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Things You Should Know

The 4th Coming has come a long way since its initial release in 1999. The Graphic User Interface (GUI) has changed a few times since then as well. As of this publication T4C is running version 1.61. A huge GUI overhaul has taken place with the Dialsoft release of 1.60. A few new things include the use of a new 'Tab Map' and a 'Active Map'. Also a safe 'Trading Window' has been added to game. The following will explain the basics of the new interface.

Summoning Interface Menus

This is not necessarily a Interface menu, but, if you press 'Ctrl+V' it shows a virtual right click of everything on screen. Awesome if you have a few items on the floor and don't feel like right clicking them all. But hard to read if there are many items on the floor. All the same, a great addition to the game.

Menu Bar

If it is not already present, you can bring up the Menu Bar by pressing 'ESC'. You can press 'ESC' more then once to cycle through the various display settings for gameplay. You can click each icon on the Menu Bar to bring up the window that matches the icon pressed.

The Backlog Box

This box keeps track of everything that has been said by you, to you or around you during your current game session (shouts, pages and online text). If you want to say, shout or page, toggle the button and type your speech in the text field to the right.

For pages you have 2 text boxes, in the first box type the name of the player you wish to send a secret message to. In the second box, type your message.

You can make the chat window bigger by toggling the Green Arrow on the right. Or by pressing CTRL+A.

Lastly, you can open the Chat Center by pressing the Icon.

Active Map

This is an active map of your immediate surroundings. NPC's and monsters are blue dots, other players are red dots, and items and chests and green dots. The white star represents your position.

Tab Map

You can press 'Tab' to bring up an active map of the world. As you walk you will notice that unexplored area becomes explored. Any explored area of the map will remain explored indefinately, so you can always see what you have or have not explored, even if you seraph.

Standard Buttons

Heres a rundown of a few basic buttons you'll see on just about every menu.

The Character Sheet (Ctrl+C)


This sheet contains general information about your character's attributes, skills and current status (HP, MP, XP, encumbrance, etc.). Remember to right-click on all these icons to get a more detailed description of what's what. Please note that the karma does not contain a value, but rather a one-word approximation of what karma level you're at.

While in your character sheet, you can select skills then click on the 'Macro Button' to macro it, where you can then assign it a button configuration for quick use later.

The Inventory Menu (Ctrl+I)


This sheet contains some of the data already displayed in your character sheet (namely, the five attributes) along with the equipment you are currently wearing and your inventory (properly sorted and with all item positions saved!).

Inventory Grid & Identification Box

The box at the bottom right of the equipment screen is called the inventory grid. It displays a graphic representation of all the items in your inventory. The black rectangle just below it is called the identification box. Whenever your mouse cursor passes over an item in the inventory grid, the identification box displays the item's name and quantity. You don't need to click to activate it, it always displays that information.

If you 'right click' any item in your inventory (excluding equipped items), a windows will pop up with the Item Name, Item Requirements, and Item Bonuses. This will also work for items laying on the ground.

Equipping/Unequipping Items

You can equip or unequip any item by dragging it back and forth between the inventory grid and the character representation in the middle. For instance, if you want to equip a leather armor, left-click on it in your inventory, move it over the character puppet, and let go of the mouse button. If you want to unequip it, click on the leather armor in the equipment box where it is displayed, move it over the inventory grid, and let go.

Dropping/Junking Items

You can drag an item on the drop button or click on the item in the inventory grid, then click on the drop button. A pop-up screen with a numeric field and a slider will ask you how many of of that item you wish to drop, starting from 1 to as many items as you have in your stack. Click on OK to confirm that you want to drop this many items of that type, or on Cancel if you changed your mind.

Junking items (Junk button) works along the same principles, but you get one more chance to confirm that you REALLY want to destroy these items. Junking permanently deletes the item from your backpack and from the game, so you should do this carefully. Once deleted, these items are completely gone.

No confirmation is necessary to drop an item, but it is mandatory before junking one. Don't be surprised if the game asks you twice to make sure you know what you're doing.

Drag any item in your inventory to any of the buttons shown above to Trade, Drop, or Junk the Items.

Item Trading (Ctrl+T)

To begin a trade with another player, stand next to the other player and press 'Ctrl+T'.

Now find and press the 'Trade Icon' and click on the other player.

Drag the items you wish to trade from your inventory to the 'My TradePack' grid, and click the left most red arrow, turning it green. This lets the other player know that you are finished with your offer.

The other player will do the exact same thing and check his arrow as well. Once both of you are ready, you can look over the trade and then click the 'Confirm Trade Icon'.

It never matters who starts the trade, and you can also trade gold in the same fashion.

The Spellbook (Ctrl+P)

This menu contains your spells, along with some vital data on them (icon, name, type, duration, mana cost, level, etc.). Click on the top corner of the pages to go back or to the next page of your spellbook. Double-click on the spell of your choice to cast it. Once you've cast a spell that has a duration, an icon will appear on the top left of your game screen. You can right-click on that icon to have the name of the spell and its remaining duration.

