Knights of the fallen Empire = NGE ( diet version )?

Another good bait from LoverNoFighter.

*gets popcorn*

So, he's just pretending to be this terrible at logic and reasoning?

COMMUNITY AMBASSADOR LoverNoFighter

fixed that for you.....

I'm pretty convinced LNF and DeeLaNie both just create threads to instigate things, yeah.

I'm shocked.

SWG went live late 2003, the CU (Combat Upgrade) went live March or April 2005, shortly after the "Rage of the Wookiees" expansion. It's easy to remember, since it was a tie in with Episode III. That's more than 6 months. What you mean is probably Pub9, with the Jedi village, which removed the Holocron grind. This had nothing to do with the CU though.
The NGE went live roughly half a year after the CU (late 2005)

The sandbox element & Crafting in the game is what kept me playing it for years. It had its moments of, "what the heck?> Smedly...you crafty dog you," but overall it was rather enjoyable. However, folks like their Theme Parks give it to me now thing (and so do I, i guess) so that format is more popular.

when given too many options most folks simply have no idea what to do.

Maybe. Or maybe they don't like to wander aimlessly.
For my part, I dislike sanbox games because we are always told we are free to do what we want and yet we are both limited by the actual gameplay limitations and the fact that developing a storyline when almost no tools to do so are given isn't easy. By that I mean that maybe people had fabulously funny stories in roleplay during the time SWG was still up but for me, if there is no proper storyline to "follow" then I just don't bother. If I want to invent my own story, I'll continue writing novels as I do sometimes, I'll not play a sandbox MMO where story is suggested at best via in-game chat and emotes.
That said, I'm not saying that a sandbox MMO is bad or pointless or devoid of interest! It's simply that it doesn't appeal to me as a player.

Or maybe, just MAYBE, Star Wars is about big epics!
Imagine THAT!

aye. there were times that i would log on and wonder what i was going to do. My venture "Carnival Creations" would continually migrate starting as a Chef, Tailor, Armorsmith, and DE." getting harvesters down, surveying, and hoping RNG gods were favoring me that day. i had a bunch of things i wanted to do. i remember spending an entire weekend just camping in various locations to become a ranger. And how i would either use a carbine or a rifle for everything until later on when i started favoring pistols. the game changed a lot for me with the CU, but after the NGE i still had 8 charges left on my profession changer to play around with more. my toon on Starstrider still had 10.

i never got into the "create your own missions" program they put in and that was mostly because there were too many bots around leveling pets, etc.

I prefer a sandbox, but simply love playing this game. i would, though, appreciate them setting up GSF up with some PvE content i would be happy. oh, the days of mining asteroids...ceaselessly ending days of mining asteroids. But, i loved building droids.