Is commander really a combat character, I thought of it as more of a buffer, and spy as more combat due to infiltrator... I think that there will be a social/shooty spie spec

I'd say it is. Squadron Leader and Tactician are definitely combat specs, or at least Leadership-based Combat specs.

I'm hoping Spy actually gets a spec that makes them good at spying and infiltration, because really the Infiltrator tree is more focused on melee combat than it is breaking into places. And there really isn't a good "James Bond-esque" spec in that Career.

Why do you think Commodore wouldn't be considered a combat spec? AFAIK it is very rare for there to be space battles in Star Wars where capital ships are present and don;'t get into the fight. Probably because very few capital size warships in Star Wars that aren't equipped and armed for close quarters combat with enemy fleets, and many of those that don't have anti ship weapons are meant as anti-fighter vessels so they still get into the thick of it.

Because it's talent spread doesn't include may talents geared towards combat? Commodore gets Grit, Rapid Reaction, and Fire Control for what I'd consider "combat talents" (and Grit is arguably a stretch).

Squadron Leader gets Field Commander, Quick Strike, Defensive Driving, Form on Me, Tricky Target, and Brilliant Evasion; all talents that are to be used (mostly) in combat. Plus they get the Gunnery Skill.

Tacticians get Toughened, Side Step, Swift, Body Guard, Coodinated Assault, and the Ranged (Heavy) skill.

Commodore definitely gets the shortest end of the combat-utility stick, but that's their nature. Ship commanders don't tend to get into direct combat too much in their chosen roles.

Both of you have good ideas for the soldier!

1- Special Weapons Operator for the grenadier/heavy spec.

2- Marine for the spaceship boarding spec. Make it a class focused on close ranged combat and starfighter combat.

3- Specialist for the adverse terrain type.

I might be outright annoyed if they don't reprint "Heavy" into the Soldier book...

The posters above have done an excellent job covering potential Soldier specializations, and I wholeheartedly agree with their assessment. The other three are likely to be a bit trickier, though, with some already covering the bases perfectly and others sadly lacking in their main premise.

The Spy currently has melee combat, field recon, and computer slicing, but simply cannot handle several other fundamental aspects of the trade. Stealth is a must for this profession, as is guile.

The Sneaky One. Half the tree is devoted to remaining completely unnoticed, the other to disappearing into thin air once the jig is up. Covers everything from simply stealth checks to finding safehouses and sympathetic citizens who will hide you. The spy should be an expert at not getting caught, no question about it.
The Talky One. All about charm, deception, and manipulation to get what you want. Bonus points if it has a power, much like Performer's Biggest Fan, which will make NPCs completely infatuated with your roguish ways. Half of all espionage thrillers involve face to face deception, and the spy needs a way to excel at it.
The Spooky One. Counter-intelligence. Ferreting out lies, tracking down enemy agents, and doing the necessary wet work to keep the Alliance safe. Essentially, a specialization designed to counter other underhanded characters beyond simply resisting skill checks.

The Commander is extremely well made in its current form, basically the opposite of the spy. Since it already covers the bases extremely well, three additional specializations are simply icing on the cake. There's a bit of room for some fun, though.

The Underhanded One. A cell leader for recon, spying, and all manner of stealth operations. Makes everyone better at everything sneaky.

The Civilian One. Basically, a commander designed around noncombat activities, geared towards leading teams fulfilling skill checks and difficult tasks without drawing weapons. Team building exercises all around!

The Nesting One. Bunker down and get comfy. A defense-oriented specialization ready to defend their home.

The Engineer is a much trickier nut to crack, and I don't have a good answer for its array. The tricky part will be avoiding areas already covered by AoR, which include Gunnery, Slicing, Medicine, and Rigging. However, there should be room enough with elements such as Gadgeteer, Grenadier, Droid Expert, or even Biochemistry.

Is commander really a combat character, I thought of it as more of a buffer, and spy as more combat due to infiltrator... I think that there will be a social/shooty spie spec

I'd say it is. Squadron Leader and Tactician are definitely combat specs, or at least Leadership-based Combat specs.

I'm hoping Spy actually gets a spec that makes them good at spying and infiltration, because really the Infiltrator tree is more focused on melee combat than it is breaking into places. And there really isn't a good "James Bond-esque" spec in that Career.

Why do you think Commodore wouldn't be considered a combat spec? AFAIK it is very rare for there to be space battles in Star Wars where capital ships are present and don;'t get into the fight. Probably because very few capital size warships in Star Wars that aren't equipped and armed for close quarters combat with enemy fleets, and many of those that don't have anti ship weapons are meant as anti-fighter vessels so they still get into the thick of it.

