Fleet planning and CCU questions

[Brictoria]

These are probably stupid questions (although, given that I don't know the answers, other new players will likely be wondering about some\all of these as well), but in order to plan out my future fleet and reclaim items from buyback before potential IAE price changes, I was wondering:
1) If CCU's are applied to ships which are not "meltable" (referral bonus ships like the hoverquad currently available), can the "upgraded" ship be melted to return the original ship and the credit value of the upgrades that had been applied, or is the upgrade locked in and unable to be removed?

2) If I have 2 "copies" of a ship in my hangar (standalone\bundle\ccu'd to), can you select the specific ship to apply a CCU to, or is one randomly selected when the CCU is applied (for example, I want to upgrade the standalone ship and not upgrade a copy of the same ship that came in a bundle)?

3) If I melt a "concept" or "release" version of a ship (or pack) which sold for a warbond price (for example, the recent Centurion, which was $95 Warbond, or $110 otherwise), is the "buyback" price the original (warbond) price, or the "full" price?

4) If someone "gifts" me a ship\paint\pack and I melt it for credits, will it go into my "buyback" pool so that I can re-purchase it when I want\need it?

5) is advanced notice certain for a known "concept" ship (such as the Vulture) being released, or can they be released without warning?

6) Is advanced notice likely before an unreleased ship has its price increased?

7) If a ship increases in price, are WB CCU's to the old price likely to be available for purchase (such as with BMM price rise recently), or only CCU's to the new price?

Thank you for any enlightenment that can be supplied on any\all of these.

 

[Mich Angel]

1 On those referral gifts I don't think you can melt if upgrade don't even know if you can CCU them.( reason I'm not sure cause I never done that to any of mine )
For anything else added to a original ship as CCU to another ship adds to value, if then later melted all goes back to credits of the total value.**

2 if you have two same stand alone ship and CCU one of them, you get to pick but you won't know which is which, if however they are part of a pack you get to pick from which pack to CCU..

3 anything bought with real money/credits you melt can be bought back from buyback for same value as you originally payed, regardless if ship have gone up in price.
... except melted CCU's that change value if ships in the CCU have changed value since it was bought.. CCU is the only thing that change value in buyback..

4 Yes if gift is bought with real money, anything you have in your web hangar that is payed for with real money revert in to your buyback and credits if melted.. and can be bought back later....
....exception is some special ships/packs sold long ago, you get credits back for them but can't buy them back. This are rare and they are not sold any more.

5 They can be released without warning and also get notification of it.. this seem to flux a lot how they chose to do it. Best to check in regularly.. some sell out fast if there is a limit amount.

6 Not sure if that even works... I know people that are Concierge or higher get notification before everyone else.. (Concierge is anyone supported/bought for more than $1000)

7 Only CCU that don't change are those you keep in your web hangar and don't melt them and they work regardless if price have change for the -> to ship in store.
Only exception to this is if the from CCU ship -> to ship cost more than the ->to ship then the CCU is obsolete (greyed out) and can't be used any more as you can't downgrade.
All other melted CCU in buyback change to current price to the ships it refer to.

Note: If you melt a CCU ship the ship does go back to original ship/vehicle in buyback and the CCU is lost but you don't lose the value from it that is put in credits to your account.

**Also Note: That there can be exception on some referrals and old special releases, some that included physical objects ect.
They can't be melted and those of them that can be melted, can not be bought back.

CHEERS!

 

[Dirtbag_Leader]

Just to add a little bit:

1.) You absolutely CANNOT melt a referral reward, however you CAN still apply CCUs to them. I CCUed my LTI merlin into a Titan, mostly to prevent myself of continually melting/rebuying that Titan all the time (did that like 6x over). Worked great, now I have a half-price LTI Titan, permanently! But I don't think I'll be locking in any MORE CCUs on that one either. No melt-y possible!

