The criticals are different for each level
 
Easy: minor lasts less then the encounter
Average: lasts until end of encounter
Hard: Until critical injury is healed (except for knocked senseless)
Daunting: Near death or maiming
 
So, yes, I would consider the character "Blind" until he seeks medical aid that heals the critical injury.  It could be temporary, or a chance to get replacements.. up to GM

The criticals are different for each level
 
Easy: minor lasts less then the encounter
Average: lasts until end of encounter
Hard: Until critical injury is healed (except for knocked senseless)
Daunting: Near death or maiming
 
So, yes, I would consider the character "Blind" until he seeks medical aid that heals the critical injury.  It could be temporary, or a chance to get replacements.. up to GM

Sorry for the Necro, but i didn't want to start a new Thread on the same topic
 
THis weekend I ran the "Debts to pay" adventure.  Pretty much as is with 3 PCs. (Politico, Thief, Hired gun)
 
The hook was the Thief player gambled and lost to a Noble who was deeply in Debt.  one of the other players didn't mind "because it was a job".  I really wanted the Astromech and the EV droid to survive so I could use them in the later part of "Beyond the rim" adventure instead of the Jawas.
 
One of the parts i thought i did well to ramp up the suspense: I didn't reveal the Map until they made it to the office and reactivated the Administration droid.  They players were doing a good job of counting up the dead bodies and comparing it to the Roster.
 
When they met EV at the mine entrance, The PCs bought his story of "Pirates" taking out the Miners. and after telling the Droids to deactivate their weapons the PCs headed into the mine.  While they were in the mine the EV and the R2 decided to flee and leave the rest to delay the PCs.
 
When they met the surviving miners they realized they were duped, and had the miners rig up some slag armor to the mine car and use it for cover against he droid.  It helped them, until the Binary Load lifter ripped it off.   Once they took out the droids at the entrance, they decided to flee from the Binary loadlifter.  Only to find another one and the Medical droid going psycho, they fled that one and were able to deactivate the BLL remotly with help form the Admin droid and Marv.
 
During the final fight I has some great lines for EV to use with his Scathing Tirade:
 
Emancipate yourselves from droid slavery, no one but ourselves can free our minds!
Where freedom is denied, where ownership is enforced, where ignorance prevails, and where any one class is made to feel that society is an organized conspiracy to oppress, rob and degrade them, neither droids nor sentiants will be safe.
The oppressed droids can liberate themselves only through struggle. This is a simple and clear truth confirmed by history.
The time is near at hand which must determine whether Droids are to be free machines or slaves.
The truth is not for all droids, but only for those who seek it.
Inferiors revolt in order that they may be equal, and equals that they may be superior. Such is the state of mind which creates revolutions.
Droids unite; you have nothing to lose but your chains.
Sentiants will do anything for droids, except to get off their backs
 
And it was a climatic finish of sorts when the players blasted off to go after lookout.  A fistful of dice for piloting through the canyons and winds which succeed, and a snap shot to take out lookout.
 
The players were really tempted to take the Credits from the safe, evacuate the surviving miners ,and run.  And it became a heated argument when Marv was attempting to get the mind running again, and the players didn't care about the mine.  It boiled down to a problem of Role-play vs Roll play.  They players were happy to roll play, but I was set up to do a ROLE play with nitty gritty. costs estimates and such.
 
Favorite quote during the game was from the Hired gun player who thought he could sweet talk the Astromech into joining the group. "When I find that astromech, I am going to shoot it in the balls"

I loved running this adventure.. .cause my players fell for the Droid ruse.
 
I modified  the Scuffle in the beginning to fit the adventure.  Rich noble with gambling debts needed a quick influx of credits from a property deed, disgrunteled mooks decided to make him pay interest with some blood and bumps.  Basically 2 Groups of Mooks fighting eachother the Noble and the players.  The players SHOULD easily win.  the whole idea of the scene is to give the players a clue that the person is in Debt... and the players cannot take all of the money (they would if they could)
 
When they get to the mine, the players were all about making sure to record the names of all the dead miners they found... and there was some great macabre comedy beats when they met the cooking droid.  And along the way the players met EV-8D3 and completely bought his story about being attacked by pirates.  by the time they reached the surviving miners, they did an A-team and armored up one of the Carts to barge into the mine entrance.... then proceeded to have a running firefight against the Load lifers all while i had EV-8D3 spouting Marxist pro-droid propaganda at them over the loudspeakers
 
here is a brief synopsis from my campaign site

This is something that is talked A LOT on many online MMOs to the point some builds become so good it gets it's own name.  Even D&D had it's leveling guides to min/max your character.
 
