Zeph's Ultima Textures for Minecraft Updated
Zeph sent me an email this morning with the latest update to his Ultima-themed texture pack for Minecraft attached. In addition to updating the package to work with the latest version of the smash hit indie game, he has added new plant graphics and phase changes for Britannia’s two moons.
He was even kind enough to send a screenshot:
[singlepic id=2599 w=550 h=550 float=center]
I need to try get this working on Minecraft Pocket Edition...
You can download the updated texture pack from the relevant project entry.
Nice-looking. Are Felucca and Trammel red and blue or is that just a matter of Zeph’s personal taste? Wondering if there’s any canonical evidence (would have to be later Ultimas I’d think).
Looks like I need to kick it up a notch with my texture pack, those plant graphics look pretty good (especially the sugar cane/bamboo). I also prefer Zeph’s torches!
Looks like there’s going to be a 1.2 release of Minecraft in the coming days/weeks, with some interesting additions.
Iron Golems, Cats, Redstone Lamps, and much more! http://www.minecraftwiki.net/wiki/Upcoming_features
I’ve been quite tempted to change some of the mobs textures, but I find it difficult to get the look right. There are so many iconic Ultima monsters, but I think I lack the skill to recreate them in Minecraft.
I’ve actually had the same problem with the mobs. Some things might be easy, like spiders and cows, but others will take some more thought, like skeletons, and zombies. And the creepers leave me at a complete loss. Same with the villagers, but really, I just sorta hate them, and like to pretend they don’t exist. I have been thinking on it for a while though. I wish Minecraft had ettins, and trolls as they were a favorite, and if ever the pigmen make it in, I’m definitely making them into orcs.
I also made an Ultima 6 font for Minecraft, but haven’t released it as I think a direct port of the wider characters looks off. Also, it’s harder to use (requires editing the minecraft.jar) It also changed the runes in the enchanting table to the Britannic runes, so I could finally figure out what they actually said. SPOILER: it’s gibberish.
Oh, and Trammel is supposed to have a reddish hue, though I admittedly went overboard. I’ll probably mute them in the future, and darken the shadows on them.
The first real look we got of them was in Ultima 9. I thought I remembered references to their color before that, maybe in 7 with the Orrery? But I can’t really remember, and in retrospect, honestly may have mixed it up with the twin moons of the Elder scrolls series, Masser and Secunda which share the same configurations and coloring.
Really though, I just went with it because like how it looks. I think it gives them more character.
Good info Zeph, thanks. I gotta make those same decisions at some point so I’m trying to figure out a good starting point.
“Really though, I just went with it because like how it looks. I think it gives them more character.”
They look good. Other than color you could try varying surface characteristics (especially if you plan to mute their colors further), such as obvious differences in crater patterns. I wonder if one or both are tidally locked and if it’s even possible for multiple moons to be tidally locked to the same planet. Someone should ask Garriott if he can come up with a straight story on the matter, for canon’s sake.
I don’t see why two moons couldn’t be tidally locked to the same planet. they’d probably waver a bit more because each would effect the other. It would depend on their distance I guess. Also we really don’t know a lot about what else is in Sosaria’s system. It was depicted as having Sosaria at the center with the moons and sun orbiting it, but I’m not sure if that’s how the system is REALLY, or or if that’s just the way the Britannians believe it to be. We were convinced of the same thing for a long time.
I actually got really involved in all this when I looked up info on the moons a while ago. It’s interesting to ponder. I always suppose that the systems of fantasy worlds operate like ours, and the inhabitants just haven’t figured it out yet, but that’s because I understand ours. Since they have magic, their physical laws are obviously completely different, and hence could operate in ANY other way. The truth is completely up to the world’s creator.
Ultima poses a deeper conundrum as it lacks consistency in some areas. The size and color of the moons, it’s place in the cosmos… Hell, it was even inexplicably flat for one, and only one entry! Unfortunately, unless Garriott buys the rights back and makes another to answer any of it, we’ll probably never know.
