2. Search for a full set of leather armor if you start at a Hamlet or Hillock, and if you feel you've done enough of #3, set going to a bigger hub (Town, Fortress) as your first ingame goal; unless you start as an elf, then get some equipment ASAP in any non-elven site. As soon as you reach a town, search for adequate metal weapons and armor at the keep. Avoid copper as the plague, it's cumbersome as hell and you might not benefit that much from the sheer blunt force that adds to hammers and related weapons. When in generated dwarven fortresses, you might have to personally trade with a soldier, exchanging 'stolen' leather clothing for their metal weapons and armor.
As soon as I start a new adventurer, I trade with all the first people I meet. I always try to trade my socks, loincloth, and any other cloth for leather clothes, and trade in my copper dagger for a bronze or iron kitchen knife.
4. Reputation is now hard to earn, so try to find good companions and take care of them. That means waiting during an hour for them (press Z+w) after you cross a river, unless they're good swimmers; also try to keep them from being overwhelmed by enemies and outfit them with proper metal equipment. Boogeymen are now a royal pain in the ass, and possibly your only cause of death after all this will be thanks to them, so your companions' well being is crucial.
I'm not positive, but I think that companions from your hometown are less likely to get demoralized and run off or disappear, because you've known each other your entire life. If that's true, it means there's a benefit to starting in a town instead of a hamlet, because you have more potential companions with the "known your entire life" relationship. (Retiring in a different settlement changes it to your new hometown, which seems like a bug to me. So if you move from a hamlet to a town, retire, and unretire, you'll have "known entire life" for everyone in the town.)
You definitely don't have to wait an hour for them to catch up after you cross a river. I just swim or long-jump over the river, move out of sight, fast travel one tile away, stop fast travel and they've caught up to me. Sometimes they don't so I have to walk back to the river and try again.