{"data":{"id":16753,"title":"Q&A: Crusader Mercury","rsi_url":"https:\/\/robertsspaceindustries.com\/comm-link\/engineering\/16753-Q-A-Crusader-Mercury","api_url":"https:\/\/api.star-citizen.wiki\/api\/comm-links\/16753","api_public_url":"https:\/\/api.star-citizen.wiki\/comm-links\/16753","channel":"Engineering","category":"Development","series":"Concept Ship Q&A","images":[{"id":7263,"name":"CRUS_MERCURY_Action_Shot_SM03.jpg","rsi_url":"https:\/\/robertsspaceindustries.com\/media\/dmnw0kgi8v8rjr\/source\/CRUS_MERCURY_Action_Shot_SM03.jpg","alt":"","size":6144169,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","last_modified":"2020-05-14T18:15:13+00:00","api_url":"https:\/\/api.star-citizen.wiki\/api\/comm-link-images\/7263","similar_url":"https:\/\/api.star-citizen.wiki\/api\/comm-link-images\/7263\/similar"},{"id":7265,"name":"Mercury_In_Flight_no_Boarder_SM02.jpg","rsi_url":"https:\/\/robertsspaceindustries.com\/media\/nkmutmhcjzr90r\/source\/Mercury_In_Flight_no_Boarder_SM02.jpg","alt":"","size":4528248,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","last_modified":"2018-09-12T18:26:54+00:00","api_url":"https:\/\/api.star-citizen.wiki\/api\/comm-link-images\/7265","similar_url":"https:\/\/api.star-citizen.wiki\/api\/comm-link-images\/7265\/similar"},{"id":7266,"name":"CRUS_Mercury_Promo_Cockpit_SM01_CC.jpg","rsi_url":"https:\/\/robertsspaceindustries.com\/media\/au4vit9icijpcr\/source\/CRUS_Mercury_Promo_Cockpit_SM01_CC.jpg","alt":"","size":4665003,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","last_modified":"2018-09-12T18:26:50+00:00","api_url":"https:\/\/api.star-citizen.wiki\/api\/comm-link-images\/7266","similar_url":"https:\/\/api.star-citizen.wiki\/api\/comm-link-images\/7266\/similar"},{"id":7267,"name":"CRUS_Mercury_Promo_Topdown_SM03_CC-3.jpg","rsi_url":"https:\/\/robertsspaceindustries.com\/media\/stfmavpv3v70zr\/source\/CRUS_Mercury_Promo_Topdown_SM03_CC-3.jpg","alt":"","size":3799495,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","last_modified":"2018-09-12T18:27:26+00:00","api_url":"https:\/\/api.star-citizen.wiki\/api\/comm-link-images\/7267","similar_url":"https:\/\/api.star-citizen.wiki\/api\/comm-link-images\/7267\/similar"},{"id":25004,"name":"source.jpg","rsi_url":"https:\/\/media.robertsspaceindustries.com\/w0shv2sobeaiw\/source.jpg","alt":"","size":927693,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","last_modified":"2019-05-09T20:01:24+00:00","api_url":"https:\/\/api.star-citizen.wiki\/api\/comm-link-images\/25004","similar_url":"https:\/\/api.star-citizen.wiki\/api\/comm-link-images\/25004\/similar"},{"id":26482,"name":"Shipdetail-Concept-Bg_bw.jpg","rsi_url":"https:\/\/robertsspaceindustries.com\/media\/c2ae7q1c7cg63r\/source\/Shipdetail-Concept-Bg_bw.jpg","alt":"","size":1111159,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","last_modified":"2017-05-24T19:35:00+00:00","api_url":"https:\/\/api.star-citizen.wiki\/api\/comm-link-images\/26482","similar_url":"https:\/\/api.star-citizen.wiki\/api\/comm-link-images\/26482\/similar"},{"id":38062,"name":"source.jpg","rsi_url":"https:\/\/media.robertsspaceindustries.com\/huwhfjtdvra4r\/source.jpg","alt":"","size":3377215,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","last_modified":"2025-03-21T15:18:25+00:00","api_url":"https:\/\/api.star-citizen.wiki\/api\/comm-link-images\/38062","similar_url":"https:\/\/api.star-citizen.wiki\/api\/comm-link-images\/38062\/similar"}],"images_count":23,"translations":{"en_EN":"Q&A: Crusader Mercury\n\nFollowing the launch of the Mercury Star Runner from Crusader Industries, we took your top voted questions to our designers in an effort to get you more information about this recently revealed data runner.\n\nIf you haven\u2019t watched the recent Ship Shape on the Mercury, you can do so here. We also sat down with the developers behind the ship in a special Townhall Q&A, LIVE from Gamescom which you can watch here.\n\nSpecial thanks to John Crewe and Todd Papy for taking the time to answer questions.\n\n\nWhat are the differences in scanning between a ship like the Terrapin and the Mercury? Are they similar enough that a Mercury can be fitted to perform a Terrapin\u2019s role equally well, or better?