Running costs, crew requirement got me worried about the Merchantman

[Kenlee]

Hey Guys.

As many of you I have spent countless of hours thinking about what ships I wanted to invest my time and money in. As of now I have switched ships at least 20 times not only because I wanted to try them out, but mostly because I am an indecisive bastard who can't make up my mind. The thing that worries me most is crew requirement and running costs of ships.

At the moment i Own the Banu Merchantman+Defender but after hearing that the Merchantman will grow to 150 metres-ish, this makes me worried that despite the role and the sexiness of this ship, it might not be the right one for me simply because I am not sure that I will be able to run it effectively without having my friends to join me all the time and have a huge bank account saved up. Not only do you need people to join your ship, for longer and more dangerous missions you will even need escorts too. This means I would have to bolster an absurd amount of people just to go out and have fun with the ship - and it seems you can't always count on others to join you in your ship, as most people want to be their own pilots at least some of their time. I know theres NPC's but those will also require money.

I'm afraid that my Merchantman will be collecting dust in my hangar due to the running cost and very specialized missions that would require a lot of crew, time and money in order to be cost beneficial. This problem has haunted me to the fact that I might be melting it some day and dropping down a bit in ship size, nothing set in stone though because I do love that massive banu ship.

What are your thoughts on this? Do you have the same worries as me, am I being unreasonable for thinking that the Merchantman will be too much for me? Should I maybe melt and go for something else or maybe just wait till we know more? I am not in a hurry when it comes to melting anyways, but I could use some pointers.

 

[Gearen]

Test will cover the cost :P

Okno..... but will help

 

[AstroSam]

I've stated something similar here: https://testsquadron.com/threads/did-the-banu-merchantman-get-idris-sized-now-with-video.10506/page-4#post-179031

I think, if you own the Banu Merchantman, you *are* a merchantman, a 100% trader. Perhaps you'll need some kind of small backup vehicle like a Freelancer MAX for reasons of unplanned budget holes. But finally it is your gameplay intention which counts.
P.S.: you can sell it lateron ingame for then having a huge amount of money to buy some other good ships, ha :D

 

[Crymsan]

It does seem that current design philosophy is indeed for lots of crew hence lots of cost and yes escorts but not the fun kind. Partly I think this is to stop the game being so obviously pay to win or at least pay to get rich. I.e. the bigger ships can earn more and will have higher runnings costs but if it is well designed probably a similar percentage profit (which will therefore be larger). (This without any of the systems being in game so they have loads of room for tweaking). I therefore have some solo ships just in case I do need that option.

The game designers I think must allow that someone will have 1 ship but that it will be an expensive ship and they will have to find a way for them to be able to play from the start, it is not an easy challenge. (Maybe they will get round this with an initial loaner ship who knows).

You already have two ships the defender and BMM so you know already you can take the defender out solo and the BMM when you have a pool of money to play with. If the BMM can then not trade for more money the game is very broken (bad luck and decisions not allowed for).

 

[Kenlee]

I've stated something similar here: https://testsquadron.com/threads/did-the-banu-merchantman-get-idris-sized-now-with-video.10506/page-4#post-179031

I think, if you own the Banu Merchantman, you *are* a merchantman, a 100% trader. Perhaps you'll need some kind of small backup vehicle like a Freelancer MAX for reasons of unplanned budget holes. But finally it is your gameplay intention which counts.
P.S.: you can sell it lateron ingame for then having a huge amount of money to buy some other good ships, ha :smile:

Thanks, that actually makes a lot of sense. The only thing I need to figure out is, if I wanna be a full time trader or not. If I do decide that, maybe it would be wise to swap the Defender with the Freelancer****. I do have my doubts that trading will be 24/7 fun. So there's definately something to think about, luckily we have all the time in the world :smile: !

 

[A.Santos]

think we all been there, but no worrys
we are 12000 Strong and growing, so im sure there er a bunch of people that are willing fly escorts or take with you a trip on your Merchantman ;)

Perhaps you'll need some kind of small backup vehicle like a Freelancer MAX for reasons of unplanned budget holes.

