Should I wait to Upgrade to TGEA

#1 I would recommend not upgrading unless you have a real need to. I'm sticking to TGE until I get all the gameplay worked out. If I can't get that working then there is no point upgrading so in the end I might save money.

#2 Although... Brett did indicate in his blogs about T3D that TGEA owners would get a discount on the cost of T3D (note no mention of TGE owners getting a discount). Hard to say for definite until the price (and discount) is set in stone, but stumping up the $150 to upgrade to TGEA could result in a small net saving when buying T3D.

T3D will cost more than TGEA and, as far as information stands at the moment, you won't get a discount for upgrading from TGE to T3D.

#3 @Jaren: If you need the features, then the time to upgrade is now. TGEA 1.7.1 (and 1.8, I'm sure) is a great engine in it's own right. It's heads and tails above TGE in speed and features. We really have no idea when T3D will be out, what features it will have, or what price it will be, so why wait?

#4 WAIT!!!

I waited patiently for TGEA to support OSX, and while it in fact does, there are so many bugs in it and so many of the existing resources and 3rd party addons won't work with glsl that I've had to go back to TGE. Your best bet if you're a PC'er would be working with TGEA 1.7.1 for now.

#5
My bet is that if you get a TGEA license now, then by means of an early adopter release for Torque 3D that Brett has hinted at, you will be paying less for Torque 3D in the end (since you mention Collada support, this is probably the upgrade you are waiting for).