The timeline of the game takes place somewhere between Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977) and Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980).
Various things from the Star Wars movies can be found in the game such as R2-D2 and C-3PO's Escape Pod, the charred remains of Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru's home on Tatooine, the Massassi Temple, pieces of the Death Star on Yavin IV, the Theed Palace and the Gungan Sacred Place on Naboos. Also, there are places like Lok, Rori and Dathomir and characters like Grand Admiral Thrawn and the Spacetroopers that come from "Expanded Universe" the Star Wars saga outside the films.
The first "Expansion Pack" was released on 24 October 2004 called "Jump to Lightspeed." It offered players a chance to build spaceships and have adventures in a space. Also included were several new professions and two new species that the player could play, The Ithorian and the Sullustan. This expansion pack satisfied many complaints that players had in the beginning that there were not vehicles or spaceships available in the game.