Thinking of getting a Merchantman

Jun 20, 2022
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diabolus_ex_machina
That sounds like you want a way to blame someone else if you buy a BMM, and it doesn't suit you. You need your own reasons, or it might not make you happy, and your money is going to stay spent.
I'm just thinking like, how is it going to actually work? I know it has shops, and I'd love to be an intergalactic shopkeeper, but what will I need to keep it stocked, is it for one person or an org, what's so awesome about it everyone seems to have one (apart from it's gorgeous and cool.)

There you go I edited my original post.
 
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Vavrik

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I'm just thinking like, how is it going to actually work? I know it has shops, and I'd love to be an intergalactic shopkeeper, but what will I need to keep it stocked, is it for one person or an org, what's so awesome about it everyone seems to have one (apart from it's gorgeous and cool.)

There you go I edited my original post.
and very expensive last time I looked.
If you can afford one, it's certainly an interesting ship, but expensive, and right now it's only sold in a game package that is available to those who are members of the concierge club.

Totally my opinion:
But it depends what you want to do in the game. Do you like combat? The BMM, Hull C, D, E, the Orion, and a few other ships I can think of are going to be combat drivers I think. They're going to need fleets of their own to support them, and to help protect them. Their owners aren't going to be doing a lot of combat other than trying to keep their ship and it's contents (stock plus people) alive. It depends where your interests are. And I promise you this, owning one or more of the ships I listed above are going to cause you to want to make a crap ton of friends at some point. I can't see a BMM lasting all that long before it needs a full crew, and a carrier or 2 full of support fighters willing to defend it.

Something else, you might also be able to find a friend who already has one, and manage their sales force... Or open your own shop on a Kraken, or open a shop on a base or something.
 

NaffNaffBobFace

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Sell me on it... why is it so good? Why does everyone have one? What will I have to do to use it/will I need an active crew? Should I get one, or just get other ships I want (600i, Scorpius, Redeemer, Vulture..) Any opinions welcome.
Why so good? Before the Kracken-Z or whatever its called, the BMM was the only ship with a specialist marketplace you could buy, sell and move cargo between ships with specialist facilities onboard, so its one of the top tier trading vessels.

Why does everyone have one? Would you believe when this concept launched many many years ago in 2013 before planet surfaces or playable parts of the Alpha game, it was only $250 which at the time was hugely expensive in terms of digital asset spend... Probably its that which makes it so prevalent, didnt go up in price until 2017... i dont have one, missed the boat on the BMM. I'd be surprised if it doesn't end up in the 890j price range.


What do i have to do to use/active crew? That is an unknown but it has been stated all ships can be piloted solo so you can fly it, but it is likely functional aspects will be spread across the ship so you could try to solo but it could take a lot of running from workstation to workstation doing tasks without other players to help. Automation with computer blades, or NonPlayerCharacter hired crew may be available in the finished game, but again too early to tell. I dont think they want big ships to be soloable and still as efficiant/effective, but personally i think that will depend on the playerbase. if no one takes their Capitals out for a spin because no one wants to crew them, something would have to be done or its a massive waste of potential play.

Should I get one or this other stuff? Those other ships serve a different role than the BMM. The Merchantman is more a travling tradingpost and home amongst the stars, a scorpius is a pewpewboom machine. What do you want to do in SC? Will the BMM help you do that?

A good piece of advice i got a few years back was if you like the look of a Capital ship consolidate your pledges and get it over many small ships, as those little ships will be much more attainable in the final game than a Capital Ship, but again, it depends on if you want a goal to play toward or have your home in the stars from the start and use it as your roving base rather than being stuck on planets and space stations etc

I see the BMM being a travaling comodities trader, buying cheap where you find it cheap and selling high where you find demand as it travels from system to system. You're in Terra which has planets covered in trees, buy up toilet rolls for pennies a pack, you arrive in Cathcart which has no planets let alone trees and you can charge five Credits a roll. Buy low, sell high and hold the stock while you wait for that perfect price.

Thats my vision of the BMM but whether thats what it turns out to be is up to how the mechanics are built out in the final game.

The above is mostly my opinion based on what i have observed and can recall and may not be 100℅ accurate/useful.
 
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vahadar

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Sell me on it... why is it so good? Why does everyone have one? What will I have to do to use it/will I need an active crew? Should I get one, or just get other ships I want (600i, Scorpius, Redeemer, Vulture..) Any opinions welcome.
BMM, Because Massive Matters. If that is not enough as a reason 😄
 

Raven_King

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Raven_King

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It could be fun being the proprietor of a department store in space, especially if they're relatively rare.

The BMM is clearly not the best choice for any of the professions that exist in game now. It's a bet on the medium-to-long-term future, a ship that was $250, is now around $600, and might be worth $1000 eventually - if you believe some of the hype (not sure I'd go that far...).

The 'shopkeeper' aspect of this ship is its main role, and clearly more of an aspiration than something we can evaluate now. Whether it is something a player would want to do depends greatly on whether the devs can design, implement, polish, balance and maintain a fun game loop that is interesting and profitable enough to keep players participating in it. I believe they can. But we haven't heard much about that yet, and it's likely years away from being finished, so I'm reserving judgement. Who knows - it might be great, it might be boring. Maybe you could take your BMM somewhere dangerous, with an escort, stock your various shops up with rare/valuable goods, then move somewhere much safer and highly-populated, park up, let the NPC shopkeepers have footfall from some NPC customers, and afk or log. Maybe you'll be making a reasonable profit while you sleep. Or, maybe that won't be how it works and you have to actively manage everything as a sort of mini-game. Speculation isn't worth much, right?

