HOW TO FLY THE NOMAD BATTLESHIP:

The Nomad Battleship is a special ship.  I put it in because I think it is a beautiful piece of graphics work and has a lot of possibilties.  I hope I have exploited those possibities to the maximum.

The major problem in moving about with this ship is the fact that it is so large that it will not move through docking rings or trade lanes easly.  It takes patience to move this powerful ship into position before trying to dock with anything.  Sort of like getting an 18 year old girl in bed and then having it be worth the trouble.  OUCH! My girlfriend just hit me.

It is equipped with FOUR nomad thrusters.  I don't know how fast it will go because of the speed indicator limit of 999.  It surpasses this.  The engine will drive it at about 100kps and is really just for subtle manuvering.

ASTEROID AND DEBRIS FIELDS:  STAY OUT OF ASTEROIS AND DEBRIS FIELDS!!!!!  You can actually get stuck in them.  Then your only escape will be to have your friends destroy you and respawn! SO STAY OUT OF ASTEROID AND DEBRIS FIELDS. Thats the price of using this powerful ship.  REMEMBER TO STAY OUT OF ASTEROIS AND DEBRIS FIELDS!!!!!  Applying Vaseline to the hull does NOT help.  It's gonna be hard to get in there and impossible to get out.

DOCKING:  The Nomad Battleship engine is a special engine that not installed in any other ship.  The reverse factor is very high and it can be uses to slow the ship quickly.  The thrusters can be used with reverse thrust and strafe force to position the ship correctly for docking at a planet.  Strafe (sideways) thrust is very high.  You must be within 600 feet of a dock to activate the docking graphics script and land.  Just carefully manuver until you are close and you will dock.  Learn the effects of backing up too.  It's hard to describe what happens when you change directions and back up but just think about what happens when an 18 wheeler backs up and how the trailer moves.

TRADE LANES: The Nomad Battleship WILL go through trade lanes.  BUT, it's a very strange process.  You must be lined up correctly and then begin the docking proceedure.  It will sometimes appear that the ship has gone way past the ring and the dock has been aborted. You have to see this to understand it.  But after the ship appears to have completely missed the ring and appears to be continuing on at a slow speed, suddenly the trade lane sequence will start and you will be on your way.

MASS:  The Nomad Battleship is a high mass vessel.  But in space there is a big difference between mass and weight.  The ship has no weight but that has no effect on the fact that it has mass.  Once it gets started in a direction it is difficult to turn and the faster it goes the more difficult it is to turn.  Once you reach a certain speed it can rotate around it's axis but it cannot change directions.  Watch the movement of the stars around it to see which direction it is going.  Using reverse thrust will slow it down somewhat but the fastest way to stop it from high speed is to reverse direction and apply thruster power to slow it down.  You can judge when you are pointed in the opposite direction from your line of travel because the speedometer begins to register in the negative and the stars begin to pass you going forward instead of backwards.  When you see this, apply thrusters and you will slow down quickly.

COMBAT: learn to use TURRET VIEW.  The Nomad Battleship has 15 Beam Turrets, a strong hull, and carries 4000 nanobots.  It is just about impervious to attack but cannot point itself in the direction of an attacker quickly enough to use regular combat view.  If you don't learn to use Turret View, you will not be able to defend yourself.  The reason that I chose to put the Nomad in the game as the only standard Microsof battleship was the fact that you can see through it.  That makes it easier to target enemies in Turret View.  Plus I just love big flabby blue Squids that clog tradelanes.

I hope at least some of you enjoy it.  If you can put up with the trouble of moving it, you can get instant kills on just about anything that moves.  And with 4000 nanobots and a hull strength that only Freelancer 1.0 without the 1.1 server upgrade will allow, you are just about impervious to attack.  And you can chase people down if they will stay out of asteroid and debris fields.  LOL.

Glock36