[andrewas]

In order to get a more enjoyable experience, save your new MP game and then copy it to your single-player save folder. this will eliminate the neccesity to go through TCP or IPX with each command, improving response speed by about a second on slower machines.

You will unfortunatly get no interactions with your custon NPCs - they have no personality, no pre-set dialogues. the technology to create that stuff on the fly is not available. yet. (i have seen a student attempt at it, and it should be possible to program an acceptable version into a game. the problem is, it takes a lot of time to get it right, and even minor bugs can cause embarrassing errors).

The advantage is that you are no longer limited by what NPCs are available in the game - you can create your own weird and wonderful bunch. (go for 6 sorcerors and win the "cheesiest ever" award). Plus you dont have to put up with irritating voices. except you do, because the voices that are included in the game are not the best ever, IMHO. to get better ones go here .... uh help me out guys.

And if you ever dump a custom NPC he/she dissappears from the game - so you might want to limit yourself to five if you want to get NPC-specific subquests.