True......
Thats the main reason i got myself the Prospector.
So my reclaimer will have the chance to collect dust in my hangar. :grin:

 

[Beerjerker]

I'm not so sure about the big boats either. These days, I'm lucky to get time to play a video game (for any period of time longer than a couple hours) once every few weeks. If I had a crew that depended on me to be skipper, I'm not sure I could commit time-wise to keeping them engaged and playing. That's the wall I always find myself running into in multiplayer games that take longer than an hour or two to play. Then games start feeling more like chores than games.

With so much of the game planned yet undeveloped regarding multi-crew, I bet we'll have plenty of time to test and see if we like how the crew mechanics (both NPC and player) play before we have to lock in our fleets.

Of course, I would expect to find volunteers for a multi-crew pick up missions easily in TEST (we're a friendly batch of miscreants).

 

[Dragonslaya54]

Hey Guys.

As many of you I have spent countless of hours thinking about what ships I wanted to invest my time and money in. As of now I have switched ships at least 20 times not only because I wanted to try them out, but mostly because I am an indecisive bastard who can't make up my mind. The thing that worries me most is crew requirement and running costs of ships.

At the moment i Own the Banu Merchantman+Defender but after hearing that the Merchantman will grow to 150 metres-ish, this makes me worried that despite the role and the sexiness of this ship, it might not be the right one for me simply because I am not sure that I will be able to run it effectively without having my friends to join me all the time and have a huge bank account saved up. Not only do you need people to join your ship, for longer and more dangerous missions you will even need escorts too. This means I would have to bolster an absurd amount of people just to go out and have fun with the ship - and it seems you can't always count on others to join you in your ship, as most people want to be their own pilots at least some of their time. I know theres NPC's but those will also require money.

I'm afraid that my Merchantman will be collecting dust in my hangar due to the running cost and very specialized missions that would require a lot of crew, time and money in order to be cost beneficial. This problem has haunted me to the fact that I might be melting it some day and dropping down a bit in ship size, nothing set in stone though because I do love that massive banu ship.

What are your thoughts on this? Do you have the same worries as me, am I being unreasonable for thinking that the Merchantman will be too much for me? Should I maybe melt and go for something else or maybe just wait till we know more? I am not in a hurry when it comes to melting anyways, but I could use some pointers.

Funny because I've done the same, cant decide what ship I want so I just switch them out every couple of months when a new sale comes out! I wouldnt expect the crew cost to be super expensive. The cost would have to be reasonable and based on previous things I've heard from CIG it sounds like the pay or cost of hiring would be dependent on the threat level of the mission. So no worries and see you in the verse!

 

[Havrek]

There will be some safe routes that will allow you to operate a bigger ship with a NPC crew. Will the profit be alot....no....but the idea is to let solo player be able to play. You can probably supplement that with picking up friends to make riskier more profitable runs. As for escorts I imagine that there will be plenty of Testie convoys that you can bootstrap on.

I'm also expecting to crew others ship on occasion and for those peeps to return the favor. If all that fails there is suppose to be a rental system....so rent it out. In the end I wouldn't sweat the upkeep and maintenance cost. Get the ship you want and there will be ways to fund it.

 

[Printimus]

Start small with a Freelancer (easy solo ship) and work your way up.

 

[Floating Cloud]

I pretty much stuck to small ships for exactly this reason, but I don't think that BMM owner's will have too much to worry about.

Yes you will need to pay for crew when running the BMM. That will be an ongoing cost, but you will be able to mothball ships for a nominal fee when you don't want to run it. There is no way that CIG would not be able to put that into the game as they will have to cater to the 99% casual gamers. Maybe they will do something funky like allow you to put an AI captain/crew in it and let it earn megabucks for you whilst you are offline, but I strongly suspect that they will keep it simple at least to start off with. I impulse bought the BMM as the concept appealed to me. I also have a prospector, DUR and Cutlass so that I might engage in a range of trades/activities, and I have no doubts that CIG will cater to this.

