Vector is simply amazing. I've used him since I got him. I absolutely hated Kaliyo. I bought Vector every piece of upgrade-able gear I could buy with commendations. I'm also cybertech and just update his mods when needed. He has no problems holding aggro and with Whirling Force he's an absolute terror in AoE combat. The Killik is the best. Also, he likes my nice guy antics.

I absolutely love this idea. It's probably my favorite so far. In fact I was just discussing with my friend the other day how much I love the haphazard firing style of the smuggler. It's something I never noticed until I played a trooper for a little while. It's so cool that troopers fire directly at the target in a straight line constantly, but that the smuggler just sort of fires from the hip and misses A LOT of the shots fired. However, he fires so many that at least some of them are hitting. It's pretty great. That's why the above solution seems so fitting to the methodology of the Smuggler in general. I.E. Throw a ton of crap in the person's general direction and hope something connects. I love it.

I've seen a lot of threads dancing around the subject of the terrible healing animations for Smugglers. I've read all of them and agreed wholeheartedly. The one thing that everyone (mostly) seems to agree on is that they are at best lackluster and at worst absurd. Let me start by saying that I enjoy the healing scanner. It's not flashy or crazy but it's alright I guess. I'd rather not have it used when casting a heal on myself, especially considering the fact that the animation for my smuggler just jamming a medpac in his leg is definitely in the game already. *A la Emergency Medpac* But that for the most part it's an enjoyable and unique animation that does alright by my estimation. The one thing that I absolutely cannot stand is Emergency Medpac when cast on others. Dear god, that lifeline-zipline-snake-wire-thingy is just so bad. I know that Operative and Scoundrel are different flavors of the same cookie but why do they have to have such good looking healing animations and we get Lifelines? I for one don't want to heal with a glimmering shiny wire of hope and fuzzy feelings when I know much better alternatives exist. I don't even care if Slow Release Medpac and Emergency Medpac use the same animation as long as you take out that abominable wire-rope heal. Fellow Scoundrels unite and throw off the oppressive shackles of craptastic animations. TL:DR: Zipline sucks and should die in a fire.

I could not agree anymore with the OP's statements. I'm fine with the Tricorder, although I wouldn't mind having a cooler wrist computer like we get when we use Slice Droid. The thing that just KILLS it for me, is the Zipline. *** was going on in the office the day they programmed that one in the game? It's HORRID. I absolutely cannot stand that stupid animation. The worst part is that it's probably our best ability which means I constantly have to sling it out at people and deal with the shame of everyone seeing that animation. It almost makes me want to be a Sage or Trooper. It's really disappointing that Slow Release Medpac is so neat too, because it just sets you up to be more crushed when you get Zipline. /sigh

Causing Extreme suffering sounds pretty F'd up, and they are slaves so killing them will basically end their slavery and allow them to become one with the Force... I guess. Seriously though, it sounds to me like your problem was that you chose Sith. All of there choices are bound to be skewed since they are uh, EVIL, and all. I did a republic Smuggler quest where I was supposed to get this medicine back from a thief that stole it from the military. I had to find the thief first though, so I go out looking and it turns out it's some really nice Cathar chick who just wants to help the kids. She wants me to return the medicine to her so she can keep the kids healthy because as it turns out it was stolen from her by some separatists. So I go and I kill like a whole colony of people to get this medicine. After said slaughter I return to town where my two choices are A. Give it to the kids who might be sick sometime in the future (Light Side) or B. Give it to the soldiers from whom it was originally stolen who are sick right now (Dark Side). I don't know, but that one seems a little more like what you are looking for maybe. Try rolling Republic.