yea, Ok this is gonna sound kinda bad, but the first thing I would do....
...go into the xmls and edit it so I get a few more skill points a level. Yea, I know I should play the version first before I do any edits, but I play mostly SP, so them telling us that it would be almost impossible to max out EVERY perk for a single character, yea I wont let that slide.
I'm with you on this, I think they should softcap the max level, bascally you can go to 200 normally, but every level after that takes 2-3x as much exp, and only gives 1 skill point (As opposed to 2 per level in the skill vids Madmole made recently). This way level 200 is more of a softcap, but if you keep playing you can eventually max everything.
I also dislike the removal of books for stuff like auger/chainsaw. It was so nice finding a random auger, then getting luck enough to come across the book so I could repair and upgrade it. Now? we have to heavily invest in a stat then a perk tree to get to it. I kinda prefer the old way tbh.
I also didn't see any indication of what was said about how you get better at stuff by doing, from what I seen in the skill videos, it was all gain exp spend skill points. For example: Pistol, Rifle, Medicine skills to name 3.
As for progression: I usually get Sexual T-Rex asap, as you can't do much if your always out of it fast, and it takes forever to regen, then tool smithing. I generally try to have a forge going on day 1 for iron tools Bit of luck needed here as I may not find enough animals, or enough leather chairs to destroy for leather. If that happens, I usually hope the trader has a working forge or I find one of the few poi's that have a forge spawned in them (like that house with the stone stairs going up outside to the 2nd floor) that works.
In A16 I played more nomadic, my Base was a hole deep in the ground I mainly used as storage and to have forges etc going 24/7, but I would rarely actually be in it. This will work in A17 as well, with the exception that on Horde night, you need to get out of there. From what I get from reading the devs posts, the AI won't dig unless they detect the player, so if there are forges running deep underground they'll still just walk around above them. Only time they would detect you for sure is horde night as they GPS to you bascally.
I've never once built an actual base above ground, I usually use random poi's on horde night, as building a base takes way to long and too many resources for me to bother with, I'd rather be out exploring and looting stuff than mining rocks all day.. At least until I get an auger, once I get an Auger rocks die enmasse. I try to avoid doing much hardcore mining till I get steel tools, or a Auger, whichever comes first, as the amount you get out of stuff is best with steel or a auger.