I just like the ship, a lot. It's huge, and from what we've seen so far it looks utterly beautiful. Arriving somewhere in one, you should feel like you're really making an entrance.

This ship is not primarily for combat, though it is well armed and supposed to be able to fight, but obviously it is not going to win against similar-sized military ships. Nor is it primarily about cargo hauling, though it can carry a very respectable volume of cargo. It could be good for the high-end passenger touring/transport profession when that's a thing. Maybe BMM owners need to turn up at in-game events (monthly pilgrimages, festivals or parties, at some some remote station on a moon) with just the right combination of rare commodities in stock for the travelers to buy? Maybe there will be commodities in the game loop that are low-volume, command a high profit margin and which you can only sell direct to NPCs, and not in bulk to a TDD. As a player-owned ship, I think it's a long-term bet on something that is possibly more useful for having fun and travelling in style in the short term, and a hypothetical retailer profession in the longer term, and less useful for min-maxing in any one profession that will exist in the short term.
 
Jun 20, 2022
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Ok thanks for all your input guys. I really like the sound of trading with a moving shop through the stars, although I have looked into it and I'm also very attracted to the Kraken Privateer. But maybe this is good endgame content to work towards? In the short term, for my cousin and me to play SC right now, I think the Scorpius or the Redeemer is a better buy. As for what I want to do in SC: I like a variety of things to do and don't stick to one type of activity, and I like relaxing things generally more than stressful activities.
 
Jun 20, 2022
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diabolus_ex_machina
I have never understood why anyone would want to play the role of a shopkeeper in SC. Why not just go play Farmville?

Can I please roleplay having root canal next please?

But it is purtiful with big guns.
I like combat, but not that much. I don't think I've played a single game where the focus is solely combat for ten years.
 

NaffNaffBobFace

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I have never understood why anyone would want to play the role of a shopkeeper in SC. Why not just go play Farmville?

Can I please roleplay having root canal next please?

But it is purtiful with big guns.
If thats your fun, thats your fun.

As SC has more mechanics than just FPS or Combat Flight Sim which can be and are whole games in their own right, there will be things you don't find attractive that others will, pulling in different crowds with different gratifications.

For example you could say the same of mining, and indeed traders and miners could say the same of combat. Why not just go play COD or Fortnite or League Of Legends? Why? Because they 'aint SC that's why :-)

Just dont go Combat roleplaying as Custer - That would not end well for you ;-)
 

Raven_King

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I like combat, but not that much. I don't think I've played a single game where the focus is solely combat for ten years.
You're in good company! I quite like PVE ship combat. But I enjoyed mining more than I had expected to. If you haven't tried it, try a bit of ROC mining with a suitable transport ship (a rented Cutlass Black works well, or maybe you have something suitable), see if you can earn enough from mining Hadenite to buy a Prospector, and then try kitting it out appropriately and mining for quantanium. This guide is great for that, and it's a very solid way to make money once you get the hang of it - which isn't hard.
 

Patrick Spaceman

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Imagine if you will...the level of kinetic energy released when ramming a smaller ship.
 
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BUTUZ

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I have never understood why anyone would want to play the role of a shopkeeper in SC. Why not just go play Farmville?
You say that but when I used to play Ultima Online there was something so massively satisfying about logging on the next day and checking your shopkeepers and finding that they'd sold out of bows and arrows etc. the fact that out of the hundreds of merchant out there they'd bought from BUTUZ.

It was a true player economy, if someone wanted to buy something, someone had to make it, an someone had to sell it. We won't get that with SC so it's agreeably less important to have a trade, and shopkeeping, etc.
 

Vavrik

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I have never understood why anyone would want to play the role of a shopkeeper in SC. Why not just go play Farmville?

Can I please roleplay having root canal next please?

But it is purtiful with big guns.
Why disparage people who want to do something different from you? I don't see why someone would only want to do combat in a game that has so much more to offer. It seems to limit their options, but that's their choice.
 

Dirtbag_Leader

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My take on this, the BMM WAS good because of how much ship you got for the price. At it's current-day price though, equal to that of the Carrack, the value-sentiment isn't near what it used to be, and it is no longer a ship that I would necessarily strive to have in my fleet. I CURRENTLY have one (that I got from a $10 CCU from an Aquila), but it's main purpose will probably be as just a stepping stone to a Polaris. I'm holding at the BMM level for now though under the assumption it will release BEFORE the Polaris, so I'll get to test it out for a while before continuing on up the CCU chain. But really at the end of the day, I feel that $600 worth of account funds is better used on a Carrack/Odyssey/Polaris than a BMM.
 
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Bambooza

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Why disparage people who want to do something different from you? I don't see why someone would only want to do combat in a game that has so much more to offer. It seems to limit their options, but that's their choice.
I agree, while I don't necessarily understand how one finds enjoyment in said activity I am glad there are those who do as they will create opportunities for lots of different play styles around them. From protecting/attempting to loot them to finding and selling rare items to buying said rare item without having to find someone who has it. As for myself I see the appeal of combat which is why most of my ships are heavy combat focused, but there is still the preceded idea that it will be fun to go out exploring or at times just sitting on the bridge of an Orion as it eats whole astroid belts and relaxing in discord.
 

Ayeteeone

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BMM and Kraken will not be the only marketplace ships. It's been stated several times now that a small food cart is on the list, and it's a sure bet there will be at least one in between.

It has also been said that an owner of one of these ships will be able to hire NPC's as shopkeepers. That still leaves the many crew billets to fill, and while it's likely the whole thing could be managed by just one player + a ship full of NPC's, it remains to be seen if that will be fun.

There are many ships in the game where this fundamental question applies. "What do I need in place to be able to use this one?"
 
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