\nDedicated scanning ships, or ships equipped with dedicated scanners are built around that gameplay, which is not what the Mercury is built for. The Mercury\u2019s scanners are only good enough to intercept local communications, rather than scanning of unknown areas or picking up low signatures at distance like the Terrapin can. The Terrapin, when crewed effectively, will always surpass the Mercury in terms of scanning efficiency. Think of the Mercury as a hybrid cargo ship, between freight and data.\n\n\nConsidering its weaponry and supposed light armor, shouldn\u2019t the Mercury be faster than the Cutlass or Vanguard, which are armored and have more firepower? To follow up, the Mercury is considered to be fast, but the stats shows us it\u2019s not much faster than a Freelancer. Can we expect the speeds to be adjusted?\n\nAs always, all stats are subject to change and if we find out during production the Mercury isn\u2019t fast enough to fulfil its role we\u2019ll adjust as necessary. Generally as ships get larger they get slower in the current design, so as the Mercury sits in between the Freelancer and Cutlass, it currently sits in between their speed ranges, although there are a whole host of parameters aside from top speed we use but don\u2019t show to adjust their handling characteristics.\n\n\nMentioned in the design notes for Electronic Warfare, the Drake Herald will have a dedicated e-war suite. Will the Mercury follow this data-running trend and also have e-war capabilities?\nHaving a dedicated e-war suite was not part of the original design for the ship and at this time is not being considered for addition, instead leaving the functionality on other ships such as the Herald and Sentinel. However, a dedicated e-war suite is not a requirement for data hacking.\n\n\nWill the Mercury enter the ship pipeline soon and serve as the template for the larger Crusader ships?\nKeep an eye on the roadmap for more information on when this ship will enter production. The design work done on the Star Runner and Starlifter will both be used as reference for the larger ships, such as the Starliner.\n\n\nIs the Mercury expected to be able to fit through Small Jump Points?\nJump point sizing and categorisation is still being worked out, but we expect the Mercury to fit through the same size jump points as the Freelancer.\n\n\nIs the back ramp the only entrance to the ship?\nThe back ramp is the only entrance to the ship, and it has no docking collar or secondary lift entrances.\n\n\nWhy only 3 beds and max crew of 3 when you have a pilot, copilot, and 2 turret gunners? Shouldn\u2019t it have 4 beds and be max crew of 4?\nThis was an intentional choice to make players choose between the roles. There is actually 5 distinct stations on the ship (Pilot, CoPilot, Scanning, 2x Turret) and we want players to react and choose what they want to do in various scenarios. Increasing the crew capacity means significant other knock-ons to ship design in terms of size and features, and we want to keep this ship relatively compact and focused.\n\n\nAs a \u201cversatile\u201d ship, will the Mercury have variants or modules to remove the data running equipment and focus the ship on a different role?\nThere are no plans to have any additional variants or modules at this time. The original brief was for a ship to do these two specific roles (cargo and data running) rather than be modular and changed into different roles.\n\n\n\nCan you give us a gameplay example of legal data collection vs illegal collection, ideally including both PvE & PvP scenarios?\nAn example of legal data collection in PvE would be a mission along the lines of scanning a certain location for information, such as asteroid composition\/density. Alternatively, you may recieve a mission to find specific player owned ships & their locations, which will need to be reported back the mission giver. Illegal data collection would be something more along the lines of intercepting sensitive information between two ships for PvE or intercepting and beating another player to delivery on an existing data running mission.\n\n\nDoes the Mercury have a bathroom, kitchen, dining table, gun rack and armor storage for all crew members?\nThe bathroom, kitchen, dining table and gun racks are shared between all crew members. Each crew member also has their own suit storage locker near their bunk.