I am a new player and I have been playing online games for over 15 years. The point of that is that I'm not a retard and I figure things out faster than most. There are mechanics in Salem that are extremely difficult to figure out how to work.
Here is a prime example:
As a new player, one of the first things I wanted to build was a fence. This is to stop any random person from strolling in and taking my stuff. I read the wiki and the guides and found information(Very unclear guides out there btw) and train up settling, simple fencing and carpentry. Everything up to this point has simply taken wood or branches to build and has been relatively self-explanatory.
Then, I see a new ingredient called "Board" to create a corner fence. I check all my skills and notice that I do not have a "Board" craft ability. After researching online, I find out that I need a Sawbuck to create a board. After getting a Sawbuck created, I'm now ready to drop some wood in it. I try chopped wood, branches, everything I can think of, but nothing works. Right clicking on the sawbuck does nothing. So now I'm stuck again and have to research online. Online I find that it actually requires a full log. So i grab a log off the ground and haul it back over and try to set it on the sawbuck. This does nothing. I try right clicking on everything to see if I can get a correct command, but nothing works. This takes me back to the internet for answers, where I'm finally able to determine that a fresh log from a newly cut down tree is needed. It was only then that I was able to put together my sawbuck correctly to create my board.
I had to reference online resources 3 times to do something pretty simple. A simple tool tip at certain steps would of helped:
A tool tip when hovering over the board in the fence ingredients to specify that the board requires a sawbuck.
A tool tip when right clicking on the sawbuck to show that its expecting a full newly cut down log and not chopped log or a log found on the ground.
This is just one example. I don't mind things being hard to do, but it shouldn't be confusing about how the simple mechanics work.
Other examples would include tooltips or notifications( at least one time) when you are doing something wrong or inefficiently.
IE, when you are digging or destroying without a shovel equipped, a tip would be helpful. I built a wooden shovel, but had it in my inventory and not actually equipped. Wasted a good deal of time destroying and digging without a shovel.