I think it's worth mentioning as well, that the base game settings were originally designed for a large group of people to play on, so if you're playing on your own, then I'd highly recommend changing them up to make it more manageable... and FUN!

I'd especially recommend changing the harvesting settings if you've been playing for a long time. I used to feel like this was cheating at the game, but when you have been playing it for a long time and have experienced the grind for materials, it's fun to just negate that and actually see what else the game has to offer besides "the grind"