it comes from having a game that has a very steep learning curve. We all still remember the horrors of just beginning. Its a good idea though to check out the wiki, there is a constant link here above the threads in the sub-forum
the quick start guide may be helpful, and just type anything you see and dont recognise there
some pointers: there is sand (yellow, red, etc) and sandy clay, sandy loam. Sand is actually useful as it lets you set up a glass industry. It may not be the biggest profit you'll ever turn out, but it'll provide trading stuff in the beginning. Secondly, there are some "weapons" to be made from glass. those weapons are only used in traps, but can be quite deadly to any early invaders
the most important thing here is that there is an unlimited amount of sand on each sand tile, so if your glassmaking skill sucks in the beginning, you wont have wasted valuable limited resources, while you may want each iron item made count. Some suggest training your weaponsmiths by making weapons of baser metals first, same for armor. You can actually melt them down again later, but its advisable only to do this if you have plenty of wood to make charcoal
If you also have clay, which can be used as building material, you basically have unlimited "stone" and, well, sand
If i could fill in a wish list, i'd ask for magnetite (huge groupings of iron ore), some flux stone, possibly marble just for kicks, i like marble, clay and sand. A second ore like tetrahedrite (copper+silver 20% chance) or galena (lead+silver 50% chance), maybe even something more useful (though tetrahedrite is pretty useful)
but yeah, i like sand, especially early on. 2 traps with 10 serrated green glass discs will cut down any snatcher trying to sneak in and do enough damage to an ambush to send em away running. to reduce the system jamming because a body is in/on it, you may want to make 4x5 instead of 2x10. You can always take them apart later on, reclaim the materials, and build something better. Note that traps require mechanics skill and a mechanism. The better the mechanism the better their attack