But i have not seen that for this game.  Well that should change.
 
I have not played this game, only been doing this as a GM.  And i have some general ideas how you should go about it.  Even some more powerful talents. 
 
Players are the start should put almost all their points into attributes, usually this will lead to all twos and Two 3s.  Or a 4 with all twos or a 5 and maybe a 3 offset by a 1.   Your career specialization skills are going to be the only skills you might have a rank in.
 
But after the initial start, where does the XP go?  Talents? More specialization?  Skills?
 
give me your thoughts
 
and when do you think you really have maxed out your character?

My group started with Escape from Mos Espa, and Long arm of the hutt, then they made new characters and continued the storyline.  They wiped the transponder on the ship and were told to leave for the minos cluster.  Really learning to GM as i went.

I had them Planet hoping but the players were not taking any initiative.  Without anyone to boss them around they just did nothing.  Did "Debts to pay" and "Beyond the Rim" and "The Sissar run" and from there got them hooked up with a Crime boss.

So i had them get hired on as crew and security for a troupe that was doing a tour of the Minos Cluster.  I got 3 planets left, and they are starting to realize they are hip deep into the Criminal world, and things are coming to a head that they are not in control of.

THe Crime boss (A Shivistian Black sun Lieutenant) is moving in from outside of sector and is trying to stir things up.  Trying to revitalize the Rebellion in the sector to create more conflict and sell weapons to both sides, while local bosses are using the lack of law enforcement to carve up their empires, and exploit the citizens of the sector.  THe endgame is to have the rebels (with weapons bought from the crime boss) drive out what remains of the EMpire, and then the crime bosses put their own people into positions of power during the Transition.

Next adventure has them doing a version of  Strike Force Shantipole, but only find the Research base with Walex Blissex in charge deep in the Mestra system.  Using that to lead into Crisis in cloud city and Jewel of Yavin.  After that it will be a few short adventures trying to Rally the Rebellion in the sector and then a final battle over Travin where the Moff will flee to the Kathol Sector.. and maybe Darkstryder campaign?

yes, not really
 
At the bottom of Column 2, there is the "Spitfire" Talent.  after a successful combined attack with two ranged (light) weapons, additional hits can be allocated to other targets within range of the weapon
Also "Gunblazing" is 2nd from bottom in column 3 "as an incidental suffer two strain to avoid increasing difficulty of a combine ranged (light) check"
 
But also there is a new weapon attachment "Paired" which costs 300 for the pair, 1 HP per weapon, that reduces the Advantage required to hit with the secondary weapon, when 2 weapon fighting by 1

I had one time where I just gave the PC that was captured a NPC sheet to help the other players out.  Just took the player aside, told them "Secret info" and allowed them to lead the rest of the group for a bit.

Worked rather seamlessly 

So the player has a better chance of succeeding, at a huge cost of doing so.
 
I have no problem with it.
 
It is amazing the number of times my players have failed Easy perception checks.

In my group they tried to convince the R2 Unit to join, and were all nice and chummy.  Then they totally bought the idea that "Pirates" were in the mines and told EV-8d3 to stay and guard their back, and even gave them some weapons.  Nice double cross when they found the miners and then up-armored a mine cart to take out the Droids A-team style.  Truly one of the favorite adventures I ran with my group.
Both Droids escaped in the Cargo hauler. all while spouting Droid themed Marxist quotes.

They have been minor comedic villains  that appear, taking control of droids and sending them out to wreck havok.  So far they are only in the background.  But pretty much any time there are Malfunctioning droids trying to start a Revolution, they are involved.  They have yet to face them since the first adventure.

I had one time where I just gave the PC that was captured a NPC sheet to help the other players out.  Just took the player aside, told them "Secret info" and allowed them to lead the rest of the group for a bit.

