Criticism about the world and ideas for improvement

I think my biggest gripe overall right now is with the world right now. It feels bland, barren, empty and unmemorable. But how could this change?

I've previously said I believe the landmasses are too big and I still stand by that fact. It is no fun having to run an hour or more to get where you want to be, and then eventually do it again when you want to return. It'll be fun once or twice, but in the grand scheme of things I believe it will lead many people to be frustrated. I know we have mounts and under very specific circumstances teleportation COULD be possible, but I think we should alleviate this by introducing further ways to travel (if not reducing the landmass) then maybe one could add kinds of public transport within a zone or between zones. Carriages, ships, airships. Yes, many of these things will be do-able by players, such as owning a ship and whatnot. But I firmly believe there should be publically available options. ArcheAge had airships and boats for public transport, even older games such as WoW or L2 had boats and airships. Not only does this help alleviate traveling frustration, I think it also helps socialize people, perhaps they are more inclined to talk when waiting for a ship together or they'll chitchat when the boat is on it's way.

POI's need a unique theme, maybe that could help in them becoming more memorable and visually more distinctive. That could be achieved through special lightning, effects such as fog or special environments like hills, cliffs, trees or effects, kind of like corrupted areas having that red corruption vibe. As it stands, while differing slightly, I think many zones in the same biome feel too visually similar to each other, with exceptions such as the Tower of Carphin maybe.

I also feel like starter towns such as Lionhold should be fleshed out way more, as it currently feels like a long assortmernt of decorative houses that you pretty much just run through. Maybe add a market square, enterable shops etc. But I've elaborated on this once already.

World-Scaling seems off. I've noticed this throughout my playtime a lot. The player feels very small against certain props or elements, and gigantic when compared against others. The first time I felt this was when going inside one of the houses in Lionhold. I felt cramped in there, My camera had little space to move and generally it didn't make me feel like I wanted to stay and explore in there at all. I've compared it to other games where I didn't have this problem such as Lineage 2, World of Warcraft or more modern titles like New World or even Bellatores, and in these titles, while the scaling of the buildings might have been "too much" that also resulted in me having more space to move around in there, more breathing room so to speak. It felt more natural. I've often looked at the space available from the characters head to the ceiling, in AoC it seems quite narrow, in those other titles there was a lot more space. I suppose you get what I mean.

Scaling issues I have also noticed outside, with props such as lanterns on the road outside of Lionhold for example. They are almost as tall as the player character (no I was not a dwarf) and yet, when you look at them as is, I'd think they should maybe be waist-high.

I'm not entirely sure if this really is an issue but I think it could be why the world sometimes feels "off", so I've wanted to note it down.

Streamlining
I know Ashes is supposed to be a hugely ambitious game with unique ideas and concepts. But I think many things sound great in theory and become nigh impossible to implement in reality. The alpha 2 has been going on for... about a year or so? And while I have definitely seen a lot of change, I believe that for the good of the project it could be a good idea to narrow a few things down, cut some content or streamline features a bit and add or explore these at later times.

Personally for me these could be things such as focusing on one continent first, or as I said previously, reducing landmass.

I would also maybe remove seasons (hot take I know), I believe seasons cause many areas to look too similar and add a lot of things that add complication during development (such as XYZ only spawning when its winter etc.). Instead, use those special lightning modes and season specific looks to enhance the visual identity of your zones and POI. Making them feel more distinctive and unique.

Or something like the Underthing area, I believe that should be moved to a much later date, seeing as we don't even have both continents implemented yet and what we do have is improvable.

Also my biggest pain-point with the UI right now is the appearance of the map (M). It feels too... detailed so it makes it hard to clearly differentiate icons and zones.

Those are just some of the thoughts I have, maybe that feedback can be useful or stir up constructive discussion. I also believe adding those introductory quests is a step in the right direction.