Best order to play the stories (in MCU fashion)?

I'm basically attempting to do an MCU-like order of things and leaning towards starting with my Smuggler as the Tony Stark/Iron Man, the character who kicks off the introduction to the Old Republic universe. Does anyone have any suggestions?

I'm not up on the lore, or even story progression, but from what I've seen here, it's the knight that starts the story first, or is first in the timeline. But we've got some great lore wise people on the forums, who'll be able to fill in the stories, and roughly where they are in relation to each other

The class stories happen at pretty much the same time.
So if you want a MCU comparison, every classes' chapter one would be like a phase 1, chapter 2 like a phase 2, chapter 3 like a phase 3.
But after that, the Makeb storyline is the same for all characters from the same faction (so 1 on imp side, 1 on pub side), and after that point, it's pretty much the same for all classes. It starts to diverge again a bit starting from JUS.

Considering the Knight is mostly Vitiate's Nemesis, i'd say it's probably the closest to an IM-Thanos relationship, you can even play a rather sarcastic JK, but choosing your main really is up to you and which character you may like the most.

Yeah the Smuggler and Trooper happen at the same time on Ord Mantell. Corso remarks in one the first conversations that separatists just shot down a ship. That's the very ship the Trooper arrives on planet with.

Is it? Trooper's on a walker at the beginning of the story, not a ship.

"Separatists just destroyed an incoming Republic transport" is the line. Not a ship you're right. Given the proximity of the downed walker to the entrance Skavik's base and the events in the Trooper cutscene I correlated the two.

yes, it's a walker, so not sure if they are the same time...lol I know there was never any offical dates, as per the other thread, but has there ever been an offical stamp on which stories came first, or played around each other?

Oh yeah, that makes sense.

As far as I know the order has only been pieced together by very, uh... careful observation? http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=919553

That and you can see the smuggler's ship while the trooper gets out of the walker.

Conclusion: the Trooper exits his walker (and finishes his intro)(1) just as the Smuggler is landing his ship (you see it in the background at the very end of the Trooper intro), so the Smuggler's intro sequence ends no more than a minute after the Trooper's.

(1) Trooper is the only story where the player *cannot* leave the starter instance without watching the cinematic all the way through. If you Esc out of the others, there's a phase wall, you can walk through, but for the Trooper, it's on the other side of the rear door of the walker, and that door is closed until you've finished the cinematic.