If anyone has any doubts then as a subscriber you may add questions to the next ask the chairman, or as a non-subscriber speak nicely to someone who is and they can do that for you.

The future is bright. The future is Banu Merchantman (but only when you want).

;)

 

[Printimus]

Besides, you have tons of Testies to slave around your ship, should be easy peasy lemon squeezy.

 

[PhosphorusForFun]

I plan on being something like an age of sail ship owner where I don't actually captain some of my larger ships but rather bestow them to someone who doesnt have one but wants to play it well. Splitting profits 40/30/30 - captain/crew/owner while i putter around in something else until my kids are more independent. Hoping this kind of playing would work out since MM, Reclaimer, and Polaris probably have good profit margins for their respective trades.

 

[Printimus]

I plan on being something like an age of sail ship owner where I don't actually captain some of my larger ships but rather bestow them to someone who doesnt have one but wants to play it well. Splitting profits 40/30/30 - captain/crew/owner while i putter around in something else until my kids are more independent. Hoping this kind of playing would work out since MM, Reclaimer, and Polaris probably have good profit margins for their respective trades.

Not a bad idea either.

 

[Dragonslaya54]

Besides, you have tons of Testies to slave around your ship, should be easy peasy lemon squeezy.

I plan on being something like an age of sail ship owner where I don't actually captain some of my larger ships but rather bestow them to someone who doesnt have one but wants to play it well. Splitting profits 40/30/30 - captain/crew/owner while i putter around in something else until my kids are more independent. Hoping this kind of playing would work out since MM, Reclaimer, and Polaris probably have good profit margins for their respective trades.

That would be a good idea. I dont have a any big ships (other than the freelancer) and would love to pilot one of the more massive ships. My main goal is to get a Polaris, that thing looks like a beast!

 

[Ammorn]

Did it get more guns? If not, then you don't need that much more crew. It's probably just bigger for a larger cargo capacity and larger nicer crew quarters and communal areas. They live in the ship, so I'd expect it to be big and comfortable since it's their home.

 

[Printimus]

That would be a good idea. I dont have a any big ships (other than the freelancer) and would love to pilot one of the more massive ships. My main goal is to get a Polaris, that thing looks like a beast!

Your mom looks like a wilderbeast...

 

[Kenlee]

I plan on being something like an age of sail ship owner where I don't actually captain some of my larger ships but rather bestow them to someone who doesnt have one but wants to play it well. Splitting profits 40/30/30 - captain/crew/owner while i putter around in something else until my kids are more independent. Hoping this kind of playing would work out since MM, Reclaimer, and Polaris probably have good profit margins for their respective trades.

Might aswell earn some income when you are not using it. Good point, haven't thought of that.

I Guess right now the best thing for me would to just be a patient little elf and see how everything works out. Can always start out with the Defender and make my way up to earn a Lancer ingame and start hauling that way. And then I don't have to spend more$$$ and have something to aim for at start. Untill then I should just hold on to my LTI's :D I bet when The Merchantman is released, it will look so damn beautiful that I wont be able to melt it. I like shiny alien stuff!

(Thanks for all ze replies everyone, much appreciated)

 

[Han Burgundy]

I have been worrying about this lately myself, and have had to shift the way I think. The BMM is primarily a mobile trade platform. That's its schtick, but you can use it for other purposes. Good cover for smuggling, its a mobile base that you can land on a planet and operate from out of, and it's EXCELLENT bait for pirate hunting. I plan to use it primarily as my mobile home in the stars that can carry all my shit with me. Will I sell to the passing trader from time to time? Sure, but that's not my primary use for the ship. It's simply home, and it's free to park in a crater somewhere for as long as I'd like.

 

[Dragonslaya54]

Your mom looks like a wilderbeast...

:cold_sweat: