I read something in the manual about wisdom doing something but i cant remember if it levels you faster.

Wisdom effects the speed of statistic increases and like all the other stats it will play a part in other success or failure rolls, i think some of the heavy weapons use wisdom as part of the 'to hit' roll for example.

Success in any endeavor will count toward a level up so i guess if wisdom is a factor in a lot of those rolls then it will help in leveling faster.

Ok will have to remember that. Does luck do anything by the way? I read the manual and cant find anything on it.

Ive been reading under one of my mercs profile and it says that they know martial arts. Another one of my mercs has hand to hand. My question is is there a difference between the two or are they both the same. Somewhere i read that martial arts gives more knockdowns while hand to hand does more damage. Has anyone used these at all and is any of that true?

I've not played vanilla JA for ages, but if I remember right - H2H gives a big damage boost to melee attacks and MA gives a smaller damage boost but gives you a higher chance to score critical hits (damage increase and knocking them down, I cant remember if knockdowns are guaranteed). Having expert level obviously increases the bonuses further x2. :)