\n\n\nDoes the Mercury have an airlock for EVA, or will we need to decompress the entire cargo room to get out of the ship in space?\nThere is no secondary entrance\/exit, so the cargo room must be decompressed to enter or exit the ship in space. There is an airlock to the rest of the ship, and the turrets are sealed off to prevent further decompression.","de_DE":"F&A: Kreuzritter Merkur\n\nNach der Einf\u00fchrung des Mercury Star Runner von Crusader Industries haben wir Ihre am h\u00e4ufigsten gestellten Fragen an unsere Designer weitergeleitet, um Ihnen mehr Informationen \u00fcber diesen k\u00fcrzlich vorgestellten Datenl\u00e4ufer zu geben.\n\nWenn Sie die aktuelle Schiffsform auf dem Merkur nicht gesehen haben, k\u00f6nnen Sie dies hier tun. Wir haben uns auch mit den Entwicklern hinter dem Schiff in einem speziellen Rathaus-Fragebogen LIVE von der Gamescom getroffen, den Sie hier sehen k\u00f6nnen.\n\nBesonderer Dank gilt John Crewe und Todd Papy, die sich die Zeit genommen haben, Fragen zu beantworten.\n\n\nWorin bestehen die Unterschiede beim Scannen zwischen einem Schiff wie der Terrapin und dem Merkur? Sind sie \u00e4hnlich genug, dass ein Merkur angebracht werden kann, um die Rolle einer Schildkr\u00f6te gleicherma\u00dfen gut oder besser zu erf\u00fcllen?\nSpezielle Scanschiffe oder Schiffe, die mit dedizierten Scannern ausgestattet sind, bauen auf diesem Gameplay auf, wof\u00fcr der Merkur nicht gebaut ist. Die Scanner des Merkurs sind nur gut genug, um lokale Kommunikationen abzufangen, anstatt unbekannte Bereiche zu scannen oder niedrige Signaturen aus der Ferne aufzunehmen, wie es die Schildkr\u00f6te kann. Wenn die Terrapin effektiv besetzt ist, wird sie den Merkur in Bezug auf die Scan-Effizienz immer \u00fcbertreffen. Betrachten Sie die Mercury als ein Hybrid-Frachtschiff, zwischen Fracht und Daten.\n\n\nSollte der Merkur in Anbetracht seiner Waffen und angeblichen leichten R\u00fcstungen nicht schneller sein als das Entermesser oder die Avantgarde, die gepanzert sind und mehr Feuerkraft haben? Um das zu verfolgen, gilt der Merkur als schnell, aber die Statistiken zeigen uns, dass er nicht viel schneller ist als ein Freelancer. K\u00f6nnen wir erwarten, dass die Geschwindigkeiten angepasst werden?\n\nWie immer unterliegen alle Statistiken \u00c4nderungen, und wenn wir w\u00e4hrend der Produktion herausfinden, dass der Merkur nicht schnell genug ist, um seine Rolle zu erf\u00fcllen, werden wir ihn bei Bedarf anpassen. Im Allgemeinen, wenn Schiffe gr\u00f6\u00dfer werden, werden sie im aktuellen Design langsamer, so dass der Merkur zwischen Freelancer und Cutlass sitzt, er sitzt derzeit zwischen ihren Geschwindigkeitsbereichen, obwohl es eine ganze Reihe von Parametern neben der H\u00f6chstgeschwindigkeit gibt, die wir verwenden, aber nicht zeigen, um ihre Fahreigenschaften anzupassen.\n\n\nDer Drake Herald, der in den Konstruktionshinweisen f\u00fcr die elektronische Kriegsf\u00fchrung erw\u00e4hnt wird, wird \u00fcber eine eigene E-War-Suite verf\u00fcgen. Wird der Merkur diesem Trend folgen und auch \u00fcber E-War-Funktionen verf\u00fcgen?\nEine dedizierte E-War-Suite war nicht Teil des urspr\u00fcnglichen Designs f\u00fcr das Schiff und wird derzeit nicht f\u00fcr eine Erweiterung in Betracht gezogen, sondern bel\u00e4sst die Funktionalit\u00e4t auf anderen Schiffen wie der Herald und Sentinel. Eine dedizierte E-War-Suite ist jedoch keine Voraussetzung f\u00fcr Data Hacking.\n\n\nWird der Merkur bald in die Schiffspipeline gelangen und als Vorlage f\u00fcr die gr\u00f6\u00dferen Kreuzfahrtschiffe dienen?\nAchten Sie auf die Roadmap, um weitere Informationen dar\u00fcber zu erhalten, wann dieses Schiff in Produktion gehen wird. Die Konstruktionsarbeiten an Star Runner und Starlifter werden beide als Referenz f\u00fcr die gr\u00f6\u00dferen Schiffe wie die Starliner verwendet.\n\n\nWird erwartet, dass der Merkur durch kleine Sprungbretter passen wird?\nDie Gr\u00f6\u00dfe und Kategorisierung der Sprungmarken ist noch in Arbeit, aber wir erwarten, dass der Merkur durch die gleichen Sprungmarken passt wie der Freelancer.\n\n\nIst die hintere Rampe der einzige Zugang zum Schiff?\nDie hintere Rampe ist der einzige Zugang zum Schiff, und sie hat keine Andockmanschette oder sekund\u00e4re Liftzug\u00e4nge.