Traveller, The Rise of Empire: A Naval Design, Procurement and Command Quest

Which of the four choices does the force prefer? Switch to the HSWS
Please select up to 3 of the 10 proposed designs to move forwards to the next round, in the following format: Draft 2, 6 and 9

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Welcome, Ladies, Gentlemen and Others to the Home Space Warfare Service. We believe that this new name will properly encapsulate the responsibilities of our force, will recognise the task set to us by the Citizens Council and will be understandable as and when we encounter strangers out in the depths of the void. It also solves the problem of re-designating every ship in the fleet, as we can maintain them as 'Home Space Warfare Ships' or 'Home Space Logistics Ships' for the time being. However, the question of our new naval ensign, our new patch emblem and our new hull marking are still waiting in the wings:
- Design 1 fits the criteria of 'every child in Home could draw it' but is otherwise somewhat flat.

- Design 2 represents the many responsibilities of the HSWS and the protections offered by the fleet.

- Design 3 is an orbital diagram at its simplest, and will encourage children to learn what a spirograph is.

Which of the above will be our new ensign and emblem?
[ ] Ensign 1
[ ] Ensign 2
[ ] Ensign 3

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New Construction, New Plans - 05y00m00w
Much has happened in the last few months, in terms of fleet capabilities. The first two segments of the Deep Hope station have been completed and are in transit to the sector 'North' of Home. The fleet logistics ship, all 4,000 tons of her, is having her last plates and systems fitted and is preparing to have her reactor fired for the first time. Our cruisers continue to shuffle in and out of S'Taxu and now occasionally one will make a visit to Xyri as well, simply to check everything is still nice and peaceful. Finally, the Deep Space Surveyors are completed, readied for service and prepared for long range, deep space missions out of contact from the rest of the fleet.
The ship is an attempt to cram as many crew comforts as possible into a very small vessel which creates some interesting contradictions. The only showers are in the gym, and it's expected that water will be rationed for much of the mission time. At the same time, the ship has a gym, as well as an open plan commons area cum mess hall. All of this is packed into the upper deck, away from the engineering spaces, the massive observatory that takes up the entire forwards sections of the ship and the stores that hang underneath the sleek little scout.
There are, however, questions about how to best utilise these new scouts. With two deep space scouts (capable of 2-out-2-back) and two short ranged exploration ships (capable of 1-out-1-back) the fleet has the capacity for a far greater depth of search than previously possibly, a capacity that will only grow once the Flotilla Logistics Ship is in service. With so much unexplored space available to us, we must work out how best to utilise these scouts for the future of our system, our polity and our Service. Consider the following map:

- Numbered systems have been entered by our ships and thus are known to us in terms of contents.
- Light grey systems can be reached by our Interstellar Surveyors and are thus far un-scanned by deep space research platforms which may reveal additional information.
- Dark grey systems can only be reached by the Deep Space Surveyor utilising a full load of drop tanks, but can be scanned from a known or light grey system.

How are we going to go about charting efforts?
[ ] Conduct short ranged scouting and long-duration missions in the light grey sectors to assess details about the more distant sectors.
[ ] Conduct deep penetration jumps into the outer reaches of unknown systems in order to gather broad spectrum data as soon as possible.
[ ] Combine operations, with IS ships jumping into light grey sectors and DSS ships jumping into dark grey systems to cover ground quickly.
[ ] Other - write in.

I am imposing a 2 hour moratorium. Vote opens at Jul 31, 2024 at 11:00 AM