3.) Normally Warbond stuff keeps its old WB price in buyback, but you AGAIN need to use fresh $ (and not store credit) to be able to buy it back. However there are SOME random things that seem to keep their 'old' prices in my buyback, though I can't really say for what rhyme or reason. For instance (and I should probably grab this before it ever does change), I have an old non-WB LTI Pisces available in my BB for only $40:

7.)

Only exception to this is if the from CCU ship -> to ship cost more than the ->to ship then the CCU is obsolete

This is true, however if a CCU increases the 'from' ship price to be EQUAL to the 'to' ship price, you'll still be able to apply it, though you'll have effectively 'lost' value on it. Such is the case with the Scorpius->Andromeda CCU in the middle of my current Polaris chain. In my case it (for now) makes sense to still keep/apply it, as you can't buy the $0 value CCU, and I still need the Andy to leverage the super cheap $10 Redeemer CCU I have, and it's basically a wash because the previous FC7M->Scorpius 'gained' that same $20. . . but yeah this shit can get complicated!

 

[bedoinitusa]

These are probably stupid questions (although, given that I don't know the answers, other new players will likely be wondering about some\all of these as well), but in order to plan out my future fleet and reclaim items from buyback before potential IAE price changes, I was wondering:
1) If CCU's are applied to ships which are not "meltable" (referral bonus ships like the hoverquad currently available), can the "upgraded" ship be melted to return the original ship and the credit value of the upgrades that had been applied, or is the upgrade locked in and unable to be removed?

2) If I have 2 "copies" of a ship in my hangar (standalone\bundle\ccu'd to), can you select the specific ship to apply a CCU to, or is one randomly selected when the CCU is applied (for example, I want to upgrade the standalone ship and not upgrade a copy of the same ship that came in a bundle)?

3) If I melt a "concept" or "release" version of a ship (or pack) which sold for a warbond price (for example, the recent Centurion, which was $95 Warbond, or $110 otherwise), is the "buyback" price the original (warbond) price, or the "full" price?

4) If someone "gifts" me a ship\paint\pack and I melt it for credits, will it go into my "buyback" pool so that I can re-purchase it when I want\need it?

5) is advanced notice certain for a known "concept" ship (such as the Vulture) being released, or can they be released without warning?

6) Is advanced notice likely before an unreleased ship has its price increased?

7) If a ship increases in price, are WB CCU's to the old price likely to be available for purchase (such as with BMM price rise recently), or only CCU's to the new price?

Thank you for any enlightenment that can be supplied on any\all of these.

In all the times I have trained people, The one thing I would say to them is 'There is NO stupid question, the only stupid question is the one that was not asked.'

 

[diabolus_ex_machina]

1 On those referral gifts I don't think you can melt if upgrade don't even know if you can CCU them.( reason I'm not sure cause I never done that to any of mine )
For anything else added to a original ship as CCU to another ship adds to value, if then later melted all goes back to credits of the total value.**

2 if you have two same stand alone ship and CCU one of them, you get to pick but you won't know which is which, if however they are part of a pack you get to pick from which pack to CCU..

3 anything bought with real money/credits you melt can be bought back from buyback for same value as you originally payed, regardless if ship have gone up in price.
... except melted CCU's that change value if ships in the CCU have changed value since it was bought.. CCU is the only thing that change value in buyback..

4 Yes if gift is bought with real money, anything you have in your web hangar that is payed for with real money revert in to your buyback and credits if melted.. and can be bought back later....
....exception is some special ships/packs sold long ago, you get credits back for them but can't buy them back. This are rare and they are not sold any more.

5 They can be released without warning and also get notification of it.. this seem to flux a lot how they chose to do it. Best to check in regularly.. some sell out fast if there is a limit amount.

6 Not sure if that even works... I know people that are Concierge or higher get notification before everyone else.. (Concierge is anyone supported/bought for more than $1000)

7 Only CCU that don't change are those you keep in your web hangar and don't melt them and they work regardless if price have change for the -> to ship in store.
Only exception to this is if the from CCU ship -> to ship cost more than the ->to ship then the CCU is obsolete (greyed out) and can't be used any more as you can't downgrade.
All other melted CCU in buyback change to current price to the ships it refer to.

