PF I don't think anyone else did.
The Repair Tug was my bright idea to Val when I first started emailing him. He liked it so much he bunged it in the mod pronto and got me working on other aspects. It was just coincidence that a Cotton Class supply ship was found on B5TECH.com.
The idea was to have a ship that could tow stranded vessels out of Black Hole systems. However the programme did not allow for this kind of action
so the only compromise was to have a ship that could repair even if badly damaged.
It would make sense for any space age race to have some means of rescue or repair for ships that are very expensive to produce. EA have the Cotton Supply vessels, but any large ship like the Carriers should also be able to serve this function although not to the same degree as the specialist.
Other races could simple modify an existing combat hull to this purpose. Advanced races like the Abbai and Minbari etc. would simply have one of their large battle cruisers modified to serve this roll, and leave it looking like any other ship so as to not attract undue attention or reveal it's vulnerability.
I'm sure that most EA war ships can link up air locks and tether to one another to act as an engine for the other. Even the fighters had a grapple design to allow them to piggy back, so to speak. Other races with less modular designs would have to be explained away some other way.
The Cotton Class could be made available to the lesser league races as a sort of lend lease, like the Sherman Tanks to the Brits in WWII.
IF: I'm sorry I can't take on the Abbai, limited PC time.
[ May 01, 2003, 21:43: Message edited by: Nomor ]