Genesys doesn't have Specializations that you have to buy, but repeated purchases of talents increases the tier, so while the first Toughened may only cost 5 XP, the next costs 10 XP, then 15 XP, and eventually  any further will cost you 25 XP (along with needing sufficient "base" to your pyramid) so it has its own form of balance built in. SW tuled to do away with Specialization costs risks having certain based talents picked up in large numbers on the cheap by skimming the least expensive rows of multiple Specializations.

LAYDEEEES annnd GEN-TLEmennnn! Welcome to the battle of the ages! In the blue corner, we have Elias "I'm an engineer so I'm always right" Windrider, and in the red corner we have Tramp "the stubbornistist" Graphics.
Round 1, was Korath terribly built?
FIGHT!

@Tramp Graphics and I are good friends in real life, we disagree on almost everything except that we both think star wars is cool.  Arguing like an old married couple is just our thing.

I asked the Devs about this a while back, and they confirmed that the Cortosis quality covers all lightsaber resistant materials. 

Latest Update: v1.0.7.0 - Control of the Galaxy
More updates! Here's some of the latest features we've added:
Discord dice roller supports new V2 character sheets Discord dice roller can roll weapons directly with Discord Bot New Quantum-based random number generator  Add support for special remove setback dice on character sheets and from the Discord Bot (special key x) Real-time message passing service Game Table mobile layout Updated Twitch Extension Updates to Oggdude Importer Updates to Genesys Emporium Importer Joining and Leaving a Game is much, much, much easier  Players can allow GMs to control their character Other various fixes and improvements 

Not to mention, when the D20 Radio guys contacted Edge right after the Edge announcement was made, Edge asked them to “give us the year.” And that would have been right before/at the beginning of the near-global shutdown. With that, I haven’t been expecting to hear anything until sometime after the first of the year.

Kieth Kappal and a few other Freelance Star Wars writers have announced recently that they are under contract with Edge Studios. As Jagergryte said, you shouldn't worry too much.

I wouldn't worry too much.
They are restructuring a company across the Atlantic, during a pandemic.
I doubt we'll hear much news before the new year, I hope for something first quarter next year, but I wouldn't really expect anything before second quarter.

Nothing regarding Star Wars.
Again, depends on what the state of the line was when Asmodee shut down FFG's RPG department, and what challenges the pandemic added to the task of reorganizing things.
I've seen that Keith Kappel and Phil "DarthGM" Maiaweski have been hired as freelance writers, but that was within the past few months, so presuming they're working on any new Star Wars material, it may  not be well into next year that we hear anything regarding the line.

Hey everyone! I wanted to call out a project a friend and I have been working on, and share it with the community for anyone interested. It's a character sheet, dice roller, and game table app. Check it out and feel free to provide any feedback! Thanks!

Now with a Discord Bot! Some cool integrations with the dice roller and character sheets if you play games on Discord.
RPG Sessions
Latest Build:
Version 1.0.9.0
12/16/2020
Discord Server Link

After all their experience with Star Wars, FFG lowered the characteristic cap for Genesys:
"No characteristic can be increased higher than 5, either in character creation or in gameplay."
They also limited Dedication to only work once per characteristic.
The reasoning is that going above 5 proficiency dice causes the results get a bit wonky.

The odds get a bit ridiculous after 5 dice, and even with 5 dice it's sometimes ridiculous, depending on the task.  It's just overkill, especially with combat, especially at short range.  I don't know if you play D&D, but a 3 die differential between positive and negative pools roughly equates to a +10-15; 4 dice is +15-20.  I'm pretty liberal with boosts and setback, so the pools aren't exactly limited.  Throw in talents that remove setback, and the PCs will have few challenges they can't succeed at.
It's not so much about how many stormtroopers they can mow down, but how they handle other tasks.  If their Intellect is 7 they'll be an awesome Mechanic...but also an awesome hacker, doctor, and general know it all.  There won't be anything they won't know.  If their Agility is 7, their shooting will probably kill something every shot, maybe even an entire minion group.  But their Piloting will also be incredible, almost nothing they can't fly through.  So to make it interesting they'll have to be skating around supernovas on a constant basis, but that's got to have upgrades to reflect the added dangers and...
...this is just subjective, but the more dice in the pools, the wilder the swings.  I had a player roll over a dozen dice once, and all the positives had values (including a couple of Triumphs), while the negative dice came up with a single Threat (all the rest were blank).  The player was thrilled, but it could have easily been the reverse.  Because to make it interesting I have to up the ante, and that increases the odds that the narrative axis will be amazing or devastating.  Triumphs and Despairs should mean something, but it's just more work to make them mean something special when they come fast and furious.
I don't mind working with extremes that happen once or twice a game, but you'll be dealing with it on a constant basis.
All that said, it's worth trying out just to know.  Nothing beats experimenting with it yourself.
 

