alchemist-accessibility/accessibility/README.md

# Accessibility mod — Sulphur Memories: Alchemist

Blind-accessibility mod adding screen-reader speech, an object tracker, tile
exploration and directional wall tones.

Speech goes through **Tolk**, so it uses your running screen reader (NVDA, JAWS,
System Access) and falls back to SAPI 5 if none is running.

## Running

```
"C:\Program Files\LOVE\love.exe" "D:\code\Sulphur Memories Alchemist 0.4.2 sanctified"
```

Use `lovec.exe` instead of `love.exe` to get a console window — every spoken line
is mirrored there, which is useful for reporting bugs.

The TTS libraries live in `accessibility/lib/` and are loaded by absolute path,
so nothing needs installing or copying into Program Files.

If speech does not work, check the console for the startup self-test:

```
[accessibility] TTS: available
[accessibility] speech channel: yes
```

`speech channel: NO` means Tolk loaded but found no screen reader and no SAPI.

---

## Keys added by the mod

All of these are **in addition to** the game's own controls, and none of them
replace a key the game uses.

### Reading the message log

| Key | Action |
|---|---|
| `[` | Previous message |
| `]` | Next message |
| `Shift+[` | Oldest message |
| `Shift+]` | Newest message (and resume following new messages) |
| `\` | Repeat the current message |
| `Shift+\` | Copy the current message to the clipboard |

New messages are spoken automatically. Pressing any key that does something in
the game cancels whatever is still queued, so you are never stuck listening to a
backlog. While you are moving through the history, new messages do **not** drag
the cursor away — press `Shift+]` to return to the newest.

### Looking around

| Key | Action |
|---|---|
| `/` | Scan all eight neighbouring tiles, clockwise from north |
| `Shift+/` | Cycle automatic announcements of what comes in and out of view |
| `;` | Where am I — area name, in-game date and time, coordinates |
| `Ctrl` + numpad `1`–`9` | Describe the tile in that direction without moving |
| `Ctrl` + numpad `5` | Describe the tile you are standing on |
| `End` | Unexplored ways — where there is still somewhere to go |
| `Shift+End` | The nearest way out of this level |

#### Getting your bearings on a whole floor (`End`)

`/` and the numpad probes tell you about the tiles beside you. `End` tells you
about the *floor*: it looks at everywhere you have already been, finds the places
where explored ground runs up against ground you have never seen, and reads them
out nearest first.

> `3 unexplored ways: 6 tiles north, 11 tiles south-west, 14 tiles east`

Each "way" is one opening, so a wide doorway counts once rather than three times.
When there is nowhere left to go you get `No unexplored ways from here`, which is
usually the moment to take `Shift+End` and leave.

This never tells you anything about ground you have not seen — only that there is
still a way through. It is the same thing a sighted player reads off the edge of
the explored area on screen.

`Shift+End` names the nearest exit you know about, how far away it is, and how
many steps it takes to walk there. Exits are also a tracker category (below), so
`Shift+End` is a shortcut rather than the only route — and it deliberately leaves
whatever you were tracking untouched.

#### Announcing things as they come into view (`Shift+/`)

`/` tells you what is around you *now*. `Shift+/` decides how much of that
happens by itself as you walk, cycling three settings:

- **View announcements when you stop** *(the default)* — changes pile up while
  you are moving and are read out once you have stood still for a moment. A
  single step reports as soon as the step lands. A ten-tile walk gives you **one
  combined summary at the end** rather than ten reports on top of each other,
  and it is a *net* change: something that came into view halfway along and went
  out again before you stopped is not mentioned.
- **View announcements on every step** — each step reports its own change. Best
  when you are creeping along carefully; too talkative for crossing a room.
- **View announcements off**.

You hear things arriving — `In view: a rat, 4 tiles north-east. barrel, 3,
nearest 2 tiles east` — and creatures leaving: `Out of view: a rat`. Only
creatures are reported when they leave. Furniture drops out of sight constantly
as walls come between you and it, and being told the bed is out of view every
other step would bury everything useful; a creature you can no longer see is
worth knowing about.

