Languages
From The EQMac Wiki
While the vast majority of communication in-game occurs in the Common Tongue, the game contains different languages for players to learn.
Contents |
[edit] Overview
If others players are "speaking" in a language you do not understand, your client will render something along the lines of the following:
Soandso tells the group in an unknown tongue, 'wrhlasd jhlkds hfal zfl ajksd'
Thus, if for whatever reason two players are using a public channel to communicate, they can use a rare language to mask their communication from the general populace. Note, however, that if you intend to use languages in this fashion, know that for there is no way of knowing for certain who does and who does not understand your communication. In other words, if someone who happens to be an expert linguist is around, they will be able to decypher your "secret" communication.
The various language skills range from 0 to 100. You can speak in a language as long as you have at least 1 point in it. If your language skill is below 100 and you speak in that language, the game will deliberately alter some of the characters you type in order to make you appear clumsy at the language; the lower your skill is, the higher percentage of characters that will be replaced. The same is also true for reading the text of others who speak in the language; the higher your skill, the more you will understand.
Other than for player to player communication, there is one other purpose for one to train their language skills. Some in-game books are written in different languages; these books appear as gibberish to those not versed in the respect language. For example, in the shaman epic weapon quest, one task consists of collecting 6 books from the City of Mist. These books are all written in Lizardman and contain both lore surrounding the origins of the city and clues regarding the rest of the quest. The person who first figured out how to complete the quest would have had to read these books.
By default, all characters are set to use the Common Tongue. To change the language you are speaking, you can right click the chat window and select "Languages". Alternatively, you can use the "/language #" command; the chart below lists the corresponding numbers for all of the languages. Chat windows can maintain separate active languages. For example, someone can have the Common Tongue in the main chat window and use Barbarian in a window to which group and guild chat is filtered. The language being used is dependent on the window from which the player is typing.
There are 25 languages in the game that players can learn. All characters start out with 100 skill in the Common Tongue with the exception of ogres and trolls (they actually only start with 90). All races start out with 100 in their racial tongue, with the exception of humans (there is no "Human" language). Rogues start out with 100 in Thieves' Cant.
Languages can not be used in the numeric chat channels.
[edit] Training Languages
Languages can be learned or improved by three methods:
- Spending training points at a class trainer.
- Having someone else train you by spamming group chat.
- Train yourself by spamming group chat.
Besides spending 100 points outright at a trainer, the easiest way to skill up is to get trained by someone who is already 100 skill in the desired language. Said person would create a macro that contains 5 lines of group chat spam and just press it over and over with you in the group. Languages can ONLY be skilled up by using group chat and not any other channel. Additionally, you have to be in the same zone as the trainer to recieve skill-ups. The skill-up rate is dependent on intelligence or wisdom, whichever is higher.
Note that it is possible to teach others without having 100 skill in the language. You can train others (and yourself) to one skill point higher than your ability. However, your language skills do not get updated to the server until you zone. This means that if Bob bought 1 point of Elder Dragon from his class trainer and wanted to spam up to 100 skill with Fred, they would each have to zone 99 times. Note that is possible to train yourself to 100, but you have to be grouped with at least one person in order to unlock the use of group chat (it is fine if this person is AFK, as they do not have to follow you around from zone to zone).
The time it takes to train yourself in multiple languages can be greatly reduced by raising more than one language at a time (especially for those who take a long time to zone). Put a bunch of "/lang #" macros on a hotkey page and rotate through all the languages so that instead of getting 1 skill-up every time you zone, you are getting a lot.
[edit] Players who have Max Skill in All Languages
- Sinnder
- Yeniu
- Zamiel
[edit] List of Languages
| Language # | Language Name | Spoken Fluently By |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Common Tongue | All players |
| 2 | Barbarian | Barbarians |
| 3 | Erudian | Erudites |
| 4 | Elvish | High Elves, Wood Elves, Half-Elves |
| 5 | Dark Elvish | Dark Elves |
| 6 | Dwarvish | Dwarves |
| 7 | Troll | Trolls |
| 8 | Ogre | Ogres |
| 9 | Gnomish | Gnomes |
| 10 | Halfling | Halflings |
| 11 | Thieves' Cant | Rogues |
| 12 | Old Erudian | This language is learned. |
| 13 | Elder Elvish | High Elves start with 50 skill. |
| 14 | Froglok | This language is learned. |
| 15 | Goblin | This language is learned. |
| 16 | Gnoll | This language is learned. |
| 17 | Combine Tongue | Vah Shirs |
| 18 | Elder Teir'Dal | This language is learned. |
| 19 | Lizardman | Iksars |
| 20 | Orcish | This language is learned. |
| 21 | Faerie | This language is learned. |
| 22 | Dragon | This language is learned. |
| 23 | Elder Dragon | This language is learned. |
| 24 | Dark Speech | All evil races speak this. |
| 25 | Vah Shir | Vah Shir |