Note: If you melt a CCU ship the ship does go back to original ship/vehicle in buyback and the CCU is lost but you don't lose the value from it that is put in credits to your account.

**Also Note: That there can be exception on some referrals and old special releases, some that included physical objects ect.
They can't be melted and those of them that can be melted, can not be bought back.

CHEERS!

How do the concierge people get higher notice? Do I get a magazine or something?

 

[vahadar]

1) upgradable but not meltable

2) yes you can pick the one you want if you have multiple similar thanks to pledge ID. You select a ship to upgrade based on its ID number so you can't make any mistake. By default ID is not shown in hangar if you don't use a browser plugin for RSI hangar, but you can still inspect the html code of your item in hangar to find the pledge ID.

3) original warbond price will be used for buyback. If you had any additional rebate thanks to coupon that rebate will be lost.

4) yes for all your items you mention. But if you have any upgrade applied on a ship/package/pack, you get the base ship/package/pack in buyback only. You still get all money that was spent on the ship/package/pack in store credit.

5) usually the release is announced.

6) the ship jumps in price when released (and can also during concept)

7) yes, they always released in the recent years a warbond CCU when a ship is released. Usually it matches the latest store credit CCU price before release.

 

[vahadar]

YNormally Warbond stuff keeps its old WB price in buyback, but you AGAIN need to use fresh $ (and not store credit) to be able to buy it back. However there are SOME random things that seem to keep their 'old' prices in my buyback, though I can't really say for what rhyme or reason. For instance (and I should probably grab this before it ever does change), I have an old non-WB LTI Pisces available in my BB for only $40:

Your statement on point 3 is a bit wrong ;)

You can definitely buy previously bought Warbond ship (bought with 100% cash) with store credits in your buyback as long as you have a token.
Price will be the warbond price.

Also that pisces you have in buyback is the Warbond version, it just got renamed when in buyback with the name of the credit version. The price tag for the LTI Warbond 2949 pisces c8x was indeed 40.

This happened quite some time when you melt a Warbond bought ship in the recent years (happened for the c8x Warbond LTI from iae 2949, the Invictus avenger 10y 2950, and some others ILW/IAE ships after 2020 that got renamed when melted) Sometime the "Warbond" name is not kept and replaced by the credit version name, though the price stays as the Warbond price.

If you had kept that c8x from the 2949 iae in hangar, you should still see the Warbond in name.

 

[vahadar]

How do the concierge people get higher notice? Do I get a magazine or something?

By default mail notification for concierge is turned off (if in Europe at least). You need to manually turn it on in your account settings > overview > concierge newsletter.

You usually get a heads up one day before a concept ship sale by mail. This is the concierge special sale.

 

[Dirtbag_Leader]

You can definitely buy previously bought Warbond ship (bought with 100% cash) with store credits in your buyback as long as you have a token.

Huh, well look at that! Must have mismanaged buyback tokens at some point in the past cause I could have SWORN I'd tried that before and it didn't work because it was WB, but no shit, you're right! I sure feel pretty stupid now; hat's off to you @vahadar, many thanks for this revelation!

 

[vahadar]

@Dirtbag_Leader that is probably because you were out of token when you tried in the past.

Basically you can buy back anything Warbond or not, with store credit as long as you have a token.

Backers get one token every quarter, non stackable.

Concierges get one additional token per quarter (so 2 per quarter total), non stackable.

 

[vahadar]

Huh, well look at that! Must have mismanaged buyback tokens at some point in the past cause I could have SWORN I'd tried that before and it didn't work because it was WB, but no shit, you're right! I sure feel pretty stupid now; but time to go melt all those WB CCUs I've been sitting on in the hanger *just in case* so I wouldn't have to pay again to get them back, lol!!! Hat's off to you @vahadar, many thanks for this revelation!

NEVER melt you wb CCU !!!

 

[vahadar]

You will then have to buy them back at the normal price, and this non sense is happening since last February, when they "solved" the "bug" about the CCUs from after 2020 that got the "TO" ship price frozen.

