I’m replying to let you know I’ve seen this, but I can’t type the response I want to right this instant. It’s going to be like 6-8 hours before I probably have the chance, but I’ll totally share some guidance!!

If I'd start over I'd give myself these 3 tips:

Use the map actively to note down everything, big trees, different stones, warm/cold/rain areas, prospecting later on too, is very helpful. A fully fledged out map saves a lot of time later.

First order of business as in any survival game is food then shelter. Berry bushes can also be picked up.

If you find copper bits on the surface, dig down :)

Oof. Some 60 hours late or something. Life got…hectic, for a bit there.

TL:DR tinker with the world settings a lot, maybe check out some mods, and plant flax immediately.

Firstly if you didn’t get a good foothold before summer of year one I would probably restart. Basically if you don’t get a decent flax farm underway quickly the save is going to get REALLY hard come winter. Playing multiplayer can smooth that curve a lot by allowing delegating of jobs. Basically you should always have someone foraging for seeds and small supplies of flax and veggies and then someone else working on the tech progression.

I totally agree with the other comment that mentioned using the map. Being able to quickly navigate to various ore deposits and resources like clay is very important. Also learning proper 3 point navigation can be a huge help. Even though the map has a pip for your character it can help a lot to just begin to memorize the greater area around your settlement. Being able to triangulate based just on surroundings without much need for the map also makes longer expeditions easier and less disorienting.

The other big learning curve for me was the prospectors pick. Learning the approximate size of ore deposits can help a lot. Having sort of learned triangulation without numbers for navigation, now we will be getting numeric feedback to help us. When making a mine after doing area search, periodically mine in node search to scan for your desired ore. Once detected pick an axis to mine along until the node search result changes, check every couple blocks. Step back one block and mine a few holes in the walls of the tunnel in node search mode to see which direction along the opposite axis the deposit is. Now you have the approximate angle to mine to go right through the middle of the whole area and intersect the node perfectly.

Finally I’ll add this. VS has vast vast vast customization options. Sure you can argue the “intended” way to play is the default difficulty setting, but also screw that. Play your way. I personally have tuned the water settings to have slightly more distinct continents that are separated by decent sized oceans, and I’ve extended both the day length and matched up the numbers of days per month to the actual calendar. This makes for a slightly less punishing experience for solo play, while still giving some big challenges when it comes to crossing those oceans just for a resource your continent might not have. This means huge prep time to big expositions, and the need to really amass a base supply of resources to be able to quickly establish other camps and shelters that you will stay at while getting what you came for and getting supplies for the return trip. I’d also honestly encourage browsing the mods. The community is very active and has a lot of great options, but if I had to suggest just one (well technically more), it would be a wind mod and a small collection of boat mods. Then really pump the water settings and turn those gathering missions into massive, multi day crossings were you might be in open ocean for 1 even 2 whole in game days.

This doesn’t eat too much of your time because of the extended day and calendar settings, while also still leaning into the sort of “make you feel small” effect the game sort of goes for. It also gives your crops time to grow. Plus having to manage the sailing, even with a very rudimentary implementation, keeps me quite engaged.

The game in my mind, feels really good when I’ve set up a bunch of multi day processes (growing crops, tanning leather, preserving food for example) and also prepped for a trip then run off while all my stuff is working with a new resource for a new age.

As far as multiplayer goes it makes the game a lot easier. Purely from being able to multithread tasks. But it’s also very fun especially if everyone takes a unique class and really leans into building a village with cottage industry specific workshop/home combo builds. It’s just naturally emerges as both the best for quickly walking between each others workshops and a cute village.

That’s a lot of my thoughts on the game. Maybe should just turn that into a post somewhere, but here ya go.

I remember being little and scowering the web trying to figure out how to mod my Xbox. I remember seeing a tutorial that touted itself as a “mod guide” and the dude just wrapped his TV in plastic wrap and dousing it with chocolate syrup because it looked kind of like a cave. I was so disappointed