It seems to be random, but I switch servers to join a friend, and when i join the new server, my character starts by the ocean with nothing but a flashlight. And when I join the server i was previously on, i spawn with the flashlight by the ocean again. I lose all of my items and progress. It seems to happen randomly, so I have no idea how to reproduce this problem. I've seen many other people report this and I feel it is a HUGE flaw in the game.