You have to edit 2 entries:

LootProps.ini

[mLootProps
nickname = ge_s_repair_01
drop_properties = 33, 0, 1, 0, 1000, 1000

(i think the first number indicates the drop percentage (ie 33%) )

+

[PhantomLoot
nickname = ge_s_repair_01
toughness_range = 0, 1
percent_chance = 16
num_to_drop = 1, 1

PhantomLoot affects all ships in the class_XX shipclasses, so if your nomad fighters are definded as class_fighters, you have to edit the appropriate PhantomLoot level (toughness range) as well (just turn percent_chance to 0 or delete the whole entry)

An easier method would be to give the ship's Explosion a damage value exceeding the hitpoints of the Lootcrates

if u did it with freelancer explorer ull need to edit the nomad load outs

when ever i make a nomad patroal in FLE i end up having to edit the there load outs as thay put the nomads in from single player that drop nanos and bots

Thank you for the feedback.

Problem is, and I should have written this in the starter posting (my apologies here), that disabling the bot drops from the Nomad ships must not affect bot drops from the regular house ships. To my limited understanding, changing the entries in the lootprops.ini would modify those nanobot drops serverwide.

Giving the ship's explosion a damage value seems to be just what I'm looking for. I've assigned the

radius = 1000
hull_damage = 300

lines to both the "explosion_no_gunboat" and "explosion_no_battleship" in the explosions.ini file and changed the lifetime line for both explosions to

lifetime = 0.000000, 1.000000

to make the explosions last long enough to destroy the dropped bot loot crates. At least so I thought, since it doesn't work so well. For example I destroyed a Nomad gunboat, it dropped its bots, but the ships explosion didn't harm the crates. When I destroyed the second gunboat (I have them appear in groups of two), this explosion now took care of the loot crates from the first gunboat, but left the crates from the second gunboat untouched.

What am I missing here?

It would appear that the lootcrates are dropping after the destruction event.

Ok, so there's another way to do this: alter the PhantomLoot properties, and instead of having a Faction value of "any" change it to include every Faction except for the Nomads. That'd do it...

I'll give it a try, althou in the meantime I've come up with something I like a bit better:

I made it so the Nomads have to use up all their nanobots before it's possible for the players to deal the final death blow to them. Players can wear the ships down, even go as far as triggering the destruction sequence, but the Nomads won't die until they're out of bots, which looks to players like the Nomads are actually fighting for their lifes, boosting their regenerative capabilities in one final stand against death itself.

Hull strength is defined by the amount of bots, armor_scale_xx "only" helps in defining how hard it is to see some damage done.