Nomad Starter Ship Review - Star Citizen's Pickup Truck 

For those wondering, David Braben and Chris Roberts are long time friends, and this is a deliberate homage to the AspX

"And we have OF COURSE the toilet" **Crying cutlass sound on the distance**

Lakon Spaceways called, they want their baby Asp back. XD

Four Important Things To Mention: (1) One piece of the puzzle with the Nomad is an apparent bug or underpowering of its fuel scoops - it does have them, and they do function, although dismally compared to other ships with similar equipment -- with this in mind, the Nomad may use fuel at a high rate, but I imagine it can recover and restore some of that hydro during a freefall into atmosphere, while you mine, and while you take a break to explore or just rest. With this fixed, it might be a slightly different story. (2) You might also note that if your video footage was also your testing footage, most of it was on Microtech, where gravity, thick atmosphere, and weather can punish a ship's fuel reserves. I suggest testing it again, but do it in true spacer style: Spawn it from an orbital platform or Lagrange station, and do your surface mining on moons, rather than planets. This ship, and the MSR introduced at the same time, are very much SPACE ships, whose limitations are exacerbated planet-side. (3) A small flaw that I found with the Nomad was in night landings - the rectangular panel that displays your HUD lights up from the sides, and those bars of glaring orange were both really bright and unavoidable in the middle of my view at night, and their high contrast made it difficult to pick out the lights of a landing site, or details on the ground. Add in very poor placement of the ship's floodlights, which are close enough to the sides of the cockpit that they glare strongly on the side windows, and you have a ship that fails pretty hard when it's dark and you're not sure where the ground -- or the trees in front of you -- are. (4) You missed probably the most important thing about the interior! It comes with not one, but TWO types of protein supplement! Just because you're in space doesn't mean you can't see mad gainz, bro.

I gotta give it to CIG, they did a good job with this ship. The Asp Explor- sorry, "Nomad" looks very nice :p

Lakon has left the chat.

Update for those interested in that ship, the fuel usage has been fixed, and lasts for quite a while now, although, they done it by increasing the capacity of fuel, so expect a big price if you use 90% of it. As for placing ground vehicles in the cargo, please turn off it, so the parking brake will turn on and physics calculations won't be on. If you leave it powered on, the wheels will roll and move in the cargo as the elevator goes up, which mean lead to the issue in the video.

Chris just wanted his own Cybertruck.

UPDATE: I have been using the Nomad a lot currently and am very pleased with it. The truck bed, separate from the cabin as you have noted, makes sense in that capacity with what I have used it for. Doing the timed and explosive 4-box missions, I am glad to have the armored bulkhead/window protecting me when I am not fast enough (only once so far). In addition, the open front and sides let me multitool tractor beam the packages from all angles, as they are often scattered in the missions. The 1170 top speed makes it fast enough for the No Quantum missions where maneuverability is not important. Fuel consumption seems much better and the quantum tank is above average. MOST IMPORTANTLY is the cargo plates are stable so loading a ROC for work, or a Cyclone RC for play - the Nomad is ready every day. Thanks for your vids and contributions to the community!

"a jack of all trade but a true master of none" outch

I actually like that open cargo, it looked like a home with garage when you had the roc next to it. I hope they improve its fuel efficiency, then it could become nice workhorse

"Its cargo bay can house an ROC" **ROC floating in the cargo bay**

Great video as always but I wanted to talk about why analog switched, levers, buttons, etc. are not just better but in someways a necessity. Touch screens are harder to control, especially in situations where decisions have to be made rapidly such as in the middle of combat. You have to constantly look down and find the correct option and press it. With analog switches you don't have to look as the correct switches can be found simply by touch. It also minimizes error and the chance of choosing the wrong option accidently. With analog swithes you get a physical feedback and can be certain that you did the correct thing. With touchscreens, not so much. Touch screens are more prone to errors. The technology itself fails more often than traditional swtiches and if an analog switch fails you will lose only that particular control, but if a touchscreen fails you lose the entire control surface. If analog switches fail, you can still hotwire it to get it working, but you can't do that with touchscreens. Touchscreens are more complex making them more expensive to maintain. A touchscreen will inherintly depend on the computer and the software to work. In case of a computer error or crash you will lose the ability to control your ship. Even in our world, we prefer analog switches. In airplanes and space ships analog switches are used. Even in our day to day lives we prefer analog switches. Touchscreen keyboards exist but analog ones are so much better.

