Any Star Citizens out there?

@Bolththrower Been away for a few days so missed the change - are the top 2 packages now permanently available or is it time limited?

 

Yeah i just didn't want to hog 4-5 long posts here to create a wall of text that people would have to scroll thru. So i just posted a link to the whole thing.

 

What 2 packages are you referring too? The Mustang Delta is a limited item but its sale was extended due to the fact that when it was released all CCU upgrades were not possible. It will be on sale until January 5th. All other Mustang packs (Alpha, Bravo and Gamma) are permanent as its flyable in AC also the Avenger pack was updated due to the same reason.

Other than that no other ships are available (200 Idrai were sold + 5000 Aurora packs.) Paraphernalia got added some like a new SQ 42 t shirt and Consolidated Outlands Mouse pad + Second fleet keyring.

if you're referring to any other pack I'd need to know which one you mean.

 

@Bolththrower The big two packages... Completionist - Digital and Wing Commander - Digital which now are showing as unlimited but w/o things like the mile high club.

Weirdly Wing Commander only includes the VFG Industrial Hangar.

BTW are asteroid hangers not going to be available as you said as I note from that great transcript you linked it includes the line:

"- The reason Nyx was included in the first systems is because Nyx is where the asteroid hangars will be located initially."

If so I definitely want to keep my Pirate pack.

 

Keep meaning to ask about Hadean Drive Yards as trying to get a feel for them.

Are you really an engineering corp? (With Idris's etc)

Who are Endless Corporation as I can't pretend I know them and Eve is my primary game?

Is there that much of a link/similarity to Eve?

 

Ahh yes, those two. Yeah, thats due the fact that they first sold a few that had it and once they were gone you cant get million mile high club anymore as they dropped a number of 50 as the amount of "clubs" there could be.

 

@Michael Methinks "Dear Leader" is better to tell you how awesome we are. I man i could try but who better than the man who defeated single handedly the Clans @ Strana Mechty, eradicated WOB by himself and rules the Star League with a iron (bnit fair) fist.

As to who Endless Corp is, I have no idea what your even talking about. Perhaps again "Dear Leader" knows in all his wisdom something.

 

Your Hadean Drive Yards Star Citizen entry as it goes on about them and Eve...

I need to drop a question on hangers to the Concierge I guess.

 

Like i said that more "Dear Leaders" (@Michael ) path as its his history i was never part of it. I just do CITIZEN HYPE! You should join too

 

I know that there are going to be tweaks to the flight model, but as it stands the Aurora is a much smoother ride than the Mustang. I believe at the moment you can swap between the two for free without having to melt anything.... at least that was available as of a few days ago.

 

@Remarius

Endless Corporation was a Corporation in EVE Online before the game was even launched. Murray, the cofounder of HDY, and I were members of Endless Corp. Sort of like what is going on now with Star Citizen; there is no game and yet there is a culture and a lore, some of it community driven and some of it done by CIG.

Then, Murray was one of 12 or 15 people to receive ALPHA access to Eve Online and of course, since I worked with him, I was over at his house regularly checking out the development of the game. Endless was quickly becoming one of those MEGA Organizations where the numbers were so high not everyone knew each other. This wasn't really something that we were thinking we would enjoy.

Since we were both huge Star Wars fans and knew a lot about the EU and the lore of Star Wars we opted to take Kuatt Drive Yards and twist it around a little bit for EVE. Hadean was the name of an elite unit that I played in Neverwinter Nights (the original AOL ANSI game). We blended the two and thus HDY was born.

Yes, we will be an engineering corporation that has an Idris LOL. That being said, engineering isn't all that we are about. We will be traders, explorers, miners and cargo haulers. We even have a subsidiary company that was formed to allow those who have a more aggressive play-style to participate. The only thing that we won't support, openly at least, is outright piracy. Piracy can have many forms though and not all of them run around screaming YARRRR and trying to take peoples shit.

 

What are its goals/targets?

 

There is no "end game" for HDY. It is an economic Corporation. Its function is to generate revenue and to be the best "ship building" organization in the game. Right now any end-game goals are moving targets but not even CIG knows what all will be in the game.

A few goals that some people have expressed
- Build/buy a Javelin
- Outfit their military ships with military equipment
- Acquire more Idris ships (for those who want to do the Capital ship thing and aren't @Bolththrower )
- Acquire manufacturing node and turn it in to an HDY base.

I've been playing close attention to the economic side of the game and the developing economic mechanics. This will determine what is possible from a member management and corporation tax versus profit sharing perspectives.

We grew HDY, with the help of some very savvy and capable players, from a little Corporation of 10 or so people into a Corporation that had billions in assets. All done with a maximum player count of maybe 150 people (80 or so die-hard active players). In the early days there were some Alliances that couldn't even boast that kind of equity.

We aren't out to be "the biggest most powerful awesome uber bunch of awesome sauce in Star Citizen". We will sit quietly in the dark and collection billions and trillions of UEC doing business with everyone and anyone. Think Umbrella without a chemical weapons program LOL

 

Also to have a great and friendly community that help each other out and make new and good friends for life. With as little DRAMA as possible.

"Hadean Drive Yards, leave the drama @ the door"

 

Why stop at a Javelin?

