The way I see it, the Combat Support Ship's mission is to aid, augment, or enhance missions undertaken by RC Ships. It's a wide remit, as I don't want to constrain designers. However, I'll say that direct analogs of historical Terran Naval Vessels might not read across well - USS Tarawa has been mentioned, but the RC is building the Leviathan Assault Transports for that role - the CSS shouldn't compete directly in that mission.
Does that help?
Eamon
--- On Mon, 29/11/10, DED <> wrote:
From: DED <>
Subject: [Traveller_TNE] Re: Suggestion for the next Nebula Award Design Competition
To:
Date: Monday, 29 November, 2010, 4:32
Eamon Watters wrote:
<snip>
So, depending on what people want - we can have a competition for a
Combat Support Ship* or a ship designed to directly help the people of
the Wilds, or both (consecutively, I guess).
* The CSS is a ship whose major role is to enable existing Coalition
naval assets to perform their missions more effectively and efficiently
- as defined by the designers, of course.
Let me know what you think,
Eamon
==================================
Sounds good to me.
I like what Roger had to say about the "pod" and all that. It reminded
me of the Hiver Utility Vessel from RCEG. But I'm wondering how its
mission will differ from that of the /Aurora/ or /Maggart /class Clippers.
\_/
DED