Heh, I just happened to stop by here after like a year on absence. Lucky you [img]smile.gif[/img]
#1 You will have to slowly give up your old skills to be replaced by Jedi skills. I was formerly a Master Brawler/Master Swordsman/Master Teras Kasai, but I only kept the Master Teras Kasai skills (plus some medic) with my Jedi for the defences while I'm a low level padawan and still have plenty of skillpoints to spare.
Also you mentioned Pilot...it takes zero skillpoints, so you have plenty of room to play with your template. So you could probably do both Squad Leader and Fencer if you really wanted.
#2 Well...lots of opinions there and many valid.
The game has been buggy and lots of stuff ignored by the development team but recently the staff size was multplied several times over with new hiring and lots of changes wanted and need are coming down the pipeline.
Fixes are being pushed to Live much faster than before. Still lots of problems, but it's being worked on. I still enjoy the game.
Now the other players...ugh. Some people seriously need to take a break.
If you ever need any help, drop me a message:
/tell Flurry.Venya insert message here