davidbitterbaum: I'm playing a tech character as I love tech-stuff in real-life too and adore steampunk. I read that gunsmith is useless which means I blew 3 character points, but oh well, live and learn. I find as a tech character things can be a bit harder, as I blow a lot of money on bullets for my guns as I use firearms as my weapons, and I have to pretty much heal myself with herb skills as Virgil's heal-magic stopped working awhile ago when my tech-leanings got way too strong for magic to work on me well. Hearing about this medical robo-spider piques my interest and if anyone would care to share details about how to find and make one I would appreciate it. Of course, I'd have to spend points or money to gain the skills to make it...so goes life.
You might consider getting a different NPC than Virgil. He does have a story to him, which can be interesting to pursue, but as a tech character his healing will stop working for you so it's better to collect a tech NPC follower. You can find one who makes tech healing salves which could be useful.
Also gunsmithing isn't useless, just not as useful as it might appear at first. You can find most of the guns that you build with gunsmithing, but you can often build them sooner than you could find them (unless you really know where to look, and don't mind stealing them from people). Also, gunsmithing is useful for making the combo guns that you'll find schematics for. You can make those without gunsmithing skill by buying lots of tech manuals, but if you already have the skill it's cheaper.