I've been following Star Citizen for a while now, but didn't pledge due to all the negative things I read/heard with regards to the high frequency of egregious bugs in the game. Recently when I found out about the IAE event and realized I could play the game for free, I decided to finally give it a try - The idea being that if I liked it, I'd pledge. This of course was the idea behind the event itself (to gain more players and crowd funding). I began playing the game and learning the ropes. I experienced a lot of frustration, 99.9% of which was due to bugs (as opposed to say, bad design or something of that nature) I found that I was really enjoying Star Citizen. So naturally I decided to pledge, and as an avid gamer since the original 8bit generation (I played my first spaceship games on the Intellivision) I felt pretty good about it. After a bit of reading and sifting through a lot of mixed and/or seemingly bias opinions I decided to get the Aurora MR for my starter ship package. I messed around with my Aurora a bit, and to my delight I found that I was more fond of the ship than some of the more powerful rentals I had access to during the IAE, because unlike those ships the Aurora was mine. That being said, I recognized the utility of using the free rentals in order to try different types of contracts not accessible to someone using an Aurora. I also understood that it was a good opportunity to make aUEC to outfit my Aurora, faster than I could do using only the Aurora itself. Soon I realized that I was making aUEC pretty quickly and that outfitting my Aurora might not be as wise as say... buying a better starter ship. My inclination to do this was also due to the fact that the starter ship I really wanted was the Aegis Avenger Titan. In fact, I've wanted that ship since long before I ever decide to play the game. It's the ship that inspired me to research the game more, watch more videos, etc. I even like the narrative behind Aegis as a manufacturer. So with that in mind, I started to focus on using the rental ships in order to earn the money to purchase my own Avenger Titan. As a new player I had to get over the learning curve, refine my personal key bind preferences, and get more of a feel for the game. Of course I also had to learn the work-arounds (if they existed) for the many, many progress annihilating bugs plaguing most of the mission types. Keep getting stuck in elevators during the 890 jump boarding mission? No problem. Just rent a free Cutlass Red from the IAE, and if you get stuck simply stow your firearm, press alt + backspace, and you'll respawn back at the ICU bed of your Cutlass Red (provided you remembered to choose it as your preferred spawn point). I thought this was kind of clever, and apart from times when missions were completely undoable, I was able to make what I felt was decent progress. By the end of the week I had earned enough aUEC for my own Aegis Avenger Titan, which I promptly picked up at New Deal in Lorville. I then used my extra earnings to outfit the ship with the components I felt were the very best. All things considered I felt pretty good about this, and was especially happy that when the IAE event ended I would have a really good 'starter ship' to continue my progress even without access to all those free rentals. I took my new Titan out to do some missions, and was very happy with its performance. About 2 and a half hours later, I was killed defending myself against a high crime stat player camping Port Olisar. "No problem" I thought. "I can just claim the ship and I won't lose any parts since I purchased it". So I go to the terminal to recover my ship. The ship is listed as 'destroyed', but I have the 'retrieve' option instead of the 'claim' option. I knew this was bad because I'd had this bug twice earlier in the IAE event and as unable to recover those ships, regardless of what I tried. Note that I have searched extensively for solutions and have tried all of the common work-arounds. I have: Logged out and logged back in. Logged in on a server in a different region (all of them). Flown to several different in-game locations to attempt a claim (but have always been given the bugged 'retrieve' option instead). Logged into my hanger (but can't see the ship). Attempted to view the ship on the trade console to try the work-around typically used to rectify the 'unknown' bug (but once again, can't see the ship). Died in-game (numerous times). Waited a couple days (at this point). Tried to view the ship in Arena Commander (it isn't visible of course). Attempted to actually use the 'retrieve' option and even run out to the hanger listed (yes it lists a hanger) only to find that the ship isn't there. It's sad how many times I've done that now. It seems as though the only options left to me are to simply wait and hope that the issue is resolved over time, or to character reset. Of course if I do that (despite what you may have read) I will lose my ship. Any anecdotes to the contrary are from people who purchased their ships with real money, not aUEC, and haven't realized the difference. There is one other option though. I could simply give CIG more money for the 'privilege' of having the ship listed in my account hanger. Then I could character reset several times a week like some people do, and all I'd lose is my actual progress. I'd get to keep the item (in this case a ship) that I did nothing to earn, other than fork over some cash, but not the ship I actually earned by PLAYING THE GAME. Obviously CIG has the means to tell whether or not a player has earned a ship in-game, yet deference is only given to those who pay more money. This is a bad look for CIG, and although I believe they have good intentions and are actually trying to develop an amazing game, I can see why so many haters have spread rumors that the game is a scam. Clearly something needs to be done about this since, despite being 'in Alpha' (as a production artist in the game industry for the last 19 years, this makes me chuckle), Star Citizen is nonetheless a game not a virtual trophy case for people who are less than responsible with their disposable income. Naturally I did my part and opened a ticket on the 'Issue Council', which has obviously been responded to already by several people with the exact same bug. Any thoughts on this? Any other work-around suggestions to resolve the issue? Anyone else see how this is a very bad first experience for a new player successfully courted via the recent promotional event? Are there any of you thinking of taking a long break from the game until these issues are resolved?