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+--- Thread: Nomad Anatomy and Physiology (/showthread.php?tid=4369)
Nomad Anatomy and Physiology - Unit-sk855 - 10-29-2007
Well as a few of you may noticed, one of my characters is doing some research on nomads. Specifically, she is working on their Anatomy and Physiology. Ive looked online for any information on them, and frankly there really is not much. Ive gone off of what discovery has offered, and as such this is what I have formed as an opinion on what I think Nomads are made of.
![[Image: nomadgraphtf3.jpg]](http://img102.imageshack.us/img102/2883/nomadgraphtf3.jpg)
First off, this picture is labeling some of the key features of the nomad ship. These are the main components, or organs of the creatures. This is the list so far:
A: The central housing of the "nomad" that is dropped upon killing a fighter. This is the central nervous core, and what controls the ship. The nomad brain is stored here. It is well armored and protected against kinetic shock and outside energy forces including radiation. Within the mass of the ship, a semi permeable liquid membrane allows for housing of the said nomad brain within a shock resistant environment.
B: The energy core housing, or the stomach. This organ produces the energies needed for the ship to survive. It folds matter and energy in on itself, while using bacterial like alien organisms to create extremely volatile gases to use as a propulsion system venting... out the back. This... passing of gas... is funneled through to C. This organ also absorbs solar energy, and through a process of photosynthesis like design, changes the energy to matter while recycling itself into more energy. The nomad premises is folding into itself changing matter and energy into one another and sustaining off of the abundance of energies in space. Small microscopic gases, organisms, and matter floating in space are absorbed into the ship as it flies providing the needed, though the need is small, dose of matter to kick off this process. More simply put, it takes a small amount of outside matter and energy, and uses it to sustain itself through a process of constant recycling and matter to energy and back changing.
C: The engine exhaust port, or the... um.. Is used to funnel the expelled energy into an engine like medium. This is used for ship navigation of the universe. The ship does not have thrusters to turn its body, it instead spins within itself like a gyroscope and uses inertia to spin in space. The only other vent ports are on the tips of the spines, J, which only provide enough thrust to move backwards slowly.
D: The round portion on the front of the ship is its main sensory organ. Consider it the inner ear for purposes of balance, rotational awareness, and the like. This organ is the basic radar organization of the ship and allows for coordinated movements among other craft or organisms. This also aids in aiming the ships natural weapons, and the human added ones that some ships carry.
E: This is the main opening of the nomad ship, tightly sealed at nearly all times, the insertion of the nomad brain is done through this "mouth". For those that have not seen the original opening of freelancer, here you go. Long and awesome As seen in the video, the nomad battleship uses a massive energy weapon from that frontal port, then seems to either vanish, or what i like to think, lose consistency and disperse. That attack in my opinion took enough of the ships energy that it killed the ship, its energies failed and it dispersed into space. Also note from the video the large organ charging all the energy for the attack is right where C is.
F: A semi permeable liquid/mucus membrane connecting the inner shock absorbing core to the armor layer of the ship. Much like a plant on a cellular level with its cell wall and cell membrane. *more on this later*
G: The outer armor of the ship, extremely resistant to kinetic shock as well as radiation and energy. The ship is soft to the physical touch of a human hand, and has the consistency of memory cell foam. However, depressing to hard, fast, or deep results in the layer hardening and resisting the impact. For something similar, get a bowel and fill it with 4 cups of water, and put in one cup of corn starch. Punch it, and be amazed as your fist bounces off of the liquid rather than splashing it everywhere. Or for a non messy cleanup Click here
H/I: both of these are design ingenuity by the nomads themselves. These thinner sections reduce the mass in the back portion of the ship allowing the gyroscope effect for turning to be faster and smother. Also, they help provide a stronger structure for the funneling of gases and energy. The armor layer G is quicker to resist forces against it in this area, and generally thicker to protect the large amount of potentially volatile energy brewing inside.
J: These are the spines of the ship. These are used for balance, reverse thrust, sensory aid, potential clinging to larger craft, and human mounted weapons. The only real point of note, is that mounting human weapons has been made possible by tying into the vent energies to power the weapons. The nomad ship seems to naturally adapt energy into an output potential when contact with some form of component is made. To much of this however results in the organism shutting down other functions in order to maintain a stable energy level through out its body.
To evaluate this completely as a plant makes alot of sense too. so
A: Nucleus, surrounded by a Nuclear envelope for protection, and housing within the brain, central control and balance of the organisms function.
B: The mitochondrion of the organism. Powering the rest of the ship, and doing everything described above.
C: A Flagellum of sorts, though using energy rather than physical means to move.
D: A sensory series of Plastids that convert energy waves into data for the nucleus to interpret.
E: The Plasmodesmata, allowing for direct transfer of things into and out of the cell. It expands to a large size depending on the needed item to enter or exit the system.
F: The cell membrane which connects and aids in the cell wall's function to the rest of the ship.
G: The cell wall, and the armor layer protecting the ships internals.
H/I: Formed through use of Endoplasmic reticulums, this is the strongest example of such organels being used in nomad ships. These are basically the bones and veins combined into one of the nomad ship. They transfer energy, while providing structure for the cell wall to follow. They run through all parts of the ship internally.
J: Having no bearing in the plant cell world, these limbs are more similar to flagellum. They aid in motion, and have been adapted for other use by humans.
