Used: When unable to read the portal clues

When Fren was unable to read a portal's clue she received a message along the lines of "You are unable to decipher the words. Perhaps if you got nearer."

This lead me to believe that I was incorrectly interacting with the clues, rather than what was actually occurring: Fren couldn't decipher the words because she didn't understand the language. I alternately thought the portal clue's were either broken, or I was the stupidest player ever because I couldn't get them to work for the life of me.

Instead of the current message which seems to lead the player in the wrong direction, perhaps it could be something along the lines of: "You are unable to decipher the words. They appear to be in Elvish." (or whatever the appropriate unknown language is).

Are you clicking on the "clue object", or are you examining them? If you click on it, it should run a script that checks to see if it's in another language, if you can read it, and if you can read it (whatever the language), it should add a journal entry.

Yes, Fren clicked it, and the error message was confusing to both of us, and the only reason we figured out the problem was because I guessed it was a language issue.

The suggestion is just to make the error message clear regarding what the actual problem is (ie. You cant understand the language), and hint at which language is needed.

Just retested this.

This is what happens on examine:



And on 'use' from the radial menu provides no feedback at all.

On click behaves better:



Although on click might be clear enough by itself, in combination with the other two, especially "A closer look might help you see them better" really led me down the wrong path. The combination of the two messages led me to believe that I could not understand the writing because I wasn't interacting with it properly I.E. I needed to "get closer" instead of that I lacked that language.

I still think hinting as to what language it is written in would also be a tremendous help in making it clear what is preventing the PC from reading the text.

Thanks. Next time I get into the toolset I'll work on the portal clues code and smooth things out.