In fairness unless you're the size of say Imperium I suspect you want to stop at the biggest ships you can log off in - as attractive as the thought of the Pegasus Escort Carriers "16 Hornets, 16 Gladiators Couple of Redeemers or Retaliators" is.

How military organised is the unit likely to be- relaxed or hardcore?

Where is its main base of operation likely to be in terms of security/safety level?

 

Exactly why we would stop with a Javelin. HDY will never be a "Oh look, we have 5000 people online at any given time of day". That is like saying "Well, we live in the same city so we are automatically friends". Just no.

HDY has two facets. There is the Civilian/Corporate side of things that will run with a CEO, a CFO and a BoD. Then we have an, as of yet, unrevealed PMC subsidiary that we haven't really fleshed out yet; the game mechanics aren't there. We just registered the Organization name and set it up in case it was ever needed/wanted.

As for location; that really depends on how CIG outlines the game. Will it be High Sec / Low Sec like EVE? Will there be Zones like other games? I would imagine Corporate HQ will be in an area accessible to all and yet still protected and branch offices will be in areas that are required for operations. I doubt we will ever be the "null sec" mentality player as our Organization will never be large enough to field 100 people online to respond to the call. Only time will tell.

It is still very early days.

 

https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/transmission/14433-VAT-Change-Announcement

And that probably killed a significant proportion of their future European funding. CIG just dropped the pretense we're donating and from 1st February all Europeans will pay 19-27% more than almost anywhere else in the world to buy an identical bit of data from CIG. Bearing in mind as a British tax player I'm already funding CIG via some extremely generous tax breaks I'm not very happy to put it politely, particularly as they gave us 11 days warning.

Suspect a lot of people will be flooding them with queries about whether you can gift packages from other parts of the world.

 

Yeps, that generally takes me out of the equation for anything but the cheapest ships,...

 

One thing i really don't get why they took the blame as this is a EU wide law that affects local (EU) and foreign (non EU) business the same way. Don't matter if you buy a digital product from the sates or EU they still have to as of the 1st of February add your country's VAT to your price no matter were the business is located. So even if CIG would not have started a International Ltd they would still have to tax all EU citizens with their country's VAT.

That announcement was poorly formulated and IMO was put out way way too late. Its not like they haven't knows about this for quite some time as this law announced to come into effect last year, to me it feels it was left to the "last minute to drum up business for their "surprise" sale they'll have next week. They could have at least come out with this right after the holidays to let ppl have some time to plan and save up money. To me it felt at least poorly worded/handled and a bit duchy (i have to put the blame on their new CM a bit sorry). And for now reason as its not anything CIG can do about as its a EU wide law that comes into effect on the 1st of Feb.

Over all this law is a absolutely brain dead and out right stupid law that will kill meany small businesses in Europe that have been able to thrive sue to sales over the internet. And as @Remarius said this will most likely diminish some potential backer money that could have come from European backers tho i don't think it will end it.

Now there area few ways you can avoid this:

A) Have a friend in a US states (not under digital goods sales tax), Canada or non EU country buy the ship you want for you and then gift it to you.
Pros:
- You get to buy the ship you want without a ~20% markup. (Depending on EU country)
- Flip a bird to the EU establishment and your greedy government.
Cons:
.- You will suffer transfer costs as you need to transfer the money for said ship to the buyer (paypal), if you're not brave enough/or trust them enough to give your credit card info..
- Your ship will not be further giftable as its been gifted already once to you.
- Dose not add to the amount of $$ you've bought for. (Only really for any person who seeks to get concierges service or vanity "hunt" for forum titles aka Space Marshal, Wing Commander etc.)

B) Buy before the 1st of February either CIG gift cards and convert them to store credit or buy ships that you melt for store credit
Pros:
- Should* exempt you're purchase from VAT as technically they have already payed them for the product you buy.(* no idea how they will implement this on their own system, will it automatically charge you were you are from depending on account settings and IP)
Cons:
- You have to put in money now (perhaps even considerable amount if you plan to buy some of the coming concept sale ships not yet released and not want to get taxed)

C) Change your RSI profile settings to example Canada and change the address to be Canadian (of you buy physical products get a Canadian "online" PO Box that then ships your stuff to you) change youre paypal to pay in CAD and use Canadian a VPN to be able to by anything without VAT.
Cons:
- You get to buy the ship you want without a ~20% markup. (Depending on EU country)
- Flip a bird to the EU establishment and your greedy government.
Cons:
- Lots of work to set up everything. A lot of hoops to go throe just to avoid VAT
- PO Box cost every month you have it + shipping costs

I'm sure they might be some other way as well but here are a few that came to mind.

One other thing that i find interesting with this is that this settles a big argument that has been going on on the forums since the start of the whole "pledge" campaign. Are we buying or pledging money support for the project?

After the 1st of Feb is clear that we are buying digital/physical products from CIG and that also opens them to EU refund/resale policy. Anything bought after the 1st of Feb. deadline is applicable to these laws/EU court rulings and therefore any EU citizen has a 2 week refund time on any digital product if its not to his/her liking, it also means that any EU citizen that buys (after the 1st of Feb.) a digital starship/ship package from CIG is in their full right to re-sell that product at any time. Meaning they will have to change gifting policy for EU citizen or they are breaking EU law.

This might create some problems for them down the line. It will be interesting how they deal with this.

 

Praying they re-offer the gladius with LTI and offer the capitals as that's all I need...