Salem

I just started playing tonight, I have no idea what I'm doing.

I'm working on all my general skills, unlocking whatever I can whenever I can.
I am building alone, I've been lurking the forums a bit and lots of people are building in towns, my area seems pretty dead.
Should I continue building where I am or move?
Any tips/advice is appreciated.

Yeh, enter the new world Pilgrim. Nice to have you onboard
My first tip would be to scout the forum ( help sections ) and Wiki of this game, there's tons of information on there.
Let's say you find an item but aren't sure what to do with it or what to use it for, you can use the wiki to look things up.

The most fun i have in this game is your problem. Not knowing where to go or what to do but still having a ton of options.
I've been 'activly' playing again since a few months and i think i haven't even gotten around to 30% of all the content in this game.
Also not understanding stuff but later finally having that 'einstein' and 'eureka' moment/feeling when you understand it is something you can't replace by getting 'free info'.

Sometimes there's no other way. But the main rule is ; Create your own content, BE the content creator and make your own 'story'.
If you need any help or other 'hard' questions, feel free to PM me and i'll try to help out as good as i can.
Atm, just continue building and stay where you are. Let this be your 'test' base and move on from there.

Hugs.

My advice is:
- use the forums ... learn to filter off the toxic aggressiveness ... Salem is a 'roids overdose for some of the forum community, no need to mention names, you'll learn them or join them, or both. Help is a troll free zone, the only stupid question there is an unasked one, and there are always helpful folks willing to share knowledge there to some degree ... that rule doesn't apply in the other forums, consider yourself warned
- http://salemwiki.info/index.php/3rd_Party ... go here, use a custome client and a map tool. There is no DETAILED map, only a very broad overview you see in your craftable new world survey, so start making your own. Do that to learn what's around you. Wherever you have landed you will likely find enough abandoned tools and paraphernalia around you to support your growth. You'll also hopefully learn where the active players are, which will help you decide on your own whether to stay where you are or not. Having said that, considering you have been playing that short a time, chances are that you will want to move. The map is HUGE, don't pigeonhole yourself into a single area, and don't be afraid to walk. Many great benefits can be found in wandering.
- Learn to modify your radar.xml file. It's not hard. It has great benefit.
- create alts as early as possible, build many tall characters rather than few broad characters ... individual skills are easily focussed to effective levels, as your inspiration pool is enlarged. There are many higher end skills that beelining for with purpose built alts will aid you along the way greatly. This will also allow you to push individual skills to great heights for great benefit. Eg a L&L char for settling and paying the stone will save you massive amounts of silver and there is really no limit to the benefit you gain, a gardener/farmer (and/or, there are alot of crossover inspirationals that make the base proficiencies easy to dual up if you want one less alt), a hunter, a woodworker, a weaver/tailor, a miner etc etc ... depending on how deep you go or want to go of course, you can simply have one char and be a jack of all trades, just be aware that in doing so you will be a master of none, at least not without an exhorbitant amount of input from specialty potions, but that's a bit beyond this topic. Specialty alts are also easily replaced when they get lost, without impacting the rest of your progress significantly. And don't forget a crime alt ... Don't be stupid and leave scents on non-crime characters and your life expectancy will be significantly increased ... probably ... That depends on how dumb you choose to be. Crime is fun though, and even if it doesn't float your boat as a full time profession, learning the rules is worth the time input so that you know what you will be up against sooner or later.
- Google: Salem Wiki Disease
- Google: Salem Wiki Madness

Disclaimer: this is just some basic info from my own experience. Many will disagree (some will disagree on principle and say the same thing in a different way) ... Salem does not reward stupid ... learn and you will have fun, refuse to learn and you will quit in a short amount of time, it's really that simple as far as I'm concerned, no matter to what scale you play.

If you need some in game help with materials i could provide you with some.
As a new player you do not have the the knowledge or production for most necessities and believe me... I know the struggle of waiting an almost a week for dry boards just to make chest.

Thanks for the tips gents, @ZoddAlmighty, thanks for the offer. I'm going to attempt to get as far as I can on this play through without help (at least that is the plan) to learn to learn the basic mechanics of the game.
I love how steep the learning curve is and I hope I am isolated enough to not get killed for a little while. At the moment I'm struggling to find myself a piece of granite for a new tool haha.
I always find that the most fun I have is while I learn the mechanics.
Edit: While it says I joined in July, I only just started today. I was having troubles with the Java security.

Oh, just a real handy thing to know off the bat ... get indian tracking as a priority on whatever toon/s you are starting on ... Savage Charms are an excellent source of early income (sell them in town for 30s each)

No idea how to get my hands on silver hah

Partyhat wrote:No idea how to get my hands on silver hah

jophbot wrote:Oh, just a real handy thing to know off the bat ... get indian tracking as a priority on whatever toon/s you are starting on ... Savage Charms are an excellent source of early income (sell them in town for 30s each)

by far the best way for new players to get silver is gathering indian charms/grinding crickets. Selling stuff to other players works well too (leather, particularily, once you get around to animals that have brains; the rare 7- and 10-use inspirationals are also nice to sell).

Partyhat wrote:At the moment I'm struggling to find myself a piece of granite for a new tool haha.

Granite pieces can be found individually, or you can find a boulder. Boulders don't show up on the minimap unless you alter your radar file, but they're not too hard to spot. You'll find them most often in the conifer biome (dark green on the map), the badlands (tan/brown), and the crag (orange/brown).