My Main Complaint with JoAT...

[Hammermuse]

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.

[James]

Yeah, having a ship hanger was one of the ideas that unfortunately never made it into the game.

You're right that the game is too harsh on switching ships - especially if you have a lot of expensive upgrades. I just changed the calculation for selling ship price to try to fix this. It used to be half of the purchase price and didn't give you anything for upgrades. The new calculation is 70% of the purchase price and it includes upgrades and weapons. It is still better to sell your weapons separately first, because you will get their full value that way.

The capital ships are indeed very slow. You'll probably want to turn up the game speed (in the options) to use them. The Brutus is probably my favourite ship due to it's combination of speed and firepower. It's certainly possible to beat the main story with it. Having a capital ship makes it easier though.

Let me know if you need a new download link for the updated game (if you purchased in the last 30 days your download link should still be active).

[Hammermuse]

Thanks, James!

Turning up the game speed with the capital ship is brilliant - never occurred to me. And the other changes are much appreciated. I love the idea of trying out a fighter in a scenario just to see if I can do it - but having just invested 50 million (yay stock market!) in a cap ship, makes you think twice.

Thank you for the response.