These announcements are queued rather than urgent, so anything you asked for
yourself is spoken first, and any key that acts in the game clears them.

Nothing outside your current field of view is ever reported.

#### Seeing inside containers (the game's own `s`)

The game's tutorial tells you to press **`s`** to see the contents of containers.
For a sighted player that draws the icon of whatever is inside every chest, sack
and pile you can see, straight onto the map. Pressing it now **speaks the same
thing**, nearest first:

```
A wooden chest, 2 tiles east, A bunch of ivy leaves, 3, A torch.
A burlap sack, 5 tiles north-west, Coarse salt
```

or `No loot in view` when there is nothing to find, so you can tell the key
worked rather than wondering whether it was dropped.

The icons can only show one item per container; you get the **whole list**. Each
container is also pushed into the message history, so `[`, `]` and `\` walk back
through a long list after it has been read out.

This is your own key — whatever you have `Highlight loot` bound to in the game's
controls, and however you have set *"highlight overlays require holding the
key"*. Clicking the toolbar icon works too. It also works in examine mode and
while aiming. Only containers you can currently see are reported.

The game's own examine mode (**`x`**) is also fully spoken: the arrow keys move a
cursor around the map and each tile is described with its distance and direction
from you. Press `f` in examine mode to jump between exits.

### Object tracker

Finds everything you have seen, sorted by distance.

| Key | Action |
|---|---|
| `Ctrl+PageUp` / `Ctrl+PageDown` | Previous / next **category** |
| `PageUp` / `PageDown` | Previous / next **kind** of thing in that category |
| `Shift+PageUp` / `Shift+PageDown` | Previous / next **instance** of that kind |
| `Home` | Distance, direction, and number of steps by path |
| `Ctrl+Home` | Walk to it |
| `Shift+End` | The nearest exit, without changing your selection |

Categories: Creatures, Items, Alchemy, Interactables, Exits, Terrain features.

So `Ctrl+PageDown` to reach "Creatures", `PageDown` to move between rat / beetle
/ guard, and `Shift+PageDown` to step through the individual rats. `Home` gives
you the walking distance, which indoors is often very different from the
straight-line distance.

`Ctrl+Home` does exactly what left-clicking the tile does with a mouse: it queues
a walk along the game's own path. If the thing itself cannot be stood on — a
creature, a chest, a bed — you walk to the nearest tile beside it instead, and
the announcement says "next to" rather than "to". As with a mouse click, the walk
stops early if something interrupts you, and while an enemy is in view the game
only ever commits one step at a time.

Your selection sticks. The list is rebuilt and re-sorted by distance every turn,
but the tracker follows the thing you picked rather than the slot it was in, so a
rat you are tracking stays selected as it moves around. It is only let go when it
genuinely stops being visible.

The tracker only ever reports things you have actually seen.

### The journal (`j`)

The journal has three parts, and all three are spoken:

| Key | Moves |
|---|---|
| `q` / `e` | Between tabs — Quests, Lore, Bestiary, Components, Recipes, Tutorials |
| Up / Down | Between entries in the current tab |
| Left / Right | Between pages of the selected entry |

Selecting an entry reads its title, its position in the list, and then the text
of the page itself. The tab name is only spoken when you change tabs, and the
title only when you change entry, so flipping pages doesn't make you sit through
the heading again.

Long entries run to several pages; you are told `page 2 of 3` when there is more
than one. The page text also goes into the message history, so `[` and `]` will
walk back through it and `\` re-reads a line — useful for a long lore entry you
want to take in a piece at a time.

### The inventory (`i`)

Moving the cursor reads the item under it, or `empty`, plus the slot number:
`a torch, slot 3`. `q` / `e` change tab, and the tab name is spoken when it
changes. An item you are currently wearing, wielding or have switched on is read
as `equipped`.

