelin I ended up not getting back in 2015.

I decided to enquire about his own Star Citizen organisation members, those who did the essay, and successfully pledged for the Odin, and those whose essay did not clear the preselection phase.

All of those who obtained it had a total pledge amount above 3k USD. But some who had over 10k did not get accepted too. Lots of complaints from the Legatus people who have not been seen in game for the past 6 months in our org's Discord server, maybe that's why. If suddenly I see one Legatus complaining about not getting selected but no one has seen this guy before, that's a clue. The other Legatus who sent the essay but was not selected did play a bit but only once every 6 months or so.

Both he and I theorise that there are several factors considered apart from the submission of the essay and the accumulated pledge amount.

The account's activity pattern, both recency and frequency, seems to contribute to the selection process as well.

For CULTCLONE-2, its web hangar value appears to be not a lot at first glance, but its total spending was $3,082.25 USD.

Much of CULTCLONE-2's LTI tokens and extraneous ships were gifted back to my main account to accumulate store credit to obtain the legacy Praetorian Pack back in last year's Invictus.

[icycalm]

https://x.com/OsrsNeb/status/2058831307388440729



Good image to help you grasp the scale differences. The Kraken will be significantly larger than the Idris, and the Javelin will be like two Krakens. But the Odin is on an entirely different scale.

[icycalm]

A quick word about the Odin's paints. They could hardly have been designed to be more suitable for us. Every one of them is useful to us, and they cover essentially all our immediate needs.

The red Blockade paint is perfect for the red SupCom(-to-be?) (Adjudicator):



The blue Stormchaser Camo paint is perfect for the blue SupCom (shubn):



And the green Trooper paint is perfect for the green SupCom(-to-be?) (ysignal):



The Resistance paint meanwhile is loud and colorful enough to be appropriate for the Pirate SupComs (recoil, so far), and even its name sounds appropriate:



Which leaves the stock Odin paint and the Harbard Camo, both of which are described as "grey": grey with red highlights, and grey camo with red highlights respectively:





These could work for a future grey SupCom. They could also work for the base/default CULT forces as they aren't too far off the Nightbreak paint, which is dark camo with red highlights. But I expect a bunch more paints to be released with the ship, including at least one black, if not indeed a Nightbreak paint, since they will almost certainly time this with Invictus/DefenseCon. And I am sure there will be more red, blue and green paints to pick up down the line, so if anyone else is thinking of buying their own Odin at some point, I am sure you won't be left with nothing. Plus paints are transferable in-game last time I heard, so Adjudicator should be able to give his spares to people.

An interesting tidbit is that only the Warbond version of the ship includes these paints: credit buyers get nothing, though they can choose to spend $60 and buy a pack with the two camo paints. The other three though seem to be inaccessible to credit buyers, from what I heard on Twitter. So the camo 2-pack might end up in the grey market if it's giftable, and especially if people can buy more than one. We'll see.