So, I made progress with Mae (thanks for the help everybody) but I started my playthrough by fighting the gangs around and apparently have beaten all that I can beat (I probably have a sh*t character build since I don't know what I'm doing, first to admit)
Nevermind how much not combat oriented it´s your build, you should not have big trouble cleaning most of the starting map with the very basic combat team. The most basic combat team (Yourself, Loren, Peasant, Bud and Ansel or Rebeca ) it´s strong enough to deal easily with all the rogues in the map with the exception of the two space marines in Marston Avenue and the Space Marines in Kasey Park and the forts in MAnston and Stoke hill.
Get rifles for every one. Don´t worry if you have not skill enough to use them, a rifle with the recoil penalty it´s still better that all the other weapons in the starting stages. Loren, Peasant and Rifle Savant (you can disarm him and give the rifle to other character) start with one, so you only need 2 more. IIRR you can get one making Nika´s quest, and beating the freebooter in Waterly eyes usually yields another one. By the end of day 1 you can get your team equipped with rifles. Second priority should be equip yourself and Rebeca with some decent armor. The bare minimum, if you are short of cash it´s heavy leather, better if you can get combat armor.
With this team you can start the cleaning process. Don´t deal with the forts on Manston Avenue or Stoke hills, or the Space marines in Manston avenue or Cassey Park. They are though nuts to crack at start.
In as couple of days of cleaning process you should be able to clean the map except for this last four. This and the daily bounty from town hall should yield enough money in order to make basic improvements at home once per day, buy a couple of books and save enough money to hire Mr Doyle. We are talking about day 3-4.
Now your combat team should be Yourself, Rebecca, Mr Doyle, Peasant or Loren and Bud. You can consider improve some of your team armor, mainly for Bud. With this team dealing with the forts in Manston and Stoke hills should be an easy task. to deal with the space marines wait until you have a better combat team with some assault rifles at least
I've done some quests but they seem hard to find. I'm constantly starved for cash for ammo and medical supplies (since I get my butt kicked a lot) which means my house isn't getting upgraded much, and absolutely no money for books/education. The 4 girls I have are all too willful/unruly to work (probably) so any suggestions to make some money?
I got a bounty, but not sure if I'm not searching in the right locations or my character is just sh*t with survival skills?
Put your slaves to work in the shops. It´s not a lot, but should cover her maintenance cost. And don´t waste time searching for the bounties. Go to Divine Juices in Waterly Eyes or to Furry´s in Readhaven, grease the wheels and ask for them. Making the bounties it´s important, they yield influence and easy (bounties level 1-3 are trivial, lvl 4 can be a bit tough at start) money. Avoid Lvl 5 bounties until you have some of your team with better weapons that rifles.
The game said there was a dock gang to fight or pay off, but there is almost never anyone to fight on the dock map when I'm there. Am I doing something wrong here too?
The punks in the dock respawn IIRR 3 or 4 days after you clean it.
