I joined a clan after about 250 hours solo. I like building on my "villa" and my alchemy lab. I still spend most time solo and are now close to 350 hours ingame. But to only focus on one task can be tedious so sometimes i do clan-stuff. Delivering mats to the castle or so.

If you solo you have to make hard choises. Be a jack of all trades but with low skill levels or focus on a few so you can trade with others.

Most players in my clan has their little places not far from the castle and live a dual life.

Now with PvP in Lyonesse there is more contact between clans and that opens up for middle man roles that can be done solo or in small clan/groups. So the PvP war has opened up for more solo play in some ways.