Feedback from a 25 year player after 50 hours of New Legacy

I started playing UO more than a quarter century ago, in the 7th grade. I've been continuously subscribed since then. I'm excited by what I've seen so far. Here's some feedback.

Big Picture

• I love the idea of impermanence. The feeling of fleeting achievement is very appealing. There will always be something to do. After all, the cycle starts all over again in a few months.
• I hope you can work in some aspect of player control over the arc for each cycle. Maybe this cycle the mages decide to betray Trinsic. See some of the recent work by CCP Games in Eve Online with player agency. Next cycle the players can mix it up to see a different outcome.
• Impermanence adds a new strategy element of game play. How can I be best positioned in the next cycle?
• Fewer character slots means more reliance on others.
• Overall, I really like that a new player can get up and running with a relatively minimum level of effort. Even if this means you're at least temporarily shoehorned into a template, at least new folks can get up an running quickly!
• I love the vision of skill gain by doing. I got to GM taming by fighting with pets instead of taming 50,000 bulls.
• I very much don't like the surprise skill locks. After you reach GM, you should be free to customize however you want. Forget tracking or eval lock. This freedom is absolutely core to UO!
• I think lures are a great addition for named mobs. These are appealing rewards. I don't like basic pets being locked behind quests not everyone can do. I also am not a big fan of popular pets being locked behind champ drops. It quickly results in haves and have nots.

Balance

• I think the mage line is too fast. I can go from brand new to GM in 5 hours.
• I like the lack of 8th circle spell inscription. It feels like a very appealing BOD and Champ reward.
• I think the crafter line is too hard. 2.0 skill gain for so much work is fine from 90-100, but it's way way to little for 50-90. I would recommend escalating the number of BODs required for the quest by skill. 1 small BOD for 50 to 80. 2 small BODs for 80 to 90. 3 small BODs for 90 to 100.
• Mining is MUCH better than before. However, it's still not a fulfilling game play loop. I would recommend that mining should repeat on failure like it does on success. Otherwise, it requires nearly as much cognitive burden as it used to at lower levels.
• I love the resource pack. So much less dragging stuff.
• I don't like the artificial travel spell lock. I almost got fed up and stopped playing until some nice soul gave me a mark scroll. I started handing out starter packs and runebooks to newbies to counteract the effect. (Maybe your solution is for players to fix the problem?)
• It's hard to get back to normal FCR after 20 years. I think this will really mix up PvP, certainly if your war on 3rd party programs pans out (keep up the good work).