For the first time I took on the Phoenix guards in Nashkel. Didn't know which grave it was, so kept clicking ever so many times until a bloke popped up. Only got 100XP per guard, however, in a ridiculously tough fight due to those fireballs. Is that really right? Thought it was pretty odd.

I've been to the temple of Lathander (the one east of Beregost) after killing some wyverns (have 4-5 heads due to some random encounters too, nasty stuff), but the guy there won't give me a reward for it. Don't have Corran in the party, but have never used him before either and not had a problem. Any idea why I don't get the reward? I've cleared the wyvern cave and have plenty of heads.

I'm playing BGT and am a little concerned about the XP. We are a 6-person party and have almost 80,000 XP each. I've yet to enter Baldur's Gate itself, but have done all other areas south of the Bridge, but not Durlag's Tower. Just finished Cloakwood and the mine. Is this too much, and will it get a bit unbalanced at the end? I assume we'll go over the limit of 161,000 XP by the end of the game given it's sort of one game now. One indication of being overpowered may be that Edwin has got access to a few level 4 spells, but we haven't come across any in loot yet, so he can't cast any (will go to High Hedge as I think he should have some by now).

I skip Phoenix guards in Nashkel cos its not worth the effort. They are extremely hard to kill and give little exp.

Hmm. Are you sure that Lathander temple is the right place to get the reward? I dont remember getting the reward from there.

Yes, when I finished BG1 with BGT mod, each of my characters had around 250K exp. The game can be very easy at some areas but you will need them for Durlag's Tower, The new villigea's final fight and for Seravok fight itself. Seravok is especially hard to fight this time. Not as easy as like the original vanilla version. All my characters were around level 9 or 10 but still it was extremely hard to kill him.

The Phoenix guards are nothing but an 'easter egg', and purposely give very little XP to prevent farming.

The priest won't give you a reward until the quest has been initiated, and that means speaking to Coran. You don't have to have him in your party, but the quest must be started.

BGT (and TuTu) *will* make you overpowered, and not just because of XP. You will find higher level scrolls inside Baldur's Gate and TotSC areas.

I spoke to Coran and the quest was initiated, it's in my journal. I kicked out Coran right away (when that screen pops up I kicked him out, instead of temporarily kicking out Edwin for instance). I checked the journal and it said Temple of Lathander, but the guy there didn't have a dialogue for it.

Thankfully Kagain had 60% fire resistance so didn't get completely mauled by the fireballs, but Viconia died before I noticed how that fight worked and I could get the others far enough away. Interesting fight, but very little reward.

Have never played through the game in true vanilla, but do remember the Sarevok fight being very tough when I played it in Tutu. Have heard it was possible to get them forward one by one in vanilla, but that didn't happen no matter what I tried in Tutu. Having more XP will come in handy there, but it's a bit of a shame if much of the rest of the game is easier than it should have been.

I've not done any farming, like taking advantage of the golem cave (unless BGT has plugged that hole) or random encounters, although I did trip the trap in the mine to tangle with the Battle Horrors.

Perhaps my tactics is better than in previous playthroughs - you learn a bit by playing Icewind Dale - but some fights have been oddly easy. Davaeorn barely did a thing and died quickly, and I recall him giving us hell previously. The party by the Cloakwood mine entrance was easy as pie too, and I struggled badly with them previously.

Once in BG2 having a bit more XP won't matter too much, I hope. I've only done Durlag's Tower once before, so hopefully that will give us some challenges.

(edit-attached a screenshot)

I got the reward for Bassilus there btw, so that mission worked out.

Ok, these instructions are for BG1 vanilla, but I *think* they never changed the items/variables in BGT (don't have it installed to check) like they did in TuTu -- this would *not* work in TuTu. Keldath will not speak to you about the Wyvern unless you have item 'MISC52' in your inventory, and the quest variables are so:

SetGlobal("CoranReward","GLOBAL",1)
SetGlobal("CoranWyvern","GLOBAL",1)
SetGlobal("wyvernp","GLOBAL",0)

Check your saved game to ensure the right item is in your inventory, and set the above globals.

