Dumb questions thread

[Nevuk]

What faction are the elves in the east (the ones on the sunwall) lorewise? I'm just wondering if they're shaloren/thaloren, or some third faction, or some 3rd faction (Vhaloren, something like that)

[darkgod]

It is unknown, aka the east elves themselves have no idea, they were there before the humans landed and dont know much about their past.
If they are shalore they predate the immortality, so they are old, but they could be any of the two others. Thalore are unlikely given their avertion for magic.

[bricks]

Does increased lightning damage also increase the likelihood of dazing with skills like Nova and Shock? (I guess the same could be asked for poison, ice, etc.)

[darkgod]

no

[Nevuk]

It is unknown, aka the east elves themselves have no idea, they were there before the humans landed and dont know much about their past.
If they are shalore they predate the immortality, so they are old, but they could be any of the two others. Thalore are unlikely given their avertion for magic.

Shouldn't they still have a name that they would have called themselves? As noted in the lore thread I think, the elves aren't actually the same species and wouldn't ordinarily themselves answer to a name that calls them that. It also provides room for another possible playable race.

It's making me wonder about the origins of divine/light magic (the anorithil and the sun paladins), as in if it originated with those elves (or at least was more heavily explored by them). It would make for three elf groups who all had vastly different philosophies on power -

Thalore-fighters (maybe wilders? I'm not quite sure on the lore here, as the zigur don't think wilder counts as magic, but thalore are distinct from zigur)

shalore-corrupt/archmagic

east elves-light/divine magic

I really like this system as they all have a certain sense of balance to their power - anorithils mess with shadow/negative magic, shalore have corrupters, but at the same time both races have a fairly strong sense of self-identity. The Anorithil elves tend to be more 'good' and the shalore more 'evil', but neither is exclusively one or the other, with the Thalore being a bit more gray.

I think the te4 take on the classic tolkien-esque racial system is one of my favorites, as the interpretation of each race is very different and fresh without being contrived(Which is very hard to do anymore). (halflings as mad genius slaveowners is definitely not something I've seen before)

PS- I would love for there to be a good corrupter based class and a more negative focused divine class (maybe necromancers?), mostly for reasons of flavor. I only use these terms loosely, of course, as there can be a good or evil reaver/doomed/corrupter already. (The way I'm thinking of it was what class would an eastern elf who had researched divine magic heavily be if they decided to side with the orcs, or what would a person who researched corruption in an attempt to cure it rather than cause it be?)

edit : As far as names for the eastern elves go, the xHaloren structure leaves a few options open, but none of them sound quite as right as rhaloren/sh/th. As they've been separate for quite a long time their language may have been significantly different enough for a different name. But anyways, Vhaloren, Zhaloren, Xhaloren are the only ones that have some measure of the same principles linguistically. Lhaloren amuses me personally though, and pretty much anything like Mhaloren, Dhaloren, Qhaloren, Bhaloren has the same basic lettering but sounds so different it's hard to think of them as elf-like.

Also, woops, this kind of ran out of the questions thread and is no longer a question

[mwmw]

How common are water-breathing items supposed to be? The only one that I've found is the Vargh Redemption, which doesn't help me breathe so much as extend my short lifespan. Is there a way to easily grind items so I can find an amulet or robe or whatever that allows me to breathe in water?

Also, I hope it's all right to ask what happens if I try to use the farportal to the void?

[greycat]

I generally find 1 or 2 water-breathing items by the time I enter Lake Nur, but I never use them. I just use the bubbles to get through.

The farportal leads you to a random world (a zone with 2-4? dungeon levels).

[Covenant]

This is probably a stupid question, but here goes.

Is there a way to update to the new version without downloading the whole release? Like a patch or something?

And if not, can I transfer unlocks, highscores, etc to the new version?

[Frumple]

Unlocks, etc, should transfer between versions just fine nowadays. Saves probably won't, though. There's apparently ways around that (maybe, I haven't tried), but bringing the saves across versions can cause instability, etc, from time to time.

You can sorta' download patch type things if you're working via the svn, but it's fairly complicated to get it set up and working, and you wouldn't be able to work off the version you've currently got anyway. If you're interested in that, hop on the IRC and see if there's anyone that can walk you through it. Someone able to will probably show up sooner or later. In a general sense, though, there's not really any patch-type things available, especially for a general-use user.

[edge2054]

b32 and b31 save files aren't even close to compatible. Even if you hacked the save file to allow b32 to load your game you wouldn't be happy with the results.

As to unlocks and what not, all of that stuff is stored in a separate folder and transfers from beta to beta.

[Covenant]

So I don't need to do anything with the unlocks? Cool.

Thanks for the help!

[fearoffours]

The unlocks/saves across beta question is such a FAQ, the answer should be made more obvious - a notice on the main menu along the lines of "A new beta is available! b32 "A jolly good beta" is available, download ot now from te4.org/download As usual, unlocks and achieements will tansfer to the new beta, but saves will not".
This info could also be included in the Announcement forum post.

[Gliktch]

+1 @ fearoffours

Now, my dumb question

Are there more than three places to buy/sell things that are accessible to a new player? Or is it Derth, SherTul and Elvalel only? Thanks.

[greycat]

Well, it depends on your race and class. For simplicity let's say you're a human fighter.

The town of Derth is obviously available; it's the closest one to the Trollmire. East of there, you have the Thaloren town, whatever it's called. South of that, you'll find the hidden city of Zigur, by the large lake. (Not all classes can see Zigur.) Southeast of that, you have Last Hope, the capital. And far to the west of that, you have Elvala, the city of the Shaloren.

Dwaves have all of that plus Iron Throne.

Celestial classes (they're unlockable) start out in the Sunwall, and can sell stuff there... but not for long. They'll find themselves cut off from the Sunwall shortly.

Once you finish the first half (roughly) of the game and make it to the Far East, you then have access to the Sunwall and its shops.

Yeeks start out on an island with a town, but the town isn't implemented yet, so they can't actually go in there.

[Frumple]

Derth, Elviratown (south/shalore elves), elftown (north/thalore elves), and last hope. It's pretty easy to get into magetown, as well. Dwarves, in addition, get dwarftown, whatever it's called (Iron council?). Anyone that can get to the world map their first time without an arcane resource (mana, pos/neg, vim, paradox) also has access to Zigur.

There is no sher'tul town You probably mean Shatur, which is the north elves. So that's a sure four (Derth, elf towns, last hope), starting off, with a possible six (dwarftown and Zigur) and an eventual seven (Magetown). Then you get gates of morning, bringing the end-game total of shop-towns up to a maximum of eight.

E: Ninja'd!