SOE dangles the bait again... read before you try it
Combat is as unbalanced as it can be. Most of the special attacks are broken, and the whole release is marred by game breaking bugs. Many high level quests are impossible, because NPC's were not balanced for the new system.
Don't be fooled by the new and flashy design, if you are a newby you'll start your 'adventure' on a space station in the Ord Mantell system - that station is the bait. Progress is now quest based (you'll get experience from questing and not only from killing beasts). But once you leave the space station and hit lvl 30 you'll have a hard time finding quests that help you level (no wonder that the starter kit offers playing the first 30 levels ;) ).
And finally, if you are trying SWG to enjoy an established, long-lasting gaming experience, you came to the wrong game. SOE seems to overhaul the game every 6 or 8 months now, introducing profound changes that even alter the genre of the game. The next one will be the Galactic Civil War Revamp.
Oh, and don' t hold your breath that SOE will fix the bugs in a timely manner. There were serious bugs that they ignored repeatedly, fixing candles and insignificant stuff instead. SOE updates this game in so called 'publishes', but so far there were no publish that went live without major issues (there were quests that were broken for months, like the quests that gives the Y-8 mining vessel, a spaceship used for space mining)