Being able to unlock Murder+Vandilism before leather can dry

[VDZ]

"settle in a really shitty spot, or in the far end of a cave"

So basically, you want to claim a premium spot for yourself despite not having any means to protect yourself from stronger players, and you wonder why you got wrecked?

[insanechef]

what continent are you on please

[MagicManICT]

FWIW, the only "early game race" is for factions. If you're making a faction, and are a few days behind everyone else, you're screwed... or at least until others start getting bored. Stop trying to "keep up" and start playing for fun. If you want in the race, make some friends in the factions and follow the leaders. Most are pretty open as long as you don't turn into one of the backstabbing type and are willing to do a lot of drudge work. It's that teamwork that makes the dream work, yo.

About the "hide in a cave' thing... there are those that explicitly look for cave camps and go out of the way to wreck them. They're harder to see because digging and such doesn't show up on the minimap, but you still should NEVER leave unprotected structures laying around. Additionally, folks start looking for ore as soon as they have any amount of masonry and the mining skill.

[VDZ]

About the "hide in a cave' thing... there are those that explicitly look for cave camps and go out of the way to wreck them. They're harder to see because digging and such doesn't show up on the minimap, but you still should NEVER leave unprotected structures laying around. Additionally, folks start looking for ore as soon as they have any amount of masonry and the mining skill.

Don't leave any items or structures around outside a cave you're active in, or inside the cave visible from the entrance. It's a clear sign there's something to be found inside the cave. I recently came across a cave with a stockpile of boards in front of it. Lo and behold, deeper in there was a mine with a nice stockpile of chalcopyrite. I am currently smelting said chalcopyrite.

[banok]

this seems like straight up bad luck, I've hermited a few worlds and never felt the need to rush palisade. If I felt like I was in a area that was really busy id probably just move, maybe ive just been very lucky. I could get pallisade now but I dont think anything in my base is worth taking.

Investing in criminal skills isn't actually worth what you can take from unwalled people. the only reason its done early world is so no lifers can enjoy a style of gameplay (thief or grief) that becomes non-existant after walls go up (speaking as someone who has done exactly this previous worlds). I do think its a game design flaw for sure, raiding in some form should really be a thing that happens from world start to end, rather than a brief window every 2 years.

[springyb]

How am I supposed to survive till my palisade is up against multiple people working together or people who play 24/7?

You're not, more time and people should and will beat one person playing casually. It's important to understand that as a hermit palisades are not an early game PvP defense. Palisades are your end game because once you build it you win, you live there permanently and are untouchable. It is fair for attackers to be able to slow down or even stop you from making it, the few days of set backs are worth the infinite protection.

World resets are when large groups of veterans get to enjoy the only 5 days of PvP they're going to get. If it's not working for you, you can always wait until they've exploited every aspect of the game they can manage and have progressed to end game faster than intended and are busy shit posting about how dead the game is. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[ogey]

It honestly just feels like bad luck. I'd heard horror stories like that and thus previously always settled in deep woods several minimaps away from water or anything that might have a little value like a swamp but this time I just said fuck it and settled on a very exposed little island close to coast. I've had people row by almost every day, sometimes stopping to chat and other than some trickery from before I finished my claim, things have been incredibly calm despite me not even having a roundpole fence. Maybe tomorrow I'll finally get murdered or maybe this place just looks too crappy to be worth raiding.

[orjanyymi]

My group got lucky and we spawned in a different continent than snail.