I need suggestions

So I've been playing the game for a few days now, made sure to switch to the Evrima after playing Legacy for two days. I liked Legacy, and didn't find it terribly difficult, which was nice. Even found a good group of people to tag along with. Players seemed a bit nicer and cooperative as well.

On Evrima, I have found a different experience. I found a few good people on unofficial servers, but I wanted to play on official and play the dino I wanted in the way they intended. I start off as a Carnivore, I make my way to a sanctuary after surviving through being spawned in the swamps. (Deino > baby Rex). I get to sanctuary, start looking for something to munch on, get jumped by another, smaller carnivore. My night vision goes away? Like it was working and I could see somewhat, but then mostly black? This wasn't the first time as a Carnivore that I got there and got killed by.. you guessed it, another carnivore.

So I tried herbivore and omnivore. I see about smaller ones, less threatening, much faster. I get to the sanctuary, I eat the mushrooms, I forage for gastroliths. Not once, not twice, but three times get killed... BY ANOTHER HERBIVORE! Like, wtf. It makes a new player frustrated and not want to play.

So, TL:DR, I've been struggling, want to play the game the way it's intended, but am frustrated by a-hole players. Does anyone have any tips, tricks, or suggestions, class, server, or otherwise, to help a new player not regret getting the game after being excited to play it from watching content creators like Sky Father?