Because it's talent spread doesn't include may talents geared towards combat? Commodore gets Grit, Rapid Reaction, and Fire Control for what I'd consider "combat talents" (and Grit is arguably a stretch).

Squadron Leader gets Field Commander, Quick Strike, Defensive Driving, Form on Me, Tricky Target, and Brilliant Evasion; all talents that are to be used (mostly) in combat. Plus they get the Gunnery Skill.

Tacticians get Toughened, Side Step, Swift, Body Guard, Coodinated Assault, and the Ranged (Heavy) skill.

Commodore definitely gets the shortest end of the combat-utility stick, but that's their nature. Ship commanders don't tend to get into direct combat too much in their chosen roles.

Personal combat sure but if a Commodore has a sword or blaster and is fighting he or she is probably not commanding a ship in action but fulfilling some other role unless something has gone very wrong. And like I said earlier to me just because the captain of a warship isn't manning a gun, fighting on foot, or piloting a vehichle or fighter does no mean they aren't in a combat.role

The posters above have done an excellent job covering potential Soldier specializations, and I wholeheartedly agree with their assessment. The other three are likely to be a bit trickier, though, with some already covering the bases perfectly and others sadly lacking in their main premise.

The Spy currently has melee combat, field recon, and computer slicing, but simply cannot handle several other fundamental aspects of the trade. Stealth is a must for this profession, as is guile.

The Sneaky One. Half the tree is devoted to remaining completely unnoticed, the other to disappearing into thin air once the jig is up. Covers everything from simply stealth checks to finding safehouses and sympathetic citizens who will hide you. The spy should be an expert at not getting caught, no question about it.

The Talky One. All about charm, deception, and manipulation to get what you want. Bonus points if it has a power, much like Performer's Biggest Fan, which will make NPCs completely infatuated with your roguish ways. Half of all espionage thrillers involve face to face deception, and the spy needs a way to excel at it.

The Spooky One. Counter-intelligence. Ferreting out lies, tracking down enemy agents, and doing the necessary wet work to keep the Alliance safe. Essentially, a specialization designed to counter other underhanded characters beyond simply resisting skill checks.

The Commander is extremely well made in its current form, basically the opposite of the spy. Since it already covers the bases extremely well, three additional specializations are simply icing on the cake. There's a bit of room for some fun, though.

The Underhanded One. A cell leader for recon, spying, and all manner of stealth operations. Makes everyone better at everything sneaky.

The Civilian One. Basically, a commander designed around noncombat activities, geared towards leading teams fulfilling skill checks and difficult tasks without drawing weapons. Team building exercises all around!

The Nesting One. Bunker down and get comfy. A defense-oriented specialization ready to defend their home.

The Engineer is a much trickier nut to crack, and I don't have a good answer for its array. The tricky part will be avoiding areas already covered by AoR, which include Gunnery, Slicing, Medicine, and Rigging. However, there should be room enough with elements such as Gadgeteer, Grenadier, Droid Expert, or even Biochemistry.

I think the civilian commander spec wouldn't be a commander role at all but a fit diplomat role better instead otherwise they look interesting.

I personally think they've really been wrestling with rules for crafting this whole time. There've been nods the whole time - the Inventor talent, for example - but not until they announced the Guardian supplement did they indicate anything was coming from it. (That splatbook is going to have rules for creating armor from scratch, for those who may not have looked.)

I think they were holding off on Technician and Engineer books until they were happy with that sort of thing, making it balanced, useful, and fun. It sounds like they're happy enough to present at least part of it now, so an Engineer book including some kind of crafting (possibly weapons, or even gear, for some general diversity) would seem to me a reasonable next step.

Engineer and Technician are similar enough at the moment, but I suspect they may branch off in different directions. With Technicians the key is in their name (Technician), so technology focused (weapons, gadgets, ships). Engineer can branch off into other fields, including what would make sense for a military organization would need and require first. Capital ship maintenance/development/modification. Weapons or armor. But Engineer has Scientist (which shares similarities with Scholar), so other sciences can be touched upon (biology, chemistry).

The Commander is extremely well made in its current form, basically the opposite of the spy. Since it already covers the bases extremely well, three additional specializations are simply icing on the cake. There's a bit of room for some fun, though.

The Underhanded One. A cell leader for recon, spying, and all manner of stealth operations. Makes everyone better at everything sneaky.