\n\n\n\n\nWarum nur 3 Betten und eine maximale Besatzung von 3 Personen, wenn Sie einen Piloten, Copiloten und 2 Turmsch\u00fctzen haben? Sollte es nicht 4 Betten haben und eine maximale Besatzung von 4 Personen sein?\nDies war eine bewusste Entscheidung, um den Spielern die Wahl zwischen den Rollen zu \u00fcberlassen. Es gibt tats\u00e4chlich 5 verschiedene Stationen auf dem Schiff (Pilot, CoPilot, Scanning, 2x Turret) und wir m\u00f6chten, dass die Spieler reagieren und w\u00e4hlen, was sie in verschiedenen Szenarien tun wollen. Die Erh\u00f6hung der Besatzungskapazit\u00e4t bedeutet in Bezug auf Gr\u00f6\u00dfe und Ausstattung erhebliche weitere Nachteile f\u00fcr das Schiffsdesign, und wir wollen dieses Schiff relativ kompakt und konzentriert halten.\n\n\nWird die Mercury als \"vielseitiges\" Schiff Varianten oder Module haben, um die datenf\u00fchrende Ausr\u00fcstung zu entfernen und das Schiff auf eine andere Rolle zu konzentrieren?\nWeitere Varianten oder Module sind derzeit nicht geplant. Der urspr\u00fcngliche Auftrag war, dass ein Schiff diese beiden spezifischen Rollen (Fracht und Datenbetrieb) \u00fcbernehmen sollte, anstatt modular und in verschiedene Rollen aufgeteilt zu sein.\n\n\nK\u00f6nnen Sie uns ein Gameplay-Beispiel f\u00fcr eine legale Datenerhebung vs. illegale Datenerhebung geben, idealerweise unter Einbeziehung von PvE- und PvP-Szenarien?\nEin Beispiel f\u00fcr eine rechtliche Datenerhebung in PvE w\u00e4re eine Mission, die sich an der Suche nach Informationen wie Asteroidenzusammensetzung und -dichte an einem bestimmten Ort orientiert. Alternativ k\u00f6nnen Sie auch eine Mission erhalten, um bestimmte Schiffe und deren Standorte zu finden, die dem Missionsgeber gemeldet werden m\u00fcssen. Illegale Datenerfassung w\u00e4re eher etwas in der Art und Weise, dass sensible Informationen zwischen zwei Schiffen f\u00fcr PvE abgefangen werden oder dass ein anderer Spieler abgefangen und geschlagen wird, um sie bei einer bestehenden Datenverarbeitungsmission zu liefern.\n\n\nHat der Merkur ein Badezimmer, eine K\u00fcche, einen Esstisch, einen Waffenst\u00e4nder und eine R\u00fcstungsablage f\u00fcr alle Besatzungsmitglieder?\nDas Badezimmer, die K\u00fcche, der Esstisch und die Waffengestelle werden von allen Besatzungsmitgliedern gemeinsam genutzt. Jedes Besatzungsmitglied hat auch seinen eigenen Stauraum f\u00fcr Anz\u00fcge in der N\u00e4he seiner Koje.\n\n\nHat der Merkur eine Luftschleuse f\u00fcr EVA, oder m\u00fcssen wir den gesamten Frachtraum dekomprimieren, um im Weltraum aus dem Schiff zu kommen?\nEs gibt keinen sekund\u00e4ren Ein-\/Ausgang, daher muss der Frachtraum dekomprimiert werden, um das Schiff im Raum zu betreten oder zu verlassen. Es gibt eine Luftschleuse f\u00fcr den Rest des Schiffes, und die T\u00fcrme sind versiegelt, um eine weitere Dekompression zu verhindern.","zh_CN":"Q&A: Crusader Mercury\n\nFollowing the launch of the Mercury Star Runner from Crusader Industries, we took your top voted questions to our designers in an effort to get you more information about this recently revealed data runner.\n\nIf you haven\u2019t watched the recent Ship Shape on the Mercury, you can do so here. We also sat down with the developers behind the ship in a special Townhall Q&A, LIVE from Gamescom which you can watch here.\n\nSpecial thanks to John Crewe and Todd Papy for taking the time to answer questions.\n\n\nWhat are the differences in scanning between a ship like the Terrapin and the Mercury? Are they similar enough that a Mercury can be fitted to perform a Terrapin\u2019s role equally well, or better?\nDedicated scanning ships, or ships equipped with dedicated scanners are built around that gameplay, which is not what the Mercury is built for. The Mercury\u2019s scanners are only good enough to intercept local communications, rather than scanning of unknown areas or picking up low signatures at distance like the Terrapin can. The Terrapin, when crewed effectively, will always surpass the Mercury in terms of scanning efficiency. Think of the Mercury as a hybrid cargo ship, between freight and data.\n\n\nConsidering its weaponry and supposed light armor, shouldn\u2019t the Mercury be faster than the Cutlass or Vanguard, which are armored and have more firepower? To follow up, the Mercury is considered to be fast, but the stats shows us it\u2019s not much faster than a Freelancer. Can we expect the speeds to be adjusted?