New player view of game

[catopia]

Hi,

I am a new player and so far have spent 50 hours in game, which I know for this sort of game is not a lot, but it is enough to give a good feel of it.
Overall I really really like this game, it is great to find a game that has a grind element, so many games have had that removed. It is also challenging as it does not lead you through with quests, and the tutorial gives just enough to teach you the game mechanics.
That being said there are a couple of areas that I find a big turn off, and I have added a thread here so it would not be visible on Steam, as I would really want to give a positive review. I would really like to see this game become successful, without being nerfed for the dedicated players.

Combat is terrible. I am not good at moving and parrying while fighting, I am old, have bad eyes and slow reactions. So I speced Blades, strength and fortitude. Should be a good dps tank right? Wrong, blades are the lowest DPS. As I have seen in other threads this is a known problem, It really needs to be fixed soon. new players need to have some chance to kill something, a life and death battle with a hamster may be comical but doesn't make you feel good.

Consider that some players can only play weekends, planting a crop that is dead before you next logon is pointless. Increase the time that a crop remains at 100% to 8 real days. Likewise, food, and plants need to last longer.

Carrying capacity. In a game that is about collecting resources, not being able to carry them is a problem. Especially when carts are a relatively high level item. So far I have not found a way to increase my strength.
The solution I have which is terrible, is to take off all armour and weapons. As I cant fight anything it makes no difference to my survival, but does free 20% capacity.

In the crafting I think there are too many specialisations at low levels. An example is Wainwright. I think the low level cart building should be part of wood working, ie cart handles etc. This would allow a new player in a reasonable time make a basic hand cart. Then have the Wainwright for better wagons at the master and artisan level.
Similarly with armour, merge them so you start of with basic recipes using any material grass/cloth/leather. Then later specialise into the higher skills like pure bone armour.

Only one toon, being restricted to only one character is not good, being able to have an alt adds to the enjoyment of MMOs.

The ultimate turn off for me, which is what actually prompted me to write this, and has got me to the point of wanting to abandon the game is skill levelling. It kicks in far too early and is too aggressive. I really like crafting, and like to be self sufficient, at least to medium levels. So I started levelling my skills, doing a bit of everything. After a week of this, I needed to make a lot of rope, so spent hours grinding grass. I was happily watching my basketry go up, when i noticed my weaponcraft dropping. What is more it is now lower than when i started the game.
I have talked in game, and read up online. It now seems clear to me that the game actively stops you being able to everything. I was told one method of levelling most of your skills. You have to level every skill that uses INT, e.g. basketry. then wait a week so it doesnt have any usage and mark it as '-' in the skills menu. Then level your other skills and basketry will be 'consumed'. This is a lot of fuss, and knowing that hours of grind is being blown away is not great. It would be fine if it was happening to achieve something wonderful, but to just craft the lowest level items is very disheartening.

Overall I have mixed views, I really want to play this game, but for me the auto levelling breaks the game mechanics.

Regards
Catopia