1. Xp should be given the "AS treatment" by shaving a couple of zeroes. You'll get 50 "competency" points instead of 5,000 Xp; that should really trim the math.
Another reason to do that:
Attributes and traits both work in 100xp increments, and than you stumble head first into the skill Xp table and try to figure out your skill levels. Modules should simply hand out +1s to this trait/attribute/skill (or skill field).
2. I'm not sure how many will agree with me (I'm pretty sure you won't, Paul):
"Point only" isn't the solution, it's the problem. It encourages MinMaxing, which is followed by "broken" charecters.
Life modules are probably my favorite part, but more importantly it forces the player to make characters that "make sense". First you get the money ,then you get the power, then you get the woman, as they say.
Here are a couple of examples I encountered on this forum, from complaining GMs:
A. The player sunk his points into owning a planet, and than simply solves his problems by throwing stupendous money on it. Got in fight? Better call the company of mercs he has on retainer.
B. Both players have built an elite level Surgeon/Mechwarriors. Which are teenagers.
3. Eliminate co-dependency. A character is built from three things:
Skills - this are the software. They are literally what the character is skilled at (duh); what he knows to do, and how good is he at doing it.
Traits - this are the hardware. The more permanent and material things: money, power, gear, family, etc.
Attributes - this are the bundles of cables attached to the side, because some engineer thought computers should run on "electricity".
You shouldn't need to look up all those three things for a skills check.
Linked attributes are annoying; especially since skill level is far more important. Attributes only "good" reason to exist, is to represent the character physical and mental limitation. So they should do that and just that; MAYBE include a rule that skill level can't surpass the associated attribute level. But that's it.
If there's a character that gives a bonus to certain skills, eliminate it; the player is probably better off dumping the xp into the actual skill.
Traits need some rebalancing/rescaling. Heavy battlemech's vehicle TP, is the same as the property TP to own a full battlemech company and supporting staff... Leveling traits like reputation is too easy, compared to the jump in scale; for a a medium battlemech TP, you can own a castle, or be as universally famous as Alexander Kerensky...