Yeah, I've been playing it for a while today, I woke up at 6am to get it. I understand what you're saying, though I'm not getting all these crashes that everyone is reporting, so I can't speak to that.
What I CAN say is that the game has a ton of emptiness. The NPCS in town feel just like the old ones with better animations, the quests are sparse (some of which you can't even accept without dropping 10 relation points with other random people that instant), and you have to go talk to that person and dig up the conversation.
Moreover, I've been wandering around ACTUALLY TRADING (which I will say has some great improvements) because I can't find anything else to do. All the lords with 130 man armies are so much faster than me that I've only been able to catch 1 to talk to after playing for hours. And guess what? I can't even work for him because my clan isn't high enough. I don't even know how to level my clan because I can't gain renown fast enough.
I'm sure there are ways, which I'm starting to figure out now, but the point is that for 8 years in development this game is not at all ergonomic. Part of me wants to give the company a break for what they attempt to do with each Mount & Blade, another part of me says that all the years I've been supporting them since the first game, they should really be doing better. I know that programming can be hard, I know that setbacks happen in project management, but when we take a product that's been developed for 8 years and we get something that so many people can't even physically play without crashing?
Come on guys.
P.S. I don't like to complain about most things. Especially someone else's hard work. I'm sorry to say it, but I needed to respond to your thread when I saw it. I'm not as mind-blown as I thought I'd be. I'd even consider refunding if it wasn't past the 2 hour Steam limit.