Your tips for a good start

[Kamekono]

Hello. I recently started playing again after quite a long time. While doing my first few steps in the woods, I wondered how other people act in the beginning. So here's some questions I have, feel free to add any more details about your early game experiences:

1. How many people (or characters) you would suggest? I think 4 is great, can have different jobs without being redundant or needing too many resources.
2. How do you specialise your characters? I know masonry and smithing go well together, so does exploration and survival. What about the others? Should the carpenter focus on leather working too? Should the farmer, cook and tailor be different characters or just one?
3. What's your timetable on hunting?
4. How do you spend your first day playing? Do you settle immediately or look for a good place for hours?
5. Where do you prefer to settle? On the shore, for easy movement but exposed, or in a mountain cave, hidden but making it harder to build up? Close to special resources, which get a lot of attention but are useful, or far in the woods to avoid most people? Does the biome matter to you?
6. What items do you try to rush, and what do you leave for later?
7. When do you abandon your first "real" camp (as with houses and crops, maybe even a palisade)?

Should go without saying, this is supposing you are on a fresh world where you can't just take over an abandoned place or scavenge higher Q items from ghost towns.

I'm sure I'll think of a lot more questions, but this is a start. Feel free to add any other info you think would help new and returning players hypothetically starting from scratch.

[iamahh]

i balance LP between basic skills and raising Exploration, taking care not to waste too much, aiming for Yeomanry skill and a stake claim

gather LP from discoveries, and if you're lucky your quests are easy enough, depending on rivers and terrain

also chickens are awesome, if you're a chickens terrain you get bones(glue), feather(duster curio), entrails(more fish and LP)

[TheOriginalFive]

I generally start with one character first before I finally settle down.

First day I start wandering the world long enough to collect LP for yeomanry, then try to settle on grassland so fewer animals bite me. Grasslands too generally aren't as badly contested as forest's hunting grounds or randomly placed natural resources. I rush food, leather, bone tools, and wood stuff for houses.

I don't usually abandon a real camp as you define it, because I try to settle down in a place I won't be leaving.

[sMartins]

Get lost in the game, without planning anything and just have fun. That's my tip.

[MagicManICT]

Get lost in the game, without planning anything and just have fun. That's my tip.

I quite concur, but for long term, some planning is probably needed.

What I do really depends on how committed I am to playing for extended times. If I'm really diving in, I'll go with two or three characters. One for "outside" activities--foraging, hunting, fishing, and such; one for "inside" activities--farming, crafting; and one for underground--mining, combat, smithing. There's too much time involved with credos if you want to get those bonuses for more. Alternatively, you can just run one character. It's practical, but the downside is the wound system will keep you from hunting or mining if you get beat up.

As far as early tech rush or items, a meat grinder is awesome to have, along with that metal cauldron. Even small chests are a far cry better than any of the containers that don't use metal in construction.

[Audiosmurf]

i balance LP between basic skills and raising Exploration, taking care not to waste too much, aiming for Yeomanry skill and a stake claim

gather LP from discoveries, and if you're lucky your quests are easy enough, depending on rivers and terrain

also chickens are awesome, if you're a chickens terrain you get bones(glue), feather(duster curio), entrails(more fish and LP)

Why dusters? Trinkets are much more efficient.

[iamahh]

i guess its because i hate chipping stones early on, but i'll change that

[Audiosmurf]

i guess its because i hate chipping stones early on, but i'll change that

On that note, seek out an early stone patch day 1. >Q10 stones in order to eke out every bit of LP you can.

[MagicManICT]

No reason you can't both do dusters and trinkets if you have enough materials to keep them going.

[SlicingTheMoon]

1. How many people (or characters) you would suggest? I think 4 is great, can have different jobs without being redundant or needing too many resources.
As many as i got jobs to be done, but not more than the amount of study tables i can keep full at all time, as an example, you need a forager, survival and exploration, a Cook/archer perception+Cooking (marksmanship on the side)
Masonry is really important to get good quality clay and for mining, Farmer is a must to have, the farmer can evolve in to a tailor later, only have enough farming to improve your crop, rest can go else where
2. How do you specialise your characters? I know masonry and smithing go well together, so does exploration and survival. What about the others? Should the carpenter focus on leather working too? Should the farmer, cook and tailor be different characters or just one?
Miners and hunters go well together, sins the mines have gotten dangerous and they need to protect themselves. Farming and cooking goes well together sins they share a lot of gildings, cooking and archery goes well together sins both focus on perception, Sewing and carpentry goes well together sins they both use dex for some stuff, also: Sewing = silk, silk need trees so i like a sewing, carpentry, farmer together. Smiths, should be pure crafters and stay away from mines. Leather can anyone make, by moving bark, hides etc, but only carpenters can improve the tanning tubs.
3. What's your timetable on hunting?
Hunt when i feel like it
4. How do you spend your first day playing? Do you settle immediately or look for a good place for hours?
I got a specific requirement for building a place, so i search for hours on end untill i find it.
5. Where do you prefer to settle? On the shore, for easy movement but exposed, or in a mountain cave, hidden but making it harder to build up? Close to special resources, which get a lot of attention but are useful, or far in the woods to avoid most people? Does the biome matter to you?
My special requirement is a large cave directly underneath, i do not care about the biom, i would prefer not to be too close to a water way, but would love to be close to an isolated lake,
6. What items do you try to rush, and what do you leave for later?
I Rush Farming, Tree planting, chickens, food production and curios
7. When do you abandon your first "real" camp (as with houses and crops, maybe even a palisade)?
My first camp is inside a cave, secured by a p-claim inside at the entrance, get a house for storage. Once i have enough materials, for palisade, Mine hole, village claim and a few banners I move out and place down paving for the palisade, then the palisade and once it is down and locked i place the village claim and minehole, then using the village banners to claim the underground cave, i do this only when i got the time to do all of it in one go.