I know I'm resurrecting an old thread here, but what the hell, I wasn't on the forum when it was seeing activity before, so here's my (belated) input.
I'd like to see several small stories happening in ways that overlap with each other & larger campaign arcs - in an Imperial campaign, for example;
Overall Arc - Wipe out Rebel resistance in sector blah-de-blah
Secondary Arc - Watch for traitors to the Imperial cause
Specific mission 1 - Partnered with a Shistevanen tracker (according to Wookieepedia, "During Emperor Palpatine's reign, despite the New Order's xenophobia towards non-Humans, Imperial agents regularly employed Shistavanen scouts to track down criminals, rebels and other persons of interest.", so they're an option for a non-human in Imp employ & I can do an awesome Shistavanen voice), the player goes out to track down a rebel convoy. They find the convoy, but as they approach, one of the ships goes to hyperspace. The player & shistavanen then proceed to wipe out the rest of the convoy.
Specific Mission 2 - Tracking the last ship to a system busy with heavy neutral traffic, the player & shistavanen have to locate the target ship & destroy it before it docks with a larger, more powerful ship. If they fail to do this, they have to take out the big ship. Regardless, once this is done, the shistavanen comms the player - since the contract is over, he expects the player to be recieving updated orders to kill him before returning home. The player does recieve such orders, but can choose whether or not to follow them. If they do, go to Specific Mission 3a, if they let him escape, go to Specific Mission 3b.
Specific Mission 3a - Several missions down the line, while involved in another mission (not the same base mission as 3b), the player is targetted by a powerful bounty-hunter ship. The hunter comms the player, explaining that he seeks revenge for the death of his pack-mate (sibling-ish). In addition to the original objective, the player must defeat the bounty hunter.
Specific Mission 3b - Several missions down the line, while involved in another mission (not the same base mission as 3a), the player comes up against much heavier resistance than expected. As enemy reinforcements arrive early, so does a bounty hunter in a powerful ship. This bounty hunter is the shistavanen that the player didn't kill who assists the player, somewhat evening the odds. Once completed, the shistavanen comms the player that they are now even & leaves, never to be seen again (until a later campaign is released).
Basically, the missions 3a & 3b would be available in 2 formats each. If 3a is chosen, the underlying mission objective is made easier, to compensate for the new enemy, if 3b is chosen, the enemy forces are made more powerful, to compensate for the assist. The player doesn't need to know that the "reality" of the underlying missions has been changed depending on their choice earlier. This isn't part of the main arc, but a few missions that are linked with each other that occur within it. The choice also impacts on the Secondary Arc & could have repercussions in the form of witnesses to the attack/non-attack having to be silenced, attention from the groups the player is supposed to be watching, whether the player uses 3b as an "in" with traitors to expose them all or throws his lot in with them further down the campaign.
The thing about the SW universe that makes it so good for me is the background - not the EU, but literally what's going on behind the main actors in the actual movies, things like Jawas having arguments with each other outside the cantina, Gran air-taxi drivers making rude gestures to Obi-wan & Anakin as they thunder past in the speeder chase scene in Ep2 (Yes, I know the prequels are generally a huge disappointment, but there were some bits of them that were entertaining). The SW universe has depth, it's lived in, with countless stories going on at different levels, all at the same time, just not being focused on in that movie/book/game/whatever. This is as opposed to Trek (for example) where everything is shiney & the only other people seen are there to directly affect the primary plot. Anything that adds that sense of depth to the game & makes it more like a full world rather than set missions will enhance immersion & make the overall experience more satisfying.
