Originally posted by Omnivalent:

Ah! So don't hold my breath for a near term release but sounds like alot of meats on them bones already :-) If someone starts now will their progression (ie: items, experience, etc...) carry over to the final release? Or is that something that's kind of a unknown?

That part I admittedly can't say for sure but chances are it will go how most the updates do. New features/items can often spawn in old worlds IF, and only if, there is actually room for them to do so. So for example, the most recent major addition was an entire biome known as the mistlands. There was a placeholder for that biome before it actually existed and you could find those placeholders in your old worlds. However, if you did, then the areas you explored were already generated as the old placeholder terrain and already generated features wont change/update in most cases (we did get a new standing stone at spawn for the new boss, so some exceptions apply). That meant that some were just fine playing the new content on old maps because they never got that far (or at least still had SOME exploration left to do so they could actually generate the new stuff), while others had to start new maps to check out the new content instead. Likewise we are still waiting on the additions of the Ashlands and Deep North biomes (extreme north and south of the map respectively so not hard to avoid) and the same logic will likely apply to both.

Good news is that often times even if you do need a new map you can at least use your old character (who will keep whatever they have on them no less) on the new map to somewhat jump start yourself past the points you already played. Though, when it comes to full release and stuff like them also wanting to rework ocean before the game's officially done, there is still the possibility of having to restart eventually.