Heh, reading that is like having a flashback to our time in Hazordhu II. I enjoy these open world community games, but the story always seems to shake out the same way. You have to put in crazy man hours to defend your stuff or to stay organized, and it eventually burns you out.
Yes, I suppose that's true. Except on a much larger scale here. I've come to realize that a game like this is only fun for me if I have goals, and if it's possible to reach them. And I've also realized that so far, I haven't really had any goals beyond getting established and getting all the main skills. Now that I've gotten the basics sorted out and I can fish for my food as needed, I'm thinking the most effective and enjoyable thing for me to do would be to become a nomad. I'm not much interested in living in a big community where everyone else's needs must be considered, but living on my own means I'll be robbed blind every time I log out. The only way to avoid this is to leave nothing behind when I log out. I'd love to get some ranger gear, but I'll never accomplish that on my own, so I can wander around collecting scavenged items (and building random stuff like mazes for LP, who cares if it lasts, it's fun for me and maybe at least one or two other people will find them and get some enjoyment out of them) and trade them to settlements (particularly Bay12 ones if I can find them, since I know they're fair and reasonably friendly) for useful equipment. My short-term goals can be to build a few mazes (which I can design during those boring periods while I'm teaching and the students are reading quietly and I have to look busy) and my long-term goal for now can be a full set of ranger gear.
Naturally there will be the problem of wild animals randomly killing me, but I think I've figured out how to escape them as long as I'm not completely surprised by something, and if I do die it's not like I'll lose all that much.
Now we'll see how long it takes for me to get frustrated about something else.