the way it works for new players is fine they can make armor and weapons and work for it being a noob is the funnest part honestly
lol
decent items are there though its rare but you can find silver mail of berwean in the HH its a silver plate mail but it doesnt slow you down that much..
and its not a turn off having to make you items or find them its better then waiting with an inventory full of dias for someone to come on. but yeah more craftable items would be nice for new people like using cloth for making leather.
speed items wouldent do well as speed is ok when you have two rots and an ammy of speed and ogmas orc helm and your running around faster then anyone when you dont have it on it seems really slow. go on another server then come back on after 15 mins and you seem to go faster then you were before lol the speed isnt a big issue with people it never was for me or nubs i talk to.
The food is a bit of a problem if ya dont know but all you need is during the tutoral bit or w.e is something saying that the shell bomys aty the beach are a great source of food which they are when you kill one you have a chance of getting (food+100 food) and also saying about farming potatoes to make steak making the 1 food into 3 steaks.