For people who start in the grassy plains, how do you handle the distance and resource problem?
As you all know, the Plains are the first starting option the game recommends for first-time players, plenty of space, not much hostile wildlife, forgiving geography.... but the tradeoff is the sheer amount of *distance* you have to cover to even make it to stage 2, not to mention the poor mining nodes and the geological obsticles between the plains and the other biomes, can make the plains feel a little constricting.
So, assuming you don't just pack up and leave for another corner of the map, how do you guys handle the plains?