It's absolutely brilliant! I've literally been completely hooked on it and have already found myself at level 30 since I first posted this topic. It's very, very addictive - though I've already learned a heck of a lot about the game that I can share now.
The character creation is pretty extensive. You can change the facial structure a lot, including eyes, nose and mouth, though there aren't many hairstyles so far and the colours for it are quite dark due to the shading and hair textures. It's pretty nice though!
The player-driven economy, as FoxPhilosopher mentioned, is INCREDIBLE. You mine iron ores and if you're lucky, a Fortuna Vein which can get you gold, silver, copper and other stuff like that. Then you can either auction it off or sell it. You can grow your own crops in farmland you place using a Scarecrow plot, and you can also farm livestock to get certain things like wool from sheep, milk from cows etc. which you can either use to make cloth (with wool - used for ships and cloth armour crafting) or sell on. Everything you can farm and mine can also be used in trade runs.
Trade runs get you a lot of gold or Gilda stars, which are a separate currency used on Mirage Island. Mirage sells a lot of premium things such as houses, which you can store things in and buy furniture for. You can also buy castles and other larger structures like mansions which can be used as guild houses.
Guilds are able to get a lot more resources faster than solo players. I've only been playing for a few days with my guild (I met them by complete chance and ended up sticking with them) but we already have a galleon ship and a few smaller boats. My guildmate and family member (in-game) Sovren and I are currently tasked with building a trade ship so we can carry trade packs (which comprise of stacks of 100 resources, generally improved ones such as ingots made by smelting ore) and get gold faster for the guild. After that we plan on building a house, though it requires a lot of farming...
And that's basically it so far. The story questline stops very abruptly at around level 30, but it is Alpha so I'm assuming that that won't be staying as it is.
;v; All the information I've got is basically just from playing! During Beta I'll be rush-farming as practice for launch. If you get into the Beta and want to party up with me, feel absolutely free! I'll help you out no problem!