Now a CCU (Warbond and non Warbond) will always adjust its price when bought back according to the CURRENT credit price difference between the 2 ships (except for the CCUs before 2020, CIG haven't modified the pre2020 ccus yet they still retain the old price in buyback, even if you melt them now and want to buy them back. But how long will it last???).

That's means all Warbond CCUs bought in 2020 and after, and that got eventually melted are bought back at current price difference for credit prices of ships !!!
So you need to pay more for you CCU than initially.

@Dirtbag_Leader Make sure to keep them in hangar.

 

[Dirtbag_Leader]

@Dirtbag_Leader Make sure to keep them in hangar.

Yep, roger that, typing faster than thinking, I indeed remember/know about the big CCU change fiasco, and THAT'S indeed why I've held on to all those CCUs. What I didn't realize though is that it apparently didn't/doesn't apply to standalone ships then, so still cool to have learned that, thanks again!

 

[vahadar]

Yep, roger that, typing faster than thinking, I indeed remember/know about the big CCU change fiasco, and THAT'S indeed why I've held on to all those CCUs. What I didn't realize though is that it apparently didn't/doesn't apply to standalone ships then, so still cool to have learned that, thanks again!

Pfew I was worried for a second, even pinged you on Test discord just in case ;)

 

[Mich Angel]

I will add this to...
As said only thing that change price in buyback is CCU, but if a previous ship example like the first version 890 was for $890 and if it change to new price 1K+ in your buyback..THEN*
*Contact support immediately cause then there is something wrong going on with the account.. or website...

And you can indeed use credits on all things that can be bought back with a buyback token..
I have melted, bought back and melted back an forth on pretty much everything you can buy during a sale including warbond.. and 90% of the time I did it with token and credits..

Reason I buy all with credits and buyback is, when I buy a new warbond ship I melt it right away and then buy it back later with credits and a token...
Now why would I do that,...
I have 25% tax added to the US price like most in Europe have.. hence when buying with credits you do not have tax added to the ship price.
So that mean I can buy it back 25% cheaper with a token and credits and I can use that extra 25% I still have in credit on something else..

Example: one of my 890 cost me $1,112 including tax using new money, but as I melted it I can buy that ship back with a token and credits for $890 leaving me with $222 in credits.
That I can use buying another ship this way I get two ship instead of just one..
Same on the sale week if I want a new ship there and buy it with real money+tax I melt it right away, then buy it again but now using credits and I have whatever the tax was left in credits to use..
Smart eh!

CHEERS!

 

[Brictoria]

Thank you, everyone, for the information.

To clarify what I have understood:
1) Don't melt WB CCU's (those that save more on price than the cost\melt value) unless you know you'll never need them.
2) Don't upgrade the Referral "reward" LTI tokens unless I'm sure I want the final ship I upgrade it to (or the ship I leave it at as a stepping point to a more expensive ship), as there's no going back.
3) There is no reason to keep the LTI tokens in my hangar that I have bought (except the hoverquad that used the "nomad owner" $5 coupon, as I'd have to pay the extra $5 to buy it back), or other WB ships\packs that duplicate ships I own in other packs, as I can buy them back at "cost" at a later time (unless a coupon\discount was applied when buying them: subscriber 12 month coupon, or "starter packs" which have a "save x%" discount shown on the item, for example).
4) There is no reason to keep paints\items in my hangar which were "gifted" and that are currently unsuable (paints for ships I don't own yet\not yet released, hangar flair, etc.) as this will go to "buyback" where it can be bought back as required at a later date.
5) There should be no reason to buy\hang onto non-WB CCU's for unreleased ships ($5 DUR->Vulture, $20 Hurricane->Corsair, etc.) as there will be the opportunity to buy (WB) the same CCU in the future when the ship's price rises... Unless the CCU will be expensive (hence requiring a large funding input at the time: "Last mile" $55 M2->Liberator, for example) - and even then there is likely to be warning to allow buying it back with a credit "buy-back" token before any price rise.
6) Should I wish to upgrade a ship which I have a stand-alone copy of and another which has been CCU'd to, there is no guarantee which copy will be upgraded.