\n\nAs always, all stats are subject to change and if we find out during production the Mercury isn\u2019t fast enough to fulfil its role we\u2019ll adjust as necessary. Generally as ships get larger they get slower in the current design, so as the Mercury sits in between the Freelancer and Cutlass, it currently sits in between their speed ranges, although there are a whole host of parameters aside from top speed we use but don\u2019t show to adjust their handling characteristics.\n\n\nMentioned in the design notes for Electronic Warfare, the Drake Herald will have a dedicated e-war suite. Will the Mercury follow this data-running trend and also have e-war capabilities?\nHaving a dedicated e-war suite was not part of the original design for the ship and at this time is not being considered for addition, instead leaving the functionality on other ships such as the Herald and Sentinel. However, a dedicated e-war suite is not a requirement for data hacking.\n\n\nWill the Mercury enter the ship pipeline soon and serve as the template for the larger Crusader ships?\nKeep an eye on the roadmap for more information on when this ship will enter production. The design work done on the Star Runner and Starlifter will both be used as reference for the larger ships, such as the Starliner.\n\n\nIs the Mercury expected to be able to fit through Small Jump Points?\nJump point sizing and categorisation is still being worked out, but we expect the Mercury to fit through the same size jump points as the Freelancer.\n\n\nIs the back ramp the only entrance to the ship?\nThe back ramp is the only entrance to the ship, and it has no docking collar or secondary lift entrances.\n\n\nWhy only 3 beds and max crew of 3 when you have a pilot, copilot, and 2 turret gunners? Shouldn\u2019t it have 4 beds and be max crew of 4?\nThis was an intentional choice to make players choose between the roles. There is actually 5 distinct stations on the ship (Pilot, CoPilot, Scanning, 2x Turret) and we want players to react and choose what they want to do in various scenarios. Increasing the crew capacity means significant other knock-ons to ship design in terms of size and features, and we want to keep this ship relatively compact and focused.\n\n\nAs a \u201cversatile\u201d ship, will the Mercury have variants or modules to remove the data running equipment and focus the ship on a different role?\nThere are no plans to have any additional variants or modules at this time. The original brief was for a ship to do these two specific roles (cargo and data running) rather than be modular and changed into different roles.\n\n\n\nCan you give us a gameplay example of legal data collection vs illegal collection, ideally including both PvE & PvP scenarios?\nAn example of legal data collection in PvE would be a mission along the lines of scanning a certain location for information, such as asteroid composition\/density. Alternatively, you may recieve a mission to find specific player owned ships & their locations, which will need to be reported back the mission giver. Illegal data collection would be something more along the lines of intercepting sensitive information between two ships for PvE or intercepting and beating another player to delivery on an existing data running mission.\n\n\nDoes the Mercury have a bathroom, kitchen, dining table, gun rack and armor storage for all crew members?\nThe bathroom, kitchen, dining table and gun racks are shared between all crew members. Each crew member also has their own suit storage locker near their bunk.\n\n\nDoes the Mercury have an airlock for EVA, or will we need to decompress the entire cargo room to get out of the ship in space?\nThere is no secondary entrance\/exit, so the cargo room must be decompressed to enter or exit the ship in space. There is an airlock to the rest of the ship, and the turrets are sealed off to prevent further decompression."},"links_count":3,"comment_count":116,"created_at":"2018-09-12T00:00:00+00:00","created_at_human":"7 years ago"},"meta":{"processed_at":"2026-05-07 22:57:42","valid_relations":["images","links"],"prev_id":16751,"next_id":16754}}