This post is the summary of our comprehension of Ship Upgrades, formerly known as Cross Chassis Upgrade (CCU). Don’t misunderstand Ship Upgrade with Ship Loadout. In our general game play / role play we talk about ship upgrade but mean upgrade the ship’s components, what is Ship Loadout. We have dedicated posts about ships loadouts.
Part 1 - CCU Chain after CitizenCon 2955 Part 2 - Converting Your Ship FleetIntroduction Link to heading
Warbond Edition’s are special offers during a limited time window. The special offer is usually more effordable than the standard Standalone Ship and sometimes comes even though we Lifetime Insurance. - you may think, how is “more service” cheaper?
The answer lies in the business, RSII is in - they are selling virtual space ships!
CIG (Cloud Imperium Games) however, pretend to develop 2 AAA video games (Star Citizen / Squadron42).
In order to enjoy and engage into “the game”, you can pledge virtual space ships that offers you certain game play.
Keep that in mind! in the legal fiction: to pledge IS NOT to buy. You don’t own anything, you never will, you only have the privilege to use their online services.
Lifetime Insurance (LTI) Link to heading
Lifetime Insurance comes into place, as soon as Star Citizen becomes LIVE. At CitizenCon 2954 they introduced the idea of LTI and Warranty in combination.
Warranty Link to heading
At CitizenCon 2954, it was confirmed that all ships purchased from the pledge store include a permanent warranty plus appropriate insurance. This means the ship’s physical hull is guaranteed for life, while insurance covers the hull and components for a set period and can be maintained with regular fees, but not permanent warranty can be lost by pledges. Earnable in-game warranties will also be available and can be transferred between ships, while ships bought in-game require a transferable warranty for reclamation after destruction.
DISCLAIMER: this is copy/past from an AI result of our search engine.
Ship Upgrade - CCU Chain Link to heading
Ship Upgrade is the option on the RSI website to upgrade you’re pledged ship to a more expensive ship (pledgeing). The ships are in different groups (price ranges). There are certain ships, you cannot upgrade directly to, you need to pledge for other ship first (leveling up to price range) to your desired pledged ship.
CCU is the “old” term and referes to Cross Chassis Upgrade, which speaks more: the ship / vehicle which is the chassis will be exchanged/upgraded, the rest remains.
Ship / Vehicle vs. Items Link to heading
Ship / Vehicle Link to heading
The ship or the vehicles offers you different game play and makes you consider, either pledging IRL money or grinding for in-game UEC to buy the ship in-game. Pledging a ship or vehicle is account bounded and cannot get “lost” or you can sue RSII withing the legal fiction for them, not follow the legal obligations. Ships and vehicles bought in-game with in-game currency however, is not a legal obligation from RSII to your person, and can be taken away. The is commonly known as “patch drop loss”. The excuse, that you “lost” your in-game ship through the patch drop as a technical issue, you have to expect during alpha state.
Items Link to heading
When you pledge for a game packages you spend IRL money, to get the license to play or in the legal fiction, the privilege to use their online services hence “Terms of Services”. With that game package, you choose the ship, you want to start your adventure in the ‘Verse. With that ship you’ll get additional items like:
- vehicle - ship
- insurance - from 3 months up to 120 months, or lifetime
- self-land hangar - the use of hangars at any “system given” hangars (other hangars: Aeroview, VFG Industrial)
- UEC - a certain amount of starting money, using our referal code on account creation, you’ll get additional starter cash to your game package
- Star Citizen Digital Download - which is basically the license, to download and run Star Citizen
- paint - special offers with additional paints to the base model
- gear items - special offers with additional gear and armor
- plushie - some expensive offers with goodies, nowhere to get
Seeing this list, makes cross chassis upgrade (CCU) obvious. With the “Ship Upgrade” you exchange your vehicle/ship with the new one. The rest remain vehicle bound (therefore also account bound [legal obligation])
Spending vs. Saving IRL Money Link to heading
You certainly have come accross the terms “sales”, “special offers”, “bonus” and - when it comes to Star Citizen “warbond”. This means, that you either get a product/service for less money than without the special offer (saving money) or you’ll get in addition to the product/service additional items (bonus).
The Hook Link to heading
The saving aspect is a marketing trick, to trick you into “not spending that much money, as if you would have done differently”. The deception happens through the believe, actuallly saved resp. not spent much money, but under the line, you’ll spend always money, you wouldn’t have, if you didn’t ‘want to save money’.
Saving Money Link to heading
If you want to save money on the RSI pledge store, you go for warbonds. And if you have warbond products, you may consider upgrading from warbond to warbond. If you chain up this way, with the right path, you can save up to 3-digit IRL.
Spending Money Link to heading
No matter how you create your CCU chain, you’ll always spend money. Depending of your “ship of desire” (with the example of the Polaris), you can save up to 100 IRL but at the end, you have spent about 800 IRL anyways.
Warbond vs. Store Credit Link to heading
Exchange - Melting Link to heading
Back in the day, there was the term “melting” what refered to, melting your virtual space ship (or vehicle) and generate store credit in the value of the “ship value”. That’s why you see in the Pledge Store a difference between “ship value” and the actual price you pledge for that specific ship. On the RSI website under My Hangar you find all account bound items. From ships, vehicles to gear & armor as well as paints. Items you pledged money for can be melted, or as on the website called “exchange” (or gift). If you exchange, you exchange that selected account bound item into Store Credit value as the item is listed as during this process. You can gift account bound items to other players or RSI accounts respectively. You can exchange gifted items as well.
Store Credit Link to heading
As explained above, to exchange items is one way to generate Store Credit. The other way is to pledge for it on the RSI website. Other ways to receive Store Credit is through gifting or buying on the so called grey market. Once you have obtained Store Credit, you can pledge items, ships, gear & armor as paints as well with that Store Credit - everything other than Warbond items. \
Warbond Link to heading
For the business of RSII, warbond pledges is always fresh and new money into the pockets of RSII - nomatter what! You cannot use Store Credit to any warbond items.
CCU - Path from the Wolf (LTI) via… Link to heading
Upgrade from the Wolf via Shiv
Upgrade from the Wolf via Stinger
Upgrade from the Wolf via Paladin
Conclusion Link to heading
So, if we spend, and believe to save at the same time - why should I ever go for warbond or upgrading?
You want to have that items, like Lifetime Insurance and want to keep that, nomather how you cross chassis your ships! And upgrading from warbond to warbond, you’ll spend less, than if you wouldn’t have done that way - OR - the ship of your desire is not available with LTI.
The bigger the ship, the more you want to have it covered with LTI. You’ll regret having a capital ship without LTI as soon as Star Citizen goes LIVE. And with LIVE, we don’t talk “Star Citizen is completed”, no, we talk the legal fiction and therefore the change of legal obligation. And with that, the business of RSII changes from a virtual ship dealer ship to something else - but every business - needs to make money to persist - and where is the money coming from, as soon as Star Citizen is LIVE?
But for you - the player - the pledger - the backer - YOU need to find out, what ship gives you your desired game play and how long will that give you joy!
Reference Link to heading
| Title | Site / Link |
|---|---|
| Register Your Account For Free - Roberts Space Industries | https://robertsspaceindustries.com/en/enlist |
| Galactapedia - Roberts Space Industries | https://robertsspaceindustries.com/galactapedia/ |
| Star Citizen Insurance Info from Citizen Con | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hbwmXIX6ViU/ |
| CitizenCon 2954: Day Two [Full Broadcast] | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLLLtaM0Jf0/ |