So this game has come a long way in the last few years. I haven't played it since February of 2016, so I started fresh instead of importing my squad of super soldiers. The things I've noticed so far:
The map area has tripled since I last played with them working on the other quarter of the map. It feels much more alive - way more places to explore and there seems to even be faction diplomacy now and factions interacting with your base.
You can lose limbs now, and replace them with robotic limbs. I haven't lost any limbs yet, but the higher end ones are actually way better than your real limbs - more health and better stats. But they are very expensive, and you have to carry expensive repair kits to repair them. The cheapo replacement limbs let you function, but aren't very good.
The stealth and theft system has been fleshed out a lot. You can now KO people from stealth and rob them. Kidnap people. Rob shops. Etc. For instance, I've been playing as a very successful thief this run. I just went into a weapon shop, KOd the guard near the door, KOd the one near the safe, and looted the place. Then another one woke up from upstairs while I was unlocking the safe, but I knocked him out as he walked down the steps. I left with two small backpacks and inventories completely full of expensive weapons and blueprints and ran to a waystation to unload the stolen merchandise (meanwhile the rest of my little squad was chilling at my in-town base the next city over crafting stuff).
You can do martial arts now. I trained it up a little and am able to defend myself from even when going weaponless (extra slot for stolen loot!). While I was training (using a few kidnapped bandits locked in a house with me) I was literally kicking and punching their limbs off. Eventually the four bandits I was training on were crippled and refused to get up anymore after I kicked one of their legs off. One especially hardcore bandit fought until both his arms were gone, then proceeded to try and headbutt me until I kicked his leg off. Then he just kind of flopped around on the ground, still hostile to me and triggering counterattack but not actually making any attacks.
Slavery is fleshed out now. You can buy slaves (which frees them, but they usually join you unless you're the one who put them there). You can sell slaves - squad members or kidnapped people. You can be enslaved (roaming slavers will jump you if they outnumber you) and either work as an obedient slave, or try to escape. You can free other slaves and have them join you. My latest recruit was a slave I freed from a stone mining camp. Fun fact: The slavers will still buy a slave missing two arms and a leg. I'm not sure what they plan to do with him, but I'd recruit and replace his limbs if it would let me (he's got 60 toughness from taking such a beating, as well as 50 dodge and 30 martial arts).
You can get and manage pet animals now. Pack bulls, pack garru's, bonedogs. The pack animals can carry a lot of weight. The dogs are slightly annoying if you're using powerful cutting weapons, as you'll inevitably whack off limbs and the dogs will grab the limb and run around playing with it and eating it instead of fighting.
Overall it seems like a very fun sandbox now. Anyone else come back to it after a few years?