Daomei
A player using her first month on mainland not to grind to "master" at any cost, but thoroughly exploring, learning about seasons, weather, mob behaviour and movements and general survival will definitely be the better player at the end of that month, even if she has no level above 100.
As a sidenote: Ryzom animals are not "monsters". Their behavioral patterns, especially of herbivores and carnivores are modeled after behavioral biology, and they differ from species to species. It is worth while much more to familiarize with their behavior than rushing to as high fight/magic levels as possible.
You act like there is some higher science involved here. Those are just plants. Some mobs are social, some mobs eat plants, some mobs eat other mobs. So what, nothing really special here.
Same goes for seasons and weather: There is not much to it except: Does it rain? Yes. Can I dig this stuff now? No. Is it winter? Yes. Can I find those mobs at the same place as before? No.
Don't get me wrong. I love those features, but this is nothing... let's say overwhelmingly thought through and unique. Those are just behavior patterns that you can find in every game.
Many people in here justify the status quo with arguments like: "There are other people that already did this." or "The game is not designed to be that way."
Well I see those points... and they are true, but just because things have been that way for a long time it does not mean that this is good in any way. Just because there have been people that grinded this game for years it doesn't mean that this is good in any way to new players. What I am saying is: You can't pretend like everything is alright in this game when this is one of the least populated games. This game is so great, it has so many great features, why scare people away from this game with mechanics that were flawed in 2004. And they still are. The leveling in this game is a big problem, but it does not have to be that way - just because it has been like this for 12 years. We can change things for the better. We just have to accept that our glorified game is not perfect in every aspect as we believe it to be.