You can macro any spell by first clicking on the spell, then clicking on the Macro Button.

The six elemental tabs at the bottom of the spellbook are shortcuts that take you directly to the section of your spellbook that contains spells of that element.

Group Management (Ctrl+G)

This menu allows you to create a group of players ("party") who stay together to adventure. Gold and experience are split accordingly to the levels of the various party members. A group can even part ways (i.e. into sub-groups that are out of visual range) and still split gold and XPs between the members of those sub-groups. You can see how each party member is doing (health-wise) by looking at their respective health bars in the menu.

In order for party members to benefit from group play advantages, they must remain within a certain range from each other. Members that go astray lose those benefits. If several members of a group move away from the main group but remain close to each other, they benefit from group play advantages between themselves, but not from the main group. So if Group A splits into two groups, Group B (which heads East) and Group C (which goes West), then neither group will benefit from the other one's rewards, but they will share the loot among themselves automatically. If they meet by chance a while later, they will once again become Group A. Hence, physically splitting up by moving away from the main group does not disband the group, it only temporarily suspends group play advantages.

NOTE: A group cannot be made of more than 8 party members.

Minimized Group Listing

You can minimize the group play screen to have a short listing on the side of your screen. It includes the name and health bar of each group member. If the name is in white, then it means the party member is within group play range and benefits from all group play advantages (gold/XP splitting, healing, etc.). If the name is in gray, that means the party member is out of range and does not benefit from group play advantages.

If you are not already member or leader of a party, you can click on the 'Invite' button to invite someone to join you in a new party (you will be its leader). If you are already the leader of a party, you can click on this button to invite someone to join your group. If you are in a party but are not its leader, clicking on this button will have no effect. Once you've clicked on this button, you must click on the person in your game screen you wish to invite. That person will be forwarded your invitation and given the option to accept or decline it.

If you wish to leave a group, simply click on the 'Leave' button and you will be removed from the group's listings. If you are the leader of a group, doing this disbands the group.

If you are the leader of a group, you can expel anyone with a click of the 'Expel' button. If you are not the leader of the group, this button will have no effect.

If you are the leader of a group, you can opt to have the gold split evenly between members of your party. Gold will otherwise be given following the standard rules in T4C (he who delivers the final blow gets all).

The Chat Center (Ctrl+L)

This is probably one of the most community-oriented features in T4C, which can now be used as a chat room as well as a game. Anyone can now create a channel and give it a password (or not) so you can have conversations with your friends. If a password is necessary, only people who know it can access that channel. Traditional paging is still possible and done with the click of a toggle button. It's also possible to have an online "ignore list" where you can relegate users who bother you. Any message or invitation to join a party from them will be automatically turned down. (You can always "remember" them at a later time if they apologize to you.)

Things You Should Know About Channels

There are two types of channels, public channels (or system channels) and player channels. Public channels are either the "Main" channel or channels added by the administrator. Public channels cannot be dismissed and display all players who have joined them. Players can disable any public channel, but not remove them from their list.

Player channels are private; they are listed only on the clients of their subscribers. You may create an unlimited number of player channels. Upon creating the channel, you can add a password to prevent other players from subscribing to the channel without your permission. When a player disconnects, s/he is removed from the channel; if the channel becomes empty, it is removed from the game (but anyone can re-create it later on). When you log back, your T4C client automatically re-creates all channels to which you were subscribed before logging off. If a discarded channel was re-created by someone else with another password, you will need to know the new password or find another channel name.

Shouts/Pages/Speech

In the text field next to this icon, you can type anything you wish to say, shout or page. You can toggle the icon to alternate between paging, channel-talking or just plain talking.

If you are paging someone, you will need to enter a valid player name (who is online) in the first field, and your text in the second one. If that person is accepting pages, s/he will receive your message privately. You can also double-click on someone's name in the player listing of a channel. The page option will automatically be activated and you simply need to type your text (followed by the Return key) to page that person. During the normal gameplay screen, you can also use the traditional /<"user name"> (EXAMPLE: /edgar hello!) text syntax to send someone a message directly without summoning the chat center interface.

If you are channel-talking, your message will be sent to everyone who is subscribed on the channel you last clicked on. You can also prefix ":" (colon character) before your text to send it to the [CC Main] channel. If you prefix ";" (semi-colon character) before your text, it will send your speech directly to the last channel you selected (this works even if you are not currently channel-talking).

If you are just plain talking, your text will appear above your character's head and anyone within line of sight will see it.

Creating a Channel

It is possible for anyone to create a new channel. Click on this icon to do so.

You will be prompted for a channel name and password (optional). Channel names are not displayed to everyone, except the [CC Main] channel (and any public channel created by your T4C provider), which is for everyone in the game. If you do not provide a password for your channel, it is considered public. Anyone who knows your channel's name can join it without permission. If you provided a password, it is considered private and players who want to join must enter the password to do so.

