Soubar and its suroundings

[RaiderOne]

The area of soubar has many different and interesting looking npcs but no dialogue or associated features.

The area is also a potential starting location from the nexus for level 1 characters.

When i first joined the server I chose to start at soubar (because i didn't know what i was doing), got lost in the well, found some wererats, died and respawned at the farmlands (only option). This was very confusing! The level 1 area under the well is bad for new characters because its very dark and has enemies in it that are hard to deal with. The bats move quickly and are hard to see and click on, the oozes can can be pretty tough for many characters.

The next areas each provide a problem that is detrimental to new characters. The wererat den requires silver weapons (which you can buy) but is a massive jump in CR over the well. There is no area to go in between this so other than grinding the well its not a good followup. The next area is the bridge, which if you wander slightly too far is CR4, and the bear cave at CR3.

Adjacent to soubar are other areas of CR 6, 8, etc all of which a new character could wander into and die very quickly. The field to the south of soubar is a little empty but otherwise a nice area. The wild dogs could do with their attack bonus lowering a little and the number of mobs increasing. The Thunder's Ride area is a mixed bag. Some of the mobs are very strong and others seem much weaker. My fighter can mince all the hobgoblins but the bats are downright evil.

It would be easier if the further you went from BG the higher the CR became. As it is now you have to run through high CR areas to reach low ones. I think thunders ride could possibly drop a CR to two due to its proximity to the main starting location. But the adjacent area of the tradeway south of soubar could go up (swap the CR on these areas?).

The lower CR areas of soubar could be redone as CR 7-10s, which could encourage characters that are usually always near the FAI to venture north more. As a starting location it feels very lacking and the resources spent here could be put to better use at a higher CR range.

Aesthetically there is nothing wrong with these areas, many of them are quite good. I especially liked the wererat temple ruins, and thunders ride looks amazing during the day time (damn bats!).

I'm posting this as feedback but as always thoughts and comments are appreciated.