Reviving this thread to just add a mention that this game is fiiiiinnaallly launching on the 29th. If you've been in beta in the past you should already be able to play the "early access".
Anyhow, i jumped in to see what changed since last year, biggest changes:
1. Battleframes now have levels like a traditional MMO. Level Cap is 40 , each Battleframe levels individually.
2. New Areas/Islands/Zones . Yes, the first zone we played all this time is only the first 24 levels. I saw on the map at least 3 more zones , i entered the second zone when i hit lvl 25, different mobs, different scenery etc.
3. Quests!. There's now a proper "jobs board" to start quests in the towns . Kinda like Farcry's quest in the towns. In the past there wasn't any quests at all, you just did the Ares (open world dungeons) and thumped, well now there's proper quests.
4. Group Dungeons (Instanced). There's now an entire island dedicated to what seems to me like group content. You grab a group mission in town and warp over there and do something that resembles a dungeon run. So far i could go in solo and random 4 other people was with me. The open world Ares dungeons are still there, but this is more controlled, no more sitting around waiting for an Ares mission to pop up on the map.
5. Crafting was totally revamped, it's now simplified by a lot. Battleframes are also now upgraded more logically (that other upgrade tree thing they had, i could not find it). Looks like now you craft the modules that you put into your weapons/battleframe instead.
6. More Battleframes, i saw at least 3 battleframes i haven't seen before, no idea what they do.
7. Open World PvP areas. I didn't actually PvP, i just flew across sections of the map where i got messages going "You are now entering a PvP Zone!!" , this wasn't there before.
I didn't see specific changes to the existing weapons and battleframes, my Bastion/Engineer played pretty much exactly like before, there is just now alot more ways to upgrade and modify the frame itself via crafting.
Since there's alot more content and levels i will probably jam around in the game a bit more. I stopped playing in the past because well i maxed out my frame and there wasn't anything to do. I still love the feel of the combat and the game, it feels like a Tribes version of Farcry (gliders , rocket boots, vehicles and traveling around large tropical themed areas) .