Translation of the title:
ILW = Invictus Launch Week
2953 = 2023
WB = Warbond
CCU = Cross Chassis Upgrade
watch = keep a beady eye on
What are WB CCUs?
They're how CIG does discounts. They require new money (so no store credit) but you can get $5, $10, $15, $20 or more knocked off the price of a regular CCU.
"$5 dollars? Why bother" I hear you ask.
Well the cool thing about these is that you can combine the discounts if you can fit multiple WB CCUs in the same CCU chain. It's basically make your own discount. Now, you have to pay at least $5 for a CCU, so the smallest WB CCU you can buy is a $10 CCU discounted to $5, or a 50% discount. Not too shabby.
The thing to keep in mind here, is to always select the ship closest in value to the WB CCU discount point. So for example, let's say Arrow ($75 melt value normally) has a $5 discount WB CCU on it. You can't pick 325A to Arrow CCU, as that'd be $0 CCU and CIG doesn't do those. For obvious reasons. Instead, you could, and probably should, pick 315p ($65 melt value) for a $5 off, and pay $5 at 50% discount. Of course you could pick 300i ($60 melt), possibly because you own a 300i, and pay $10 at 33% discount. But you really shouldn't. This is for two reasons. Firstly, because WB CCUs are new money, so you'd have to put in $10 new money, when you could've just used $5 store credit for 300i to 315p and then used $5 fresh money for 315p to Arrow. Secondly, and more importantly, the smaller CCUs you use the better chances you have to fit some new future CCUs into the chain. Thirdly, specific to this and some other cases, 315p is permanently available. So even if you don't have store credits right now, you can get that normal 300i to 315p CCU whenever.
"Okey, but it's still just $5 dollars, like what are you going to do, keep doing this for years and, then what, get ships for next to nothing?"
Yes. Absolutely yes. This really is "build your own discount." If you have the patience to do this over several sale events, you can get something like my $155 Banu Merchantman CCU chain. That's quite a steal. Or if you got more money than patience, you can do this over like one event and walk away with perhaps a 30% total discount depending on the target ship and your luck. That's not bad either.
"But isn't the goal to support the development! Why not just pay the full price of ships?"
Well, if you get a ship for 50% off, you still got the option to buy a second ship also for 50% off. You'll still fund with the same amount, only you got twice the amount of ships now. Cool, right?
If you want an example of what has happened during a sale in the past, here is the Invictus Launch Week thread from last year https://testsquadron.com/threads/friendly-reminder-that-warbond-ccus-are-a-thing.19713/ as well as thread for IAE 2952 https://testsquadron.com/threads/iae-2952-wb-ccu-watch.20063/
ILW = Invictus Launch Week
2953 = 2023
WB = Warbond
CCU = Cross Chassis Upgrade
watch = keep a beady eye on
What are WB CCUs?
They're how CIG does discounts. They require new money (so no store credit) but you can get $5, $10, $15, $20 or more knocked off the price of a regular CCU.
"$5 dollars? Why bother" I hear you ask.
Well the cool thing about these is that you can combine the discounts if you can fit multiple WB CCUs in the same CCU chain. It's basically make your own discount. Now, you have to pay at least $5 for a CCU, so the smallest WB CCU you can buy is a $10 CCU discounted to $5, or a 50% discount. Not too shabby.
The thing to keep in mind here, is to always select the ship closest in value to the WB CCU discount point. So for example, let's say Arrow ($75 melt value normally) has a $5 discount WB CCU on it. You can't pick 325A to Arrow CCU, as that'd be $0 CCU and CIG doesn't do those. For obvious reasons. Instead, you could, and probably should, pick 315p ($65 melt value) for a $5 off, and pay $5 at 50% discount. Of course you could pick 300i ($60 melt), possibly because you own a 300i, and pay $10 at 33% discount. But you really shouldn't. This is for two reasons. Firstly, because WB CCUs are new money, so you'd have to put in $10 new money, when you could've just used $5 store credit for 300i to 315p and then used $5 fresh money for 315p to Arrow. Secondly, and more importantly, the smaller CCUs you use the better chances you have to fit some new future CCUs into the chain. Thirdly, specific to this and some other cases, 315p is permanently available. So even if you don't have store credits right now, you can get that normal 300i to 315p CCU whenever.
