Geas

Don't know if this is a bug or a newbie problem, so I thought I'd post it here.

I wonder why it seems that only Boreal is learnable by doing if you don't join a guild that is supporting the learning of languages such as the skalds or the scribes.

My character picked up Boreal from checking a sign near Arborea and almost instantly got the first point in Boreal. However, by now I ran into hundreds of dwarves, halflings and goblinoids and a few tschaharks, but I didn't pick up a thing yet on their languages.

Therefore I have to ask if it is really meant that only Boreal is therefore learnable without joining the skalds or scribes, or if there is a bug or I am just darn unlucky so far.

After all, I don't want to "guild-hop" just to pick up the basics in commonly spoken languages.

I wonder if it's because you can learn new languages by reading them, but not by hearing them. And there aren't any signs or things in languages other than Boreal and Quenya that are easily accessible. Maybe it's intended that way, but it does seem that if you hear something enough, you would start to figure out what it means.

It's kind of strange though that you can't read books in a language until you've gotten high enough in that language by training it. You get the message "You don't know this language well enough to read it." But you can still read signs, even if it just looks like gibberish.

I also noticed that I used to be able to make out some words on the sign at the gallows, but now I can't make out any. But my Boreal skill has only gotten higher... I think it's around 60% now. That didn't make sense to me, so maybe there is something buggy there.

All languages are learning by doing. But you must reach a mimim level before.
This mean you must get the first points by a trainer and then you can learn 'by going'. Humans have some base knowlege 'boreal', so that they already have the minium.

The fact that some "base or initial training" needs to be gotten before a language can be learned is exactly the problem I mean.
For Quenya and Boreal that "base training" can be gotten without a trainer. And that is my point. Only those two languages are therefore freely available to everyone.
For the other languages, you need to be in a guild and learn from a guild trainer.
That Magik and Ancient Language are therefore limited to members, or former members, of certain guilds, is fine for me.
Where I see a problem are the languages of the other races, Gnar, Khuzdul, Tshahark and Dark Speech.
Those should be available to everyone too without the need to join a guild. So please, add something similar for these languages into the game as exits fur Boreal or Quenya.

Well, if you think about it, Quenya and Boreal really should be the only easily learned foreign languages anyway. These are the languages of the two most powerful and influential city-states (or whatever they are) in Forostar. There isn't a community of halflings regularly speaking Gnar. The same can be said of Tshahark. Khuzdul, I'll give you, but I'm not entirely certain whether you can or cannot pick it up as easily as Boreal and Quenya. That must be discovered in-game. As for Dark Speech, that too should be looked into in-game. What I'm basically saying is Elves and Humans are the most prevalent races in Forostar, thus their languages should come easier than the languages of tiny niche communities whose languages aren't spoke so often.

what of the underground?
what of all the goblins camps, or ironhold?

As I said in the letter, I'll give you khuzdul... I believe that should be easily learned... but I'm also not entirely certain you cannot pick it up like the others. I've not tried. As for Dark Speech, I did refer to that being something left in-game. But as for Gnar and Tshahark, there's not a sizeable community of those languages for them to be reasonably picked up out of nowhere. Of course, this is just my opinion.

you can't learn boreal or quenya from just hearing it. you need a lesson from an npc to kick start every language.

thats been my experience over all my chars

Ah... there are ways to pick up languages without training, and it isn't hearing them. This may have changed in recent months or years, but this is how Matusalem picked up the basis of a few languages.

Boreal I have to agree can be picked up, and was picked up by Loreen, without hearing it and without a trainer.

But in all her time, despite healing lots and lots of other languages, no other language was learned. Thats why I started this thread.

well fine if you want to be -that- way. then yes you can pick up some languages without a trainer.

but without knowledge of those other ways, no language can be learned without help of a trainer first.