The gaderffii-action: was awesome
The sky-beam-thing: was awesome.
The dark-troopers: Awesome!
Throwing troopers around the cell: AWESOME!
The: we are in your debt! Frikkin' GAAARGHSOCOOL!
 

Ooo... XCOM? Yes, please edit back your post.

Good point. That Heroic Abilities mechanic is in Realms of Terrinoth, starting on page 74.

In our 15 years game from SW we made a conversion to Genesys, about a 2.455 XP PC. As Sturn said is just a "guide" to get an easy-view access to your talents, but there is no real need of that sheet. Remember that main campaigns (based on peoples answers) go from 400 to 700 XP aproximatelly, and a few ones achieve 1000 XP (info from SW not Genesys).
In one Genesys supplements exists the "Heroic Abilities" (?) that is a initial skill that evolves for every 50 XP obtained. Is the most aproximated to Signature Ability. This Heroic skill, considering upgrade caps, stops evolving above 400 XP, so feel free to create new ones based on signature or create more "heroic skills".
SW/Genesys progression is more a trapezoid than a pyramid itself. A character advance uses to be top in a pair or three skills and goes lower on the rest. In our games tha main PC have 3 maxed skills (with maxed talents) and the rest are a lot of diverse talents and skills achieved not at max level.
Hope it helped
 
 

We played a year-long campaign that clocked in at 625 XP earned. I completed the full pyramid, and then had another column of Talents from Tier 1 up to Tier 5, plus an additional Tier 1 and 2 Talent beyond those. You can keep adding 5-high columns of Talents. If there are not enough Tier 4 or 5 Talents of interest for your players, consider what sorts of "super-powers" might fit their character concepts and develop new Talents to fill them. Or encourage them to develop more of their skills.

325 XP by my count, but I'm surprised how low that is and also interested in how others handle this. I'm not sure if the EPG mentions this? But, with Genesys as written, the only rule regarding purchasing talents is you must have more of a lower tier then a higher tier. The pyramid is thus just a sheet that helps you organize that. I don't think it was ever intended to set limits. There's nothing in the rules that says "You can't have more then seven Tier 1 talents", or "you can't purchase more talents then can fit on the provided talent pyramid sheet". So, I would probably just simply create a larger pyramid, or completely replace it with a line by line sheet for recording talents and tiers, making sure you don't exceed the rule of more lower tiers. I suppose you could just print out another page of the pyramid and expand into it.

I'm brainstorming a campaign and I've been thumbing through the various career books in my SWRPG library. When I come to the playable species sections, I find myself reading the entries and thinking, "These are great! Too bad none of my players will ever want to play any of these."
I'm probably revealing too much of the psychology of my play group but I've noticed that players often drift to either Human (or it's Corellian/Mandalorian alternatives) or one of the "sexier" aliens: Chiss, Twi'lek, or Falleen. Of the six campaigns I've run, I can't recall a single oddball alien like a Gand or Iktochi, let alone a stock Star Wars character like a Wookiee. The last time I was actually a player in a Star Wars game (Saga Edition, I think), I wanted to play an Ewok but my GM (who sucked) wanted to do a "hard space warriors being hard in space" campaign and wouldn't let me. 
I'm starting to pay more credence to the theory that most (not all, but most) players want to play themselves but smarter and better looking.

Not quite. What happens is if you commit a Force die through an entire encounter, you heal wounds equal to ranks. This is an independent effect from other methods of healing and the two do not interact.
When the talent says "in addition to" it is saying that it does not replace or cancel other abilities. So if you heal one wound through natural rest, you also heal one wound from Healing Trance. If you stay awake all night and don't get that boost from natural rest but still have the die committed, you heal one wound from Healing Trance.
Make sense?

Not to mention the two best showings in the episode. The Morai in the branch just before Mando and Ahsoka meet. And of course the Loth-Cat in the city proper during the big fight.

That. Was. Awesome!
GROGU!