don't worry on the double post, it happens.

as for "Also, realizing it's still Alpha but a lot of systems go unexplained. I still am uncertain what Fate does, why I care about Glory, how to gain attributes - i.e. is it only through challenges or are there other ways ;; are challenges account or character based. I have no idea what the Diamond or Skulls are for the investigations or what the bars for chance of success/collateral damage are all about. Why would I want to shoot feet or hands with Aimed Shot instead of their head?" - Let me help

Fate is used to go on tarrot missions (mission crafting)

Glory is something you collect each week that gives you some fate and other rewards.
Diamond skulls and investigation choices will eventually be related to a morality system

(eventually) when decapitation is implemented then shooting an arm will remove it and disable an ability, shooting a head will just damage.

First off, as far as I am concerned the game looks beautiful.  Movement and combat animations do feel a tad clunky compared to the fluidity of similar games like Diablo or Viking: Wolves of Midgard, but the game is beautiful.

It is however waaaaaay over the acceptable limit of difficulty.  Especially considering many of the mission descriptions and all of the mission level ratings don't have any bearing on the actual missions.  This is, strictly speaking, only in terms of playing the game solo.  Yet it is obvious from the continues and now completely expected triple death at the very first encounter that solo play has not been considered at all when setting the difficulty of the missions.  Especially when you take away mob XP. 

So now, if you want to actually play test the game you can't.  Before the only way to make any sort of headway was off the combat XP because you couldn't actually complete the mission.  Now when you die, instead of at least getting something out of it and the hope that you actually leveled up this time making the possibility of mission failure less, there's no incentive.  You can die or fail missions as much as you want, but you'll never level up so you will be stuck in the same position as you were.

Players should not be FORCED to co-op in order to play(test) a game.

Difficulty is currently the biggest problem with the game.  Its too absurdly difficult and there is not enough factual, honest information in the briefing to actually inform the player what they are getting into.  A mission level difficulty of 1 being selected by a level 1 player should NOT have a "chances of survival" rating of "very low".  A level 2 or 3 mission, yes, but there are no actual missions suitable for a level 1 character solo.

Every single mission needs to be reworked\re-balanced and the briefings redone to better reflect, in an honest manner, how difficult the mission actually is.  On top of this, given that this game has one fixed difficulty setting (instead of games like Diablo with easy, normal, hard, brutal, etc.), the difficulty needs to scale with the number of players in the game as seen in games like (Viking: Wolves of Midgard).  This should include enemy health, damage output, and defense, with 1 player being the default stats and enemies getting small buffs as the number of players increase.

Simply put, this game needs to make vast improvements to make itself playable in solo.  Because right now, it's not playable at all.

Oh, and the game consistently crashes on exit.  Might want to look into that.

if you honestly believe that single player missions are impossible then it might not be the game that is at fault here. I feel like you are exaggerating the difficulty about 10x more than it actually is. 

It is true that some people are currently struggling with the game, but it's garbage to presume that everyone else is finding the game as difficult as you are. I have an entire cabal of 20 people who have made new characters (without spending money) and managed to level characters. Admittedly they are mostly experienced arpg players.

as for enemy health scaling for co op - it does. Not sure where the notion came from that it doesn't, but wit 4 players killing a marine takes a loooong time. 

re difficulty system.. there is one... it's going against a higher power level than you currently are. Which fulfils the exact same role as a difficulty system as the loot is the same. Only the experience differs.

I too hope they change dodge too use one key and go in the direction of the mouse cursor. It is just too many buttons too dodge. I also find the difficulty frustrating, the bad control on the assassin just makes it worse. Also where is the blasted ability to toggle cover? I have messed up hands and would love not to have too hold a key down to stay in cover.

Have you tried wasd for dodge? - It's where your hand would naturally rest on the keyboard anyway and honeslty couldn't feel any more natural to use in order to dodge. (imho)