Well bros, we now have vehicles, a ton of crafting materials, drugs, chems and a small arsenal which is mainly just gathering dust in storage. The mid-term goals have thus been met!
Yuri and I have also beefed up some decent characters to levels where they aren't half-bad, and the cashflow is quite good. We could easily create the in-game faction now, but there is little point in going for town control at the moment since the competition is way ahead in numbers, equipment and experience. As such, the jewgold is better spent elsewhere, especially on high grade steel, chemical components and kevlar to keep the equipment flow going. Still, with a few more troopers, the Machete Rape Squad would definitely become a reality.
Oh, and we recently started trying out dungeons. While TB would be a lot better, even RT combat can be quite fun. I have been playing around with a knockdown-based melee character which is excellent for pinning down enemies, especially in tight places. Was thinking of making a melee crippler as well and maybe use the machetes, but you can no longer use them for 1 AP (with bonus hth attack perk) as you could previously, so aside from warm fuzzy congoid feelings, there wouldn't be much point in machete-raping.
The main thing you need to get by in the game is a good build, it's really easy to make a gimp character (I made plenty) and no matter how much you level a gimp, it is still going to suck. Once you do have a solid build, levelling is still important, since characters above 26 get Awareness, allowing them to see exact HPs and the equipment of other characters.
Are you guys still around, or willing to give it another go? And do you use Tranny Mansion anymore, or is the stuff there up for grabs?
(By the way, plenty of players are really good chaps, not everyone is an asshole Russian or tribal pker hunting newbs for the fun of it. Just started playing with a bunch of Czech bros, running caravans, dungeons and whatnot. A real blast!)