Andor's Trail

So I've been playing this game for a while now, and at times I really enjoyed it and at times it frustrated the hell out of me.
I know I shouldn't judge it too harshly on account of it being heavily in development, so please regard this post merely as an attempt for me to clarify what is a feature/bug/not yet implemented and not as the hate-list it might seem . Here's a few thoughts that still stuck in my head even after turning the game off:

1, Nor City and Feygard - people keep talking about them but you never get to go there. Is this the way it's going to stay? Which leads to...
2, The way to Nor City (and a few other roads, too) just ends abruptly after a few areas even though the road itself continues off screen. What's the deal with this? At least Feygard is blocked off with a mildly plausible explanation (the guard on the bridge). And also related...l
3, Why is the road between the house at crossroads and foaming flask inaccessible? I thought it was supposed to be like the main highway for travelling around these parts, and yet the player cannot use it. This issue especially stands out with the sword delivery quest, where instead of just taking the road southeast to the foaming flask like the rest of the merchants (allegedly) the player has to take the long route through Fallhaven.

4, Lack of teleport/fast travel. In a game where you can kill just a couple of enemies before having to resupply, this is nothing short of frustrating. At times I spent probably more than a third of game time trekking between a place with a bed and an area with enemies. Stocking up on potions just delays this issue, doesn't solve it. Maybe this will get better when I can regenerate health in battle and so can heal up on weak enemies? Though even then it would still remain a stupid design choice IMO, hardcore and oldschool as it may be.
And I don't really want to hear anything about how I am probably going for enemies above my level...which brings me to:

5, How on earth does the enemy difficulty evaluation work? If I attack a "normal" enemy, the usual outcome is - enemy dead, me left with less than hald HP. This is of course pointless, because I cannot afford risking death and consequent serious XP loss by attacking another normal enemy and so a trek back to bed ensues
So the gameplay for me breaks down to: does it say "very easy" ? Kill it, usually lose 0-5% hp in the process. "Easy" ? Kill it but watch hp for serious loss. "Normal" ? Fill hp through potions and kill if it stands in my way, else avoid. Also avoid anything rated higher.
Though this approach is far from foolproof. I've had a larva or something (rated "easy") crit-hit me for 18 hp in one attack, which was about a half of my remaining hp at that point. And it kept doing that each time I would try to kill it. Sadly, two of them refused to move out of the way, so I had to spend a few pots.
Also, the attack chance evaluation function is not one I would have used, but I guess it's "realistic" to never have a 100% chance to hit (realistically not even 90%, if the function plot I've seen was indeed the function used).

6, I'm @ level 11 so far and according to this http://thegleep.com/images/3/3b/WorldMap.gif , I've seen roughly two thirds of the game map. But I've seen people on this forum with chars around level 90 or even 100+ ?! To me it seems there's no way there's enough content in the rest of the map to keep me going even to level 40. Do you just love grinding so much or how does one get to such levels? So...
7, This is a game where grinding is a neccessity, am I right? I may be wrong here but the game description on the market stated this game has a good story. Well, I for one find it a bit distracting when I can't progress with the story because I haven't grinded my way to level whatever yet.

8, Out-of-place default gray buttons and radiobuttons in dialogues. If there's anything about the game that screams "in development", it's surely this. Hope they get replaced for some real graphical elements.

I also had other thoughts, but most of them are already covered in the suggestions part on google, so I'll let those slide. A HUGE THANKS TO ANYONE WHO READS THIS WALL OF TEXT AND CLARIFIES SOME POINTS FOR ME.

I've got to level 41 without too much grinding, which is dull as dishwater for me. Now I'm just waiting for the next release. And yes, the game is development - hence the gaps - not even at v1.0 yet.

So we're privileged to be able try it out and comment, maybe influence in the meantime.

I seem to be the first person to read your post, so I will tackle at least some of your points.
The areas beyond the ends of the roads are not yet written and/or mapped. The connection between Foaming Flask and the crossroads guardhouse is going to be in the next update, which should be any week now. Nor City and Feygard will be added eventually, but the game is written mainly by one man as a hobby in his spare time. Updates occur about every four months and contain fairly large areas with about 4-6 quests and assorted monsters.
As far as I know, there are no plans for faster travel (except the one existing teleport transit,) but since it is frequently requested, Oskar may add something in the future.
I really do not understand what sort of graphics you want in the conversations, so I will leave that for others to answer.
Yes, grinding is required to earn items, potions and gold to improve your weaponry, armor and jewelry, as well as to level-up and grow in strength and skills. Just as in real life, things are not handed to you for free.
I suggest spending time in the snake cave, accumulating meat to eat and sell and poison glands to sell.
As you level-up, you can build the character type you want and add skills, and soon those normal enemies become easy, easy become very easy, etc. You will still need potions, but less often and will not need to seek your bed as often.

If you do not have the patience to build your character gradually, perhaps you should try again once the game is finished.

I read your post but then got called into a meeting before I could think and type out a reply, and it looks like Lady Black covered most of it.

The only thing I would add is for question/thought #6, the reason a lot of us are at high levels is back during the early versions of the game, we learned (on this board) of a rare drop item called the Ring of Lesser Shadow. The drop rate on it is 1:10,000, by the Gargoyle trainers and masters. Since there were less quests back then and most of us had completed what was possible, we tried to get the ring. Because of the low drop rate, it involved a lot of grinding. Then more of these items, now referred to as Legendary & Extraordinary items (http://andorstrail.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=703) were introduced in v0.6.9 & 10 and getting them generally meant grinding. Its possible to grind for them without gaining XP (just reload and kill the same monster over and over until you get it), but most of us preferred to have something to show for the effort.

I personally have also found the skill points to be a good motivation to keep leveling up. Even before this current version, Oskar had mentioned the skill point system and that we would be assigned the points retroactively based on our current level when the update came out. So that got me grinding so I'd have more skill points to spend immediately after the update, and in the meantime I leveled up a lot.

But as long as you grind just enough for the money to buy the best equipment, you can still complete everything (so far) without getting to really high levels. Here's an old topic title "level one challenge" http://andorstrail.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=1184

The story is something I love about the game. Because I think both parties have their good and bad sides. The shadow is a religion that makes their followers poison a well, Feygard on the other hand seems to be happy to occupy every village that is to weak to fight back.
Most other games offer you good or bad. No uncertainty, no risk when choosing your side. I'm looking forwards to see the plot evolve. Each side will offer you power in trade for your loyalty while the other side will try to hunt you down. At least that is what it looks like so far.