That's probably a much better idea. Make more food part of the starting kit, even as wolffblood suggests, meat stews. You could the starting kit adjust with difficulty if some folks thought that would be too easy.
First of all let me say I know TFP has an impossible job keeping everyone happy, but you can register me as one vote to go back to level gated, but cheaper skills. I'd rather have a chance to have a stronger endgame build even if it means I'm level gated, since the level gates seemed pretty...
I've yet to start a game in A17 where I spawned in range of the trader for the original quest. I've traveled quite a few KM and only got directions to a trader in one game but the quest says it is 0.0 KM away. I wish there was a workaround for their range bug.
Thanks to Scyris for the workaround