User Rating: 8.5 | Jumpgate Episode 2: Attack of the Conflux PC
With the release of this expansion, many new features were added. After some "growing pain", things have settled down quite a bit, and the game is far more than the sum of its parts. A big addition that affects all aspects of the game is the addition of equipment that allows pirates to actually steal cargo from your ship. The political and economic ramifications have only just been scratched. The economy has shifted a bit to be more driven by player action (or inaction). Mining and hauling cargo are much more vital to its stability, and the old "boom" economy where every piece of equipment was available everywhere, all the time, is no more. The Conflux presence has been increased, and the AI controlling it seems to have been tweaked. A small group of low-level conflux are far more a threat now than they ever were. There is now the ability to enter Conflux space as well. Good luck with that, should you choose to go there. Being jumped by a swarm of 35 conflux is no picnic. Some have a top speed that's 50% HIGHER than the mainstay of combat pilots, the Fighter, and can take you out quicker than you can Flashfire away. Conflux space is a team environment to say the least. As for ships, the Heavy Fighters were introduced to varying degrees of fanfare. The Octavian faction seems to be the big winner this round. But with the Advanced Fighter on the horizon, the title of "Top Dog" may shift again. The biggest impact that the new fighters have is that fleets of mixed fighters stand a much better chance of success than fleets of only one level of fighter. (To those not familiar with this game, there are currently 5 levels of fighter craft: Light Fighter, Medium Fighter, Fighter, Heavy Fighter, and Bomber, for each of the three playable factions) There was also the introduction of the Heavy Miner, which, along with new mining lasers, has greatly increased the speed and profitability of mining. This obviously complements the changes in the economy, and the miner has become much more vital now. Commodities no longer "magically" appear at production centers (at least not nearly at the quantities they used to). The ultimate goal here is to get to a point where no commodities are magically produced. But that will depend heavily on the developers and players reaching a balance between pilot effort, asteroid purity, production efficiency, and many other factors that I'm sure I'm not aware of. Freighters are do out very soon, once the Faction Missions to build them are completed. They offer roughly 50% more cargo carrying capacity than the previous heavy hauler, the Tow. They promise to be a behemoth to operate, and are not the kind of ship you'd want to take the helm of until you've had plenty of experience behind the controls of a Tow. Probably the biggest announcement was the addition of player owned space stations. These come in 2, 4, and 8-point configurations, along with weekly upkeep costs. There are several modules that you can attach to the hardpoints, from hangers that can hold up to 4 ships for your use, to ore processing centers, marketplace modules, refueling, repairing, and rearming bays, and storage modules. There will also be a Custom Producer module that will enable you to manufacture some equipment. Specifics on this are still be tweaked though, so the final configuration may vary from what we know now. By the way, each module also has a weekly upkeep cost associated with it. So if you're going to build a station, plan carefully, and don't overextend yourself. There has also been many pieces of equipment added to support the new ships, and of course, bugs are always being worked on. Currently, the only major bugs (in my mind) have to do with pirating: Pirates do not properly receive a bounty or Political Rating hit when they steal cargo. But everyone is aware of this, and it's being worked. For the most part, the pirates are aware of this too and are not exploiting it. One of the biggest problems with this game continues to be the indoctrination of new pilots. You can play for free for 10 days, but there are problems with that. For one, it's simply too short to get any real feeling for the depth of the game. Also, there is no really good "academy" to train new players on how to fly, how to use the station and chat interfaces, how to fight, how to make money, etc. The best way for a new pilot to learn these things is to join a squad right away. There are several squads that are more than happy to train new pilots, but the problem is that it's not very clear to the new pilot how to find these squads. The only real method is to either comb through the squad listings (http://www.jossh.com/squadmanager/index.html) and look at each one, or to hop on the forums (http://forums.jossh.com/) and ask around. About the only other thing I can think to mention is that this community continues to be an extraordinary one. The people here are highly addicted to this game, and with good reason. The developers are always listening to the suggestions and complaints that the players put up on the forums. The game continues to evolve, and the players have a part in it. 
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