Forgive me for creating another CCU post, but I felt that this particular issue needed its own thread. Many people have pledged enough money to gain access to one of the game's $350 "whales". These ships are the Carrack, Reclaimer, Crucible, Hull D, Endeavor, and most recently, the BMM. Many can only afford/justify pledging for one of these ships. The questions is, which one? Should I choose the Carrack and become a famous space explorer only to find that after the first month everything of note has already been discovered? Maybe I should invest in the "Claw" and rip apart derelict ships and become a wealthy salvage tycoon, but wait, it turns out finding anything to salvage takes hours and the actual game-play ends up being about as exciting as being a real life garbage collector. I could become a long haul trucker instead, make piles of credits in my Hull D, but what if Star Citizen ends up becoming Pirate Citizen, and all I am is an expensive loot pinata for others. The Crucible sounds like a safe bet, but what if the only way to actually make a profit is to first harvest metals with a Prospector or Orion that I do not have and salvage additional spare equipment with a Reclaimer. Ugh, should have picked up the Reclaimer after all, but then again, I've head that people are making a killing growing stuff in their Endeavors... The point is, until we actually see these $350 concept ships in game, nobody really knows how effective, fun or useful they will be. For many, an AI crew plays a vital role with these ships. How effective will they be? How many crew members can we hire? How much will they cost? Nobody knows. Some people see these ships simply as credit makers, economic tools used to grind credits for larger fleets and/or pay for repairs and fueling of their other ships. How much these ships can earn means more to them than their roles. So, how do these expensive ships stack up to one another? Again, no idea. Each of these ships will also have vastly different play styles, many of which have been hinted at, but none have been fully fleshed out. Are some more engaging than others? We are in alpha and honestly, these ships are not even that far along. Developing Star Citizen has taken a lot of time and is is going to take a lot more. None of these ships are in game. None of their gameplay elements have been released. I for one, am fine with this. Development takes time, and I am willing to wait to choose between these whales at a later date. The $0 CCU allows us to do that. Someone can pledge for one of these ships, knowing that when they are actually released, they can "kick the tires" and see which one is right for them. We will have firmer specs to review, be able to take it for a test flight, try out the unique gameplay, and then make an informed decision. Before this week, the $0 CCU allowed us to chose between these "space whales" after they actually entered the game. Now, we are being asked to choose in the near future, likely before any of these ships are even hanger ready. Pick the wrong one and there is no going back. Not unless you want to melt it and lose LTI (which may or may not be all that important, again it is too early for any of us to know). How many people decided to pledge for one of these ships because they thought they could choose between them after they left concept? If the goal of removing the $0 CCU is to stop people from exploiting the grey market, then make all CCUed ships non-giftable. If the servers cannot handle over a million unused $0 CCUs, then limit us to 5, 10 or 20. As far as trying to know which ships/roles people want to play, that is going to be impossible as long as there are 1.) New ships/roles coming up for sale, 2.) We can still melt ships, and 3.) We see how engaging these ships and their attached gameplay actually are. Until then, there is no way to fully know which ships/roles people are going to play. I feel that designers would get better data if they put up a site wide poll asking people to rank each role/ship type, but then again, we have already did this several times when we voted on concept ships back when there were stretch goals. If the decision remains to end the $0 CCU, all I ask is that you wait to do so until after these "space whales" are in game.