1.75, I have won the game 1 time, I have played the game half way through a second time, and I have tried to start several new games but I was bored to death by the utterly slow begining.
All of your questions depend on your playing style, some people prefer to use leadership and mechanics and some people prefer to carve through tons of enemys.
I have to say that scripting is very easy to learn. Start by reading some scripts and getting an idea how they work. Download some editors to use as a guide and Bobs your father's brother.
Seince you seam to be compiling a list of editors there is my item editor , It's of very poor quality but It gives you most useful items and as no one else has made one...