Freelance Traveller wrote:
> I'm not talking about the typical Traveller, who's read the Black Books
> and knows the difference between a Jump Drive-B and a Jump Drive-D and
> when to put one or the other into a ship. I'm talking about e.g., nobles
> who "have people who know that stuff; I just need...". Without going
> into fittings and decor, just figuring basic space allocations and
> performance, what does the Naval Architect's sales rep need to be told
> by the customer about the ship?
>
> Right off the top of my head, I see the customer as needing to bring the
> following info to the sales desk:
>
> 1. Jump performance
> 2. Maneuver performance
> 3. Number of staterooms
> 4. Required cargo space
> 5. Additional Common space
>
> Specialty areas (e.g., the animal holding areas of the Safari ship)
> would be classed as Additional Common Space for this discussion; things
> like the Bridge and fuel storage are automatic, and not specified by the
> customer unless the customer specifies (e.g.) "It has to be able to make
> two jumps without refueling."
>
> What else is Sales Guy going to need to know before handing a spec sheet
> to the Naval Architect for plans to be handed to the yard?

Much depends on the ship design sequence in use.

For ships designed using extremely detailed ship design sequences such
as FF&S or FF&S2, the variables include everything from hull
configuration (which affects both surface area [with cascading effects
on armor mass and available area for both EM antennas and power plant
radiators, among other surface area needs] and overall length [crucial
when building a spinal mount]), to life support duration and quality, to
desired automation level, to expected mass of a given volume of cargo. A
prospective customer would need to provide parameters for all these
variables, of which I've only mentioned a few, for a naval architect to
work out a design that meets the customer's specifications.

OTOH, the LBB2 and LBB5 design sequences abstract many of the details
called for in FF&S/FF&S2 designs, so the five items mentioned in the
original post may well be *nearly* enough guidance for the naval
architect to begin designing the desired starship.

Why do I emphasize "nearly" in the above sentence?  I do so because one
factor is missing:

What is the intended *function* of the customer's desired starship?