[2019] Mind if i praise this? (coming back after a hyades)

So, i am returning after a Hyades from the game, not having grown bored but having drawn away to other games and projects at the time. The very last time i'd played was during a short stint in May this year; before that, not since late alpha when the frame rates were absolutely abysmal and people were stuck on the island after the hunt more often than not and had to restart their game.

Now i'm coming back for the launch this Thursday; and my god am i proud of this developer. I one hundred percent remember back in the day, thinking of Dauntless as something like the Paladins to Overwatch when compared to its contemporary, Monster hunter. But now? Dauntless is its own entity, with its own identity; fully realized and polished. Before now i remember the jumping animation being jenky, movement being choppy, using a health potion looked mediocre; now every swing, sprint, desperate jump and chug feels buttery smooth and like i intend to do when in combat.

On top of that, the Behemoth and feature pipeline is truely in full swing, my excitement is palpable as, aside from my incredible shield fetish; nothing feels better to me in my mind than beating a dragon to death with my own two fists. Sub-species have come out in bulk with the Season of Treasure update, not to mention what ever is coming down the pipeline for us with V1, and it can't be clearer that the developers aren't being shy about iterating on what's already there; which is exactly how you go from an alright game to one that people go on google and look up, "Games like...." - industry standards that people reference when talking about other games.

Not even to mention with so many other games crumbling and failing on their roadmaps and gouging their players, Dauntless seems to be largely holding firm, offering content for free (and to purchase) at reasonable rates and completing their roadmaps before moving on to other things (for the most part, texture sheen were advertised as a selling point when the game was coming out and are just now being implemented)!

Basically, good job PL; you're doing gods work with your game!