U3.5 Pax Britannia: Virtues Test Released, Lots of Other Progress
Andrew Owen has been keeping busy with his work on U3.5: Pax Britannia. He started the week by releasing an image of the English font he’d be using in the game:
Later that day, he also released the runic font, noting an inherent limitation of its small scale:
At this resolution (6×8 font) I’m leaning toward using them sparingly, perhaps just as clues to loot locations that aren’t essential to complete the game.
The following day, he also released an image of the back cover of the Pax Britannia game box:
Wednesday, however, was a busy day indeed, and saw a flurry of information released…beginning with a cryptic image that evidently contains a clue:
Here’s a cryptic clue to the other story I’d like to tell using the U3.5 engine.
Later that day, the first run of cloth maps arrived at his place:
The maps are back from the printers. I’ve included the U4 map for comparison. I’m very happy with the quality and I will happily endorse them. They also have a US-based site. http://www.bagsoflove.com/products/personalized-napkins
I do think the current artwork looks a bit blocky though so I plan to revise it to make it look a bit more natural before I do another batch.
He also managed to do a bit of research on getting game boxes printed:
It looks like the shortest box set production run I’d be able to do is 50 units so I’m going to see if I can do something reasonable with print-on-demand suppliers.
Finally, today, he released a download! It’s a test program released in advance of the character generation portion of Pax Britannia:
I’m planning on having the character generator finished this month. I’ll be providing it as a .TAP file. In order to use it, you’ll need an emulator that supports the ZX Spectrum +2A. I recommend Fuse (http://fuse-emulator.sourceforge.net/). Here then is a test file. If you can get this to work then you’re all set for the release. If you have any problems let me know.
I have added the download, and a link to Fuse, to the project entry, as well as some of the images featured above.
That’s actually not the character generator. It’s just a test program to make sure when the character generator is released that people won’t have any problems running it. The released version will do everything except create a save game file, which obviously won’t be possible until the game is complete and the final save game format is determined. Oh, and all the guesses about the cryptic clue are way off the mark. 🙂
Well, that’s just…argh. Let me see if I can correct that before my bus arrives me home.
Let’s assume it is in some way related to Ultima’s lore (let’s be reasonable).
The gilded text looks like INF in runic at first (short for infinity) but that did not fit the additional clue from Andrew in the above comment (excluding Gargoyles and Serpent’s Isle relations).
A second look yields INQ. This may be an ominous spell (to induce nightmarish visions) or short for something else… like inquiry or inquisition for example (the first things that came to my mind)
The two part sides may refer to many things (Britannia/Earth/The remnants of old Sosoria/The ethereal void ; The Avatar/Companions/{Mondain,Minax,Exodus}/Gargoyles (excluded)…)
On the right of the text there’s something like a ta in katagana before the closing misshappen double quote… irrelevant? taunt?
What makes most sense with the amount of data available within the clue is the two sides of an inquiry/trial. But I am not convinced by that interpretation.
I have no clue…and shall ask Chuckles:
Speak ye unto the waters of the well and ask of altars!
Takin INQ as a spell, the Bob Shaw plot for U9 may come to mind with LB’s visions of the Avatar’s apparent misdeeds that were undermining his health. Farfetched too…
Yes it’s runic and you have two out of the three letters correct. However, there are more letters that are not shown.
It looks like the third letter has a top portion, which means it has to be “O” or “F”. I’m leaning towards “O” because the lower branch has a definite elbow. So “INO”. It could be part of “Shamino”, but I’m going to lean even further and say its the gypsy Inoo. ‘Two sides to every story’ could indicate that she disagrees with Hawkwind and Lord British in their interpretation of the Virtues (or at least, seeking a champion of such).