It should be answered definitively. Ultima IV showed the cycle of the moons relative to time (in some sense) and to each other, as did Ultima V. There’s probably a direct relationship between the phases of the moons and the passage of time. The RPMs (around Britannia) could probably be figured out using the averages of each moon for those two games. Spin is irrelevant, and orbit around Britannia relative to Britannia’s orbit around the sun is yet unestablished. Hopefully IV and V don’t have a discrepancy too crazy.
It was never revealed whether the same side of the moon[s] always faced Britannia. Probably their telescopes were bad and the moons did spin. You could have one normal sized moon, like on Earth, and one smaller moon that moved independent of it. It would be cool to have dual elliptical orbits so at different times different moons would be larger, with occasionally both large or both small.
“Since they have magic, their physical laws are obviously completely different, and hence could operate in ANY other way. The truth is completely up to the world’s creator.”
Magic always messes up a game because it’s inherently too powerful or easily acquired. Ultima making magic physical asset-based by the use of reagents was a great start.
But back to the subject of astronomy, there should be some orbital simulation software like Celestia to simulate the phases of the rocks of Britannia system.
My mentioning of magic in the matter of astronomy was more the point that the existence of magic raises the question of the nature of the basic laws of physics. Basically, in our universe, for a body to maintain nuclear fission, it requires an incredible amount of mass i.e. our sun and other stars. If that’s not the case in Sosaria’s universe, and their sun is somehow “magically” maintained, or maintained by some alchemical reaction ours doesn’t have, then it could in fact be smaller than Sosaria, and the researchers at the Lycaeum could be right. Sosaria actually COULD be at the center of their universe, and the entire universe could end just after the most distant orbital body. That would fit, as I’ve always imagined it as a kinda dimensional crossroads since people and things just seem to topple in through moongates from other dimensions on a regular basis. It would also fit with the story provided for UO’s sharding. Like I said, our laws of physics need not apply, and it’s up to the creator. So if Garriott says the entire universe exists inside an orange that is constantly being thrown back and forth between two monkeys, it does. Not that I think he’d ever say that.
And moons’ orbits are already known more or less. According to The Codex of Editable Wisdom: “Trammel needs 9 days for one complete orbit and Felucca 14 days.” I have the feeling that changed from game to game though. Nothing on their rotation however. Probably because it’s never really come up. The only view we ever had was in 9, and we always saw the same face, so I guess that means they’re tidally locked…or that the artists never gave it much thought. I’m more disturbed by the world randomly becoming flat, then round again. Maybe the monkey dropped the orange. XD
For reference, here’s a picture of the Orrery from U7.
http://lparchive.org/Ultima-VII-The-Black-Gate/Update%2025/13-U7_20_07.png
Although now that I look at the picture it seems more crazy than ever. Although as you’ve said it could just be the Lycaeum getting it wrong.
@Zeph: “My mentioning of magic in the matter of astronomy was more the point that the existence of magic raises the question of the nature of the basic laws of physics.”
That is a good point. I like to think of magic as being constrained to the laws of physics, sorta like the way science fiction writers try to come up with logical explanations behind as yet impossible technology. If many of the things we do with machines could be done with chemistry or with the human body at least some magic could be explained reasonably. So even with magic, if it was constrained by the laws of physics then the universe could be as well. We know so little of the most basic things, like why mass exists, what is dark matter/energy, etc., that I wouldn’t be surprised if moongates could exist without “magic”. Magic to me is what someone else understands and implements very well but most other people don’t as it’s too complicated and they don’t have the time (or intelligence), so they just accept it as they see it. Microwave ovens, for example, are magic to most people (myself included!).
I would chalk up the flat/round theory to shifts in people’s beliefs, much like on Earth. The most disturbing thing to me is just how small Britannia must be unless the breadth of the oceans were understated There may be no way to bullshit our way around that one. Any ideas?
@Andy: I hadn’t seen that pic before that I can remember. I looked up a better one in the single-image, full-resolution map of Ultima VII where the planets are spread apart more clearly. After some tedious work in GIMP I came up with some basic info:
eightvirtues.com/sanctimonia/images/Celestial%20Bodies%20of%20Britannia%20System.png
Compare Ultima VII’s description of Britannia’s solar system to our own here:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_System
Notice the similarities between the fourth and sixth planets? Mars and Saturn look very similar between Britannia and our systems.
