well after playing one game with vanilla setting i started to only play with edb interface mod and tech tree minami, so for me being a newb having a "safe" colony is kinda needed for starters. also because i only play on challenging (100% difficulty), i never play on easy in any game. playing with a more "open" colony will be on my next try.
currently i have two main naming schemes...."gravetown" and "hope". my current colony is called gravetwon and the first one to survive to that point (kinda lategame) without dying horribly (jinx that name^^). but i do still struggle to increase the population, currently hovering around 6-7...randy random is either giving me too much peace or too many troubles...mostly of the former lately :/. i also only got a handful of general goods traders, no weapon / armor / slave trader yet >:O.
I'm trying to struggle with power at the moment, actually. Need to save up money for a geothermal parts pile. Selling toolboxes is a cheap way to get cash though, since it uses plain old metal.
I got a bunch of guns and armor due to a glitch I think, though. A neighboring town visited and their people started going nuts from starvation and they started killing each other. Half of the visitors died, and my colony ended up getting three suits of power armor, bunch of armor vests, and some nice Modern weapons... and since it was they who went nuts and were killing each other, it didn't mess with the friendship rating.
I just had to dig a bunch of graves and reap the benefits.