The MB release is pretty close to being functionally complete at this point, and Boonet\'s levels look absolutely amazing.
The bad news is that right now, because the world levels are so large, MB also requires you to have 256MB of RAM to run it at all, which is way too much. We, the coders, are spending our time at this point on quality control and on reducing the RAM footprint of this world.
Not sure about what question #2 means. There is no combat in MB either, but you will have items and inventory and be able to talk to NPCs now as well as players.
Definitely still a tech-demo. I think after MB we are still 2 releases away from the \"real thing\".
Just my opinion,
-Venge