Since it's your first post since '03, you'll be very serious about it, jesse.

I assume, you have been on Arispotle's Ruins of Silan. I further assume, it was packed full of people.
I haven't tried Ari's RoS yet, maybe I should to take a look at the Homins there again since I last roamed Arispotle quite some time ago. From Leanon (the German speaking community), I can only tell you that every nicely asked question in region channel (and universal propably) gets answered very quickly, even the "not so nice" ones usually get replies that don't correspond the nature of its origin. Also, there are usually a few or more veterans around running alts to either take a look or to specifically help out the new ones with their knowledge.
From what I had experienced a while ago, and from what I've heard from other sources about the current state, it should still be that way. So the question remains...what went wrong? Could you tell me what you asked and, if you remember, where (channel) and maybe when? If you're still inetersted, that is...
Or - give it another try ;) You can adress specific channels by slashing-and-abbreviating them, eg. "/re <text here>" writes <text here> into region channel, wherever it was typed in. There's a list in the official forums about them. Also, you can take a look at who's in the same region as you are by typing /who, so you get an impression of how many folks are around.
Whatever you do, have fun doing it.

:) yes XoloX that reaction was good :)  hate to get flamed sometimes.

and oh yes they were fun days.  liked the healing spells better than.  It was great fun.

Jesseberman.  you know a lot of time it is the way players go about asking or acting.  I guess in a way it is how you act.  You are there to play a game and enjoy it not to be abused and annoyed by a player with no manners.  I pay money to play not to have to keep listening to some annoying person.

Also if players don't respond it is usually due to the fact that he has been annoying or abusive and players have him on ignore until such time as he is taken care of by a GM.  Typing in all caps and continuing to do even after players have asked them not to, asking for free things, demanding attention will get you on players ignore list.  So if Johnny is a royal pain you can be sure no one hears him.  Key phase here is have respect for other players, we all pay for game, except for the starter island which I must admit I wish it was not free cause that word free has dragged every umm player with limited vocabulary there is in to it. So thank goodness you can disable Universe chat and save some of it.  But then you are unable to help players that know how to ask for help.  So it just requires a bit of manners and respect for other people.  My opinion once again.

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Originally posted by Neas
The land masses are nice but alot of the areas back in 'my day' had annoyingly hard monsters so you had to grind for months to get past them.  Like i remembwr in tryker area trying to get to other sections of the land mass and being heavily restricted from 'exploring'.  This was down to large lvl '200' creatures being all other the place and being able to outrun me.
The "secret" of exploring or simply marching from A to B is, and has always been, not getting past (=right through) any aggressive fauna, it's getting by them.... finding safe routes and sneaking by their aggro ranges - while they keep wandering and hunting of course.
Not even a fully leveled fighter and mage will be able to solo past more than two or three purple aggros in a row. Anybody who tries to run straight through stuff on Atys has really missed the point, to refer back to the OP.
And, yes.. it is more challenging in New Trykoth. But manageable, simply by using skills that are not measured in levels.
There was a change in fleeing behavior, however. Now fauna that aggro'ed on you will not chase you all the way and give up when they're too far from their territory.

Has ranged weapon fighting been fixed yet?.  I mean i used to love being a ranged fighter BUT the engine caused monsters to instantly travel to me after i fire the initial shot... so in essence it was melee after the first shot.  Has this been changed?.
Is it any different than magic? Of course animals aggro on you when attacked...
In comparison to magic, ranged always had two advantages: the "best" range option has more range than a magic user can have plus, and that's the way to do range solo (I assume you did it that way, from what you wrote), rangers can move while firing... spellcasters can not. That way, some/many mobs will not even get close to you while billy-the-kidding through the fauna - unless your victims are real fast *g*
If you, however, referred to a sort of lag in marching behavior of mobs, that is history, old history....

In Closed beta 2.3 through to Open beta we explored a large proportion of the areas but there were no NPCs to interact with just nice landscapes.  Any thing changed?  Anything 'soooo much to explore'?
? Even in beta there were tribes, bandits and hawkers all over the place...
Ofc, if you were looking for nifty quest-givers with any sort of spinning symbol floating above their heads like they were controlled by a Sims player and give out the grand uber gear for having found three differently sized Yubo, those never existed.
Isn't exploration more than "opening up" the map only to find a missiongiver? Well, on Atys is always was...
Or what did you mean with NPCs to interact? 
And yes.. there is enough to explore that you can live into a profession of a scout -knowing the fastest or safest ways around- easily, still today with many elders around, if you learn it yourself opposite to being "trekked around and fed (teleporter pacts and cats)".

