My roundup of how things went down for me.
Played the whole session, didn't experience any connection issues and I did back out of the game a few times trying to get Spotify to work (it didn't want to) but had no problems reconnecting.
Started in a relatively busy town. Having been told to go to the ministry of work immediately I started looking for it, and looking for it...and looking for it. Thought I was going crazy, I assumed you had to do it as some sort of initiation but it wasn't there. The town didn't have one (presumably destroyed). So i built one, puzzle had me puzzled for a good while.
Went to ministry of work, found it to be pointless as I had done very little work so I went out mining.
Chose a mining spot, started chipping away. Was assaulted by a bee, killed it eventually with my pickaxe, then another came along. Pickaxe broke and I was killed.
Went back to the town to find out how I get a new one, no clues as to how I actually do this. Finally work out I need a union shop but can't build one because of lack of wood. Bumble about for a while waiting for the wood store to build, it keeps getting depleted plus I can't hog the workbench.
Still can't build my house either even though the resident count had gone up by 8, I had been trying intermittently with no luck.
Finally decide to visit another town, so I visit one where a friend is. Buy a pickaxe, get the black market catalogue and try to go back to my original town. I can't. Couldnt see any options for it.
So I choose a new town to make my home, one with relatively low resident count. Apon entering I try to build my house but the resident number was full, make the town hall bigger they say. No town hall in sight...
So I give up with that and go mining/farming. The current island available has an abundance of trees and food. I get a chainsaw and start chopping for what seems like forever. Gather a shit load, go back to the town with 10 mins left of the session. Still can't build a home and can't build a town hall because the town needed 10 residents. Session ended with me confused and still a nomad. Enjoyed it though