Anyone else learning to read New Britannia Runic?

I am learning to read New Britannia Runic. I am basically to the point where I don't need a cheat sheet. I am still a bit slow, but that will improve with time. Is there any real advantage learning Runic? Not really, but you never know when or where the devs could put messages written entirely in Runic.

I am curious who else is learning to read Runic?

 

+1

 

--Is there a runic type font that one can load onto their computer?

 

Yep. You can download it here:
http://forsakenvirtues.com/2013/07/12/fonts-new-britannia-runic-3-styles/

Plus, check out this thread:
https://shroudoftheavatar.com/forum/index.php?threads/wasd-mechanical-keyboard-runic-fonts.5972/

 

I had it down when I learned it back around Ultima II-III, but I'm way rusty these days. Very much so when it comes to the combined letters. Going to have to brush up.

 

In the new runic they are using for Shroud, there are no combined letter combos for runic.

 

I had the alphabet down by Ultima VI... and I was able to corroborate that I still haven't forgotten it

 

Yea, I wonder if they got rid of them so the alphabet is type-able... but modern fonts (OpenType) have ligatures anyway, so its not really important. I actually find it odd seeing repeated letters in runic, it made sense that they were replaced by single letters.

 

I used to know the old runic very well when I was playing the Ultimas. I can recognize some letters in the new one, but I doubt I will be able to read it naturally until the game is released so I have a reason to use it on a daily basis. I am a use it or lose it kinda of person.

Whats kind of funny is even my oldest child can read the old runic which he picked up from my old Ultima manuals... which he then lost or destroyed.

Yes! LB had mentioned early on that he wanted to change it so there could be a letter by letter typing using a font, which was more difficult with special symbols for character sets like TH.

 

Yea, modern fonts have ligatures, and if the app supports them it automatically replaces the characters for you.

 

Well I certainly wasn't planning on learning it, but I am finding that several letters are easy to transfer from runic to latin letters (R, T, I, B) and several others are easy enough to pick out: E and A are common, and the frequent "OF" makes those two memorable. I still have a lot of trouble picking through a phrase in New Britannia Runic if it is more than a few words, but it's remarkably easy to piece together a translation compared to other substitution ciphers.

 

Comes down to how much its used in-game. I mean, in U6 and 7 it was used so much on road signs, buildings, etc that learning it was a matter of course.

 

I hope they use it extensively in-game! Especially with anything dealing with the lore, backstory, ruins, etc.

 

I prefer the doubled letters, the sentences are much cleaner, you can say much more in a smaller space. I feel the circles that have been done so far would look less crowded if the previous Futhark had been used.