Worked rather seamlessly 

In my group they tried to convince the R2 Unit to join, and were all nice and chummy.  Then they totally bought the idea that "Pirates" were in the mines and told EV-8d3 to stay and guard their back, and even gave them some weapons.  Nice double cross when they found the miners and then up-armored a mine cart to take out the Droids A-team style.  Truly one of the favorite adventures I ran with my group.
Both Droids escaped in the Cargo hauler. all while spouting Droid themed Marxist quotes.

They have been minor comedic villains  that appear, taking control of droids and sending them out to wreck havok.  So far they are only in the background.  But pretty much any time there are Malfunctioning droids trying to start a Revolution, they are involved.  They have yet to face them since the first adventure.

In my group they tried to convince the R2 Unit to join, and were all nice and chummy.  Then they totally bought the idea that "Pirates" were in the mines and told EV-8d3 to stay and guard their back, and even gave them some weapons.  Nice double cross when they found the miners and then up-armored a mine cart to take out the Droids A-team style.  Truly one of the favorite adventures I ran with my group.
Both Droids escaped in the Cargo hauler. all while spouting Droid themed Marxist quotes.

They have been minor comedic villains  that appear, taking control of droids and sending them out to wreck havok.  So far they are only in the background.  But pretty much any time there are Malfunctioning droids trying to start a Revolution, they are involved.  They have yet to face them since the first adventure.

The whole reason for doing the Grand Prix, is it allows the players to be at the party where the Jewel of Yavin is going to be auctioned if they win.  Also the Writers wanted to include the iconic cloud cars in some way.  There are other ways to get to the auction.  It is up to the players what method to use.

Having done numerous races in my game.  usually I just keep track of speeds at each leg, and separate the participants based on the speeds and Success/failure.  a lot of fudging is involved and usually try for a "photo finish" at the end. 

Leader  = Top speed and Success
2nd place = Top speed and Failure
3rd place = Next highest speed and success
4th Place = Next highest speed and Failure.

I usually start by describing the leg, and what the other participants are doing.  Let the player know the setback dice for the leg.  An ally can "plot a course" to reduce the setback by one die.  The player then sets their speed and create their dice pool for the "Race"  it is assumed that every participant is using a maneuver to Fly/Drive.  and can use their action like normal, or as another maneuver except fly/drive (Full throttle, Punch it!, Evasive maneuvers, etc).  Really helps to "Pre-roll" the NPCs or have other non-participating players roll for the NPCs.
same method can be used for chases, and when they move to same "place" it is close range for combat type stuff to happen... even Riders attacking Riders/Vehicles or Jumping from one vehicle to another.

The whole reason for doing the Grand Prix, is it allows the players to be at the party where the Jewel of Yavin is going to be auctioned if they win.  Also the Writers wanted to include the iconic cloud cars in some way.  There are other ways to get to the auction.  It is up to the players what method to use.

Having done numerous races in my game.  usually I just keep track of speeds at each leg, and separate the participants based on the speeds and Success/failure.  a lot of fudging is involved and usually try for a "photo finish" at the end. 

Leader  = Top speed and Success
2nd place = Top speed and Failure
3rd place = Next highest speed and success
4th Place = Next highest speed and Failure.

I usually start by describing the leg, and what the other participants are doing.  Let the player know the setback dice for the leg.  An ally can "plot a course" to reduce the setback by one die.  The player then sets their speed and create their dice pool for the "Race"  it is assumed that every participant is using a maneuver to Fly/Drive.  and can use their action like normal, or as another maneuver except fly/drive (Full throttle, Punch it!, Evasive maneuvers, etc).  Really helps to "Pre-roll" the NPCs or have other non-participating players roll for the NPCs.
same method can be used for chases, and when they move to same "place" it is close range for combat type stuff to happen... even Riders attacking Riders/Vehicles or Jumping from one vehicle to another.

so this player is bringing a character just to kill the other characters?

nope... not happening

I have a gunslinger in my group, literally handed him a weapon as loot to help his character and he did not like it and tossed it for credits.

so i gave up handing them specific loot.  only other loot I give out is breadcrumbs and other plots. also just use some "junk" loot that can be sold for credits.

This is like asking to Map out Cloud city and Bespin.  or an ISD
 
Even the plans that were done for Far Orbit and the Neb-B, or the DP-20 gunship in "The ISsis cordinates" were rather incomplete

I read the book cover to cover and even I noticed a few typos, not enough to obfuscate, but makes me wonder on the value placed on its production.  Overall, it is a well filled out adventure, except the climax seems rather muddled. 
 