The Consolidated Outland Nomad: "It ain't much, but it's honest work."

Just bought this ship, so glad you’ve made a video of it! All the best wishes.

Its also worth mentioning it has a tractor beam in the cargo bed that, once the mechanic comes online, could be used for some pretty nifty little heists

You missed the two weapon racks at the entrance! And yes, the hydrogen fuel consumption is CRAZY on this thing, but it does recharge. I guess you can use it to reach your "camping" (or mining) site and leave it recharging, instead of using it for running box missions and that kind of thing.

3 size 3 shields? Did that suddenly became the Nautilus? :D

The nomad looks like a ship I could live in for months upon months at a time, all alone out in the back. Fuel consumption aside, being able to use the rear as a vehicle bay is really nifty.

The real saying is “a jack of all trades, master of none is sometimes better than a master of one.”

This also seems like a perfect NPC ship. Doing menial civilian work serving as the backbone of the basic economy, while giving life to the universe with their physical presence and activity. So you would see lots of these on around on your travels to different outposts and colonies.

Became a citizen in the verse very recently (mostly because of your videos) and chose the Nomad as my starter. Thanks for the great content!

Legit, I was just checking if you had posted anything only a minute ago. Good timing.

I think the Grav Lev would make more sense if you could use it to hover around like every other Grav Lev vehicle; which would allow reduce fuel consumption.

I really like the Nomad for carrying around a ROC. I'm just looking forward to them finally fixing the physics grids for vehicles on lifts.

feel that vacuum flowing through your hair. that elite dangerous orange pilot display gives it away too.

I love the Nomad’s living quarters, but that entry hallway seems really easy to get disoriented in.

Elite: Dangerous get to copy the interior when they implement space legs. It's only fair...

The Captain's quarters look really nice. Spartan, but well designed, it honestly looks much better than any room I've had IRL. I like that soccer mom's SUV analogy you made. I do like the unique aesthetic of the ship though, and will likely pick it up at some point.

I *just love* the interior of this ship! I really find fascinating what a designer can do with a small space and a ton of imagination! So these lines oof... my hands are on fire! I just love it! Space truck all day baby!

5:45 In defense of CIG's choice to implement tactile toggles, switches, and buttons, we all know that using a touchscreen cannot be done accurately while moving or without looking. They can be a nightmare just for typing. In the heat of a dogfight or while mining/navigating an asteroid field when lowering your eyes from your target could mean death, fly-by-feel and muscle memory are paramount. Just the G forces of flight and evasion would render touchscreens a liability. To be able keep my eyes fixed on a foe, reach out for a switch to arm my interdiction drive or to spool quantum could be the difference between life and death.

I think it would be cool if they added a module you could attach to small ships like this to capture hydrogen and slowly refuel while you’re out and exploring - living up to the nomad name.

I lıke how it has supplements and protein shakes rather than regular food. True truckism there.

That exposed Cargo bay is exciting because I makes me feel that the Hulls are soon to be on the way since that is technically an external physics grid

Thing to note is that toggle switches could provide more tactile feedback and probably won't just turn off if the screen breaks. There's a level of reliability in mechanical switches which makes them useful.

It could be a good low IR signature troop transport later on, allowing a small ship to drop troops off the back in a halo jump or maybe on the hover bikes. Basically they drive off the bed and turn on when they're nearing the ground for scouting/fast raids on NPCs and other orgs.

Personally I think the no access to the back is an awsome idea as it means you can go mining while leaving you cargo bay open so you dont have to get out of you vehicle twice and worrie about anyone taking your ship :)

Star Citizen seems to have a strange inflation in regards to weapons. I remember when ships had size one weapons and that was ok, but now 3 size 3s are limiting?