"Okey, but it's still just $5 dollars, like what are you going to do, keep doing this for years and, then what, get ships for next to nothing?"
Yes. Absolutely yes. This really is "build your own discount." If you have the patience to do this over several sale events, you can get something like my $155 Banu Merchantman CCU chain. That's quite a steal. Or if you got more money than patience, you can do this over like one event and walk away with perhaps a 30% total discount depending on the target ship and your luck. That's not bad either.
"But isn't the goal to support the development! Why not just pay the full price of ships?"
Well, if you get a ship for 50% off, you still got the option to buy a second ship also for 50% off. You'll still fund with the same amount, only you got twice the amount of ships now. Cool, right?
If you want an example of what has happened during a sale in the past, here is the Invictus Launch Week thread from last year https://testsquadron.com/threads/friendly-reminder-that-warbond-ccus-are-a-thing.19713/ as well as thread for IAE 2952 https://testsquadron.com/threads/iae-2952-wb-ccu-watch.20063/
It's on. Let's go!
| Todays Ship(s) | Warbond CCU Price | Normal price | Permanently available starting point | Closest available starting point |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Vulture | $160 | $175 | Prospector ($155) | Prospector, Razor Ex ($155) |
| Finale | -- | -- | See Below | -- |
On a side note, Storm concept can help you get a discount using store credits. It'll probably be a couple of years and end up being like $5 or $10 discount, so no need to go crazy over it, but just thought I'd mention that.
Summary:
| Date | Ship | Warbond CCU Price | Normal price |
|---|---|---|---|
| 19th - xxth | Vulture (3.19 release related) | $160 | $175 |
| 19th | A2 Hercules | $675 | $750 |
| 20th | Mercury Star Runner | $240 | $260 |
| 21st | Eclipse | $280 | $300 |
| 22nd | Avenger Warlock | $80 | $85 |
| 23rd | Gladiator | $155 | $165 |
| 24th | Ballista | $130 | $140 |
| 25th | Aquila | $290 | $310 |
| 26th | Nova | $110 | $120 |
| 27th | Corsair | $230 | $250 |
| 28th | Cutlass Red | $125 | $135 |
Finale:
| Date | Ship | Warbond CCU Price | Normal Price |
| 29th | Gladius | $80 | $90 |
| Nova | $110 | $120 | |
| Ballista | $130 | $140 | |
| Hurricane | $195 | $210 | |
| Scorpius | $220 | $240 | |
| Corsair | $230 | $250 | |
| Mercury | $240 | $260 | |
| Eclipse | $280 | $300 | |
| Caterpillar | $305 | $330 | |
| A2 Hercules | $675 | $750 |
Thoughts: Well, the finale CCUs this year are remarkably chainable. Something like Gladius-Nova-Ballista-Vulture-Hurricane-Scorpius-Eclipse-Caterpillar-A2 Hercules would save you $200 from the price of A2 Hercules, which is pretty nice. Though personally I'd probably prefer stopping at Caterpillar with a $125 discount, then grabbing a Caterpillar-Gemini CCU and then Gemini-Crucible and Gemini-Endeavor for some potentially much more potent savings. It's not certain, but Crucible and Endeavor are old concepts that could go up by "a lot" once they start seeing work done.
(Note: I mean, buy as small CCUs as possible, I only wrote stuff like Ballista-Hurricane for brevity, you should actually turn that and other larger gaps into like Ballista-...-Constellation Taurus-Hurricane)
Also summoning @Brictoria if you're up to tag team this this year as well :)
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