I'm draxian and I played this game during the entire open beta but have not played since, unfortunately.... right.
Anyhow, I tried the free trial last weekend and have just subscribed tonight. I'm not sure how much has changed in the last several years but much is still the same as well. In beta I got to around level 150 to 200 in magic skills and had such a great experience in Ryzom. I always loved the wildlife AI in the game. I became very adept at sneaking around mobs to explore areas that I should not be in. IIRC we were all dumped from the newbie island into Fyros lands (?) desert area. I don't think Matis or the other worlds were created or open yet or something to that effect, as I remember, after growing up a lot, having to make the dangerous and nearly impossible trip through the desert to the Matis lands - and finally I was home!.

I also remember when soloing was pretty good before they added the timer to the self heal spells (I think it was a normal spell that could be interrupted with no timer). Was maybe a tad too easy back then but I begged for them not to nerf it so bad. We all know how that goes though. After that, soloing involved a lot of dowtime of sitting to recover. Got pretty frustrating. So knowing all of that and reading that the mobs are possibly harder now and attack in larger numbers I assume that soloing is still as slow-going as it was then? Or all but impossible now? Someone let me know about the soloing possibilities in-game please. (not that I don't like teams, of course. It's just nice to solo sometimes and sometimes it's necessary)
Another question I had to ask of veteran players is about multiclassing. I was interested in making a mage character similar to my old one, you know... nostalgia.

And many of my memories may be clouded after these several years so feel free to correct any incorrect beta memories that I have.

draxian.