What do you do with the Jump Tender during a survey?

[Michael Sandy (OP)]

You have a ship that is absolutely vital to getting the survey fleet home, but it is forced to sit idle for long periods of time, so what do you do?

1)  Have it go back and forth across the warp point every day or so, relaying messages if possible.

2)  Have it go off of the warp point and sit, drive field down.

3)  Equip it with survey instruments of its own, so it can join the fun.

4)  Have it employed somewhere else, hopefully remembering to send it back by the time the survey is completed.

5)  Other


What are good secondary roles for the Jump Tender:
1)  Warship (offensive)
2)  Warship Point defense escort
3)  supply depot
4)  Good sensors/scout
5)  independant survey ship
6)  Comm relay

How do you employ Jump Tenders:
1)  They always escort the convoys, so they always have to as fast as or faster than the fleet they escort.
2)  They are stationed at a warp point for long periods, allowing continuous communications and transits when convenient.

How big should the Survey Jump Tenders be?
1)  Small as possible, 75 HS.  Cheap as possible.
2)  Build them big enough to allow freighters that can transport a factory through, and build the survey ships big too.

I was not sure whether to put this in Ship Design or Tactics, but it goes to overall strategy more than just ship design, and strategic questions.  I figure an Advanced Tactical Command Academy will also deal with strategic questions, technology comparisons, good research paths, etc...

By building small jump tenders you can afford to use them as communications relays.  But they don't help with the economic growth part, except maybe allowing small colony ships and troop transports with Engineerig divisions to move around.

[Erik L]

Personally, I'd go with a combination of options 4 & 6. Scout/sensor/Commo. The sensors to pick up any new incursions into the system while the (presumably) unarmed survey ships do their work, and commo to pop through the wormhole to relay information back to sector/homeworld (assuming the next station in is occupied).

[wildfire142]

I tend to build them big so they can escort freighters while the survey ships do their work.

I'm thinking of trying out a design where they also have some survey instruments or act as a supply tender.

[Steve Walmsley]

I have started to go down the specialised route as the fleet gets larger. Survey Jump Ships have survey sensors as well as a jump engine, so they tend to be larger than the survey ships they escort, and take part in the various surveys. Jump ships designed to escort freighters have at least some cargo capacity (which incidently is a cheaper way of buliding a large jump ship) and jump ships designed to escort warships usually have some weapons.

Steve

[Brian Neumann]

I have been doing a sort of specialized design.  My survey jump ships are equiped with one each sensor, and the rest of their hull up to the maximum capacity for the jump engine (60 or 75) has been engineering spaces to allow for them to act as extra supply source on long survey missions.

My commercial jump ships are actually lightly armed with 3 10cm infrared lasers and a minimal point defense tracking installation (this takes a total of 12 HS, 3 each for the lasers, 2 for a gas-cooled power plant and 1 for the tracking system X4 speed, X.25 range) and has light shields.  The rest depends on the jump engine size.  If there is room I usually put one cargo hold and a tractor.  That will usually fill them out to 100 HS which is my standard size freighter and colony ship.

My combat jump cruisers are usually either designed for point defense, or as carriers.  Generally I prefer the point defense version as they are harder to hurt.  I have designed a couple for missle combat, but only if the fleet is mostly set up for missle combat anyway.

In total, I tend to have 3 classes of jump cruisers.  One at the minimum size for the current tech jump engine that handles survey work, and to which I also match my ammunition and supply ship sizes to.  The second is usually at 100 HS for my freighters, and the third at whatever the larger size warship tends to be.  I will also use the 100hs jump ships for military work if necessary.

brian