The Civilian One. Basically, a commander designed around noncombat activities, geared towards leading teams fulfilling skill checks and difficult tasks without drawing weapons. Team building exercises all around!

The Nesting One. Bunker down and get comfy. A defense-oriented specialization ready to defend their home.

The first one could be a "Handler" for spy-type characters, while the second and third ones together almost sound like a "Team Mom" character. I'd prefer if one of the new Commander specs was a Trainer/Instructor type character (for all those drill sergeant types and similar flyer types).

The Sneaky One. Half the tree is devoted to remaining completely unnoticed, the other to disappearing into thin air once the jig is up. Covers everything from simply stealth checks to finding safehouses and sympathetic citizens who will hide you. The spy should be an expert at not getting caught, no question about it.

The Talky One. All about charm, deception, and manipulation to get what you want. Bonus points if it has a power, much like Performer's Biggest Fan, which will make NPCs completely infatuated with your roguish ways. Half of all espionage thrillers involve face to face deception, and the spy needs a way to excel at it.

The Spooky One. Counter-intelligence. Ferreting out lies, tracking down enemy agents, and doing the necessary wet work to keep the Alliance safe. Essentially, a specialization designed to counter other underhanded characters beyond simply resisting skill checks.

I'd welcome something like this. I'm playing an Infiltrator right now, and have zero interest in either of the other current specs in the career. These, though, would be quite attractive.

As for Species that could show up in a Spy book - I could see Defel, Kubaz, and Noghri making an appearance.

Heavy reprinted in Soldier, and Demolitionist reprinted in either Spy or Engineer. Yep.

Soldier could use: A Heavy/Grenadier, A spaceship boarding expert, the Bodyguard(or something like it?)

I was thinking much the same, but with an adverse terrain spec instead of Bodyguard; like the Alliance's counter to the sand/snow/swamp/whatevertroopers of the Empire. A weapon expert spec for Engineer would make sense, but maybe a Rigger-esque spec focused on Silhouette 5 vehicles, like a capital ship technician and then maybe a chemist spec.

What about species? I predict Wookiee and Zabrak will crop up somewhere in an AoR book somewhere.

I want new races rather than Wookie from Edge and Zabrak from Force. Give us species not done yet

I'm looking for a martial artist spec somewhere, hopefully in soldier... since they have medicine as a skill pressure point could be an option for them.

Yes I want a martial artist that doesn't just add damage or upgrade attacks. More like one that does UFC styles....wrestling, pressure points, choke holds etc

I'm looking for a martial artist spec somewhere, hopefully in soldier... since they have medicine as a skill pressure point could be an option for them.

Yes I want a martial artist that doesn't just add damage or upgrade attacks. More like one that does UFC styles....wrestling, pressure points, choke holds etc

A martial artist that gets second wind, knock down, and also ways to disorient, stun, or otherwise hamper foes would be slick. I'd rock that. Make it a droid. Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robot it is, then.

Soldier could use: A Heavy/Grenadier, A spaceship boarding expert, the Bodyguard(or something like it?)

I was thinking much the same, but with an adverse terrain spec instead of Bodyguard; like the Alliance's counter to the sand/snow/swamp/whatevertroopers of the Empire. A weapon expert spec for Engineer would make sense, but maybe a Rigger-esque spec focused on Silhouette 5 vehicles, like a capital ship technician and then maybe a chemist spec.

What about species? I predict Wookiee and Zabrak will crop up somewhere in an AoR book somewhere.

I want new races rather than Wookie from Edge and Zabrak from Force. Give us species not done yet

While a nice sentiment, precedent suggests that we will see repeats. Twi'lek, Wookiee and Zabrak are all species that would/could be in the Rebellion, so I wouldn't be surprised if they show up somewhere. I'm not hoping for any one species, necessarily, just anything new at all. Prediction wise, I wouldn't be surprised if Pantorans crop up somewhere, especially in AoR.

I want new races rather than Wookie from Edge and Zabrak from Force. Give us species not done yet

While a nice sentiment, precedent suggests that we will see repeats. Twi'lek, Wookiee and Zabrak are all species that would/could be in the Rebellion, so I wouldn't be surprised if they show up somewhere. I'm not hoping for any one species, necessarily, just anything new at all. Prediction wise, I wouldn't be surprised if Pantorans crop up somewhere, especially in AoR.

Yeah, there are too many refrences to "wookiee soldiers" in other games (Like Imperial Assault) for Wookiees not to be in the Soldier book.