Arrgh!

[mvargus]

I've been trying out a custom start, because I kind of want to write a story of a successful colonist.  I'll admit the start is very tough as you get almost nothing, and also have only tribal level tech with 1 colonist.

So far I've tried 3 times.

First time - died after 11 days due to heat stroke (heat wave raised temperatures to 154F and I was out of wood for a cooler due to building other items just before heat wave started)
Second time - died after 11 days due to a manhunter pack.  I forgot to micromanage and my pawn went out to harvest the crop fields.  They managed to get back inside, but the animals bashed the door down.

Both of those were on Randy Random (rough)

So I try again, but on Cassandra Classic (rough) since Randy appears to hate me.  This time I get past the first season and during the second 15 days I even finally recruit a second colonist (a refugee, but it works).  It's looking good...

Cassandra sends a pack of 12 alpha beavers to kill all the trees.  I send my new colonist out since they arrived with a lever-action rifle, but they take too many shots each time to get a hit, so I switch them to a short bow....
They activate the whole group of alphabeavers into a manhunter pack and get taken down.

My original colonist managed to hide out for a while, but I tried to sneak out to rescue my other colonist.  The beavers caught me on my way back to camp....

and.... there went another attempt out the window. 

I love this game.  Someday I'll pull this scenario off and get off this rock!

[Canute]

Pratice pratice and a bit of luck.
Keep trying it, and read the forum a bit for some gameplay hints and tips.
Next time don't build wood doors, stone doors open slower, but got much more HP that give you time to repair and the animals will stop attacking them.
You can let them force open for the daily use.

And you notice it was a bad idea to hunt the alpha beaver with just 1 colonist, they are social and mosttimes faster then your pawns.

[Jibbles]

You'll get there.
Looks like your weakness is dealing with manhunter packs. Most useful advice right here...

Next time don't build wood doors

and every time after that if you're serious about surviving. 

If you're one of those players who don't take advantage of the stone walls around the map then you could deconstruct them and get a stone door up pretty fast. Choose steel if you have to.  Just don't cheap out on doors.

You don't have to engage with a manhunter pack.  You could sit inside and do your thing if you got the supplies and they'll eventually go away.  You could also pop out and take a few shots so they bleed out.  They will bash your doors anytime they open, so be aware of that and make your pawns repair them.

Small animals such as squirrels, chinchilla etc.  Don't use a gun on them unless you have the time take a shot with a rifle at a safe distance.  If you don't land a shot, go grab a melee weapon (preferably something made of plasteel) to fight them unless your pawn is a wimp. Hope you have better luck in your next game.

[Bozobub]

Correction:  Don't cheap out on exterior doors.  Interior doors can be wood with no real problems, beyond fire risk.  Any doors in your walls, plus your prison door, weapons storage, and building entries certainly should be stone but it's NOT a huge problem indoors.  Once you get autodoors, sure, use w/e.  But it's not worth the huge slowdown, overall, if you have a lot of stone, unautomated doors =p.  Sure, you can leave doors open BUT why even spend the resources, until you're swimming in them?  Additionally, unnecessary stone doors raise the value of your colony that much more, encouraging raids ^^'.

[Jibbles]

That's true. Interior doors are less important and you could get away with wooden doors in lot of situations.  It wouldn't be a waste to use stone or steel inside and leave open though.  I've had my fair share of raiders breaching into the base when I don't use turrets so the backup is always nice. I believe the difference in wealth between the stone and wood doors is quite minuscule so I wouldn't fret over that. You could start worrying about wealth when you have a bunch unnecessary items you're not putting into use such as huge piles of textiles/plasteel, or 2 Ai cores etc.

[mvargus]

Correction:  Don't cheap out on exterior doors.  Interior doors can be wood with no real problems, beyond fire risk.  Any doors in your walls, plus your prison door, weapons storage, and building entries certainly should be stone but it's NOT a huge problem indoors.  Once you get autodoors, sure, use w/e.  But it's not worth the huge slowdown, overall, if you have a lot of stone, unautomated doors =p.  Sure, you can leave doors open BUT why even spend the resources, until you're swimming in them?  Additionally, unnecessary stone doors raise the value of your colony that much more, encouraging raids ^^'.

It happened so early that I only had built a total of 2 doors and my pawn wasn't skilled enough to cut stone chunks into blocks, so wood was all I had for it.

[Shurp]

Don't use stone for exterior doors.  They open and close slowly.  Use steel.  This way you can duck inside quickly *and* they'll give up before they bash it down (if you have a good builder on the other side slowing them down).

[Bozobub]

Um...  Steel *burns*.

[Element4ry]

Recently I started using double set of outside doors - wooden and stone. Wooden outside and stone inside. Stone doors are kept open in the peaceful times, wooden are always closed as the colonists open them fairly quickly. Managing it may be a pain, but I think it's worth it. As for the stone walls - I'm building outer walls of stone as soon as possible, preferably granite. Same goes for doors - granite all the way.

[mvargus]

Recently I started using double set of outside doors - wooden and stone. Wooden outside and stone inside. Stone doors are kept open in the peaceful times, wooden are always closed as the colonists open them fairly quickly. Managing it may be a pain, but I think it's worth it. As for the stone walls - I'm building outer walls of stone as soon as possible, preferably granite. Same goes for doors - granite all the way.

I always look for granite before I agree to land.  As far as I'm concerned its vital to get it.