UOEX is pretty much old school fused with some new. We have champs spawn, peerless bosses, and everything works. There's nothing that is completely Old UO style, because all the servers are now either at lord blackthorn's revenge or higher in their databases. I'm still questioning what your question means. I played back in regular UO days with just the plain UO expansion, and there's no much difference between that and what we have now. only different things that come to mind are new zones, custom houses, and a couple of new classes, along with some monsters and bosses. But nothing to completely change the gameplay.
PLENTY of players play on this freeshard. It's always 100+ no matter what. I get on during the night too when everyone is usually asleep on this side of the earth (USA) and it's quiet, but not totally quiet. There's still plenty going on. I can't give you an exact average number, and I don't think anyone but coli can, but if I had to say on my life, I'd say 175 average.
We also have certain things that are completely new and you will have to take some time learning about.
Best thing about this shard: 99.9% of the people that play are incredibly nice. When I first started, I was pimped out in clothes that people gave me within the first day, and had plenty of money. I have a theory why this shard is so nice, too.
I think that when people began, there was a handful of people handing out stuff to them, and now that those noobs are now vets in the server, it rubbed off on them and they did the same to some other noobs. Basically like that 1 to 2 ratio thing. 1 guy does something to 2 people, and those 2 people both each do something to 2 people each, etc. Heck, I've even gave tons of stuff away and still do. I have my own noob armory for random people that start and I'm not busy, I grab them, bring them to my house at my armory, give them whatever they want and some money, and send them back to where they started.
Also, there is NO max skill cap on this server, so be all that you can be
