I know what they look like, and their purpose as soldiers....but what are they? Are they people who signed up for the army? Indoctrinated people? Clones? If theyre clones...who of? Who do they look like?

Do they have minds of their own?

The new Star Wars trailer basically  showed this new character, as a Stormtrooper go rouge, simply for not believing he had a cause....so are they just people?

so are they just people?

Yes.
The clones got phased out eventually.

Clone troopers made up the majority of the Stormtrooper army during the very early days of the Empire, but were largely retired from service about a decade before the destruction of the first Death Star. Because of how they were genetically engineered, they aged must faster than normal humans, so they couldn't stay in fighting shape for as long as other soldiers. As a result, the Empire started taking in volunteers, or just conscripted people into the army. Anybody during the First Order era is probably just an Imperial Loyalist; nobody's a clone anymore, and I doubt that any of them are still alive.

From what I gather the original trilogy's troopers were just dudes who signed up while the shitty trilogy's troopers are all clones.

I don't remember much about Star Wars, though.

You're correct.

So this new guy just jumped ship because he didnt see the point.

He just became a radicalised space terrorist

Clone troopers were the original storm troopers. Cloned to fight the war against the Seperatist and their droid army. Their original a bounty hunter and last survivor of one side of a civil Mandalorian war. The Jedi's came in and killed his side and he ended up killing 11 Jedi's in that final battle. Due to his infamy and ability, he was used as a template to build the clone army to counter the droid army the Trade Federation was making.

As the war continued Palpatine started a secret cloning facility that increased the speed and number of clones, as the war came to a close. When the war ended the empire formed and among the nations that rebelled the Kaminoans the clone army creator rose up as well. Although shut down with the help of Boba Fett son of Jango Fett, the emperor was made aware of how easy it was to a) change the allegiance of the clones and b) how easy it would be to kill them off with a disease.

He immediately suspended all future cloning and banned it, stopping any future nation from forming a formidable army to challenge him. Remaining clones were placed in the 501st legion under Vader. The rest of the empire's army of was composed of conscripts and recruits from various parts of the empire. The Storm Troopers got their name to help distinguish them from the predecessor the Clone Troopers. As this new force was not composed of Clones but recruits from across the galaxy.

In the extended now non-canon edition, the descendant Jagged, the emperor expanded the Storm Trooper core to include non-human species and as well formed the Imperial Knights a group of force using Imperial Loyalist who fight under the Empire's Banner against the Sith. Sworn allegiance to the force, their duty was to serve the emperor and if the emperor was to fall to the dark side, their duty would include bringing the emperor back to the light or removing him from power.

Too bad nothing in this thread is canon.

Noelle pls

Not sure about prequel bullshit but in the originals they were clearly just regular people. That's why they all had different voices and the officers, whose faces weren't covered, were played by different actors.

In fact, if you remember in the original movie, Luke really wanted to leave Tatooine to go to "the Academy". In deleted scenes from the movie, it is revealed that the Academy is actually military training for the Empire which Luke wanted to join until his friend told him the Empire is evil.

LUKE ALMOST BECAME A STORMTROOPER

Soldiers who cannot shoot.