Something else I noticed was that while Britannia was posited as the center about which the moons and other planets rotate, the sun was stationary relative to them all. I think this may have been a joke by Garriott, as if Britannian’s had half-figured things out. They knew the sun was stationary (not that it really is, but whatever), but still held on to the idea of their own planet being the center.
Anyway, if anyone can expand upon what I’ve figured out from that Ultima VII graphic we’d really be getting somewhere. Richard, step in at any time (deafening silence).
Just noticed something badass: the colors of the Eight Virtues, in order (codex.ultimaaiera.com/wiki/The_Eight_Virtues#The_Eight_Virtues), match the colors of the planets (not including Britannia) from inner to outer.
So if the planets themselves correspond to the Eight Virtues (like everything else in Ultima), what is the significance (relative to the Virtues) of Britannia’s two moons and the sun? We’re going from three (principles) to six (core virtues) to eight (add two extrapolated virtues) to twelve (the celestial bodies).
I suppose also that it’s just a hell of a coincidence that the fourth planet/virtue is the color red (Valor, Fighter, Red, Sword), sharing meaning with our fourth planet, Mars.
Maybe magic conforms to some physical laws, but they wouldn’t necessarily be ours. Different universes, different laws of physics. I know for instance that some of the D&D setting through the years actually WERE set in worlds that were flat. There was no “They haven’t figured it out yet.” The gods were in charge of things, they actually created a flat world, and that was the reality of that fictitious universe. So assuming that the rules that govern our universe apply to some other reality is a road to nowhere. Someone creates a fictitious world, they get to decide what laws of physics it’s ruled by. Hell, ever read any of Piers Anthony’s stuff? The laws of physics are regularly thrown out in the name of bad puns (and slightly creepy interspecies mating) on a regular basis. That’s just how his universe rolls.
As far as the history of Ultima, I suspect that the answers change from game to game. The bizarrely flat world of Ultima 6 was most likely there due to limitations of the game’s engine. For whatever reason, they couldn’t get world wrapping to work, so they just surrounded the world with void, declared it flat, and all the characters acted as if it had always been that way. Come Ultima 7, world wrapping was up and working fine, and it went back to being round. Also worthy of note, despite being able to sail from one side of the map to the other, and not find a thing, there were 3 other continents out there somewhere, one of which is Serpent’s Isle, which according to cannon are still there…somehow.
Truth be told, The nature of Sosaria as a planet is sketchy at best. The games often didn’t jibe with the lore. It’s geography, while interesting was often impossible for a planet as we know it. And the moon phases wouldn’t really work most of the time, unless the planet was capable of casting more than one shadow.
Really at best, Ultima is a magical universe with a mysterious and mystical past, and at worst is a game series worked on over the course of nearly 2 decades, with several changes in writing staff, and a brilliant, but fanciful creator who couldn’t quite make up his mind.
Perhaps it all really does take place in some bubble of a universe where time, matter, and space really do work in a ways alien to the way we understand them. There’s certainly precedent for fantasy worlds like this, and it would explain a lot. Or maybe it really is a planet in a solar system not unlike ours, and a mixture of black pearl and sulfurous ash can produce a fire ball to hurl at your enemies via some method unique to its neck of space, as the Wing Commander series would suggest. The definitive say lies with Garriott, and he hasn’t had much to say on the matter. (Though if we ever see his New Britannia, we might finally have our answer. Here’s hoping!) Really, I don’t think it matters to him. Ultima is a realm of magic, adventure, and magically adventurous sex. There are dragons to slay, mongbats to fight, mysteries to unravel, and damsels to bed. And in a realm with all that going on, who has time to look at the stars? The real question is, why did the Avatar ever return to Earth?
Oh, and the other orbital bodies are named after the virtues, and each IS of the corresponding color. No real coincidence there. All the answers that exist are here: http://codex.ultimaaiera.com/wiki/Category:Astronomy