Trying to figure out the best road to 1k so I can get those sweet sweet low end concierge perks.
Any ideas on what the best/smartest way to get there is.
Any ideas on what the best/smartest way to get there is.
Best road to 1k
- Thread starter fbmbirds
- Start date
Wait for a concept sale, then throw money at them.
SullyQuindarius
Admiral
Concept sales. Then buy a bunch of the concepts. After the sale ends you'll have them for LTI tokens to other ships or to sell to other people at a higher price.
Of course there are ideas ... you are on the right way.
Step 1 - join test (you did it)
Step 2 - ensure that 1k is less than 3% (preferably less than 2 .. best case less than 1% ) of your salary
Step 3 - follow the advice of Sraika :)
That sounds like the smart route to go. I want to support the team and get the most out of what I am putting into it that I can.
I could throw all the money I have at this company and get the highest concierge but that's not how I want to do it.
So far i've done the year subscription just because im sorta new to the game and interested to see what that all entails.
Got a few ships myself but they don't count towards my pledged amount so that doesn't help my concierge goal but it does help my overall goal in the Star Citizen community long term.
I didnt even know the whole concept sale thing was well a thing. Good to know, ill have to keep an eye out now that I'm an avid star citizen.
I just noticed the poll; why is there no yes option?
Allow me to preempt @NaffNaffBobFace in providing one: https://testsquadron.com/threads/the-ultimate-poll.9941/ :wink:
Allow me to preempt @NaffNaffBobFace in providing one: https://testsquadron.com/threads/the-ultimate-poll.9941/ :wink:
I voted for Don't do it because its a trap, but then I thought, I fell for the trap so why shouldn't someone else! Sacrifice your wallet to CIG and join me down here in the swamp! It smells funny and I'm broke, but I have a gold space suit and a monocle!
Dont feel obligated to do it just for the perks. If you truly want to support the game, invest the money.
You know I didnt even think to do a yes no or maybe. That should probably be the default set for a poll.
I would recommend waiting, really. The perks are not insanely useful. I did it over the space of 2-3 years back before I was making plenty of money. With the funds I have now I would never throw them in one place that quickly again.
Agreed, the perks aren't immediately useful, however, for entertainment purposes only:
I bought Hawks, Tonks, and Holiday Packs.
Since no concepts are on sale, atm, you can also buy CCU's and hope the Gladius and Cutlass see the price increase, CCU up and melt for bigger stuff.
SC has it's own Futures mini-game built in.
It only gets worse, er more fun, once you hit 1K. Enjoy?
It's a death trap, a suicide rap. Gotta get out while we're still young.
I bought Hawks, Tonks, and Holiday Packs.
Since no concepts are on sale, atm, you can also buy CCU's and hope the Gladius and Cutlass see the price increase, CCU up and melt for bigger stuff.
SC has it's own Futures mini-game built in.
It only gets worse, er more fun, once you hit 1K. Enjoy?
It's a death trap, a suicide rap. Gotta get out while we're still young.
It's simple, just buy whatever makes you happy that you can afford to buy.
Lol, that's probably the single best thing I could have used to illustrate the way I feel towards spending money on this game at the moment.
I started backing right at the begging of 2016 and little bits here and there just grew and grew and now i'm not far off concierge only two years later... If my soon-to-be-wife ever found out i'd be soon-to-be-dead so i'm not sure it's worth doing that last little bit to have the Kudos etc... But it'll happen ;)
My advice is similar to everyone else: Let it build over time, we are still in Alpha. We have had Versions 1, 2 and have ONLY just got to version 3. I know we have Alpha Version 4 planned as well, so you still have PLENTY of time - not as much time as has been spent on versions 1 and 2 as that was mainly building the tools to build the game, but still its not going to happen over night. If you have the dough, by all means splurge but you may find after the initial investment you may continue to spend ;)
So some basics you may or may not be aware of:
Concept sales.
Here you get the most ship for the least money. The Starfarer as an example: Went to concept at (can't remember the exact number but I'm thinking it was about) $200 then when it was hangar ready and the scale of the thing became apparent it went up to $300(?). And then when flight ready went to $400(?) as the scale and scope of the ship evolved and expanded. Same with the Banu Merchentman which looks to be becoming near Capital Ship sized, not bad for something which I believe started out at $250ish(?)
The Herald on the other hand stayed pretty much true to concept however the look of the ship changed a bit. The only thing that sent its price up minimally was it becoming hangar ready ($60?), then flight ready ($80) - the ship becoming playable makes it more expensive, concept really is the bargain basement first-stop where you won't get it cheaper.
