Banu Merchantman

[wastedXIII]

so iv got a merchantman and am woundering if I should upgrade to a polaris or nautilus?

[ChiefWarrant]

Big career change. These 3 ships won’t be in the game for quite some time. IMHO if you can wait longer, hold off on the upgrade. The BMM will undoubtedly go up in value and you’ll be able to take advantage of that price bump down the road. You get 3 loaners to play with, with the the BMM. HH and Polaris will sell again....and again....and....you know. 

[wastedXIII]

yeah iv been doing some reading around the web the last hour and I might keep the BMM and get the Nautilus as a upgrade for something else maybe a Connie. 

 

[Devil Khan]

The nautalis looks good on paper, but its roll of a minelayer is very small roll and tbh the number of mines is very VERY small considering. It may have 2 BFG Anti-cap ships, but it has paper armour and almost see-thru shield.

If you Get the CCU(s) but DO NOT APPLY THEM UNTIL 1. The ship is ingame and 2. You've decided you want to upgrade and change rolls. All ships are ingame for a period of time for free-flight upon release afaik.

Just heads up most ships will jump in price when close to release. Carrack was 350 now 600, The Orion was 325, now is 575 and so on. CCU can be better if you have the right ships at the right price.

[wastedXIII]

Thanks I'll keep that in mind, I'll probably get the upgrade but like you said hold onto it until later 

[Irres]

$450???

 

almost makes it worthwhile to buy my 2 year anniversary BMM back.

 

[Gremlich]

3 hours ago, Irres said:

$450???

 

almost makes it worthwhile to buy my 2 year anniversary BMM back.

 

indeed-o

[GRIZZ]

[Zepheris]

Ohoho, How different will it look from the concept art.

 

[Devil Khan]

At a guess, outside pretty much the same as the new image, but inside completely different 😄

[Booster Terrik]

you forgot to mention that it will probably lose the big turrets, be slow like a starfarer and have the shields of a connie 😂

[radoorid]

😒

[Danakar Endeel]

Hmmm, in that case if they do indeed plan to have it ready by the end of the year I might as well have a look. Initially I had upgraded a BMM to an M2 but found that to be a massive disappointment so I asked Support to undo that CCU for now but place it back unapplied in my hangar. As it was still in PTU testing at the time and CIG was still gathering feedback for it they granted my request as a one-time courtesy.

So now I have a BMM, a CCU to an M2 as well as an old CCU to a C2 from back when the BMM was still $350.

Let's see which one will be worth it for me.  

[Morgen Black]

Oh snap!  The Banu Merchantman just rose again from $450 to $500 during Alien Week.  That is a nice upgrade from the original price of (Edit) $250.

MB

[JoonYoungK]

It was originally 250. It’s gotten quite the price hike

 

edit: Warbond sale has it at 450 still.

[Booster Terrik]

It should probably be even more expensive but then CIG wouldn't make any money from selling CCUs to ships like the Polaris, Nautilus, Hammerhead, etc. Always make sure there is a lot of $ room between successful ships so you make more money on CCU's 😋 I have 1 BMM with LTI and CCU's and buybacks for a few others. I love this ship but I cringe in hesitant fear when I think what CIG might do to it in the next few months.

I always thought that I would never melt my Phoenix but I can't say I am very happy with what CIG did with the Connie. I hope the BMM doesn't suffer the same fate ... 😪

[Devil Khan]

The pricing is insane. For everything even mugs a plain white with a brand logo cost around 30! The ships are priced way too high. 40-60 for just the bare bones starter ship. Of course there is no practical design eg the simple exiting from the ship carrack, starlifter, reclaimer etc etc. 

Yes, I am guilty for buying so many ships. I remember back in the kickstarter days I said "only the one ship will do me fine". Yeah that didn't last long. Anyway I have my MM, I mean I have the right to play with it but not truly own it.

<end rant>

[Danakar Endeel]

On 6/13/2021 at 1:20 PM, Devil Khan said:

The pricing is insane. For everything even mugs a plain white with a brand logo cost around 30! The ships are priced way too high. 40-60 for just the bare bones starter ship. Of course there is no practical design eg the simple exiting from the ship carrack, starlifter, reclaimer etc etc. 