The new asp! Ejm.. I mean, Nomad. As morph said, "It pushes the possibilities of every ASPect"

Actually in aviation, analogue switches are used because they are less prone to failure which a very important characteristic, if a touchscreen fails all the buttons and switches mapped to it will be inaccessible but analogue switches are much more reliable, not to mention that you are also less likely to mistakenly turn on or off a switch with analogue technology

"First, I'm going to go over the quirks and features of the Nomad, then I'm going to get it out in the black, and then I'm going to give it a Morph Score™." -- Morphologis DeMuro

Something interesting that I noticed is the potted plant by the bed. It's a Sanseveria, or snake plant, and can function as a biological air filter IRL. So not only does it look nice, but it's plausible that it could be used on spacecraft. I'd like to see some more plants in ships going forward.

Am I going to buy a flying house with a truck bed? Yes. Yes I am.

One of the things that gets overlooked with the smaller cargo bays is the idea that in the future you will need to carry supplies and equipment. Not just do trading runs. Imagine being a platoon of marines and seeing a nomad drop in and drop off 24 crates of food, ammunition, and medical supplies. Do you really need to take a Hercules for that? Esp in the situation where it could get shot down? You could send four or five Nomads to distribute supplies quickly. To different locations. You could even strap on a Cyclone to drop for some fire support.

I still don't buy on to the whole 'seats on rails that spin, move forward, and lock you in place' thing.

I love the Nomad. Its perfect. Its got everything needed for what i want in my first ship. It can carry a ROC, it can carry 24 SCUs, which is pretty good for a starter, and it has a bed, which means i can log out wherever i want.

My AspX and I have seen a lot of sights in ED. Pretty neat to have something so similar in Star Citizen too and that it's design is deliberate. Really nice touch.

That interior feels insanely cozy, I dig it

They really should have added a shower to this ship to complete the whole nomadic life style thing with this ship. Instead they left it out on purpose, because reasons.

The more I use this ship the more I like it. It feels cozy and with my 3 F66 its hard to knock me out of the sky.

I bought this ship and quite like it. It is remarkably practical. I do wish there were an enclosed bed with access from the interior, but the lack of a roof may be of use in some cases - tall cargo etc. The ship is maneuverable for its size and doesn't feel underpowered. Definitely burns gas when on planets with thick atmosphere and strong gravity. It's a good entry level ship to support entry into mining and cargo.

dude you fuckin nailed it when you said pneumatic tent. best description ive ever heard for the nomads interior

You're Doug DeMuro of the Star Citizen universe.

I quite like the look of the ship and upgraded my (already once upgraded) starter to it. A bit dissapointed with the hydrogen fuel thing. I also wish there was a way to upgrade it's scanner, feels weaker to me then the Valk's I'm using to lug my ROC around. The Valk's way more fuel-efficient for it too, even with it's four massive thrusters 😅 And very nice footage in this video!

Another great video review, Morph. Well done. I personally think this is actually a really great starter ship for new players. - Functional living space. Kitchenette WITH SEAT, bed and toilet (only bed working yet, but other mechanics to come soon, hopefully). - Decent firepower, you can run 3 x size 3 weapons fixed, with decent handling.. so quite capable in combat for it's class size. - Defence - 3 x size 1 shields.. same as the likes of the SABER.. one of the most FORMIDABLE, light fighters in the game. - Small loading dock for some cargo...however not going to make big money doing cargo, unless illegal runs. - Small loading dock for a Greycat or the ROC for MINING (making money). The Nomad may not be winning any design awards anytime soon, but for what it may lack in style and design, I'm confident that it makes up for in functionality. Personally, I really like my "Space Crab". :)

A couple of years on and I still enjoy flying this ship. The name describes the role that suits it well. I've had many adventures in it.

