Well, I hope this thread isn't perceived as too self-serving.
But I've been liking the feedback from everyone!
I started up World of Xeen and have now pretty much finished the Clouds of Xeen part, minus a few difficult areas (Dragon Caves/Volcano) What fun! DTE, you were right!
Not sure if I have found everything though, but I beat Xeen. It's a hell of lot of territory to explore and your party members age in the meantime. This is not a "hiking simulator"! There is pressure to finish ASAP.
Now to continue with the Darkside. The start was a bit a mysterious and sketchy. I had no idea how to do it. I found out that it does this by modifying the last save I had made before the battle with Xeen (yikes!); no replay of that one for me!
It modified the save by putting my party in the starting town in Clouds with all their XP and items, but with the award (and XP, I assume) of beating Xeen. Nothing in the instructions about that!
After a little foraying in Darkside Castleview it became apparent that I was way overpowered. So… what else to do but start my Xmas present to myself - Fallout 3 GotY.
Totally sucked into it now… Really liking it. Have all the DLC turned off for now. Have added the Ironsights and Darnified UI mod, per JDRs suggestions.
But… I keep getting my ass kicked by random spawns of raiders and Talon Co. bounty hunters. I want to explore thoroughly, but am tempted to run from quest location to quest location. Also, spending too much time on the back and forth between Megaton and loot locations because of carrying limitations and sorting through all the junk using that terrible UI for barter and containers (no sort filter options - everything alphabetically). I seem to remember Oblivion not being so bad. Certainly Morrowind was much easier to deal with….
Some junk seems potentially useful for crafting, so I am saving anything somewhat uncommon. Requires sort time. Should I just sell the junk and food items instead? I am running low on ammo and stimpacks because of the repeated spawns of raiders and talons; there were 4 in the last 2 raids each, and they had great guns (but no leftover ammo)…
I am avoiding reading walkthroughs for now, just playing on instincts. Haven't tried to create an optimal build; was getting tired of being overpowered. I'm level 5 now and have done most (I think) of the quests in Megaton, and haven't got much further than the stuff in Grayditch and the Sooper Dooper Market! Seems like just a scratch on the surface…
The guy is not min-maxed. Slightly higher stats in perception, agility, and slightly lower in strength, endurance and luck. I've put most points into small guns, sneak, lockpick, speech, repair, medicine, science, in about that priority…