There is a ton of people complaining about how they got ganked, how they couldn't do anything and how they got their shit kicked in.
And even if you explain to them what they can do better they will just complain and say the system is shit and they should be able to just play without being attacked (non-realistic as far as haven goes).
I propose two starting quests:
One for hand to hand combat against animals (Maybe with a brief description of how combat roughly works, ie. types of openings, etc.):
1. Get 10-20 unarmed combat (Maybe another objective to craft some uac artifacts)
2. Get 10 points of str/agi/con
3. Use an attack (ie. punch)
4. Use a defensive move to drop openings (ie. jump)
5. Defeat an ant (or a fox, but those fuckers run away so probably not a good idea)
6. Learn a combat move
7. Save a new combat deck
8. Craft leather armor (or w/e other piece of armor is easily availble early on)
This quest would lead new players (and vet players get free lp so win/win) to understand how hand-to-hand combat roughly works, how to get new moves and include them in a deck (they'll probably look at all their actual moves and maybe understand mechanics a bit more), and what stats are important for combat. Also they would learn that getting armor is probably a good idea (very important with the new hp changes). Honestly i don't know how to explain to them that animals will run and the best way to fight them is to use a reaggro bot (and probably fight through a cliff) but eh, it's kinda on hunting being shit and not on lack of tutorials.
And another one for running away:
1. Craft 4-5 waterskins and fill them with water (or a bucket, idk)
2. Aggro (or get aggro'd) a boar (They are not supposed to beat it, the quest should be clear that they should run away. And boars can be outrun at speed 3)
3. Lose aggro with an animal (supposedly the said boar)
4. Get a speed boost
5. Craft bunny slippers (also could include finishing forager credo if devs decide to keep the speed bonus from it, maybe also include a snakeskin/leather belt)
6. Chase a bunny with bunny slippers on (possibly while aggro'd by a boar, idk, i think just allowing them to see how much faster they are will be enough)
7. Run at speed 3 (or 4, but it's not always possible) for X amount of time without dropping below that speed (X being higher than the usual amount of time you can run at that speed without consistently drinking water, maybe express the quest as "without dropping below 60% stamina" to make it clearer)
This quest would make players understand that water is VERY important as far as running away goes (so no more, "ooooh faction boys have troll belt full of water i can't run away with my 2 waterskins", bring more water you dumb dumb, you don't need ALL the tools ALL the time), make them understand that they need to stay above a certain level of stamina when running so they don't drop below a certain speed. And also make it clear how important speed boosts and bunny slippers really are (possibly forager credo too) in running away.
Will that solve all the whining on the forums about pvp being unfair and how sprucecaps that got KO'd "couldn't do anything"? No. Will it make it so sprucecaps can reliably run away from each pvp encounter? Probably not.
But it would be a step in a good direction to show those players what mechanics are important as far combat goes, and what they should get so they are able to run away (being able != succeeding at). This way they can at least try to get away and know the tools that are available to them so overtime they might just get better at it.
Edit:
Another quest idea would be a quest you'd get after getting knocked out (either by an animal or by a player):
1. Teleport to your hearthfire (So they won't think about getting up)
2. Apply medicine to a wound
3. Eat up until at 10k energy (word it like "until you are full" so it's lore friendly)
4. Go sleep in a bed (It speeds up wound progression so this one might be kind of a trap since if the wound is not healed and gets infected it might get worse faster, nontheless i think it's good to communicate that sleeping helps with healing)
5. Get rid of a wound/Recover 90% of your max hp
Makes it so getting KO'd seems like a part of the experience, explains that you should apply medicine and eat up after getting KO'd. And also shows that using a bed might be important to healing.