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Originally posted by Neas
what is there to explore btw?

The land masses are nice but alot of the areas back in 'my day' had annoyingly hard monsters so you had to grind for months to get past them.  Like i remembwr in tryker area trying to get to other sections of the land mass and being heavily restricted from 'exploring'.  This was down to large lvl '200' creatures being all other the place and being able to outrun me.

and this will answer whether anything has changed for me :P.

Has ranged weapon fighting been fixed yet?.  I mean i used to love being a ranged fighter BUT the engine caused monsters to instantly travel to me after i fire the initial shot... so in essence it was melee after the first shot.  Has this been changed?.

In Closed beta 2.3 through to Open beta we explored a large proportion of the areas but there were no NPCs to interact with just nice landscapes.  Any thing changed?  Anything 'soooo much to explore'?

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Oh good grief both of you were faster. 

I agree with both of what XoloX and Sxarlet said.

I find it great fun to try and go to point A to B sneaky like. Sometimes you have to stand and wait, good time to catch up on email :) but then I work with 2 computers so don't work with everyone.

Darkmoor is great. running on the roots, and the caves awesome

But then it depends on type of player you are.  I like to watch the butterflies, the birds, the blowy up one. Look close at flowers, bamboo leaves everything.  Ok, now you all know why I always have maxed dp which let me tell you is in the millions now.  but it is no big thing

My guild and I have great fun generally going, oops what was that.  look in sys info and see what smacked us

We are not the typical players I fear as we are in game for fun.  I have made many great friends all over the world from Ryzom.  Have met many of them.

Give it a try Neas, you never know.  The new starter island is so different.  Hope to see you there.

You should be able to get at least two hits in even if you remain standing (which you shouldn't, soloing range...). There has to be some work done on ranged, nonetheless... atm. some modifiers are turned off (eg. dodge modifier) and damage purely relies on ammo while RoF and range depend on the weapon only. 'Tis supposed to work in conjunction...
Also, quite important for a designated ranger, the whole ranged skilltrees (fight and craft) are disabled (actions & stanzas unavailable) on the Ruins of Silan, the new starter island. Makes testing it for free impossible, sadly.

NPC interactions... there are a lot of 'em you can interact with, even roaming the landscapes. As a simple rule: every NPC with a title is supposed to be interactable.
It's also a matter of fame, faction or citizenship if they will interact. In beta the towns were populated by NPC dummies that were there only to fill the space. That's still the case, mostly. Since beta many more interactable ones have been added, simple mission givers, traders and service providers (these hardly take a stroll).
Also, since Beta/release the encyclopedia was begun. That's the part when NPCs begin telling you about Atys, combined with ritual tasks and their rewards (no items or XP). You have to fulfil fame and prerequisite mission requirements, however. And... there could be more of them. Work on rites has been halted to implement other stuff first. Other POIs to get to know about the lore InGame are the recently (player) built factional temples, their spread varies from shard to shard (that's were you acquire faction allegiance, too).
On the Ruins of Silan you are told a lot, however. Sometimes enough for a casual player to skip the text (and ask about what he has been told for that mission in region chat lateron *g*).

Take a look at Silan - you have nothing to lose, except time, haven't you?

so i'm researching this game and this thread stuck out to me.

i'm amazed at how repetetive quests that tell you "kill this guy with a fancy name and get the uber sword" are considered "content" while allowing a character to grow and be what the player wants it to be isn't.

content does not always equal "stuff for you to do".  it can equal "the tools that allow you to do what you want".

i plan to do the free trial of this game, because after reading this, i am quite intrigued.  and if it isn't a game for Johnny, it just might be a game for me.

*grins*
The debate about what content actually is is really old...
As a matter of fact, it's something different for everyone, as you said.
For me, content is what's given to us and what we make of it. For some, what's given to us is not enough, for others, it's the greatest thing since sliced bread....

Have fun on your trial and don't hesitate to ask everything you wish to inquire about in region chat or the forums.

Ooohh, btw... "kill this guy with a fancy name and get the uber sword" is actually true for one single tutorial mission on the starter island never to return again *grins again*