By the time I started, the civilization census was in place, and there was a large level one area around the RoB. But with the new map - particularly if I'm on early - there won't be any civilization, just whatever civilizing effect the player spawn (RoB) may have. On the other hand, once everyone settles - many of them in low danger areas - there will be a huge lump of civilization, and danger levels will drop sharply as soon as the civ. census runs.
So that leaves a problem - how to decide where to settle. In particular, how far out to go. I suspect many people want to go relatively far out - but we won't know how far is far enough until others settle. And if we wait for that to happen, well, we may all end up waiting for each other.
So I'm looking for too things
1) Ideas of how much travel time to get to any particular level of difficulty, minus civilization
2) Ideas of how big an impact the current mob of players will have. (Maybe I should just figure how far from the RoB to what few bears we have left, and plan on going _at least_ twice that?)
Of course there's also the possibility that the way civilization works will be changing too. Hopefully enough will be published about it that we can make intelligent decisions about where to settle - and not wind up moving again after only a week or two, to get out of level I territory.