Well, this is frustrating. I decided to reinstall the entire game yet *again*, thinking the no-cd patch might be causing problems, so I reinstalled WITHOUT using the no-cd patch, and then applied all the patches (Fix Pack, Tweak Pack, Unfinished Business). It still does the same thing, gives me less experience points than shown on screen. To check if the problem lies with any of the patches (Fix Pack/Tweak Pack/
UB), I did another clean reinstall and, this time, I ONLY updated my 4-cd game to v1.1. I then immediately ran the game and started ANOTHER new game...sigh...and it's still giving less experience points than shown on screen (and this is the original, v1.1 version only, without any other patches).
This tells me that there's nothing wrong with any of the patches here (Fix Pack/Tweak Pack/
UB), but something's definitely screwed up in the original files. That's too bad, the game is incredibly well written (from what I've seen, anyway), and lots of fun. Come to think of it, I do recall the game being an uber grind-fest back when I played it, and I always felt it took too long to level up. That's also part of the reason I stopped playing it back then. To be honest, though, it never occured to me to check the experience gain until today. Yeah, it's a bit of a downer, but I guess I'll just have to suck it up and tough it out...the game is definitely worth playing.
Thanks, and sorry about the long posts