Adam, I think that's a pretty good build. I have one quite similar to it. Here are some general tips based on my personal experience (I'm sure many will disagree), they might not be new if you played a BG guy before.
Weapons
Flamethrower.
-It takes no profession to craft. This is going to be your first weapon.
-Keep an eye out for green fruit plants. You need them to make fuel.
-Hard to use in RT if you have a high ping, because melee creatures might just teleport right behind you when you try to run in circles.
-Kills pretty much any mutant (except for floaters, centaurs, deathclaws, desert stalkers) in one shot.
-Try to kite mobs so you can shoot many enemies in one shot.
-Somewhat useless against NPCs because of its high action point cost and short range. I could've tried useing the upgraded flamer and fuel, but by that time I had miniguns
Rocket Launcher
-It's best quality is it's knockback. I've escaped quite a few player-killers by knocking them on their asses and running around a corner. It's also good when you're fighting in a group. You can knock enemies to the groudn while your friends gun them down or cripple them with ease.
-Easy to craft. As a low-level I used it to kill groups of mutants who were fighting each other (like molerats vs. mantis) and I leveled up pretty fast.
-It's a bit wasteful to use it exclusively. I usually fired it once to knock down my enemies, and then switched to my minigun.
Minigun
-It's easier to find/buy miniguns and upgrade them to avenger than to craft miniguns. Miniguns with a high deterioration % are generally inexpensive and it won't carry over when you upgrade them to avengers, just make sure they haven't been fixed before too often because that will carry over.
-Ammo is easy to produce.
-Probably the best craftable weapon in the game in terms of raw damage. Once you have an avenger and some good armor, you know you've really "made it".
M60 and Light Support Weapon
-Use them if you loot them, but the minigun is better and its ammo doesn't need high-quality minerals.
Where to play
-I started out near NCR like I always do, so I can talk with other players and because I needed to be close to a public mine if I wanted enough rocks to make lots and lots of explosive rockets. Also, I needed 20 AP rockets to get in the Brotherhood of Steel, and the best way to get them was to trade with players.
-However I eventually got bored and moved up North where there were more dangerous towns to lurk in and more varied random encounters. There were also more geckos there, so I could more easily make tier 1 armor.
Character
SPECIAL
-Start with 7 strength. Some people choose to start with 4 and then get weapon handling at level 12, but that's no fun.
-6 perception is just fine since you don't have a long range and since weapons like the flamer minigun are accurate. 6 is required for Bonus Rate of Fire.
-I gave myself 8 endurance, which worked out well since I took a lot of damage: While I waited for my AP to recharge mutants would usually have the time to run up to me and attack me. Also, enemy NPCs can still deal a lot of damage when they fire bursts or get critical hits. I serisouly recommend getting more than 4/5 EN.
-8 agility (including small frame). It wasn't quite enough to be able to fire twice in one round (but I played in RT anyway), but boosting my AG to 10 would've meant taking 2 points from endurance, which I just wasn't willing to do.
-5 luck. I wasn't into crits, and I didn't take Toughness
SKILLS
-100 science and 120 repair is what you need to craft all 3 tiers of BG, but you won't be very good at repairing items or disassembling them. Oh well.
-Do not bring outdoorsman above 95%. Beyond 95% it will not increase your chance to be able to choose whether or not you want to enter an encounter.
-Personally, I didn't touch outdoorsman and I left BG at aroun 160, and I put those points in doctor (in case I had a cripple arm) and first aid. I think it was a bad choice because I often got killed in random encounters as a lowbie, and I would've leveld up faster.
PERKS
-Stonewall, Awareness (I don't feel safe without it, but many players do just fine without), cautious nature (since I didn't have a lot of outdoorsman), lifegiver x2, action boy x2
