Whats more important?

[Neekus]

Looking for a nice spot to settle, but I would like to know what high quality resource (water, clay, soil) is the most important to have easy access to when choosing your settlement. Are they all equally important? I know this may of been answered before, but I couldn't find anything.

Also another question, if you walk onto someones claim using criminal acts, but you don't have trespassing does it leave a trespassing scent?

Last thing, if any rangers/warriors are looking for a challenge there's a murderer in the north wreaking havoc, killing anyone he sees on site. I don't have anything good to offer, but I do have the coordinates to his stronghold.

Thank you!

[popfor]

Settlement spots vary, but I recommend being in a decent proximity to a mountain, once you're able to see mountain curios it will be a good source of LP gain, and the same for swamps. As far as quality goes, id aim for clay or water. Dirt is harder to find in large qualities, and is merely for trees. You can always buy soil. Water is used a lot, so high q is good for drinking and many other things such as cauldrons and tanning tubs. And bricks are a must at some point, in order to build a brickwall or sold to people for points (as well as some structures). Finally, do not settle in view of a river. Stay at least two grids away, this way potential dangerous people will not be able to locate your camp just by boating by. Alternatively, the safest option may be joining a existing village.

[TeckXKnight]

Yes, it leaves a trespassing scent but trespassing scents are pretty harmless. They fade fast and you can't be summoned with them. All characters are able to walk over claims even without trespassing to make sure that people don't abuse claims to block you in. =)

As for your main question: without a doubt in my mind the answer is clay. Clay pushes the wood industry forward, the metal industry, and through those two virtually every other industry. High quality clay also sells for a lot where high quality water, soil, etc. are relatively cheap. This raises the issue that clay is the first resource to get scooped up so you're very unlikely to find it. In the end, the most common high quality resource is soil, which is good for getting a head start on your farming industry, but it is also one of the least useful for the other industries.

[Neekus]

Okay, I know its been a noobish topic...I appreciate the help so far!

Say I found a clay node where the Q exceeds my current survival, as well as the soil, with a water source of at least 36 (in a river, I want to build wells around the area to see if its even higher. This area is in a far off area of the map, but it is right off a river (low traffic) would it be ok to settle in this area if I was able to get a brick wall up?

Also I know clay Q degrades as its dug up, does it replenish over time?

[TeckXKnight]

That's a beautiful spot to setup a base even if just to see how high it goes. Outer grids see a lot less traffic than inner grids so you'll be safe as long as you don't start picking fights with people.

Nodes regenerate over time up to their max again but never over it. I believe it's something like 1 quality every 8 hours but that's off of my memory and I don't trust that number. Does anyone know how quickly quality regenerates?

[Petrosian1337]

Nodes regenerate over time up to their max again but never over it. I believe it's something like 1 quality every 8 hours but that's off of my memory and I don't trust that number. Does anyone know how quickly quality regenerates?

Yeah 8 hours is the amount of time for a node to regenerate 1 quality.
But if its low and just for making bricks, dig it on an alt with 1 survival. That way the node will go down slowly compared to someone with that amount of survival.