The Origin M50 and 300i series. These ships, it could be argued, were too cheap for where the Origin Brand was pegged to be. High-Tech, Luxury, the finest of all ships - $66 seems a bit of a steal for a 300i, no? Well, every patch the ships get nurfed. My $125 350R started off with 4x s2 missiles and 3x s3 guns. then it became 1x s3 gun and 2x s2 guns. Then it became 2x s1 missiles. Then it became 2x s2 guns. Performance and handling changes turned it from an elegant knife-fighter to a skiddy barge that although swift was no longer deadly. Take this as a warning - the value of ships can go down as well as up, in the short term at least - the 300 series has a rework on the way (and has been on the cards for 4 year now) so we will wait and see where it goes.
You may have heared of LTI (lifetime insurance) - this is a thanks for pledging on an idea at Concept level. It is said insurance costs in the game itself will be so small as to be almost unnoticeable but hey, every little helps.
Buying components from Voyager Direct
To buy components from Voyager Direct on the RSI website you have to buy UEC. You can only buy a max of 20,000 a day for $20, so if you really want something you may have to save up over a few days to have the UEC to do it. I bought a FlashFire mount for my Hornet and a Apocalypse Arms Revenent s4 Gatling Gun to go on it. I also got a Combine cannon and 3x s3 Tarantulas.
Don't do this. Not now anyway.
As we are in Alpha many things change. The potency and strength of guns change. The components you buy can be abandoned - The Cutlass also had a FlashFire mount to put an S4 on but with the Cutlass Rework that has now been scrapped and they still haven't decided what to give the backers who bought one to replace it. The 300 series had a proprietary Missile Rack called the Talon - That was obsolete years ago and the backers don't have a replacement. You know why it doesn't have a replacement for the pledge? Because we are in Alpha and there is a chance it'll change and come back. There are backers with Talon missile racks, FlashFire Mounts and a lot who bought Omniski VI guns and SledgeHammer guns when they were Overpowered Meta items, that then got balanced and became all-but-useless to them.
Buying components now is a total crap-shoot. Don't do it no matter how bad you want to. I have less to show for the amount I have pledged because I wanted to follow the Meta and have the strongest ship. I don't even have a Hornet now, I turned it into a Saber, so my FlashFire mount is totally useless anyway.
CCU (Cross Chassis Upgrade)
This is something that catches a lot of beginners out. When I started I got my Pledge Ship, an Aurora LN. I turned it into an Avenger by using the Cross Chassis Upgrade system on RSI website, then an Avenger Warlock, then a Hornet Ghost. That was me up to $150. Only then did I learn of Concept Sales and LTI, not to mention all that money and only one ship? With the mechanics that have come along now, having one ship is a ticket to waiting for that insurance timer to tick down. My mistake was CCUing my original Game Package Ship. You can melt any ship you have bought for Store Credit to buy other ships, BUT if you melt your Game Package ship you melt your access to the game. I had $150 stuck to a chassis I wanted to melt but contained my access Star Citizen and my copy of Squadron 42 (I pledged when they came together, not separately.) I consulted my Testies who advised it was doable, so I did it (read on).
Buyback Tokens
Any ship you buy and have melted you can buy back, either with Store Credit or with real cash. If you are buying back with Store Credit, you are limited to how many times you can do this in a 3 month period by the BuyBack Token - you only get one a quater. This was put in to stop people hording a library of thousands of ships by buying, melting, and rebuying with the store credit you spent on the original 100 times over. Rare ships wouldn't be rare if someone could go into their BuyBack and buy one whenever they liked and it kinda encouraged a gray market environment where people could sell-on a ship which may have been in demand that they had stock of, for whatever price they wanted. When I melted my Game Package to get the $150 credit, I then bought the $45 package back from my BuyBacks. It worked! I was saved! You can BuyBack with store credit limited to how many tokens you have (one or zero) or you can buy back with fresh money unlimited as to how many items you have in your BuyBack list. I have a Herald I intend to BuyBack one day with new cash, not store credits from melted ships.
LTI Tokens
There is an idea called "LTI Token" - basically, when a cheap concept ship comes along (like the P72 or the Argo or the 85X), you buy as many as you like and then CCU to the ship you actually want, so even now you can have a Constellation Andromeda, a ship no longer sold with LTI, with LTI by getting a cheap concept ship and CCUing to the Andromeda. This is how I got my LTI 350R, I CCU'd an LTI 85x to the 350R. But beware! With ground vehicles now available you can only CCU those to other ground vehicles! Some people bought loads of Tumbril Cyclones only to find that out afterwards.
