Quote:As it's size is already comparable to (even though slightly larger than) heavy gunboats, the ship can turn into a hybrid of a gunboat and a cruiser - Cruiser shield and regens count, destroyer handling, heavy gunboat hull, a limited number of gunboat turrets along with a gunboat powerplant, as well as two special equipment mounts. This would give the ship a decent survival rate as well as defensive capabilities without making it an offense vessel, and allow it to be reclassified as a civilian gunboat (and so made available for use on any ID), while also keeping its role as a survey ship, and allowing it to be used as a "roleplay platform" for the researcher/explorer types out there.
I realize that this ship isn't supposed to be for fighting (and I can't say I've ever seen it used for that by anyone). However, cruiser size+handling + GB core+guns (which would be less than half of its current core) seems like a huge nerf that would make it pretty useless.
I would suggest, if possible, making its core somewhere between 600k and 1.4m, and leaving it one or two cruiser hardpoints, so that it can still mount a cruiser missile or two.