Yes, I am guilty for buying so many ships. I remember back in the kickstarter days I said "only the one ship will do me fine". Yeah that didn't last long. Anyway I have my MM, I mean I have the right to play with it but not truly own it.

<end rant>

Yeah, regarding mugs you're much better off just finding a printshop in your own country and get them to make custom mugs for you. I also doubt those official CIG mugs are of any high quality either as sadly most of their stuff is often ordered from the cheapest manufacturers they can find in China.

I ordered these from Vistaprint in the Netherlands years ago and they are still in perfect condition even though I've been using them for quite some time.

 

On topic for the Merchantman I'm glad Customer Support wanted to help out and removed the "Merchantman-to-Hercules M2" CCU I had applied prior to the ships going live. When I saw that CIG had replaced the mess hall on the upper level of the M2 with jumpseats I just did not want it anymore and luckily CS was willing to separate it as it was still in PTU with a feedback thread going on. The M2 just doesn't make any sense as it feels like a half-baked A2. Notice how there are 8 escape pods and 8 armor storage cabinets on the M2 even though it has 3 crew stations and 12 jumpseats. Meanwhile the A2 has a crew of 8. So yeah, that M2 is just half an A2 with the cargo bay of the C2 (but artificially reduced). 😒

But now I am happy to own a Merchantman again and I'm not going to bother with a C2/M2. I got my Merchantman for only $165 total thanks to a CCU-chain with lots of Warbond CCUs and an old "Warden-to-Merchantman" that was still in my inventory. I think I will hang onto my Merchantman. With any luck it will go up in price again to maybe $600 once it is finally released and maybe I could then get a CCU to a Nautilus or Perseus. I definitely wouldn't mind getting one of those for under $250 total spent.

[Devil Khan]

It was possible to get it from ccu 225 😁

[Danakar Endeel]

On 6/14/2021 at 9:11 PM, Devil Khan said:

It was possible to get it from ccu 225 😁

Yeah, CIG gave us a lot of ways and tricks to get lower prices as their "$0 Removal Script" didn't work properly (and even removed CCUs that people paid money for) so they never bothered running it again. Now with those reduced Warbond CCUs you can make some nice chains to reduce the total money spent; especially if you can chain several steps.

So yeah, I'm definitely going to hang onto my $165 Merchantman for now and see how high it will go. Originally I was planning to use a "Carrack-to-Nautilus" CCU and "Carrack-to-Perseus" CCU but then I'd have to buy back my last two UEE Exploration Packs. Now I might be able to get either a Nautilus or Perseus and would only have to buy back one of my UEE Exploration packs.

(which is great for me because I have to pay 21% VAT, so my $495 UEE Pack costs me $600!) 😒

[Devil Khan]

Think it's 23% for me. They're many overpriced ships anyway. However it really urks me when they killed the LTI before the ship was released.

Anyway, CIG really want to charge big whales and forget the rest of us and yeah. I'm one of them 😑. MerchantMan should make an interesting ship whether it will have huge cargo or just plenty of "shop fronts" I like it. It's a shame that they had to make it planetside landable.

[Star Lord]

Next to the star runner - BMM has been my the ship I have been the most excited to see ever since this concept image! 

[Booster Terrik]

Holy mother of the Banu, the BMM just revealed at citizencon looks like it will not disappoint, I think I might owe RSI an apology 😉 big ass S8 front guns, decent turrets, point defense turrets, a hangar for the defender, shops, a ground vehicle hangar, what more could we want? It is frickin’ big but I love it, although I don’t see the need for the folding wings.

[Irres]

I must admit I am a little excited with the new JPEGs. 😊

[Fleischwolf]

Hey guys, its been a while.

Just saw the BMM and how its likely going to become an enormous ship with a likely enormous price tag.

I have a Warden LTI buyback for $250 credit. I also have a $0 CCU to turn the Warden in to the BMM for $0.

Is this something to consider?