I looked forward a lot to that expansion, the time I played it turned out to be an eternal grind of kill-count quests (huge disappointment especially when compared to the great sandbox game that was the core SWG experience.) "go, destroy 3 tie fighters, return...
If there was anything cool (like a fly by assault to the Death Star or some imperial destroyer,) I got sick of the system too quickly to ever reach it.
Then again, ground quests were not too different (at least not until the Theme Parks got added... and that was the silliest name I ever heard for "Story Arc" or "Quest Line")
Yeah, I just loved the actual playing of it, so it never felt tat way to me (same for the ground combat). I do understand where you're coming from though.
As for special space stuff, besides the rather difficult task of taking down the big Corellian Corvette spaceship to earn your final Master Pilot skill box, there was the Star Destroyer that was pretty fun to sweep by and blast at (and extremely dangerous), but
indeed it was for after you'd advanced through it all.
However, the one thing you may have gotten enjoyment out of is the multi-player ships. I used to take my friends up in my big ship and they would take posts as my co-pilot (they'd execute the special maneuvers - forward/aft shields, healing shields, different system buffs and such) and the other two would man the gunning stations. Doing it that way, they all earned pilot xp and skills (just the same as if they'd been flying solo - maybe faster) and we actually got a few of them their masters by doing the mastering mission together in my ship.
Not that I'm trying to sell you on anything, I just thought it was worth mentioning.
Besides all of that, because I really did enjoy the space combat, I just loved decorating and role-playing within my own personalized ship.
If you were a crafter, the new shipbuilding profession was rather involved and fun (for some).
(gah... I miss my ships!)
