Speaking of good commanders and armor: on my last play through the game I was a male soldier Shepard, and I was not exactly a moral compass on Eden Prime. Ashley has armor with better stats than what you start with, so being the solider commander I was, I put that pink armor on myself and gave her the crap I had sitting in my inventory. I'm just going the pretend that's why the council ignored that particular Shepard. He was too pretty.

Sniper rifles get slightly better with sway. I don't remember any mods making it sway less, but you can get ones that reduce its recoil. In ME2 and 3 however, they're amazing.

I'm curious once you recruit your party on the Citadel, who you'll pick and whether you plan to stay with that crew or switch it up throughout the game. If you use the same person through most of the game you get an achievement which unlocks bonuses available the next time you play through the game. For that reason I always get the next crew member mission done first. After that, I fly through all the non-mission planets doing all the quests you find planet-side to level-up a ton and get lots of gear, except for the DLC asteroid and space station. I do those two after Virmire. Make sure you go to Earth's Moon as soon as you get the mission though. The reward is worth it.

Remember to talk to your crew after every planet for the conversation and to sell the extra stuff you don't need. If you do that you'll never run into the extra annoying problem of not having enough inventory space.