I use the free-flight mode all the time, and find the other mode to be a bit annoying and confusing. But one annoyance of free-flight mode is that I sometimes lose track of my own vector. And the speed display becomes semi-meaningless. The floating space dust is only slightly helpful.

Of course, there's the problem of "What's my vector in relation to?", but we'll ignore that for now and posit some sort of ether so there's such a thing as absolute velocity. :-)

I would like the HUD to somehow show my vector. Maybe have the 'speed' display always refer to my speed in whatever direction I'm heading, and put a little marker on the radar and the display that show the direction I'm going in.

I'm thinking maybe a green chevron ('V' or '^') or X.

We already have an active thread on this (although your heading is more descriptive)

See:

http://www.vendetta-online.com/x/msgboard/3/10604