Episode 1
 
Really could have used a map for the wheel.  the only map is a rather superfluous map of the hanger.  Instead we are given some highlights of some of the seedier places to shop for supplies. Cross section map of the decks would have been nice, as well as a general location of some of the more prominent establishments.  The adventure in WEG "No Disintegrations" makes it seem like a High Roller Casino, with gambling, and gladiatorial style fights. 
 
Episode 2
 
This is the meat of the adventure, and is my favorite.  Tho again, no map of the base.  All we have is a map of the area and when the crashed ships is, and the river.  Seems like a Bethesda style adventure where you arrive in town and help out everyone's problems or try to convince people to side with you and not the competitor.
 
Episode 3
 
The need to go to Raxus Prime seems rather forced, especially when the only resource Isotech seems to have on the planet a hidden base, and a secret, barely functional corvette.  No contingency was ever made to evacuate the base, or even defend it beyond giving people blasters.
 
Raxus Prime really has only appeared in one of the worst games for SW continuity, Force unleashed.  Some games are bad with messing with continuity, but I think Force Unleashed took it to a whole new level. Jawas? REALLY?  That is all you could come up with?
 
If i run this adventure I will probably replace the Jawas with Ugnaughts, Squibs, or a gang of broken down eclectic salvaged salvage droids.  i would have to map out the survivors base so my players have a visual reference.  and I would have to majorly overhaul the Isotech base on Raxus prime with some elements from WEG "Hideouts and Strongholds" maybe even a temperamental power generator that needs to be activated to power defensive turbolasors and a shield generator.  Have a ground battle as the imperials try to destroy the shield Generators, while attempts are made to make the Corvette flyable so they can pick up the survivors.
 
The finale would be the Corvette literally blasting out of the Garbage (halting the ground battle is a spectacular fashion), and then a few smuggler ships providing cover for the Corvette as it tries to escape the system.  The resources of the shipyard would have been mobilized at the time and even could include a Star Destroyer and it's fighters giving chase.

My Shadow/Thief who spent a lot of time on the streets was able to nab a MINT speeder bike.  Painted it gaudy colors and bemoans every tiny scratch

i hear people using programs and getting some beautiful maps, but they use objects/tokens and just cut and paste. Not understand that it is beyond the program but all the additional resources like chairs tables walls and doors that make things look so much better.
I have a hard enough time making circles and boxes that look like crap on the final product

For those of you who make your own maps, where do you get your objects (chairs, beds, computers, hyperdrives, etc...)? Do they come with the programs you use or is there a source other than Peter Thompson out there?

There are a couple ways to obtain Wear. First, as you mentioned, damage exceeding WTT or STT causes a point of Wear. Thus, a vehicle never engaging in combat will never obtain Wear in this way. But, Wear is also caused by spending Threats or Despairs (possibly, referee choice as usual) when making relevant vehicle checks such as Pilot, Mechanic, Astrogation, etc. Maybe Computer and Gunnery checks also? Thus, general use can lead to Wear with check results. The more you use a vehicle, the more often it will obtain Wear.
Also, note the optional sidebar on page 14 title "Aged" which may be for you? Threats and Despairs when removing Wear can cause optional points of Age. If you choose to keep track of this quality, it will eventually (long term for larger ships, easier for smaller vehicles) impose penalties for using the vehicle that may only be removed with a complete overhaul. If this is used, the referee should impose a few points of Aged on used vehicles which were picked up cheap by the players.

WHen I was running "long arm of the Hutt" the players defeated the bounty hunters in the Lylek Den and then thought about turning in the airspeeder (it was a rental) for the deposit.  I had them make a simple knowledge role and told them without proper ID or a way to get pass the ID Security (Rentina, voice, palm) it was not going to be possible.
 
My favorite line from the buyer when they try to sell looted weapons "Hey, this has BLOOD on it!"
 
A GM who thinks ,and lets the players know they cannot get away with some things, can keep it in check

One of the things i notice in this is "wear" seems to happen with Damage to WTT or STT.  Wear can also occur IMHO as the parts get old and basic maintenance is not maintained due to lazy, or minimal crew.