In-Game Tutorial/Quests For New Players

+1

Would 'Quest Levels' mean that there is only one path to reach a given level? Or is this similar to a badge or medal that you might get for completing a quest (or group of quests) and would be displayed on your profile or grant you extra abilities?

I would be against locking the frontier to new players. Instead, it's better to reset the spawn and lock certain structures/blocks to enable the building of a proper transportation system so players can easily find a place to build or explore. Most players who join a server want to start exploring, building, and mining right away, and if there's no way to do that, they will likely just want to play another server.

I think items should be given out sparingly, and logically to help engage the player rather than just being loot. For example, chopping logs could give you a stack of saplings or an axe, and mining 10 diamond ores could give you a pickaxe or a water bucket. The best items are ones that encourage the player to play for longer or engage with the community or build something or explore and settle themselves somewhere. If you just give every player extra diamonds for mining diamond ores, that really just makes diamonds easier to obtain and less valuable.

I'm not sure - I think it needs to be as simple as possible while being meaningful, being to the point.
Probably not just only one path. There are different types of new members, I don't think that "one size fits all" is the best approach.

This "quest level" could have few values, we already have some of that
- Minecraft achievments
- TEXP
- Forum points
Additionally to that perhaps
- survival experience
- town experience
anything else?

Each quest would bring some survival experience and/or town experience points.

It could also have that part - like it is now with forum achievements.

Exactly. Engage, motivate to do the next step, act like tutorial, show what EMC is about, what is of value, engage with the community.
Some quests should require a partner.