I think the sniper rifle range vs assault rifle range is a little strange. I'd give the snipers a little more range, they overlap too much with AR's (at least in the beginning.. I'm not that far in the game).

Also, I don't have heavy weapons or energy weapons guys, am I screwed later in the game, should I use some points on them now (level 13ish now)?

How could they not understand sniper rifles = longer range -_- Anyone know if the devs plan on fixing this oversight?

I had the same problem when I arrived in California... and I even missed the Gamma Ray Blaster! Luckily, I had around 10k scraps, so I spent them all in new weapons and armor as soon as I could! The fights became definitely easier after that. Easier, not easy though! :)
Heavy modding is the way. A character with 10 in Weaponsmitting is invaluable, there!

I left Arizona around lv 20, and until then I had no need for them (they can help after the Canyon of Titan, though).
You'll definitely need some Energy weapons in LA: I learned that the hard way.

Don't think you really need heavy machine guns. ARs outclass them in every way. Energy weapons would be good for the later fights since mobs there are pretty heavily armoured. Get Pizepi Loren in Darwin Village, she has like 7 energy weapons skills at the get go. Couple her with the Gamma Ray Blaster, she turns into a crazy killing machine.
I worry now since my party members are all pretty low initiative and moderate AP. Max initiative is only about 12 and since characters can get killed in one turn on the SJ playthrough, it's really not good news at all when the enemy moves first before you. Especially when sometimes they seem to have twice the AP that we have.

If you like Assault Rifles I suggest you play through the game now, pretty sure they'll might be getting the nerf stick next patch.

I won't apply the patch for my SJ playthrough. :D The beauty of manual patching :)

I built a team with relatively high AP and initaitive, but that came at the expense of INT and CHA points. All my rangers have 4 int, except the genius of the group (who has 10); they are great in combat, but their skills are suffering, now. Mostly, because I have no one to convert to energy weapons -I missed Pizepi, even if I have been to darwin- and all the ability checks requirements are really high!
Besides, since it is my first playthrough, I didn't know the companions: many of them have abilities I had already assigend to one of my rangers... were i to know that, I would have developed them accordingly!

MMmm ok, thanks for the info. Though I did not see this Pizepi character @Darwin at all. Oh well, I'll put some points in energy weapons for some of the characters.

You need at least 21+ Charisma (total party score) to get her. She's the second hardest character in the game to recruit I believe.

ARs don't seem very powerful. But I've only done:

Radio Tower
Highpool
Ag Center
Infected Village
Infected Farm

Everyone is using the starter AR because the next best AR at vendors doesn't seem to be worth the investment. Most enemies thus far require many shots to bring down. Even if later ARs have burst mode, I'd suspect that the scarcity of ammo would severely restrict their usefulness unless ammo becomes much more common.

Are they really overpowered as the game goes on?

My main character has 6 int and only 8 AP and probably about 11-12 initiative, she's a sniper. Better to pump attributes I guess for harder difficulties. You can always get skill points from grinding levels, skillbooks and shrines. You can't get attributes that easily, you can't really grind to get attributes too.
Go buy yourself an M16 and see if your opinion changes. And they don't jam as much as revolvers which is kinda ridiculous. Serving my compulsory national military service 13 years back, even the M16 jammed quite a number of times, halfway firing it in the range or during some jungle exercise.

Haven't seen one for sale yet. But I just entered the Citadel, so perhaps someone there has some decent gear for sale.

Yes, because once you add mods like Scope/Long Barrel and max out the skill you get hit chances well over 100%, which means you can "adsorb" the 40% penalty for headshots PLUS firing Burst.

So, for example, you can Crouch + Ambush + Headshot + Burst, any enemy that goes into your range gets headshotted three times in one turn.

Ah, okay. I'd forgotten about headshots because the penalty is too high to use them at this point. I'm guessing ammo becomes more common, too?

It depends. I never bought a 5.56 round, but when later I had access to powerful gear like the AK-97 and enemies started to get tough I needed to buy a few 7,62 ammo, definitley less common than the former. Anyway, the loot is also more "juicy", so I don't have to worry much about that kind of expense.