It sounds like you attempted to go into the central area after the disaster.

I do agree, it's probably a tough start for the newbie, especially if they venture too far from the spawn or intend to have a player live more than a couple days without any automation.  

There needs to be an increase of multi players at once in order to diversify some of the player deaths to eliminate the control the group has. Having one newbie start, get killed, doesn't bode we'll when they have no vested interest yet.

It's mostly a numbers game I feel like right now. As long as you have one more char vs the area you are attacking, you stand a good chance to be successful. I know it is a little hypocritical for me to play down aggressive play as I have been very aggressive in the past, but I have been playing and building algos/strategies from the non-aggressive view point. It hasn't been real easy as once somebody decides they want to kill you, there is no escape. So you have to be very proactive in enemy detection and avoidance to keep that three tile buffer from a very long distance away. You have to be watching 50 moves in some cases in the future to keep that three tile buffer.