10:32 , 3 size 3 shields?! I must have missed that hahah, thought it was 3x1 shields (still pretty awesome though)

I bought a nomad in SC, named it the Asp. Bought an Asp in ED and named it the Nomad

What I want is for them to do is keep around the older ship models from previous redesigns like you can buy older cars. They could bring out a Nomad 2 that would enable you to fit a ROC while keeping the Nomad 1 around.

A thought: touchscreen controls could be a cost-saving measure, since they would be cheap to manufacture and integrate in any desired control layout with as many buttons as can fit and all input is handled entirely by software. The layouts can also be more easily changed with software updates. Physical switches and buttons add manufacturing complexity as they all need to be assembled and wired into a control panel with fixed or semi-fixed functions and/or locations, reducing flexibility. However, physical switches offer the kind of physical feedback to ensure you're actually touching and toggling a switch by feel, without needing to look at it to confirm the correct placement of your finger. This can improve speed of operation similar to the difference between touch-typing and hunt-and-peck typing.

"Jack of All trades master of none, But often times better than a master of one."

I really do like the nomad but I really wish they had a catwalk from the cargo section to the interior, biggest mistake they made with this imo (also the gravlev landing gear, idk about that 😕)

I like the ultrawide format. It fits my monitor perfectly. Interesting clip too.

My 600i is going on three years and I still can’t get a vehicle to stay on the lift. Don’t expect a fix any time soon

Maybe the landing can be use to glide over land without getting damage ? And use that ship as a ground vehicle with flying capabilities ?

As someone coming from elite. The first thing I thought in the first frame of this vid was “asp explorer”. Then, a few seconds later. You showed it. 😂😂😂😂😂. I love it. You warned my sub good sir

I'm here to hear your thought about ships that actually help me in space engineers. I always asking myself what morphologis would have said if i color it that way 😅 i also like when you talk about usability of ships. Take my like and keep making these beautiful and informative videos

You said 3 size 3 shields. Don't you mean 3 size 1 shields?

Lakon Spaceways called, they want their Asp Explorer back ; )

Just started with SC and your channel is one the best if not THE best. One of those you hit the LIKE because you know it‘s going to be another great content. Thank you for your effort.

I think they recently adjusted the size of the fuel tanks and the Nomad is also good at transporting the smaller ground units into combat for the Bunker missions.

The interior is of the nomad is stunning in my opinion and is already one of my favorite in the game. Angular shapes and a hint of minimalism really sell a futuristic vibe that distinguishes consolidated outland. The absolutely cool ladder animation, The hovering tech, The small window in the cargo bay (i actually disagree with you, i prefer this to a door) even the exterior shape genuinely gives the feeling of what a ship by Tesla would look like in the year 2950. I think they dropped the ball slightly with those cockpit struts, But overall this is the ship is beautifully designed.

I do love the Tesla Cyber-asp- I mean Nomad, great fun to fly.

I am an elite dangerous and star citizen player and I like both games. and i really love asp explorer and to see it again in SC is awesome

I remember one time while playing the game, my ship got destroyed and couldn’t retrieve it. I communicated with a guy in the server and he just so happened to have this ship. I couldn’t interact with the ship for some reason, so I rode in the back and it was really fun. Quantumed all the way from I believe micro tech to Hurston iirc. This was when I first started to play the game, so I didn’t have very much in terms of ships or gear.

With the little mining car behind it shows a great single player experience. I’ve got a bmm, carrack amongst others but this ship has its charm for a single seater.

The exposed cargo bay is just so wildy unreasonable that I still can't comprehend it.

@morphologist Some Lighter than air vehicles have been designed using Hovercraft skirts as their "Landing gear" and ground taxi systems. Honestly the hover landing gear was used to make the ramp the only point of ground contact to make ease of loading and unloading on uneven terrain easier. I've also given my kids Nomads and their Landings are definitely more forgiving now. There were reasons behind a lot of the design elements and they make themselves apparent in such situations. I see where CIG was going with the Nomad and I love it.