Pressing enter (or `z`) on an item opens a small menu of the things you can do
with *that* item right now — the list is different for every item, and changes
with its state. It is read as, for example:

```
a torch, actions, Switch on, 1 of 2
```

Up and Down move through the actions, enter performs the selected one, and any
other key closes the menu without doing anything. After the action runs you hear
the item again, so `Switch on` is followed by `a torch, equipped, slot 3` — that
is your confirmation it worked.

Some items have no actions at all (plain crafting reagents, for instance). For
those, enter does nothing whatsoever in the base game — not even a click — so the
mod says `a pinch of sulphur, no actions` rather than leaving you wondering
whether the key registered.

Common actions include Activate, Wield, Unwield, Wear, Take off, Switch on,
Switch off, Drink, Eat, Apply, Read, Open, and Prepare for throwing / Pack away.
**Equipping is done from here** — there is no separate equipment screen.

### Item details (`=`)

| Key | Action |
|---|---|
| `=` | Read the full details of the item under the cursor |
| `Shift+=` | The same, including the item's name |

Reading the cursor only tells you *which* item you are on. The details tell you
what it is: what kind of thing it is, its condition if it can wear out, its
description, and — the useful part for alchemy — **what it turns into**, listed
per refinement method:

```
It is a raw material. Some fresh green leaves from ivy. They contain weak
poison. Yields: x1 when ground in a mortar. x0.2 when distilled.
```

On the crafting, refining and trading screens the details also read the panel
beside the grid, which is where the game keeps the things you most need before
committing: a recipe's components and **whether you can afford them**, what a
refinement produces and how much of it you already have, and — in a shop — the
**price**, which appears nowhere else.

The same key works on the **research tree** at the writing desk, where the focus
line only tells you the node's name and whether you can afford it. The details
read the rest of what is on screen: what it costs in knowledge and how much you
are short by, which recipes it unlocks, and its description. `Shift+=` adds the
node's name and your full knowledge stock across all four types.

```
Costs 5 practical, 2 academic, 2 occult knowledge, short 2 occult. Unlocks
Sinister gauntlets, Verdant sandals. Clothing with supernatural attributes can
be created by infusing the weave with magical powers.
```

You do not have to press `=` every time. **Stop on an item for about half a
second and the details are read to you automatically**, which is what the game
does for a sighted player: its own detail popup only appears after you have
hovered a slot for a moment. Arrow through a tab quickly and you hear only the
names, exactly as a sighted player sees only the icons.

Details also go into the message history, so `[` and `]` walk back through a
long description a piece at a time and `\` re-reads a line.

### The travel map

The map of Rimesia you get when you leave an area is a picture: icons scattered
across a painting, with a panel beside them. Arrowing through the list now reads
what the picture says.

```
Blackreed Mire, swamp, 2 of 9, north-east, Travel will take 1 day and 6 hours,
Visited 3 days ago
```

- **what kind of place it is** — town, crypt, mine, shipwreck, witchwood — which
  on screen is only the shape of the icon;
- **which way it lies** from where you are standing now;
- **how long the journey takes**, which is the number the decision actually turns
  on and which was previously only in the side panel;
- **when you were last there**, which on a map full of similar-sounding names is
  often the only way to tell them apart.

The area's description is longer, so it is not read every time you move the
cursor. `=` reads it, and stopping on an area for half a second reads it by
itself — the same way item details work.

### Your character

| Key | Action |
|---|---|
| `'` | Health and active effects |
| `,` | Currently selected action |

You are also told automatically when you take damage or are healed.

### Wall tones

Each step you take, a tone sounds from the direction of any wall within five
tiles, positioned in 3D so you can hear where it is. Further walls are louder.

---

## Reporting problems

Run with `lovec.exe` and include the console output. Lines beginning `[speech]`
show exactly what was spoken and when:

- `[speech]!` — interrupted whatever was being said
- `[speech]*` — urgent alert, spoken immediately
- `[speech] ` — queued normally

If something is **silent that should not be**, that is the most useful thing to
report, together with the screen you were on and the key you pressed.

---

## For developers

See `accessibility/docs/` — start with `docs/README.md`, and read
`docs/scratch.md` first if you are picking the work up mid-stream.