I tried the JoAT demo, and went ahead and picked up the full game. I'm having fun with it. My main problem so far is that it seems murderously expensive to switch ships, given that all I get back is half the base cost of the ship - as far as I can tell, the upgrades are completely thrown away without any credit whatsoever.
At the moment I'm in a fully tricked out Brutus, with about 2 million in upgrades on it. I'd really like to try a fighter for a single mission or two. I've almost got enough for a capital ship, and I'm curious how they handle... but my suspicion is that while the durability will be lovely, the manueverability and speed will drive me nuts... and by the time I've bought the ship, upgraded it, and then thrown it away to go back to the Brutus... it's going to be a horrible waste of credits.
What I really wish I had was a spacedock that would hold different ships. So that I could have a fighter, a Brutus, a trader vessel, and a capital ship, and choose the one that seemed right for the current mission. Failing that, I wish that I could give money from one character to another, so that I could try the cap ship on one guy without having to give up my wonderful Brutus.
Just a few thoughts. I guess it's just that the game boasts "Play with 17 different ships!" - but because of the expense of switching between them, it's not like I'm going to casually try out the clown cruise ship just for the fun of it... and I wish it was easier to do just that.