StarCitizen:Merchantman

The StarCitizen:Banu Merchantman is a trading ship capable of landing or docking and then inviting locals in to view what its cargo holds have to offer. The ship design, perfected by generations of Banu development, is intended to offer a combination of high speed and durability. While the Merchantman is less configurable than a StarCitizen:Caterpillar or a StarCitizen:Starfarer, there's still plenty of room to take the ship in different directions.<ref name="presentation">Template:Cite RSI</ref>

Specifications

Template:Note <tabber> Avionics & Systems= Template:Vehicle avionicsTemplate:Vehicle systems |-| Propulsion & Thrusters= Template:Vehicle propulsionTemplate:Vehicle thrusters |-| Weaponry= Template:Vehicle weaponry </tabber>

Pledge price history

Date	Pledge cost (USD)	Insurance	Availability	Sale
2013-11-20	250	LTI	Time-limited	2013 anniversary sale <ref>Template:Cite RSI</ref>
2014-11-22	250	2 years	Time-limited	2014 anniversary sale <ref>Template:Cite RSI</ref>
2015-11-21	250	3 years	Time-limited	2015 anniversary sale <ref>Template:Cite RSI</ref>
2016-11-25	250	4 years	Time-limited	2016 anniversary sale <ref>Banu Merchantman - Anniversary 2016. Archived 2016-11-25.</ref>
2017-04-22	350 (StarCitizen:Warbond - 300)	6 months	Time-limited	2017 Defender sale <ref>Template:Cite RSI</ref>
2019-11-28	350	10 years	Time-limited	IAE 2949 <ref>Template:Cite RSI</ref>
2020-06-12	350	6 months	Time-limited	2020 Alien Week<ref>Template:Cite RSI</ref>
2020-11-26	450 (Warbond - 425)	10 years	Time-limited	IAE 2950<ref>Template:Cite RSI</ref>
2021-06-11	550 (Warbond - 450)	6 months	Time-limited	2021 Alien Week
2022-06-16	600 (Warbond - 550)	6 months	Time-limited	2022 Alien Week
2022-11-21	650 (Warbond - 600)	10 years	Time-limited	IAE 2952
2023-11-17	650 (Warbond - 600)	10 years	Time-limited	IAE 2953

Gallery

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Development

The Merchantman was part of the 27 million StarCitizen:stretch goal in 2013, aiming to expand the game’s alien cultures. As with the StarCitizen:Khartu-al, the Merchantman helped introduce and define the Banu race early on before copious amounts of additional lore were developed for the species.<ref name="cl13368">Template:Cite RSI</ref>

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2013-11-11	Announced as a part of the $27 million StarCitizen:stretch goal.<ref name="cl13368"/>
2013-11-26	First concept sale <ref name="2013 Anniversary Sale">Template:Cite RSI</ref>
2019	Original concept was reworked to reflect the new styles from the Defender.<ref name="citcon2951"/><ref name="jpvdas">Template:Cite Jump Point</ref>
2021-05-05	Revealed to be in production and to be implemented in game with an allocated work schedule of 50 weeks.<ref name="RR2105">Template:Cite RSI</ref>
2021-10-09	Additional information about the state of reworked Merchantman is provided on StarCitizen:CitizenCon 2951.<ref name="citcon2951"/>
2023-06-26	Revealed to be demoted into the development backlog to prioritize capital ships such as StarCitizen:Polaris from StarCitizen:Roberts Space Industries. It was due to RSI capital ships costing less resources and more impactful to develop, as it has existing design kits and the created assets can be applied to several other RSI ships. While the Merchantman needs a lot of unique assets and there are less or no Banu vehicles in the pipeline. Due to its long development time, some key people that have worked with that are no longer with the company, with Merchantman having no existing guidelines, it will take significant time to restart the development process.<ref>Star Citizen Live: Invictus All-Vehicles Roundtable</ref>

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Credits=

Role	Contributors
Original concept	StarCitizen:Emmanuel Shiu (2013),<ref name="jpvdas"/><ref>Banu Merchantman on ArtStation</ref> StarCitizen:Michael Oberschneider<ref name="citcon2951"/>
Art	StarCitizen:Paul Jones<ref name="citcon2951"/>
System design	StarCitizen:Mark Gibson<ref name="citcon2951"/>

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Trivia

• In an StarCitizen:Inside Star Citizen episode on 2024-05-16, Vehicle Director StarCitizen:John Crewe stated that "When and where are the Banu Merchantman?" is the top 1 question being asked.<ref>Inside Star Citizen: Firebird is The Word on YouTube</ref>

References

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