So, I recently started playing again after quite a long time (before latest patch).
There are some positive differences and some negative ones.
Firstly, there is more teamwork in general, and not just from clans - clanless people are playing a lot better together. The upkeep system is great, you can't play in plate all the time, but you can maintain medium armour and a couple of weapons for ever.
I see your point about missing the old times, but it's better for casual players which is good. I definitely miss the small servers and player's distinctive gear so you could target the most annoying ones, but you still see the older players around (I especially miss the times before the NA players got a server, now we don't play together anymore)
As for peasant wars, I'd be absolutely for a server reset like the old days, would be so much fun, but I think too many people would cry
A lot of the negative changes I think will be fixed soon in the next patch (everyone has a pike, everyone using the same fotm weapon etc etc).
The most annoying thing is the tendency to camp now. I remember when if someone suggested camping (even if it was a good idea for the situation) they'd get a torrent of abuse hurled at them. Now camping seems to be the default strategy.
Partly I think this is due to the amount of ranged going on. If you think back through cRPG history, ranged weapons being OP has happened with just as much frequency as any other category, and it's something that can be fixed with patches. But even if no particular ranged weapon is OP, there can still be a problem with the quantity of ranged. Hopefully the new patch will fix that with the slot thing. At the moment it's a little bit ridiculous - everyone has throwing or xbow as a backup weapon. And throwing does so much damage
Another annoying thing is that due to the multiplier sometimes teams can get really defeatist - if they're on x1 for a few rounds everyone switches to worse gear and doesn't make much of an effort to beat the other team - they just wait for the next map and autobalance to favour them more.
Also, I don't get the point of retirement, unless you mess up your build. Heirloomed weapons might be nice, but they're don't seem worth the effort really. And the new wpf system has slowed fights down quite a lot, except for katana/sidesword/long halfted mace etc users.
I still see plated archers and plated HA with armoured horses, which was supposed to be fixed, but I guess as long as they can't afford to do it all the time it's sort of ok. And there are a lot more shielders now (presumably cos of the ranged spam), which is nice, battles look better made up of mainly shielders - more authentic than having an army of 2handers.
It's also really nice that we've got a map-making community now, but it'd be great if they could optimise their maps (a lot of the new ones get fps drop and lag, I'd rather a map was less pretty and played better). As well, a lot of maps seem to have been made by people who love ranged camping and hate cav.
Last thing, horses are damned expensive to upkeep, considering they're made of paper. Maybe the slot thing will make them more worth the cost.
Anyway, largely it seems pretty good, and is still as fun as before. And I don't see why there's a lack of improvement in your character - just don't retire. It's slow, true, but that's what you miss surely? You'll get more of a sense of achievement when you hit 35 or whatever.
A lot of different stuff, but I cba typing stuff in the relevant places.
