So, I'm currently going to starting a new Knight-level Play campaign, and with the added experience and lightsaber/credit option, do you think it would make sense for the group resource to be slightly better? Say, for example, allowing a ship that costs more than 60,000 credits?

You can look through the books to see what falls into what price range. You may not want them getting a ship that they could just shoot-up a space station (So no X-Wings. jk). An option you have is to pick out a ship you think might be good for the game you are planning to run. This prevents you from having to worry about the cost and the players just min maxing the purchase with an unbalanced ship.

a ship is not always necessary, they could be based on a space station, using space taxis to get to nearby planets/moons. picking up a loaner ship to fly later on when they need to go further away, then giving it back when its not needed. they could also be based on a Rebel Capital ship, with all the usual supplies for them there, and the rebels just lend them small craft when they need to go "exploring"

Your groups plans for the campaign are important in the decision. are they independent from the Rebellion, brought together by the force, exploring ancient knowledge together through a Holocron? or are they brought together by a more powerful force user, one who escaped the O66 as a padawan and now has a bigger agenda mysterious to the PC's? or was it the Empires hatred that pushed all of them into the Rebellion who are now training them and using them as weapons against the Imperials?

When you know what game the Players want to play, and you have an idea of the kind of Game that means your going to run, you can more easily figure out what party resource is more useful to the overall story.

If the plan is to have a ship and you're not sure which one to give, just give them the same one with some nice attachments/mods. After all, 150 xp is not really that much...

In so far as starting ships for 70K and under, there are some decent options outside of the FaD core rulebook.

The Starlight-class light freighter from Fly Casual is a pretty solid ship and not quite the clunker that the G9 Rigger is; it's faster, has better armor, better hyperdrive, and better handling. It doesn't have as many guns, but the one it does have offers more punch, plus you can always add additional weapons if necessary since both ships have the same number of customization hard points.

But even for Knight-Level PCs, going with a Mentor or a holocron work just as well as they do for starting characters. I'd say that the bonuses of those two would affect the bonus XP from being Knight Level, since that's post-chargen XP, making them quite useful to a group even before play starts.

At a knight level game, I gave the party a ship with some, shall we say... after market modifications? Some Ion Turbines, a smuggling hold, and a fancy targeting computer, plus an amnesiac pilot who didn't remember that he worked for the Empire! Call it a free gift with purchase? And no one suspected since I offered a "Padawan: Free to a good home" who drew all the "Is the NPC going to murder us all in our sleep?" attention.

Aside from my love of keeping their enemies close, the party's whole schtick was they were hiding from the empire in plain sight as bounty hunters, and when given the opportunity they would take bounties on others who survived Order 66 and squirrel them away to far flung backwaters at the edge of space, so a slightly suped up "Space Superiority Tramp Freighter" made good sense.

I'd give them whatever helps your plot. If you want to throw some tougher space fights at them then give them a better ship. If they're not going to have much space combat then it doesn't matter what they have.

I'd give them whatever helps your plot. If you want to throw some tougher space fights at them then give them a better ship. If they're not going to have much space combat then it doesn't matter what they have.

I would second this: The needs of the party should be dictated by the needs of the plot.

If you had a non-jedi in the party, it would be reasonable to give them a similarly upgraded weapon or other compensation to keep them 'on par' with their Jedi buddies. I would say it should have equivalent mechanical value, not necessarily equivalent financial value, since the cost on 'saber crystals is artificially high due to their [il]legal status and its unlikely any of the players just straight up paid for their lightsaber crystal out of pocket.