Now my character is speculating on nomad weapon systems as well. Existing inside the ship are Lysosomes that allow for a similar, yet reverse method, of protecting the organism. Instead of absorbing an aggressor, they repel it. These organels respond to other organisms by drawing energy from the mitochondria, and converting it into a beam, laser, or particle barrage and sending it at the enemy. These "shots" come from the ship internally, but do not manifest into a dangerous form until they leave the space of the ship. The energies are brought to a focal point just outside the organism, much like when frying ants on the side walk with a magnifying glass. The difference is, the focal point compiles into energy or matter, and flies out as a projectile rather than staying as only the focal point of energy.
What this all boils down to, is simply squat. I can say whatever I want about nomad anatomy and physiology, but because someone else created them as a unknown entity with no known information on them, i have to make it up and potentially get it wrong. If all of this information does seem to fit the bill with the lot of you, then would it be ok to publish these as what Alice has determined and is currently theorizing on about these lovely squishies?
PS: on an unrelated note, i just looked at the clock again... its 2:18? What the heck it i swear it was 12:00 just a moment ago....
Nomad Anatomy and Physiology - Treewyrm - 10-29-2007
Good research. I would also add that nomad ships have "bones" as well, they're barely seen in game due to transparency effect but you can clearly see them in model viewer. Those bones are keeping mass intact, I suppose those "bones" are very very strong to sustain strong gravitation fields and going through jumpholes. But because of fluid organic nature of the ships those bones never collide with each other allowing the ship to possibly sustain extreme environments.
As for their method of communication I'd say it's telepathy. Character Blix in original Freelancer SP was able to read Trent's mind (rheinland bar cutscene), possibly the very same thing governor Tekagi was about to do in Tekagi's arc cutscene. Being advanced civilization the Nomads are I think they are certainly using it, at least I do play my characters as they do.
The ships are grown, like an organism. It suggests that ship might go through certain forms and transformations, in other words morphing into something different. Considering the importance the Dyson Sphere held in their civilization I say they are grown like plants with the shielded sun providing energy to grow quick and in large amounts.
So, technically, Nomads could be very well a collection of Nomads themselves and derivate species dedicated for specific tasks in their large society.
Nomad Anatomy and Physiology - Vape - 10-29-2007
nice, their fighters are starting to seem like vong ships even more
oh and is there any chance a virus such as Alpha Red from the NJO series being developed to kill them specifically?
Nomad Anatomy and Physiology - Jinx - 10-29-2007
( i m confused and impressed, - why does my freelancer version not play that extended video? )
but if the ships are lifeforms itself - with a brain and neural system, what are the nomads as we see them in the cutscenes then? - those that appear to possess humans.
being a lifeform would explain why they have no shields, having a durable skin they would not need a shield, i d guess as they would "heal" damage like a living thing.
one more thing - do the nomads in the orginal version have a cruise? - i think not. so no cruise, no "weapons" as we know them, no shields - then it makes sense.
in terms of our game, i d be neat if they had no shields or anything, but a regeneration of the hull and a high resistance to radiation or immunity even.
anyway, nicely done - just one thing .. whats the spinning/glowing lights in the battleship.:D(had to ask that since the nomad ships are one of the very few ships that actually have animated parts)
edit: yea - that guy Blix - what was that one about? i allmost forgot about him. is he supposed to be infested? or what...
Nomad Anatomy and Physiology - Vape - 10-29-2007
As far as i can tell, the Nomads act a bit like the flood, in that they possess people to replicate, and a bit like the Yuzzahn Vong in that they use organic ships.
Anyway i think we ought to develop an anti nomad virus
Nomad Anatomy and Physiology - Jinx - 10-29-2007
simple things work best - ... how about a simple flu? - worked against the .. errr. marsflyer things. - a problem with beating the nomads roleplaywise is - we don t know where they exactly come from. it appears as if we have barely seen the tip of the mountain.
reminds me on freespace again - in freespace 1 you re fighting a huge alien fleet. - just to find out that ( in freespace 2 ) the main fleet is incoming to check what happened to their "scouts".
the nomad in the cutscene looks a lot bigger than nomad battleships. if the coalition ships in the foreground are supposed to be battlecruisers / battleships. so maybe what we call a nomad battleship is really not much more than a frigate or something to them - who knows.
Nomad Anatomy and Physiology - Treewyrm - 10-29-2007
Quote:but if the ships are lifeforms itself - with a brain and neural system, what are the nomads as we seeWell, like I said in edited post, they are part of the collective, these seen in cutscene are infiltrators. Ships are different, but Nomads too. If you notice they all share distinctive features like "three wings/leafs/etc" each rotated by 120 degree, even their own portal have three wings, nomad lair have three antennas, and they seem to be fond of rotational symmetry.
them in the cutscenes then? - those that appear to possess humans.
That ship in extended intro is certainly not a battleship. It looks different if you pay attention. It has split wings on the back instead of regular ones (and nomad battleship doesn't have wings, it has three points in front instead), a lot more "bones" inside and far larger than any ship. Possibly a unique ship, but then again, may be not.
So, there you have it. A space plant. That's what some may think, but that's not true. These "space plants" managed to bring down human colonies in Sirius just by infiltration, that implies they are far more complex than that, and that's what makes them interesting.
Nomad Anatomy and Physiology - Gentle - 10-29-2007
Essentially what we are dealing with is a large organic bag of gas and goo that spits and farts its way around space.....
I can live with that. Publish away.
Nomad Anatomy and Physiology - Qunitinius~Verginix - 10-29-2007
This is Nice and Informative! I can't wait to read all of the research conducted by your characters.
Verg
Nomad Anatomy and Physiology - Vape - 10-29-2007
neither can i, ill edit what i said b4, The nomads are like a mix of the goulds (Stargate) and the Vong (NJO series). Like the vong they use organic ships, and like the goulds they are effectively parasitic in nature, so they infest a host like a symbiote