I realize this is probably an obvious variant. The ISC have only one survey ship and that is their standard survey cruiser. All other empires have survey ships based on their CL, CA and NCA hulls to include survey carriers. This puts the ISC at a slight disadvantage.

By Gary Carney (Nerroth) on Friday, July 25, 2014 - 09:45 pm: Edit

In terms of providing additional survey hulls to the ISC, perhaps a further option could be to do an NSR variant of their war cruiser? Which, in turn, might be converted into an NRV, if such a class was deemed necessary.

Between those two options, the standard SR, and the proposed SRV, that could expand the range of survey options for the Concordium significantly. (And perhaps be supported background-wise by the influence of the inquisitive Q'naabians, though there'd be plenty of exploration-minded citizens from the other ISC member species also.)