Prepare Yourself for Star Citizen’s 2952 MASSIVE Ship Expo & Sale
Welcome to a Star Citizen Prepare for the 2952 IAE Video…
We are going to go over what’s going on at the IAE this year & tips for getting the most out of the event and it’s ship sales.
Prepare for the 2952 IAE
The 2952 IAE is planned to start Friday 18th November at 4pm UTC.
We will be getting a new Alpha 3.17.4 Live patch for it too.
Each day at 4pm UTC a new manufacturer will take over the Tobin Expo Hall at New Babbage and show off their ships for 48 hours. Starting with Drake. (There are 2 floors so there is a staggered overlap)
The Event is a Free Fly so from the start of the event until the 30th November anyone can play Star Citizen for free… you just need to make an SC Account (You can do that with the links below).
Make microTech Your Home – Either Travel to New Babbage on microTech or Spawn there… if travelling there you can set the Hospital as your spawn point too.
The Expo itself is at New Babbage and easily accessible and signposted as part of the train system there… just follow the signs.
You can try almost all of the ships & vehicles on the show floor for free, just approach, interact with F and rent them. You can then spawn them from a ASOP terminal at a spaceport.
Everyone will temporarily get given an Aurora MR during the IAE… but that’s pretty irrelevant seeing you can try a whole host of other ships free.
At the end of the IAE from the 28-30th All previously available flyable ships will be ready to test-fly via the rental kiosks.
Getting The Most Out Of Buying A Ship
Some people will be buying their dream ship during the IAE.
The IAE is a big sales event that also has all the ships from the expo hall and concept ships on sale on the RSI website (adding new ships mirroring the manufacturers each day) HOWEVER you will be able to get any ship you want IN GAME without any additional monies in the future.
And During the Expo, be able to try out any ship for free anyway.
So you don’t need to buy ships with real money… newly flyable ships like the Corsair will be available in game typically after a 3 month exclusivity window… and most flyable ships are already purchaseable in game now
All you need to be able to play Star Citizen after the IAE FreeFly is a Game Package / Starter Pack. Basically a ship and game access. You can upgrade this ship later if you want.
There should be discounted Starter Packs available during the IAE.
There are at least 3 entirely new ships plus the Drake Corsair turing up at the 2952 IAE.
Some quick terminology – War Bond sales are basically saying you get a ship cheaper if you are not using any store credit.
Melting refers to the changing of a ship / package into store credit. It nukes the ship and package it’s in REMOVES IT FROM YOU ACCOUNT… so maybe don’t do that to your only gamepackage… unless you have a plan.
Concept sale ships are still being built out you’ll get a loaner ship in game until your ship is ready… for some ships this could take years… others a couple of quarters.
You can buy back a ship you’ve previously melted from…
(https://robertsspaceindustries.com/account/buy-back-pledges) the MY hangar section on the RSI Website. Each quarter you can buy back 1 item using store credit or unlimited items with monies. Not all packages are retrievable tho… and prices can vary.
Upgrading a ship is also known as CCUing (Cross Chassis Upgrade)Buy CCU & Melt (Store Buy Back). You can do this from the RSI Pledge Store from the Ship Upgrades Button.
Don’t have to apply those CCUs immediately and you can melt them and buy them back to.
Upgrading a ship will keep all the of the package the same OTHER than the hull of the ship that will change… so if it had LTI or a game package then you’ll keep that.
During previous IAEs there have been Warbond CCUs which give you a cheaper upgrade and sometimes LTI (Lifetime Insurance)… look out for these as chaining some of these together can net you huge discounts if you want a more expensive ship.
LTI is just supposed to be a minor perk, as all ships in the IAE come with at least 10 years insurance anyway. It’s not something I would worry about, when the game goes live Insurance will be important but should be available for a relatively minor amount of credits in game and LTI probably won’t cover customizations to ships anyway…
Getting the Most Out of the IAE
A common tactic is to buy and Hold a Ship until it’s Flyable say like a (BMM) then upgrade it… because BMMs used to be $250, creeping up in value, they are now $600 and I would expect them to settle between $800 and $1000 personally when the ship is flyable.
Ships are at their “cheapest” during concept sales and as they get closer to flyable they get more expensive. REMEMBER THO YOU CAN GET THEM IN GAME.
I pretty much never buy ground vehicles with real money as you can get them in game pretty cheap.
Please bear in mind this is some advice of what I do… and CI could I suppose change their terms and they way CCUs are done in the future… CI don’t really want players constantly changing their minds with what ships they have, that isn’t really the intended use for the system.
If you want a refund I believe there is a pretty good 14 day policy from time of purchase…
For those of you looking for limited hull ships like the mighty Idris Frigate or Javelin Destroyer, you can find these sold in waves during their appropriate manufacturer days.
There is an FAQ coming out later on Thursday that will have the full details.
But typically they are sold in 3 waves at 4pm, midnight and 8am UTC again on their appropriate days.
Schedule – Remember although there is a new manufacturer every 24 hours, each will be there for 48 hours… I’ll give you the manufacturers and some ship highlights:
18th November is Drake – Corsair, New Drake Ships, Krakens, Caterpillar & Cutlass Series.
19th Origin Jumpworks – 100 & 300 Series, 600i, 890J, G12 Buggy
20th Aegis Dynamics – Avengers, Gladius, Reclaimer, Redeemer, Retaliator, Sabres, Hammerhead & Vanguards but the Idris and Javelin will also be on sale. Vulcan, Nautalis
21st Aliens Manufacturers Aopoa, Banu, Esperia & Gatac – Merchantman, Talons & Vanduul
22nd Anvil Aerospace – Carrack, Hornets, Atlas Vehicles, Valkyrie… Maybe something new as well… Crucible, Liberator
23rd Argo, CNOU, GreyCat & Kruger – Mole, Raft, Mustangs, Vehicles & Snubs – as well as things like the base building pioneer and SRV
24th Crusader Industries & Tumbril Landsystems – Ares, Hercules, MSR, Nova Tank & Cyclones. As well as the Genesis and Rangers, Spirit Series (which I love)
25th MISC – Freelancers, Reliants, Hull A (And rest of Hull Seires), Prospector, Starfarers & Razors, mighty science endeavor, Expanse Refiner and Odyssey explorer.
26th RSI – Auroras (least fav ship I think) Constellations, Scorpius, Mantis, the Persues, Polaris, Orion,
Apollo… maybe something new too.
27th Best In Show where the new Ship Showdown skins will be shown off and players that have a Carrack, C8X Pisces, Scorpius and/or a MSR will all get those skins and some flair for free.
28-30th is the finale, where you can rent any ship from terminals at the expo hall.
We will be covering each day of the Expo on the BoredGamer Channel!