Would the above be a reasonable summary?

 

[vahadar]

Thank you, everyone, for the information.

To clarify what I have understood:
1) Don't melt WB CCU's (those that save more on price than the cost\melt value) unless you know you'll never need them.
2) Don't upgrade the Referral "reward" LTI tokens unless I'm sure I want the final ship I upgrade it to (or the ship I leave it at as a stepping point to a more expensive ship), as there's no going back.
3) There is no reason to keep the LTI tokens in my hangar that I have bought (except the hoverquad that used the "nomad owner" $5 coupon, as I'd have to pay the extra $5 to buy it back), or other WB ships\packs that duplicate ships I own in other packs, as I can buy them back at "cost" at a later time (unless a coupon\discount was applied when buying them: subscriber 12 month coupon, or "starter packs" which have a "save x%" discount shown on the item, for example).
4) There is no reason to keep paints\items in my hangar which were "gifted" and that are currently unsuable (paints for ships I don't own yet\not yet released, hangar flair, etc.) as this will go to "buyback" where it can be bought back as required at a later date.
5) There should be no reason to buy\hang onto non-WB CCU's for unreleased ships ($5 DUR->Vulture, $20 Hurricane->Corsair, etc.) as there will be the opportunity to buy (WB) the same CCU in the future when the ship's price rises... Unless the CCU will be expensive (hence requiring a large funding input at the time: "Last mile" $55 M2->Liberator, for example) - and even then there is likely to be warning to allow buying it back with a credit "buy-back" token before any price rise.
6) Should I wish to upgrade a ship which I have a stand-alone copy of and another which has been CCU'd to, there is no guarantee which copy will be upgraded.

Would the above be a reasonable summary?

3) "or "starter packs" which have a "save x%" discount shown on the item, for example" -> those packs are stated to keep their initial price as per RSI buyback FAQ. FAQ even says that if a pack/package/ship in buyback is loosing its discount for any reason when in bb, you can contact support to apply the discount again. It is good to keep a track of this having a screenshot of the discounted item when you buy them just in case.

6) actually you can NOT make any mistake, it is not randomly applied at all. You can differenciate thanks to the ship/package/pack name
exemple, you have 2 Hurricane in hangars
1 is made from an hoverquad
the 2nd is an OC LTI standalone.
When applying any upgrade from an hurricane to something else you would see in the pledge lists of available ship to upgrade :

Standalone Ship - HoverQuad (#XXXXXXXX) (this is the upgraded hurricane)
Standalone Ship - Anvil Hurricane LTI (#XXXXXXXX) (this is the OC LTI hurricane)

So you cant do a mistake because of the names at first.

Then you can also find the ID of the pledge itself if you have multiple pledge with the same ship (ie multiple hoverquad upgraded to a hurricane).
The list of ships to upgrade from will always show the available ships in the order of their ID pledge number, so it is listed chronologically based on the time of their purchase, oldest at the top.

To get the ID if you do not use any browser plugin for your RSI hangar, right click the item name in your hangar in Chrome/Firefox and click on "inspect element" you'll see something like that :




Check the line with class="js-pledge-id"' and you'll see the pledge id of that item, here in the exemple 41936080 (value="41936080").

in picture with an exemple summarizing all of the above with upgrading an arrow to a nomad, from a standalone arrow, and from an upgraded arrow, you can see the ID pledge order, and the pack names :

 

[Brictoria]

3) "or "starter packs" which have a "save x%" discount shown on the item, for example" -> those packs are stated to keep their initial price as per RSI buyback FAQ. FAQ even says that if a pack in buyback is loosing its discount for any reason when in bb, you can contact support to apply the discount again. It is good to keep a track of this having a screenshot of the discounted pack when you buy them just in case.

