Salem

I've been building my first small camp, and when I logged in this morning most of it was gone. Would my stuff have decayed on its own in a night (I haven't staked a claim), or is it more likely that I was raided?

Raided.
Buy a pclaim, build some walls, add some braziers.

Yikes. People around here are harsh!
So is the only reasonable way for a new player to get started to join an existing settlement? I can't build walls or braziers yet, and now that my nail structures are gone I can't really afford a pclaim.

I'm at my Uni atm but once i'm out in like 10 hours i can help you out if you'd like with your dilemna.

Im sorry to say bjokes but this is not an easy game, if you stick with it though its very much enjoyable and you can find a lot of friendly people. Getting raided for the first time is not fun but its a good way to see if this is the game for you.

If you don't know what decay looks like, it very well could have all broke over the night. Damage and decay will turn items redder and redder until they hit 0% and permanently break/disappear. You can repair most everything in the game, though, with the "Repair" command under the adventure menu.

However, I'll have to agree with rubberduckbandit, though. Odds are you got raided if you had several items break or disappear (most likely got carried off if the person's home was close enough).

bjokes wrote:So is the only reasonable way for a new player to get started to join an existing settlement?

It's probably the smarter way, but no, it's not necessary. You just have to pay attention to who is around you, and a claim is a huge deterrent to theft, as it leaves evidence that can be used to track down and kill the perpetrator. Without that claim, you can never really tell if someone played a few hours and gave up, or if they're just getting warmed up and plan on building a claim there.

It's a harsh game, and this will be the absolute minimum that is done. It's a fun game, but you need to harden yourself for the trip if you plan on sticking around.

It doesn't take long to get enough silver to buy a p-claim, if you're enterprising and short on time/cash you can find a defunct unclaimed base to take over. If you search long enough you can find one with some damaged braziers you can repair and claim over. Joining a settlement is definetely not neccessary.

Don't give up! Rebuild or join a nice group. There are usually new players that you may be able to team up with as well. Good luck and I will also lend help if you need.

Thanks for all the encouragement folks! I'm really enjoying the game so far. My frustration at this point is mostly due to my ignorance (not knowing if I've been raided or if stuff is gone from decay-- although it definitely sounds like I've been raided). When I started building I thought I was reasonably isolated, but then as I explored the area I found a couple of other player settlements, so I guess someone decided they didn't like having a new neighbor.

Do you guys have any advice in regards to picking a reasonably safe location to settle? I don't really have a sense of how large the game world is yet, is it possible to find less densely populated areas that still have access to most of the biomes?

How quickly do things decay on their own? I didn't realize that I could repair them, so I hadn't been doing that. I'm definitely going to get a claim stone next time before I invest any silver in nails.

I would actually wait a few days in an area before to set up your claimstone - that way if someone is going to raid you they will and you can tell that you need to move on to somewhere else. as for the size of the world. I think you can keep walking from Providence for about 8-10 hours before you hit the darkness, I may very well be wrong on this, but to put it simply this world is HUGE. When you are given a leanto in the wild it is in a 'spawn area', which is like a band or ring that is a certain distence away from Providence. Your best bet is to walk 2 or so hours to your west before you settle. Providence is located to the far east so west will take you further away from other people. Keep your eye out for places like lime pits, swamps and clay pits. These are great places to set up by. Lime pits and clay pits are also great ways to tell if someone is/has use the area.