I’ll shamelessly promote my starter video at the bottom of this post. But, here’s what’s worked for me. and, I should add, I’m great at starting, but not so good at the later game.
First character. Be a stranger. Buy nothing. Run the tomb colonist to venderbight. Don’t worry about stuff attacking you. Just use full power all the way. Back to London. Sell the training book and you should have 200 echoes. Buy the reproach. Sell all your fuel. Head out to zee. Die.
Pick the iron legacy and keep the weapon. Start your new character with the veteran background. You now do a minimum of 20 damage. Bats and Megalops are one-shot, and shouldn’t be able to touch you.
Sell your book. Buy as much mushroom wine as you can afford. Don’t fill up your crew. Run the colonist to venderbight again. Back to London, Load up 20 fuel and 10 supplies. Carouse in the docks, and try to find a sweetheart. Grab the admiralty commission. Pick a direction (ideally the rough direction the admiral wants you to go) and zet zail (sorry). Just go. Use "F" (full power) if anything scary comes close. But, as soon as you see something scary, turn off your lights. The idea of terror is much scarier than the actual mechanics. Plus, returning to London, it’s easy to manage down. Use the Zeebat to ping nearby islands. Visit them all. Grab as many port reports as you can. Don’t be afraid to practice fighting with pirates. Anything under 100 haelth shouldn’t be a problem. Turn off your lights as you approach. Stop until it’s circled to face away from you. Lights on, and let 'em have it.
Check all the shops. Buy fuel if it’s 20 or less. Buy all the officers. Click strange things and take insane risks. I find I get a lot of supplies on my first voyage - don’t be afraid to sell them if the price is right. The goal of this first voyage is to get 10+ port reports, uncover your first admiralty commission (150 echoes) and find the salt lions. Keep at least one secret, so you can unlock the university (wo)man.
If you’re very lucky, you’ll return from this first trip and find you have hundreds (perhaps thousands) of echos, plus all the port reports will give you lots of fuel. If you’ve been killing the odd pirate, you might have some other bits and pieces to trade/sell. As long as you have 200 echoes, you can now run the Salt Lions for 300 echo profit a time. Do a nice big loop and grab some port reports on the way, and do work for the blind bruiser too. Money will start to pour in.
But yeah, essentially, don’t be afraid of the beasts and pirates. It’s rare they’ll kill you outright. Charge towards them, and turn at the last minute.
To check if it is a laptop/framerate issue, grab fraps (http://www.fraps.com/ - it’s free) and check your framerate. If it’s lower than 30, that’s going to be an issue.
Anyway, here’s the video. You’ll note I putter about on 30 hull for a whole voyage. If you manage your lights properly, it’s really hard to get attacked.
