I have played the content that exists to the end with 2 others. Game was fantastic, and if the developers said they were retiring in 2 months, I actually would be totally cool with the price of entry for the social experience with my friends.
We each tolerated certain systems in the game better/worse and that really let me see something I would not do solo.
If there is 9 biomes by the end, I am excited to play the finished game through one more time. That's fucking amazing. I know people might want a game they can play constantly forever. But that shit just won't exist, there is no system gamers can't break.
The seed of the map currently can change total gameplay time massively. Our first world corrupted, but it was literally islands everywhere all directions. Constant ocean. The second world - we had a mega continent with a huge mountain spanning the center. The second played much faster.
The other thing that excites me is that the biomes seem to radiate out from the center, which means exploration should continue to gain prominence all the way to the 9th. A world with multiple fully functioning bases feels and makes sense. The first 5 alone seemed to massively reduce the quantity of exploring needed, and making more than one fully complete town is almost useless given the total size of the map needed. The later biomes should push play to the edges of the map. Combined with an option to generate only 1 location of each boss, the world is big.
Fishing needs to be improved and I hope it can be done off the boat eventually. I fucking love stupid virtual fishing, but this was not satisfying enough yet.
The combat is enough to be interesting, even if its not the most complicated. I prefer this - its what I loved about EQ raiding or Classic Wow - Its a perk to play with friends who aren't autistic level gamers, as well as those who are. And both get the experience of being there for the same storyline stupid deaths and dragon attacks. My friend drowning at the edge of the boat on a sea serpent harpoon attack in a giant fucking storm unable to get back in the boat is a great story.
I'm not a builder, but building a functional base with organized mats, space for everything was motivation for me to build more than I have ever built in any 3d world game. Fucking I hate building generally. But I did and do enjoy it here within a certain scope and goal.