6) actually you can NOT make any mistake, it is not randomly applied at all. You can differenciate thanks to the ship/package/pack name
exemple, you have 2 Hurricane in hangars
1 is made from an hoverquad
the 2nd is an OC LTI standalone.
When applying any upgrade from an hurricane to something else you would see in the pledge lists of available ship to upgrade :

Standalone Ship - HoverQuad (#XXXXXXXX) (this is the upgraded hurricane)
Standalone Ship - Anvil Hurricane LTI (#XXXXXXXX) (this is the OC LTI hurricane)

So you cant do a mistake because of the names at first.

Then you can also find the ID of the pledge itself if you have multiple pledge with the same ship (ie multiple hoverquad upgraded to a hurricane).
The list of ships to upgrade from will always show the available ships in the order of their ID pledge number, so it is listed chronologically based on the time of their purchase, oldest at the top.

To get the ID if you do not use any browser plugin for your RSI hangar, right click the item name in your hangar in Chrome/Firefox and click on "inspect element" you'll see something like that :

View attachment 23420


Check the line with class="js-pledge-id"' and you'll see the pledge id of that item, here in the exemple 41936080 (value="41936080").

in picture with an exemple summarizing all of the above with upgrading an arrow to a nomad, from a standalone arrow, and from an upgraded arrow, you can see the ID pledge order, and the pack names :
View attachment 23418

Thank you for the clarification on 6) - I must have misunderstood what had been posted in the replies - The pictures certainly helped clarify it.

With regards to 3), I was under the impression that the x% discount (10% off Mustang Alpha and 15% off Arrow starter packs on sale at the moment) wouldn't remain if melted and re-bought from buyback:

My pledge was discounted. How will this affect the buy-back process if I want it back?

Head to our Pledge Buy Back Tool page for full details on the buy back options available, but some quick important points are listed below.

• Pledges acquired with a subscriber discount coupon will need to be bought back at the full, undiscounted price.
• Pledges that were acquired at a discount through various promotions, events, or sales must also be bought back at their undiscounted price.

At the time of reclaiming a pledge, you must confirm that you are aware that your discount will be lost before completing the reclamation process.

https://support.robertsspaceindustries.com/hc/en-us/articles/115013193627-Reclaim-a-Pledge

I may test this next month, when my newest referral decides to send their starter pack to me... The contents of the packs I have at present that had discounts when purchased still have value, so I wasn't planning to melt them (at least in the short term), but I figured it's nice to know the options and any downsides to those options.

 

[vahadar]

Thank you for the clarification on 6) - I must have misunderstood what had been posted in the replies - The pictures certainly helped clarify it.

With regards to 3), I was under the impression that the x% discount (10% off Mustang Alpha and 15% off Arrow starter packs on sale at the moment) wouldn't remain if melted and re-bought from buyback:

https://support.robertsspaceindustries.com/hc/en-us/articles/115013193627-Reclaim-a-Pledge

I may test this next month, when my newest referral decides to send their starter pack to me... The contents of the packs I have at present that had discounts when purchased still have value, so I wasn't planning to melt them (at least in the short term), but I figured it's nice to know the options and any downsides to those options.

Ahhh sneaky sneaky CIG, then they have changed their FAQ in the recent months ^^

Untill around march this year, it was possible to buy back packages at their discounted price, and the FAQ stated as much, since I made some tickets to get some packs at the origginal price.

This shows just one thing that CIG is changing how it works without any notice, so the only thing we can get out of this is : always keep the stuff you want in hangar !

 

[vahadar]

Mmmm or maybe it keeps the discount :)

Just checked with one pack in bb.
But this might be inconsistent since FAQ is now telling otherwise as you pointed.

Adding it to cart still retains the discount though.



This one probably went through the net of the pass to modify all discounted packages pledge in bb, as most of the other packages I have (aurora's arrow's... at discounted price) are now full price.

Also this one under still shows the discount (but I cant add it to cart, as you could only have one in hangar during Invictus, and it seems having another in hangar is preventing me from buying back this one, cart is empty if I add it to cart)