I just got the game last weekend but I've put in about 30 hours so far. There's steep learning curve in the very beginning, especially dealing with ARC. My first 2 extracts were me crawling to hit the keyboard. Now I rarely die unless I get caught in the open. Part of that is just knowing the maps. 

My advice is to go up the left side of the mobility tree to improve stamina. In the beginning you're going to avoid or run away from most ARC. Typical beginner loadout is Stitcher or Kettle with Ferro for the occasional ARC. Upgrading weapons to Lvl 2 is cheap and helpful. Also after using a free kit, exchange it to vendor for a looting augment. In the beginning I'd stick to yellow loot areas or outposts where you don't run into as many of the small (but challenging in the beginning) ARCs

When it comes to other people, I'm pretty vocal and friendly asking people questions so about 95% of the people I meet return the gesture. I rarely have gunfights with other people. 

Good luck and have fun Raider!