You're welcome :) have fun!

This is all really great advice. Thanks for the tips! Really excited to start digging into this thing.

This is my last comment; I'm just posting this so you know I'm done. Steam only allows 1000 characters per comment apparently, which is a drag D:

Really, a lot of the skills in the game are really useful, in sometimes surprising ways. There are a couple skills I didn't really end up using much at all, but if you aren't satisfied with a certain skill you've taught to one of your characters, it's not that much of a loss if you just start teaching them another skill, since any character can start training in any skill at any time as long as they have enough skill points. You can also have up to three NPCs join your party at any given time, who have skills of their own which can potentially fill out holes in your main party's framework.

My last party member was a sniper, who I basically based on the Cold-Eye pre-made character, though with one or two changes. Sniper rifles are really nice, though if you're not careful you'll run out of ammo for them quickly, so make sure to eventually give any sniper rifle-wielding characters a point or two in a melee skill. Also, his Surgeon skill (which he had 2 points in instead of 1) really came in handy. In fact, having three Surgeons in general is really nice; it makes combat much easier to deal with, when you don't have to worry about getting screwed over because your one surgeon happened to lose all their health and start bleeding out.

Another ranger I made have a typical law-enforcement type of background; he had 2 points in Shotguns, 2 points in Hard Ass, 1 point in Field Medic (as a back-up), and 1 point in Surgeon. Shotguns in my experience are really not that useful in most combat situations. Eventually I taught my Shotgun guy Energy Weapons, and I found those two weapon skills really complement each other's weaknesses and strengths quite well.