SALES!
A "Sale" means something different in Star citizen to what you would expect - you don't get cheaper ships on offer: you get ships on sale that are not available all year round. This is supposed to limit the availability of some ships they want to be rarer in the game. I got an 85X in the "concept sale" then had to wait for the next "Sale" when the 350R became available. It was quite a while, but I finally got my dream ship and I'm not melting or giving it up for anything, that thing has taken me on all my adventures so far.
Subscription
Subscription is is a small monthly fee where you get stuff like hangar flair, more REC automatically in your account to rent stuff to play with in-game and first access to info that gets released later to the unwashed masses via the Jump-Point on-line magazine, the image Vault, exclusive wallpapers, a subscriber only area on Spectrum etc.
It was suggested that this doesn't count toward the Concierge limit, however TEST members have confirmed and I have tested myself that the total spent (viewable under "Total Spent" in your account under billing and subscription) does go up when a sub is placed so although it is not a huge amount of money this is a predictable regular contribution you can make to the game that goes toward your concierge status.
Hope the above helps :slight_smile:
My advice is similar to everyone else: Let it build over time, we are still in Alpha. We have had Versions 1, 2 and have ONLY just got to version 3. I know we have Alpha Version 4 planned as well, so you still have PLENTY of time - not as much time as has been spent on versions 1 and 2 as that was mainly building the tools to build the game, but still its not going to happen over night. If you have the dough, by all means splurge but you may find after the initial investment you may continue to spend ;)
So some basics you may or may not be aware of:
Concept sales.
Here you get the most ship for the least money. The Starfarer as an example: Went to concept at (can't remember the exact number but I'm thinking it was about) $200 then when it was hangar ready and the scale of the thing became apparent it went up to $300(?). And then when flight ready went to $400(?) as the scale and scope of the ship evolved and expanded. Same with the Banu Merchentman which looks to be becoming near Capital Ship sized, not bad for something which I believe started out at $250ish(?)
The Herald on the other hand stayed pretty much true to concept however the look of the ship changed a bit. The only thing that sent its price up minimally was it becoming hangar ready ($60?), then flight ready ($80) - the ship becoming playable makes it more expensive, concept really is the bargain basement first-stop where you won't get it cheaper.
The Origin M50 and 300i series. These ships, it could be argued, were too cheap for where the Origin Brand was pegged to be. High-Tech, Luxury, the finest of all ships - $66 seems a bit of a steal for a 300i, no? Well, every patch the ships get nurfed. My $125 350R started off with 4x s2 missiles and 3x s3 guns. then it became 1x s3 gun and 2x s2 guns. Then it became 2x s1 missiles. Then it became 2x s2 guns. Performance and handling changes turned it from an elegant knife-fighter to a skiddy barge that although swift was no longer deadly. Take this as a warning - the value of ships can go down as well as up, in the short term at least - the 300 series has a rework on the way (and has been on the cards for 4 year now) so we will wait and see where it goes.
You may have heared of LTI (lifetime insurance) - this is a thanks for pledging on an idea at Concept level. It is said insurance costs in the game itself will be so small as to be almost unnoticeable but hey, every little helps.
Buying components from Voyager Direct
To buy components from Voyager Direct on the RSI website you have to buy UEC. You can only buy a max of 20,000 a day for $20, so if you really want something you may have to save up over a few days to have the UEC to do it. I bought a FlashFire mount for my Hornet and a Apocalypse Arms Revenent s4 Gatling Gun to go on it. I also got a Combine cannon and 3x s3 Tarantulas.
Don't do this. Not now anyway.
As we are in Alpha many things change. The potency and strength of guns change. The components you buy can be abandoned - The Cutlass also had a FlashFire mount to put an S4 on but with the Cutlass Rework that has now been scrapped and they still haven't decided what to give the backers who bought one to replace it. The 300 series had a proprietary Missile Rack called the Talon - That was obsolete years ago and the backers don't have a replacement. You know why it doesn't have a replacement for the pledge? Because we are in Alpha and there is a chance it'll change and come back. There are backers with Talon missile racks, FlashFire Mounts and a lot who bought Omniski VI guns and SledgeHammer guns when they were Overpowered Meta items, that then got balanced and became all-but-useless to them.
