Every so often I'm coming back to an idea to run a Star Wars campaign. And the point where I usually don't make much progress is in deciding on a game structure to hold the campaign together.
In principle, I am a very outspoken proponent of sandbox campaigns in which the players roam around at their own volition. That's what RPGs are really made for as a medium.
That's what SOME RPGs are meant for. As a medium, it's got a lot of room for other modes. Mission based game settings abound.
So I am thinking, if the goal is to run a campaign that embodies and evokes the style of Star Wars stories, is a sandbox even a suitable structure to build it around?
Within a limited scope, yes, one can pull off a sandbox... provided one gets player agreement not to leave the box for the rest of the yard.
Set up a small cluster (10-12 worlds and 30 to 40 discrete locations to have specific assets you want them to consider, and add more as needed.
So,
Atzerri - world - temperate, 3 continents: Landfall, Northshield, and the Archipelago (Think austronesia/oceania, but bigger archipelago, with nothing bigger than Sumatra or NZ.)
Atzer City - Manufacturing and shipping center of the sector, Equatorial on Landfall. GM notes: Houses imperial offices for BOSS and ImpSec. Moff's offices in Atzerdu system, 3 LD away, or 10 min beyond light at ×1.
Northshield Mining Region - hundreds of mines with miners living in track-laying RVs (like shorter, wider, sandcrawlers).
For building the astrogation gazetteer, I'd suggest using a grid of "1 hour at ×1 beyond light" under "perfect conditions" - 3d grid out... then use the hypotenuse to figure out the straight line distance, and multiply that by a random factor; I'd set it as 2d10kL1. If you have a system in a nebula, or forgotten by the Republic and Empire, use 2d10kH1 for its links. If a forgotten world, also keep it off the player copy of the map.
Remember, in 3D, D=√((x₁-x₂)²+(y₁-y₂)²+(z₁-z₂)²)