Uh hello! It seems that I found out about Fonline at worst possible moment. I'm new player and I don't know how much will my opinion matter but I'll leave a few lines here anyway 
I've read some tutorials on how to begin but none of them dealt with level of frustration this game can cause to a new player.
Cooldowns, slowass travel system and fool loot don't go hand in hand really well IMO. I can afford precious few hours a day to play the game but when I have to spend that time dieing, starting from zero, traveling, dieing again in endless loop I think to myself WTF am I doing. The only thing that keeps me around is love for fallout, but then I log in and see a big sign "Masochistic Paradise" written all over.
Here's something that doesn't need extensive Fonline experience, just a touch of common sense. First thing devs should ask themselves is: "What part of waiting and trillion of cooldowns make the game fun?" and start developing from there. No hints required, I hope.
Peace
you found fonline at a time when new players have it easier than ever. a hardcore full loot game is not for everyone, and that is why there are no full loot mmorpgs with commercial success besides eve.
its a very hard game and losing everything you own frequently is how you learn to hold onto your shit in the end. you should ideally be trading your belongings for NPC kills so that you can slowly level up.. but chances are, you're not, you're getting wrecked by pk's and dumb encounters.
as a new player you can go kill a centaur for 1000 XP by level 6. use a laser pistol and aim for the eyes, hope you get an instakill. this wipe i killed centaurs and floaters with bullets from level 4+ in the boneyard, and made 21 in record time. (2.5 days)
some people can level faster but they also dedicate 8 hours a day into playing.
your biggest problem, right now, i can assure you, is that you're in a bad area for new players. the areas with lots of players should be avoided until you can defend yourself and your belongings. there are literally thousands of encounters across the whole map. they are seperated by the squares.
get yourself 10 hides. make sure to craft BB ammo for vendor trading loot. then, find a good square where you don't think players are going to be... and kill. kill, kill, kill. when you get bored, take some mediocre gear to NCR and chat it up for a bit before you get robbed, bombed, or both at the same time. when you get bored of THAT, level up some more, or take your gear and start looking for other new players.
show them just how hard fallout can be.
if you don't have a PK mindset, then this game doesn't have much for you, yet. many non-PK-oriented players do thrive and survive in the harsh wasteland, however, they came to terms with the loss of items a long time ago.
