I am interested in what others are thinking in this area.
It seems to me that survey groups have three more-or-less necessary roles that must be filled, and several other "optional" roles:
1. Jump capability
2. Geo survey capability
3. Grav survey capability
the optionals are:
4. Courier
5. warship escort
My question is, how do people usually fill these roles in their survey squadrons? Has anyone ever tried to build a multi-role survey/jump ship? Theoretically, one ship could fill all three of the main roles.
My standard survey squadrons are generally composed of one jump ship, that is usually configured to do either geo or grav survey as well, and one to two each of grav and geo survey ships. No escort, no courier. I have not been satisfied with this lately, though. It always seems like either the grav survey ships are waiting, or the geo survey ships are waiting.
Also, while equipping the jump ship with survey instruments increases their utility, it also increases the risk that if there is something hunting the survey squadron, it will get all of them by default if it gets the jump ship. While the jump ship can be used as a courier, if it has survey instruments they are wasted, and if it is the only jump ship with the group, then while it is gone running back to base to report, the rest of the group is stranded.
I have played around with deploying seperate geo and grav survey groups, which seems to be more efficient once you've surveyed the systems adjacent to your home system, but I'm not sure it is the best way to do things, and it does impose a higher overhead in that it requires more jump ships
As for the 'optional' roles, a military escort fills an obvious need, but most of the time you can get away without one, as long as you are willing to take a risk.
The courier, though, is a role that has been bothering me more and more. After all, no information can get back to base unless there is a jump capable ship to carry it. This means either sending the squadron jump ship back alone, sending the entire group back, or building a small jump-capable ship to act as a courier. Unfortunately, a purpose-built courier is not only difficult, but dubious as well. Without higher jump engine efficiencies, small jump drives are problematic, and even if they weren't, is it a good idea to include a ship with the squadron that is too small to allow other ships to transit along with it? The alternative, though, is just including a second full-size jump ship and letting it act as courier and "warp-point guard", which is a waste of a full-sized jump-ship with survey instruments.
I am going to have to think about this situation for a while. Trying to fill all of the roles could end up meaning a huge survey squadron with limited survey capability.
Kurt