How far do you travel at start?

[trowftd]

I am curious to hear the answers. Because, when I try to travel a long distance at the start I always seem to lack food and can not really get the characters on their feet again. How far do you travel first starting out?

[JP_Finn]

Sometimes not at all. I start my toons in Spring and need to get some firewood, shelter et cetera for the possibly lethally frigid nights.
I like to set a camp by lake or river, get basic survival things done; shelter, LLTs nearby, waterhole, firewood. Fish, and/or hunt for food and hides. Often fish, hide work or make crafts end of the day. Things that don’t need daylight.

With few days/week food supply, start looking for villages, and homestead locations. At this point, the traveling might take the character across the map. Can’t wait too long for this trekking though, lakes and rivers will thaw and that gets annoying, fast.

[ineedcords]

I am curious to hear the answers. Because, when I try to travel a long distance at the start I always seem to lack food and can not really get the characters on their feet again. How far do you travel first starting out?

For me, it varies based on the scenario/character/initial goals. Some characters stay (mostly) in the spawn location for a long time but others move out immediately.

In the current playthrough called Tepu, the character has a goal of Njerp eradication so drawing a big 'L' on the map, he started moving south for a week and then turned east towards closest Njerp village. I am putting this particular playthrough on YouTube so there are a few links I can provide to share his progress.
1) In this particular moment there is relatively long map sequence showing what he's been up to for the first 2 months: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hxhvutDKNu4&t=340s
2) To put it in context, see the starting location for the same character using this direct link to 6m31s: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hxhvutDKNu4&t=391s
3) And in this frame, the green map-marker says "(Day) 11" -- so that can be used as a rough scale i.e.: it took that long to reach that village from the initial spawn position.
https://youtu.be/hxhvutDKNu4?t=422

With regards to your situation ("when I try to travel a long distance at the start I always seem to lack food"): personally I have had the same problem before when I did not test and know the limits but after testing it (a lot), now for me it is really hard to fully starve in this game. To actually starve you need to plan the starvation pretty well (start at worst season, drop your gear, intentionally not create any new gear etc.) and stay at it by consistently not  finding food which sometimes is difficult because plenty of food is being thrown at the player by the game.
As there is plenty of reindeer calves around (that get tired fast), next time you have food issues find a herd, just walk to a reindeer calf and punch it to death and you will have enough food to fully recover from starvation and be set for a while.
Here is an example from the 2nd episode of the character mentioned above; he is in a bad starting state malnourished + half injured + running slowly at 2kmh & walking at 1kmh + has no decent weapons etc.): https://youtu.be/sJ7-HTL5yAQ?t=727

Edit: typo fixes

[Jackdaw]

Interesting question! For me, it depends on the character and what kind of story I have in mind for them. My current character is an Owl Tribe woman named Seija, and I liked the idea that she wanted to see what the peoples and lands to the south were like. Right now she's traveling south-east, and I'm thinking to settle in the lakes/river region around Kiesse and Kaumo.

Usually I don't have too much trouble with food, but I think that's partly because I like to build characters with good eyesight who can get a bird or squirrel with a good throw of a rock. Even better if I can make some javelins or a get a bow early on. Fishing is also usually a good way to get food, though I'm finding there's a bit of a learning curve with the new update 

Good luck hunting!

[trowftd]

With regards to your situation ("when I try to travel a long distance at the start I always seem to lack food"): personally I have had the same problem before when I did not test and know the limits but after testing it (a lot), now for me it is really hard to fully starve in this game. To actually starve you need to plan the starvation pretty well (start at worst season, drop your gear, intentionally not create any new gear etc.)

Yeah it is usually pretty tough to die what I meant was that the characters get to a point where it is mostly a chore to get them full again. If I start getting starvation penalties, it seems to go downhill a little and become annoying to do skill check tasks.

Usually I don't have too much trouble with food, but I think that's partly because I like to build characters with good eyesight who can get a bird or squirrel with a good throw of a rock.

My character's attributes are also on the hunter side. It seems from both of your answers that it is manageable, if I just have to plan ahead and go logical distances in a day, it is likely I guess.

Sometimes not at all. I start my toons in Spring and need to get some firewood, shelter et cetera for the possibly lethally frigid nights.

This has been the path most of my successful characters took. I decided to be a nomad but I always messed up the resource management side while moving, and I thought maybe I needed to gather up some food before travelling. Maybe a good hunter can pull it off.

[Ara D.]

I generally wander around reemi or dirk to start. Hoping from village to village looking for and marking supplies, better knives, axes, bows, dogs and bulls, dogs being top priority unless I lack a knife or axe. Fairly early I make some sort of cordage. First big game animal I kill I dry, smoke, and cook a little of it. But I don't wander more than a days walk from sort of shelter typically until i get back that first batch of preserved meat.

[codyo]

I typically make do with what I have and spend time hunting and trapping in the surrounding area until I get a bit of animal products to trade.

If there are villages though that are within a day or two's walk and I started that far away, I end up using my remaining food stocks to get back to civilization. That way I can trade my cuts of meat I manage to hunt without it all spoiling faster. Then that area becomes my base of operations until I decide where I really want to settle.

You should be able to manage some kind of minor food source though within your first week, if not by hunting, then by laying lever traps around lakes or rivers with active wildlife.