These videos are fantastic. The 890 Jump video is what got me into SC. Plus, it's in ultrawide which seems rare outside of SC videos. We love to make beautiful games look even more beautiful.

It looks suspiciously similar to the ships from Elite Dangerous, even in it's UI.

“Jack of all trades”: ❌ Salvage ✅ Hauling ❌ Mining ❌ Refining ✅ Fighting ❌ Exploring ❌ Building ❌ Racing ❌ Refueling

Morph the reason I reckon most ships use mechanical buttons and switches is practicality. Mechanical switches are not prone to glitches, and mechanics are more 'stable' than electronics. Plus if something breaks it requires repairing that one aspect, not the whole electronics suite. Similar to in the real world, military hardware has 'glass cockpits' now with MFDs dominating the dashboard, but they still have mechanical switches for the key functions.

I take long breaks from Star Citizen but I don’t take breaks from this channel, top tier quality and content. Love what your doing man keep it up :)

Can we get Asp Explorer? We have Asp explorer at home Asp Explorer at home:

I have a theory that the Nomad is meant to be Consolidated Outland’s attempt to enter alien ship markets. The design feels like it’s taking cues from all the different alien races.

I have never seen a truck in real life have access to the bed through the cab, unless the owner put that type of mod in. As far as the cargo capacity concern, you said it yourself components are not physicallized yet, however once they are this ship and the Kore can haul size one and twos to NPC's or other players that need new ones.

Morph, love your videos and this one is no exception. Regarding the pick up bed - like real pick ups, it is likely to be useful for toxic or dangerous cargo like the new incoming dangerous cargo missions coming soon.

You say it comes with 3 size 3 shields. It doesn't It 3 size 1s that is a HUGE difference. Still 1 more shield than most of it's size/class but no where close to 3 size 3

*NOOOOOOOOO YOU CAN'T HAVE SHIPS LOOKING SIMILARLY TO SOMETHING FROM OTHER GAMES!!!*

This feels like a subtle hint that ship interiors in Elite would be really neat

Yeah the lack of a rear door grinds my gears. I do ship reviews on my main account and I enjoy them, but when I want to see a review done right, I come here. Loved the video. I personally feel that this is one the best ships I've piloted, its so unique and its like the Cybertruck but with VTOL and Quantum Drive. The fuel efficiency is my biggest criticism of the ship. I did a single package delivery in Microtech space and had to refill once during the trip--and I started with a full tank haha!

I watched you fly the Nomad, crash the Nomad and say that "the lower thrusters are really bad" but you didn't mention this issue in the video. or did I miss something?

I cant wait til we get interior color schemes. The MSR red highlights annoy me. Lol

24 SCU is very convenient if you own a Prospector, which holds 32 SCU of unrefined ore: you get to the refinery, refi e your ore, load it on the Nomad and run away to sell it in small quantities rather then having all your eggs into a single basket. I heard there is a bug with the mass of the ship being excessive and the hydrogen fuel scope not working properly, which will probably be addressed with a larger fuel tank in the future. Properly equipped this little ship is also stealthy as hell and fast enough to slip through any wannabe pirate looking for preying on larger cargo ships.

I upgraded my starter from the gamepackage to this, the LTI I got out of it helped that decision. And I do not think I will upgrade it any further, since over the past few month I really began to love the Nomad. Except the engine noise. edit: and it was really usefull in phase 2 of the Xenothreat event. Easy to maneauver close to the wreckage, easy to load, easy to get all the cargo to Jericho.

I dislike the "hover gear". Seems so out of place, with no other ships using it.

Morph, I need help. I spent more money on star citizen.

Ok, the separate cargo bay is a feature that I like over the cutty. With the cutty I would need to open the hatch, drive out the Roc,get out of the Roc, close the hatch so no one would jack my cutty. Then on return, same thing. With the Roc I just drive off, mine then drive back on and fly away...easy and secure

OMG I LOVE THE MUSIC USE IN INTRO! FIREFLY VIBES BABY!

"Upgrade from an Aurora..." What? Why would anyone do that??? Space roach for life.