Do you know what might work for Tutu? Because it looks like it doesn't work in BGT either, unless I've done something wrong.

Added "Debut Mode=1" to baldur.ini, but get an error message when trying the lines provided.

Also managed to get ShadowKeeper working in Linux. Didn't see any of these lines under global variables, but there was a long integer for Coran (probably when I met him). I have the MISC52 item.

(I see there was a small s in one of the lines, I tried different variants, but kept getting error messages).

edit:
Actually, I was mistaken there and had tried the different varients in my first go, when I didn't have the CLUAConsole: part. Got it working now -- I thought. Checked in ShadowKeeper and the variables are now set, but I tried talking to Keldath, and he didn't offer any reward or unique conversation options. Still borked :(

In TuTu all of the game's items have been duplicated, with the new versions all being prefixed with an underscore, so the game would look for _MISC52. I believe the variables are the same, though. That's *Debug Mode*, not 'Debut'. I'm guessing a typo, but just to be sure... Try going out of the area and type:

CLUAConsole:GetGlobal("wyvernp","GLOBAL")

What do you get?

Edit: Thinking about it, BGT *may* have added a clause where Coran must be present. If that's so, you may be out of luck, without some save game manipulation in N.I.

Yes, that was just a typo :o

I set these variables while in Nashkel btw, right after reviving Viconia after the phoenix guard kertuffle. Tried the GetGlobal line both in the temple itself and in Beregost, and both times it said that the variable was set to 0.

If Coran is needed in the party in BGT, would it help to make a copy of him with some code? Can try I suppose...

As an aside, do you know what file governs the background noise in cities during daytime? Those dogs barking is doing my head in. Sometimes a certain sound just tortures me, and that is one of them. Would like to copy the nighttime sounds or take it out altogether.

That did it. Spawned Coran, kicked him out and talked to the Temple chap again, hoping some other variable would be set now. That didn't work. But when I talked to him with Coran in the party, he recognised the wyvern head and gave us 2000 gold for the effort.

We got no XP for completing the quest and gold isn't exactly lacking, so will it be a problem that the game would technically have two Corans now? If so I'll just continue without completing this quest. Or we can just kill Coran2 of course.

I've installed UB, so maybe that is what has changed the behaviour here? Or NPC Project?

Best not to make a copy of him. It would be cleaner to edit your saved game, and place Coran -- who's now in no-mans-land -- inside the temple. You could do this very easily with Infinity Engine Save Game Editor by Guillaume Masserey. Use the 'Non Members' and 'Location' tab, to place him in area AR9302 (BGT), and at X-420, Y-550. View doesn't matter.

Thanks a lot for the help with this issue.

I downloaded that program and some extra files, but possibly due to being on Linux, it doesn't seem to work quite right. Managed to load a save game, but no values fill out for the characters. Since we didn't get any XP for this quest, think I'll just let it slide, and regret that we now need Coran in the party to complete it properly (at least with BGT).

So far I don't see any particular upside to BGT over Tutu. Will be interesting to see how the transition goes, though, and who are transported over and in what state they are.

BGT doesn't suffer with the green water and other shiny objects that TuTu does, nor does it mess with items like TuTu does. Not to mention the BG2 transition, which I think you will like. Those transported, with all current BG1 levels, stats etc., are: Imoen, Jaheira, Minsc, Viconia, Edwin... and your character, of course. Not items, though.

TuTu's only advantage -- and for some it's a very big one -- is that it's self-contained, meaning BG2 isn't altered, and you can still play it vanilla.

The dogs barking are 'ambient' sounds, and now you've got Near Infinity up and running it's a simple task to set their volume in the area files. Just click on the area you want -- AR6700 for BGT Beregost -- and scroll down to 'Ambient 9', and check that it says 'Name: Dogs...'. Double click it and a new window will open. Just above the sounds (AMB_M26A.WAV etc.) is a volume entry. Set it to how you would like. When you click on another area or close the window, select to save the file. This will create an override, which you may delete at any time. Rinse and repeat for any other areas that bug you.

Oh, wait! CAVEAT: BGT *may* already have altered this area file, in which case it would already be an override. Delete it at your own risk/peril.