A friend of mine tried playing Empyrion recently for the first time and he told me he keeps loosing in survival. At first I couldn't understand what's going on until I tried starting a new game myself and going through the tutorials. Around the time you start the third tutorial your base gets attacked by two drones, one of which is armed with a rocket. If you followed the tutorial, you probably didn't think to construct an assault rifle, which means those drones ridiculously outrange all your weapons. While you can lure the minigun drone to you by hiding behind cover, that does not work with the rocket drone. If you are required now to rush the SV/BA assembler to get an assault rifle to deal with the new base attack mechanics, I'd expect the game to tell you so.
That's the thing. He did have a shotgun, but the drones keep you at range. They are faster than you without armor, and they just fly up if you try to close the distance. You need an assault rifle or sniper rifle to deal with them, yet the first attack happens so early, a new player is unlikely to have either. Even I was quite surprised when I tried to recreate the scenario.
Well one thing to think about is nothing is stopping you from holding off going to the next step. You can stop level up some get more prepared to venture further out. If all else turn your base to public so it doesn't get attacked. Help files are not really in the game much yet. So most advice is coming from the forum.
