Have you come across this: CCU Game - Chrome/Firefox extension for upgrade Planning? I stumbled across it a couple of days ago - I've no connection to it, but it is really slick and seems very respectful of your privacy: you have to be logged in to your RSI account on the RSI website, and it they uses that to access the store and your hanger etc. The data it fetches stays on your browser, and never gets sent anywhere else, according to the (slightly hard to understand) video someone called Karolinger made about in, accessible on the Chrome browser plugin page: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/star-citizen-ccu-game/efkaeodcipbmkhbbfmiagjcnnlhdkdlf.
If you click the refresh button on the web page, top left, to sync its data (which is stored in your browser cache), go to the CCU chain page. Type in the name of a ship you want at the bottom left, and play around with the controls at the top for whether you want it to recommend an initial ship from the store, pick one you already have in your hanger, or just pick your own initial ship from the RSI store. Then it will come up with an optimal CCU chain based on what's on sale now.
Here's a screenshot showing the cheapest path to get a Redeemer (list price $325 plus tax) earlier today when there were more Warbond offers and more ships available, starting with whatever it chooses from the RSI Pledge Store, which at the time was a P-52 Merlin:
So earlier today it would have been possible to get one for $170 total, of which at least $65 had to be new money, and the balance of up to $105 could have been from store credit.
I then just refreshed the data because I noticed the P-52 was no longer on sale in the RSI Pledge Store. Now, for the same settings ('Automatically select the best starter ship from store' and 'Redeemer' as the 'To' ship), I get this:
So the best price for a Redeemer went up to $215, of which at least $70 has to be new money and the balance of up to $145 can be store credit if you want. And it's clearly because there are now fewer offers and/or fewer ships for sale than there were earlier today.
I am impressed. There's no way I'd have the time or patience to do anything like that in my head, or using a spreadsheet. Has anyone else had good or bad experiences with it?
It's caused my wallet some damage. I just hit Grand Admiral today. Oops!
I am impressed. There's no way I'd have the time or patience to do anything like that in my head, or using a spreadsheet. Has anyone else had good or bad experiences with it?
I've been using a spreadsheet for a very long time, but I did give CCU game a spin. It's pretty good, definitely great for new users. And old ones as well, though it's not quite as good for me as my spreadsheets... I mean, I'm the kinda person who likes to write in the margins everywhere. Couldn't seem to do that with CCU game, not a huge thing but I felt a bit restricted. You should also be aware that the CCU chain it calculates isn't always actually the best long term. It's definitely great short term, but it doesn't seem to take into account things like, if you throw ship X, which is permanently available, in the chain then you don't have to spend your store credit on buying the entire chain during the sale so, so you can get more stuff in your buybacks. Nor does it seem to prioritize concept ships, that almost always will go up in price when flight ready. I mean, you can force it to add a CCU in chain, and that's an important feature, but you just have to be aware of the issue.
Anyhow, those are some minor issues. It definitely makes things easier, especially if you don't have extensive knowledge of all the cool features a spreadsheet offers (which can be bit of a learning curve).
The chains that I was working in my mind, were figuring out the most effective ways to get to the ship I want, then working backwards taking advantage of the WB CCU's at that point, but also considering which ships periodically receive WB CCU's during the ILW sales as well as which ships are always available. Then try to WB CCU backwards to the shortest safe destination. So the majority of my WB CCU's ended up costing me $5 - $10 each, with a few that fell into the $15-$25 range. My biggest issue was that CIG was only letting me purchase 1 WB CCU of a specific vehicle at a time, so I ended up having to make about a half dozen or more purchases of mostly the same ships in order to get those. The non WB CCU items were just fine in letting me purchase multiple of the same CCU in a single shot & use store credit to pay them off.
IAE over, credit are back in hangar, so I'm starting assembling some new ships.
First one is a LTI Hull-E at 300.50$ Finally applied the CCU 1.5 year after its purchase from Elmy here as I do not think I can optimise the upgrade path further anymore (the CCU itself from Carrack has a melt of 150$ unfortunately, instead of 50$ price difference at the time of purchase).
Its in a 40.5$ mustang package.
As a standalone, and from my LN token ILW 2950 at 35 instead of 40, it would have been 285$ melt. But I always put my high end ships in packs for the npc crew customisation.
Next to assemble are (just have enough Gemini to BMM personnal stock for those) :
- 2 Polaris (235-240$ melt depending on CCUs used), I melted the Polaris LTI @750$ bought from DirectorGunner a long time ago for them;
- 1 Carrack (135-140$ melt), I melted one OG Carrack at 350 for it, used the leftover to stock for the Odyssey;
- 1 Odyssey (235-240$ melt);
- 2 Perseus (210-215$ melt) as I melted my warbond Ambush Pack (700$) for them and will still have some credits after;
- 6 BMMs (125-130$ melt), I melted one OG BMM at 250$, will use a lot of spare CCUs I stocked over the last 2 years for them;
- 1 Orion (150-155$ melt);
- 1 Liberator (150-155$ melt).
All will be LTI, got all CCUs in hangar as parts, and they will all be in packs (so add pack cost to melt) but still looking for more warbond opportunities next Invictus like Defender and Harbinger warbond CCUs as I do not have enough stock for those 2 to assemble all ships at cheapest cost (between the 2 numbers shown for melt).
I'll be now waiting for another BMM price jump (600 ideally) and some Warbond Perseus CCU to optimise price further for Polaris, Odyssey and Perseus, under 200 for them all if possible.
IAE over, credit are back in hangar, so I'm starting assembling some new ships.
First one is a LTI Hull-E at 300.50$ Finally applied the CCU 1.5 year after its purchase from Elmy here as I do not think I can optimise the upgrade path further anymore (the CCU itself from Carrack has a melt of 150$ unfortunately, instead of 50$ price difference at the time of purchase).
Its in a 40.5$ mustang package.
As a standalone, and from my LN token ILW 2950 at 35 instead of 40, it would have been 285$ melt. But I always put my high end ships in packs for the npc crew customisation.
BMM, Taurus and Hull B are to thank for most saving ;) rest is warbond CCUs and old MSR, Caterpillar or Redeemer CCUs.
When my Gemini to BMM and Hull B stock is over because of above ships, I'll need to figure another path under 100$ to get back to Taurus, and also a path with my remaining Mole to BMM CCUs (that I currently use for my shop for high end ships) so I decided to remove most BMM CCUs from the shop stock and set them aside for future ship release.
Finally applied the CCU 1.5 year after its purchase from Elmy here as I do not think I can optimise the upgrade path further anymore (the CCU itself from Carrack has a melt of 150$ unfortunately, instead of 50$ price difference at the time of purchase).