Buying components now is a total crap-shoot. Don't do it no matter how bad you want to. I have less to show for the amount I have pledged because I wanted to follow the Meta and have the strongest ship. I don't even have a Hornet now, I turned it into a Saber, so my FlashFire mount is totally useless anyway.
CCU (Cross Chassis Upgrade)
This is something that catches a lot of beginners out. When I started I got my Pledge Ship, an Aurora LN. I turned it into an Avenger by using the Cross Chassis Upgrade system on RSI website, then an Avenger Warlock, then a Hornet Ghost. That was me up to $150. Only then did I learn of Concept Sales and LTI, not to mention all that money and only one ship? With the mechanics that have come along now, having one ship is a ticket to waiting for that insurance timer to tick down. My mistake was CCUing my original Game Package Ship. You can melt any ship you have bought for Store Credit to buy other ships, BUT if you melt your Game Package ship you melt your access to the game. I had $150 stuck to a chassis I wanted to melt but contained my access Star Citizen and my copy of Squadron 42 (I pledged when they came together, not separately.) I consulted my Testies who advised it was doable, so I did it (read on).
Buyback Tokens
Any ship you buy and have melted you can buy back, either with Store Credit or with real cash. If you are buying back with Store Credit, you are limited to how many times you can do this in a 3 month period by the BuyBack Token - you only get one a quater. This was put in to stop people hording a library of thousands of ships by buying, melting, and rebuying with the store credit you spent on the original 100 times over. Rare ships wouldn't be rare if someone could go into their BuyBack and buy one whenever they liked and it kinda encouraged a gray market environment where people could sell-on a ship which may have been in demand that they had stock of, for whatever price they wanted. When I melted my Game Package to get the $150 credit, I then bought the $45 package back from my BuyBacks. It worked! I was saved! You can BuyBack with store credit limited to how many tokens you have (one or zero) or you can buy back with fresh money unlimited as to how many items you have in your BuyBack list. I have a Herald I intend to BuyBack one day with new cash, not store credits from melted ships.
LTI Tokens
There is an idea called "LTI Token" - basically, when a cheap concept ship comes along (like the P72 or the Argo or the 85X), you buy as many as you like and then CCU to the ship you actually want, so even now you can have a Constellation Andromeda, a ship no longer sold with LTI, with LTI by getting a cheap concept ship and CCUing to the Andromeda. This is how I got my LTI 350R, I CCU'd an LTI 85x to the 350R. But beware! With ground vehicles now available you can only CCU those to other ground vehicles! Some people bought loads of Tumbril Cyclones only to find that out afterwards.
SALES!
A "Sale" means something different in Star citizen to what you would expect - you don't get cheaper ships on offer: you get ships on sale that are not available all year round. This is supposed to limit the availability of some ships they want to be rarer in the game. I got an 85X in the "concept sale" then had to wait for the next "Sale" when the 350R became available. It was quite a while, but I finally got my dream ship and I'm not melting or giving it up for anything, that thing has taken me on all my adventures so far.
Subscription
Subscription is is a small monthly fee where you get stuff like hangar flair, more REC automatically in your account to rent stuff to play with in-game and first access to info that gets released later to the unwashed masses via the Jump-Point on-line magazine, the image Vault, exclusive wallpapers, a subscriber only area on Spectrum etc.
It was suggested that this doesn't count toward the Concierge limit, however TEST members have confirmed and I have tested myself that the total spent (viewable under "Total Spent" in your account under billing and subscription) does go up when a sub is placed so although it is not a huge amount of money this is a predictable regular contribution you can make to the game that goes toward your concierge status.
Hope the above helps :slight_smile:
Many thanks!
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I accidentally into concierge last year... and then I got a hammerhead, I dont regret it...but seriously?
Dont bother mate, unless you have a thousand dollars to drop on a game that could never exist and may be years away.
I did my *cough* 1700ishUSD over a period of over 2 years, so it wasnt too bad, but yea, unless you can drop a lot of money, I woudlnt bother
Dont bother mate, unless you have a thousand dollars to drop on a game that could never exist and may be years away.
I did my *cough* 1700ishUSD over a period of over 2 years, so it wasnt too bad, but yea, unless you can drop a lot of money, I woudlnt bother
Takeiteasy
Space Marshal
I'm one big ship away from concierge or a few small ship, just over $700 invested and feel that I won't be spending much in the near future and if I do it'll be a decent exploration ship as I have a fighter, cargo, bounty hunter and that's all I'm missing.
Naffnaff great post btw!
Naffnaff great post btw!