Early-Mid-Game Progression Questions

[jinelcrimp8]

So I've managed to kill some animals and people, have relatively steady food. No danger of starving out. A few upgrades to tools. A small stack of arrows and javelins. Explored quite a few villages (Most of Reeeee-land), made my way towards the West. I've done this in a relatively short time, not even halfway through summer.

I'm kinda lost as to what I should be focusing on. Should I focus strongly on building a house? Should I try and upgrade clothing and tools? Should I be hunting non-stop and building wealth?

Also, I am rather confused on some other things:
Where can I find better equipment? Any particular type of settlement, or culture? I'm getting pretty tired of trekking from village to village only to find every other one has a normal-quality bow.

Is there any way to find traders, hunters, or bandits more regularly? I've only stumbled on a few in my hours of play.

What about for quests? I'd love to do quests for people but I can never find any. Only found one this entire playthrough.

When building houses, is there a way to do it more optimally? As opposed to chop, log, and haul with rests when needed.

What do you guys usually try and focus on once you get your footing?

[Tom H]

If you have a good site with water nearby (for drinking, fishing, and craftwork) and some villages relatively close (in case a Sage is needed, for instance), then you should build your own cabin. Decide what size it will be and then calculate how many logs, tree trunks, and boards you're going to need. Then cut and haul what you'll need to where it will be useful. I say do all the cutting first because the Forest spirits become perturbed with all the felling of trees and the time it takes to build usually outlasts their animosity.

Hopefully, you'll have provided yourself with a good set of fur clothing and a set of skis before the winter arrives. Both will become important when the temperature drops and the snow gets deep. One of my early goals is to trap a bear and make clothing with his fur. All around, that's the best fur to use, for both warmth and armor ratings. 

Re: quests- Greet the first villager in range. If there's a quest, they'll alert you to someone you should see. If they don't you can just leave and go check the next village. Once in a while you'll get a message in the morning that says you're doing well with the spirits. I take that as a sign to go check for some special quests the Sages give out, regarding spirits. Other than that I know of no way to find quests.

The best villages to search for quality tools and armor are the Drikilais. The far east and far north villages use reindeer for pack animals so finding a cow or bull there is pretty hopeless. The farther west you go, the more you'll see sheep, pigs, and cattle. I've got one character that has had a large sow in service as a pack animal from the beginning! She's got limits, aye, but she's been very handy. If she ever dies, there's bacon and leather still to be had...heh.

[PALU]

I have my characters settle by rapids, as that provides easy access to water (no need to smash ice every day during winter).

Quests are generated as some kind of background activity, and so are not directly tied to your character, but the rate at which they're generated is limited, so I make a tour of the nearby villages about two weeks after finishing the previous quest.
There are sort of three kinds of quests:
- "Public" ones, where asking any villager about how things are will reveal if someone has such a quest in the village.
- "Hidden" quests, where you have to speak directly to the quest giver to get the quest, and nobody else will know about it, and so won't be able to direct you to the quest giver.
- "Active" quests, which are similar to hidden ones, but where the quest giver actively seeks your character out and may well speak first. These quests are typically to give the quest giver some equipment of above average quality to them (typically knives and arrows). Don't bring your masterworks knives with you when visiting villages, but bring a spare Fine one instead).

My quest tour goes to the nearest village, then the next one, etc. for a two day tour if I won't get any quest. On the next attempt I'll try to speak with more people in the villages to find a hidden quest, and on a third attempt I'll chase around every village to locate all the men (kids don't give quests, and women give one a single, rare one (with special conditions), which I think is public). I don't think the spirit standing messages have anything to do with quests, but I can be wrong.

Foreign traders often have quality equipment, but they're restricted in the range they carry, so they won't have some kinds of tools, for instance. Also, they only accept payment in furs.

A large cow of burden or a bull can be used to carry logs (but not tree trunks, at least not on cows), which can save of the hauling effort when building. Better tools allows for faster building, but it's possible to get by with just a standard quality hand axe.

The more you travel the more people you encounter, I'd assume. However, combat is brutal and risky, so selecting your fights when you can and retreat when the odds don't look good (before the fight: within it it's typically too late).

[ineedcords]

>I'm kinda lost as to what I should be focusing on.
>Should I focus strongly on building a house?
>Should I try and upgrade clothing and tools?
>Should I be hunting non-stop and building wealth?

Focusing on wealth generation and equipment improvement sounds like a good goal as wealth opens possibility to pretty much anything - as long as you don't die!
One thing annoys me is the "you're dead" screen.

While you can reduce the risk of it, I think you can never 100% eliminate the risk of getting attacked by robbers or wolves.
They both travel in groups and even if you're fully upgraded you probably won't survive as a one-man army against a group.
For that reason I would recommend getting a pack of dogs as bodyguards, to increase chances of healthy long life in URW.
I enjoy having at least 5 dogs with me at all times along with 1 bull (truck) and 1 cow (truck with portable dairy facilities); this gives adequate hauling/storage capacity for my taste.
Perhaps work towards having such an entourage?

Do note that you need to increase your food acquisition speed when you have more mouths to take care of. Personally I am having about 7-8 nets which appears to produce adequate food to sustain this group, on a rapid, combined with the occasional hunt. This passive, reliable food acquisition method frees you up for building/crafting/skill-training etc.

With regards to the first cabin: if you are able to, do postpone building a cabin until you have all masterwork tools (Carving Axe/Woodman's Axe/Broad Axe/Splitting Axe) as owning these makes the boring build process quicker. Similarly, as has been said above, owning a bull speeds up the process as it can carry tree trunks. You fell a tree, push it on to the bull, carry it next to your shelter/build site, convert it to a log there (all the side-produce branches stay there on the ground, next to the temp shelter so that you can use them in the future for fire).

I personally never focused on having my cabin near a village but almost always next to a rapid to guarantee 365 days access to fresh water without breaking any ice (waste of real life time and game time with zero benefit IMO). In case you haven't seen/read about it 'rapid' tiles do not freeze even in the dead of winter, they also produce more fish.

[PALU]

I'm not afraid of accidental robber encounters, as you can easily save your life by surrendering (and potentially return to take your stuff back when prepared after having grabbed backup equipment), and even when you fight them, they typically just steal your stuff and dump you somewhere (usually badly injured, but alive), even when you've killed one or more of them. Wolves are dangerous, though, as are bears and Njerps.
I think I've lost two characters to wolves and the rest to Njerps (well, there was an early case of drowning as well, before understanding the mechanics).