Uhm.. I got in there a few days ago, there goes a little tip:

Nomads don't use shields. Don't use weapons as the Tizona or the Adv. Debilitator turret, you won't even scrape the painting if you use "shield melter" weapons. We are talking about taking down nomads, so take the best hull-damage weapons you have, you will not need any shield damage.
I have in my cargo hold some "replacement weapons". When I go to make a visit to the nomads, I change the loadout, so my total shield damage will be greater (of course, I'm a big friend of the corsairs). No Tizona. If you go with a Tizona into the Unknown systems the nomads will not attack you, because they will be laughing at you.

And fot the dogfight.. well, the same that always, taking into account that the nomads don't use cruise disruptor, but that in the time your cruise engine loads them could hit you several times. Engine kill it's your friend, yes..

Finally a little question, against nomads the missile usage it's profitable? I have now the more expensive missile in the game (didn't remember the name, just that each missile it's over the 7k $) and the nomad ships almost didnt' feel it.

You probably missed. Anything with a $7,229 price tag can frag a Class 10 VHF if you lob it at the right speed- since Nomads have no shields, if you get a solid hit, it should die. A good rule of thumb is to allow yourself one shot per target- beyond that point, you will more than likely lose money coming out of the battle (especially against Nomads, who only rarely drop anything at all).

Engine kill is definitely your friend fighting Nomads. Ever since I started flying low-class LFs (a good while ago), one of the tricks I've used is to flip engine kill on and just leave it that way for the whole fight. It helps to have a really good thruster, since that becomes your only propulsion. That way, you can easily maintain a 200m/s speed for the whole fight, which makes it much harder for the enemy to hit you (just remember to change your vector as often as possible, and never make any head-on passes). It also makes retreat easy- never fly forward when running away, always fly backward. Flying forward, the Nomads will use their own thrusters, but a bug in FL causes enemies to not pursue you while flying in reverse.

I would also suggest that the Titan is not the best ship to use against the Nomads- differences in armor don't do a whole lot for you fighting them, while maneuverability is critical. If one Nomad in a group of four scores a hit, chances are you're also taking hits from all his buddies, and even the beefy Titan can't survive more than a few seconds against that. IMHO, the ideal Nomad-hunting ship is a HF- because you just don't need as much firepower to kill a Nomad, and that edge in agility can make all the difference in the world.

Or you could be crazy like me, buy yourself a Patriot when you have several million credits to spare, stock up on Ripper mines, and plaster the whole battle area with glowing balls of death. It's a rush, to be sure, but you'll never make a positive profit that way.

use a eagle if you want to keep the power of a VHF while being a bit more manuverable than a titan. it has a higher turn rate but sacrifices armor.

Play CYOF!

nomads are scary when you go into the unknowns with a starflier.. but then the radiation would get you first! :p .. i don't use shieldbusters at all, i just use the looted class 10 weapons and they die pretty quickly.. also, when they are coming straight at me, i just launch a sunslayer torpedo at them!

the biggest missle does 4995 damage or something. The uknown system nomads have about 20,000 hull hitpoints each, so no missle or torpedo you throw at them is a one-hit-kill. However, if you hit them head on with a sunslayer you can destroy their 3 lasers, because they(the lasers) are within the blast radius.

Beware pirates bearing gifts!

Missile damage is modified by the relative speed of the missile vs. the target. The figure for the missile/torpedo's max speed is added onto the player's speed when the weapon is fired. Therefore, if you have a missile with a max speed of 100, and you apply your thruster, the missile will speed away at 300. If you lob a missile at a ship flying in the same direction you are going, while neither ship is using thrusters, you will do roughly standard damage. If you throw on a thruster burst before you fire, you increase the missile's closing speed and it does much more damage on impact. The ideal missile shot is a head-on pass when both ships are using thrusters (the missile's relative speed there being 200 + 200 + the missile's stock max speed). Keep in mind that the same goes for a torpedo.

NukeIt writes:

> [A bug in FL causes enemies to not pursue you while flying in reverse.

I've wondered about that myself. Is it a bug, or is that actually the smartest thing that the AI could be expected to do under the circumstances? I guess an equally-good response would be to follow the player, keeping outside of gun range, but there's nothing non-suicidal to do as far as attacking.