This game is awesome. Some things that might be helpful for players to know- what does each buff and debuff do, your inventory expands automatically (don't worry about needing to sell for space), and maybe being able to quickly swap between a couple different sets of gear with a hot key.
I think the more places you take over the better starting resources you should have. Also, it would have been nice to know that you can't take a gather down to 0.