Advice for beginning Screen Reader Users

[merin]

Are you a screen-reader user and having issues with Clok? Are there just some things that you wish you had the answers to, or some tips on how to make the game easier? Well, hopefully, this helps – let’s get started!

Options

First and foremost, there are several options that are mandatory to assist in making the game easier to play. In order to toggle them, type options <number> or options <option-name>. These options are listed below and their reasons for disabling/enabling them:

13. Compass: Off When toggled on, a small "compass" will be displayed when traveling in the wilderness. Obviously, the screen readers are unable to interact with this. It will display a lot of unnecessary and useless – to readers – information. This should be off.

14. ANSIcolor: Off When toggled on, ANSI colors will be applied to game text.
Once this option is turned off, it will allow for certain objects to have a number-sign (#) in front of it to facilitate it’s important. Usually, places that can be entered or items that can be looked at have this tag. It is also recommended to allow the number-sign to be read in order not to miss some important items.
7. Prompt: Off When toggled on, you will see a status prompt.
There is other, less spammy, ways to obtain this information. From personal experience, it does not make sense to a screen reader, anyway.

Also, as those are essential, there are a few recommended options:
28. NPCStacks: On When toggled on, you will see multiple identical NPCs in the same room as a shortened, single "stack" with numeric indicator.
With this turned on, any NPCs with the same name (infested guards for example) will show up stacked, so, for instance, “An infested guard(x2)”, instead of “An infested guard, An Infested Guard.” This will cut down on spam.

2. RoomDesc: On When toggled on, you will see detailed room descriptions.
If you are new to the mud, this is advised. Not all objects are indicated unless this is used. Once familiarity with the game is gained, this can be turned off. It, however is not necessary – if you prefer no descriptions, then, by all means, turn this off.

4. RoomEnv: On When toggled on, you will see room environment indicators by the room title.
If you are foraging, this is a must. Different herbs grow in different areas, therefore, it will give you an indicator of the type of area you are in. For example: [Mine Shaft] (InCvDt). This tells me I’m inside, in a cave, with dirt. Out in the wilderness, certain herbs grow in certain ares – forest, grass, dirt, etcetera. There is a command to facilitate this, however.

11. CombatBrief: When toggled on, linebreaks and extra flavor messaing will be removed from combat to condense output.
12. MeleeBrief: When toggled on, melee combat messaging will be extremely brief and condensed.
These two options will allow for combat to be less spammy. If you use a soundpack, there are sounds to facilitate this information, therefore, they may not trigger depending on the setting.

There are many more options, and typing options by itself will give you a list. These are just a few of the notable ones.

Commands

There are several vital commands worth knowing throughout your playing time in the game. These are listed in order of importants, and a description of what they do.
H or health:
This command will give you the health of your character. If you type “Health <target>”, it will show the target’s health, hunger, and energy level. Example:

health
Fatigue: Fully Rested Hunger: Hungry
Your left hand is scraped.

Status. This is the screen reader’s prompt. In text, it will give you a general overview of your character. It will show your energy, the most serious wound, your hunger, and your possession. Example:

status
Fully Rested, Sitting, Scraped, Hungry, Position Avoid

Eff or effects. This command will list the current affects your character is under It will list everything from roleplay awards to being covered in dirt. If you think something is affecting your character or his or her actions, then, it is best to check here to see what is up. Example:

eff
You are currently under the following active effects:
You are covered in dirt.

Info or score. This will give an overview of your character. The only new information here is your race or gender – just in case you forgot.

Skills. This command is tricky – there are several arguments after the command that may assist you in finding out necessary information. Typing skills by itself will list all of your known skills and their value. This is quite lengthy, so, I will not list an example of this.

Skills study. This will list the skills that you are currently practicing. For example:

skills study
You are studying 3 of a maximum 3 skills:
Carpentry ... 58.21 (Studying: 32436 sec.) (Practice: 0.26)
Lapidary .... 254.84 (Studying: 73265 sec.) (Practice: 0.26)
Mining ...... 751.07 (Studying: 84461 sec.) (Practice: 1.5)
This shows the skill, it’s value, how long I have to work off the lesson, and the amount I must gain in order to achieve the study.

skills favorite. If you have a few skills you wish to always monitor, this can be used. How to use this is beyond the scope of this document, however, ti’s output is shown as an example.

skills favorite
The correct syntax is skill favorites add/remove skill name or skills category favorites. To see what your current favorites are, you may skill favorites show. You can also reset all your favorites with skill favorites reset.

Food. This will list all of the food items on your person and where they are located. The herbs command will do the same – just with herbs instead of food.
Food
You have the following food items on you:
a travel ration (in a black leather backpack) (x40)

Hunger. This will show only your hunger.
Hunger
You are well-fed.

Fatigue/fat. This will list your energy.

Fat
You feel fully rested.

Exits. This will list all of the exits you can see in the room – cardinal or areas you may type go <area> to enter.

exits
You look around for any obvious exits ...
Obvious paths: north (riverPl), west (PlHl), northwest (roadPl), northeast (riverFr), east (riverPl), southeast (roadPl), southwest (HlFr), south (Fr).
You also notice a thoroughfare.

Money/riln. This will tell you the amount of money on hand.

These are just a few of the essentials necessary to get around Clok. Although lacking in helpfiles, the wiki is a fantastic place to go to make up for this. If in doubt, look there, ask questions on the BBS, or ask questions in game. Most people are extremely helpful and want nothing more than to see more people come and play – as well as enjoy – clok!

[Sneaky]

I actually find options 18 useful, so the descriptions are there when you want them and not spamming you when you want to move somewhere quickly. Just a little addition.

[blindndangerous]

Nice job. Hopefully the help files will be updated in game so that people don't have to go to the wiki to learn everything as I know that turns people off as they'd rather stay in one window and learn about commands that way.

[Jirato]

Are there any particular help files you find lacking?

FYI, most of the help files are actually direct imports from the wiki. If there's a specific wiki article you'd like to see in-game, all you have to do is request it.

[blindndangerous]

I'll have to get back to you on that. Now that I'm used to doing things I don't look at the help files as much anymore, but I know that when I first started out I had some trouble as typing help command would just tell me that it was either coming soon or that it didn't exist in the help database.