1) Yes. Of course, nobody force you to do so, but if you don't like being one-shot'ed by every mob or die to every source explosion, or being a useless burden for your team or guild, then you gotta do some grind. If you plan to participate in PvP, then having at least one combat skill maxed to the top is mandatory.
2) No idea. The population is bigger than it used to be on Arispotle before the merge, that's all one can say for sure .
3) PvP in Ryzom is boring as it is, but it got even worse after the merge. Basically with the removal of cats and tools revamp, the Outposts got nerfed to shit. It's all about OP mats now and the Outposts of 50-150 levels could also be non-existent, as they are completely useless now. And the ones that remain aren't really tempting to fight over them. Due to these changes mass-PvP lost like half of motivation. As for tagged PvP, it does still exist and there are some guilds and players PvP tagged 24\7, but PvP shops were removed from the game and we have no words from the devs on "when" or "if" they'll be back. Not like contents of those junkman's stores used to be really exciting anyway. Collecting sets of PvP gear and weapons, or abandoning PvE activities and profiting from PvP... Not in this game. There are also fights over supernodes, which thankfully weren't nerfed though.
4) Sort of. Dappers do matter now unlike it was before. Main source of income is crafting missions from overseers. Making and selling stuff or grind mats can be profitable sometimes, but it's still based on sheer luck. But market is much better now as there is more people willing to craft and sell gear and weapons, now one can find almost anything up for sale.
5) The thing that amuses me about Ryzom fanboys is that they archly pretend they don't know what does the "end game" term means in MMO. Joking and jabber aside, Ryzom end game is poor atm. Given that the Outposts were nerfed and tagged PvP is meh, all of worty content that's left is harvesting supreme materials (which is bugged atm according to reports, at least for Windows clients) and hunting bosses. Regular bosses, as it's been mentioned above can be taken out by classic triple consist of a tank, a mage and a healer. Or one mage and two healers if they are cocky enough. NPC bosses require more people and some tactic in order to kill them. That's it.
2) No idea. The population is bigger than it used to be on Arispotle before the merge, that's all one can say for sure .
3) PvP in Ryzom is boring as it is, but it got even worse after the merge. Basically with the removal of cats and tools revamp, the Outposts got nerfed to shit. It's all about OP mats now and the Outposts of 50-150 levels could also be non-existent, as they are completely useless now. And the ones that remain aren't really tempting to fight over them. Due to these changes mass-PvP lost like half of motivation. As for tagged PvP, it does still exist and there are some guilds and players PvP tagged 24\7, but PvP shops were removed from the game and we have no words from the devs on "when" or "if" they'll be back. Not like contents of those junkman's stores used to be really exciting anyway. Collecting sets of PvP gear and weapons, or abandoning PvE activities and profiting from PvP... Not in this game. There are also fights over supernodes, which thankfully weren't nerfed though.
4) Sort of. Dappers do matter now unlike it was before. Main source of income is crafting missions from overseers. Making and selling stuff or grind mats can be profitable sometimes, but it's still based on sheer luck. But market is much better now as there is more people willing to craft and sell gear and weapons, now one can find almost anything up for sale.
5) The thing that amuses me about Ryzom fanboys is that they archly pretend they don't know what does the "end game" term means in MMO. Joking and jabber aside, Ryzom end game is poor atm. Given that the Outposts were nerfed and tagged PvP is meh, all of worty content that's left is harvesting supreme materials (which is bugged atm according to reports, at least for Windows clients) and hunting bosses. Regular bosses, as it's been mentioned above can be taken out by classic triple consist of a tank, a mage and a healer. Or one mage and two healers if they are cocky enough. NPC bosses require more people and some tactic in order to kill them. That's it.