Alright, a couple of things.
The early game I think is fine, I'd like to win some money even if you make it into round 2 of a tournament, I am thinking of how they work in a GRRM's books, you still win the ransom from the first round even if you get ganked in the 2nd round. As far as the rest, I don't mind the questing system, it's a little buggy. I escorted a few caravans, killed some poachers, did a bit of trading myself after getting some horses for cheap from a village. I ran around with 25ish troops for most of the early game, and with about 30 horses I just picked up any time I went by a village that made them. I was zooming around the map and catching looters, though if I had many prisoners I might have to chase them across half of the continent.
The map feels small, but mabye because I zoom around at speed 3 constantly, also I am used to the map from Clash of Kings mod for Warband.
I feel like the early game economic system is fine. I don't like how you finish the tutorial and it's like okay Brother, I am off to build the clan, and he takes EVERYTHING, and I am left with my horse a sword, a bow, and some ****ty arrows that take 2-3 headshots to kill a looter.
So, I do the poachers quests, the escort caravan quests and trade, and maybe fight in a tournie, while fighting the odd group of looters.
On one Escort quest though, a group of bandits attacked the Caravan I was escorting inside the hitbox for a City. I had to flip the map around, and do all sorts of clicking to try to get to them. Maybe the selection for a battle could be the big swords above the battle rather than trying to click on one of the parties.
Leveling is...well, I don't know, uneven or something? I can't seem to get my bow skills up on horseback, so I should just join the archers I guess, I get riding though, and tactics.