I'm looking forward to that part of the game. One thing though, with there being so much to loose in this game some NPC guards would be nice. You should have to train them just like you would train yourself, though (either taking them hunting with you or spawning them). I know a lot of people will complain about this, but it'd be a pain to train too many of them, they'd mostly just be to stop the one man raids and the thieving nooblets (*cough*like me...

). It would be a pretty cool system. Also since there are so few people in this game it would be nice to see some real big battles with "generals" throwing a dozen or so NPC fodder at each other before jumping into the fights to finish them off.
I haven't been hit yet but I'd imagine it'll happen sooner or later. Way I see it my town's badly placed anyway, that'll just be the reason to up and move. For ppl who don't like the raids... this world seems big enough with the amt of players to get lost in the wilderness pretty easy, to find the perfect village spot where you WON'T be found.