Whenever messages are sent from any of the channels you are on, they will appear in the backlog box with the channel's name between brackets (ex.: "[CC Main]"). If you do not want to receive messages from a specific channel, simply click on the green square (it'll become red) to disable it; you will no longer receive messages from that channel. To enable it again, just click the red square, so it turns green.

Leaving a Channel

As mentioned above, you can leave a player channel by clicking on the channel you wish to leave, then on this icon.

If you are the last person to leave a player channel, this channel is discarded by the system. It will be automatically re-created next time one of the channel's subscribers connects to the game, unless someone else has borrowed the name and put a different password on it.

Ignoring a Player

If you do not wish to receive messages from an individual, click on that person's name in the listing, then on this icon.

That player's name will be added to a list of individuals you wish to ignore (we call this the Ignore List). This person will not be notified s/he is being ignored and you will not receive any of his/her messages (pages, shouts, normal speech).

Remembering a Player

You can un-ignore someone (we call this "remembering" a player) on your Ignore List by clicking on this icon. You will be shown a list of player names (that's your Ignore List). You can click on any name, then on this icon again.

Ignoring Pages

Ignoring pages is done by clicking on this icon.

This is not the same thing as ignoring shouts or ignoring normal speech. If someone tries to page you, s/he will be told that you are not receiving pages at this time, and asked to try again later. This is not considered as rude as ignoring a player (which is the last resort) and is generally well perceived by most players. Click the icon again to begin accepting pages.

Ignore List

The Ignore List can be accessed by clicking on this icon.

As mentioned above, it will list the names of all players you are ignoring. You can type a name in the field next to ADD to (obviously) add new names to that list.

You can remove someone from the list by clicking on his/her name, then on the remember icon.

Coloring a Channel

If you want all text coming from a channel to be colored differently from the rest of your channels, double left-click on that specific channel in your listing. It will rotate through seven potential colors until returning to the first one. This can be neat if you want to spot messages from a specific group among everyone else's messages.

Macro Menu (Ctrl+M)


Macros are keyboard functions that you can use instead of wading through several menus to find a specific spell, item or skill. You can program some macros on some of the keyboard's function keys and up to six of them can be used in a minimized version of the macro screen for mouse-supported usage.

In order to have a macro in the listing, you must first go to one of the three macro-supported screens (Spell Book, Inventory or Character Sheet). There, you click on the spell, item or skill you want to transform into a macro, and click on the MACRO button. Once you have done that, you can return to the Macro screen and you will find that spell, item or skill in the Macro listing. Double-click in the "Key" box next to the entry of your choice and a pop-up menu will appear, asking you for a valid shortcut key for your macro. Some default macros already exist in the game:

NOTE: Macros work even if an interface screen blocks your view. This means if you have a shortcut key to your healing potions, you can still use them while browsing through your spellbook. Also, you can click the 3 appropriate icons on this menu to get to your Inventory, Spellbook, and Character Sheet. Clicking on a Macro and then clicking the 'Remove' button will destroy the selected Macro combination.

The Options Menu (Ctrl+O)


Everything on the options menu is pretty self explanitory. You can toggle options on and off by clicking the appropriate Green or Red squares. If you so chose to 'Enable Logs' it will save a text file with the name you provide in the space underneath in a special logs folder located in your 'My Documents\Dialsoft\T4CV2\' directory. It is also to be noted that the logs will change names automatically each day in accordance with your computer's system time, as to not make 1 huge log file.

You also exit the game on the options menu by selecting quit. Once you confirm that you are ready to leave game, you will see a system countdown of 5 seconds, before you actually exit the game. It is important that you always log out in a safe place as to not die during the log out process.

Shopping

Buying


By saying "buy" to item, armor, and weapon dealers, you open the 'Buy Menu' to purchase goods. Just select the quantity of each item you wish to buy, and when finished click on the 'buy' button. You are restricted to how much you can buy based on the amount of gold you possess, and the amount of Encumberance you have available.

Selling


Much the same as Buying. Say "sell" to a merchant NPC and select the quantity of items you wish to sell. When ready click on the 'sell' button and collect your gold.

Advancing in Skill

Learning


By Saying 'teach' or 'learn' to certain NPC's you will be able to learn new skills and/or spells. Spells cost a certain amount of points to learn depending on the spell.

Training


Talk to certain Trainer NPC's to increase your skill levels. Skills can be trained up to 100 points, with the exception of Attack, Archery, and Dodge, which can be infinately trained.

Effects Icons

A number of icons appear at the top left of your screen if you have spells or skills activated on your character. These icons represent each effect that has a duration and are aligned vertically, starting with the one that has the least remaining time.

When the spell or effect is about to expire, its icon starts blinking.

To re-cast a spell or reuse a related item from your backpack, simply double-click on the spell effect icon and it will be done automatically (you don't have to go through any of your screens or use a macro).