There is now a pimp factor applied to gear, and you can actually GAIN gold if you wear the right combination of items, because all female players must pay a share of their income to the top pimp.
Horses have an own personality, so you never know what happens, when you mount a horse that's not your own. It may just lie down and stop moving, or do a wild rodeo jumping session. It's also possible to get a suicidal horse that steers into all spears and tries to jump off cliffs. And some bite you in the monads.
You can now carry around other players on a shield. It needs at least two carriers, but like this, you can scale walls without ladders and make small archer towers with nothing but players and shields. It's kind of hilarious when a lancer kills one of the bottommost "supporting" shielders...the whole pyramid topples down.
The last major change is fatigue, thirst and hunger. If you run around constantly and swing your weapons, you get thirsty and hungry. If you don't eat and drink, you get slower and slower, and your vision starts to fade out, until you collapse and everything goes dark. Fatigue is similar, but you can't prevent it. You have to sleep for 10 seconds every 2 minutes. Your character will simply fall down where he stands. Not a good idea in the middle of an enemy formation.
To get food, you can hunt wildlife, which is now running around on every map. Be careful, though, boars and badgers can overpower an unprepared hunter! Always carry a boar spear.
