Accessibility ModandClaude Opus 5
a00f327c68
The item grids said which item you were on ("a torch, slot 3") but nothing
about what it was -- no description, no condition, and no "what does this
refine into", which is the whole of alchemy.
The game already composes all of it in one place: item.getPopupMessage()
(modules/item.lua:199) returns the cursor popup's line list, so read that
rather than re-deriving anything from templates.
It also already gates it behind a dwell -- the popup only fades in after
examinationPopupFadeInDuration (0.4s), so a sighted player who arrows past a
slot never sees the details either. Mirror that instead of inventing a
modality: stop on an item for 0.6s and the details speak themselves, queued.
"=" reads them on demand, Shift+= keeps the name line too. ("r" was the
obvious mnemonic but is a game-claimed scancode, and getCommand() dispatches
on scancode ignoring modifiers.)
New generic hook descriptor.details() returning a LIST of blocks, so each is
also pushed into the console history and [ ] \ walk a long description back
afterwards -- the journal page trick. Only _itemgrid.lua implements it so far.
The other half is the hint panel craft/refine/trade draw permanently beside
the grid, which the popup never contains: recipe components, and price, which
appears nowhere else in the game. The three panels share a shape, so one
reader covers them. Affordability survives only as a red colour in the hint
table and decides whether enter does anything, so it is decoded and spoken.
59 testbed checks, 0 failures: a synthetic ivy_leaves item as the version-bump
canary for getPopupMessage, hasUpvalue over every hint-panel local, four
assertions on the pure settleStep, and an end-to-end "=" press. Not yet
exercised against a live item -- the prologue inventory is empty.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
242 lines
9.6 KiB
Markdown
242 lines
9.6 KiB
Markdown
# Accessibility mod — Sulphur Memories: Alchemist
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Blind-accessibility mod adding screen-reader speech, an object tracker, tile
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exploration and directional wall tones.
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Speech goes through **Tolk**, so it uses your running screen reader (NVDA, JAWS,
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System Access) and falls back to SAPI 5 if none is running.
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## Running
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```
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"C:\Program Files\LOVE\love.exe" "D:\code\Sulphur Memories Alchemist 0.4.2 sanctified"
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```
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Use `lovec.exe` instead of `love.exe` to get a console window — every spoken line
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is mirrored there, which is useful for reporting bugs.
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The TTS libraries live in `accessibility/lib/` and are loaded by absolute path,
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so nothing needs installing or copying into Program Files.
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If speech does not work, check the console for the startup self-test:
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```
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[accessibility] TTS: available
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[accessibility] speech channel: yes
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```
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`speech channel: NO` means Tolk loaded but found no screen reader and no SAPI.
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---
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## Keys added by the mod
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All of these are **in addition to** the game's own controls, and none of them
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replace a key the game uses.
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### Reading the message log
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| Key | Action |
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|---|---|
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| `[` | Previous message |
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| `]` | Next message |
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| `Shift+[` | Oldest message |
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| `Shift+]` | Newest message (and resume following new messages) |
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| `\` | Repeat the current message |
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| `Shift+\` | Copy the current message to the clipboard |
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New messages are spoken automatically. Pressing any key that does something in
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the game cancels whatever is still queued, so you are never stuck listening to a
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backlog. While you are moving through the history, new messages do **not** drag
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the cursor away — press `Shift+]` to return to the newest.
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### Looking around
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| Key | Action |
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|---|---|
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| `/` | Scan all eight neighbouring tiles, clockwise from north |
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| `Shift+/` | Cycle automatic announcements of what comes in and out of view |
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| `;` | Where am I — area name, in-game date and time, coordinates |
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| `Ctrl` + numpad `1`–`9` | Describe the tile in that direction without moving |
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| `Ctrl` + numpad `5` | Describe the tile you are standing on |
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#### Announcing things as they come into view (`Shift+/`)
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`/` tells you what is around you *now*. `Shift+/` decides how much of that
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happens by itself as you walk, cycling three settings:
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- **View announcements when you stop** *(the default)* — changes pile up while
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you are moving and are read out once you have stood still for a moment. A
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single step reports as soon as the step lands. A ten-tile walk gives you **one
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combined summary at the end** rather than ten reports on top of each other,
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and it is a *net* change: something that came into view halfway along and went
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out again before you stopped is not mentioned.
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- **View announcements on every step** — each step reports its own change. Best
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when you are creeping along carefully; too talkative for crossing a room.
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- **View announcements off**.
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You hear things arriving — `In view: a rat, 4 tiles north-east. barrel, 3,
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nearest 2 tiles east` — and creatures leaving: `Out of view: a rat`. Only
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creatures are reported when they leave. Furniture drops out of sight constantly
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as walls come between you and it, and being told the bed is out of view every
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other step would bury everything useful; a creature you can no longer see is
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worth knowing about.
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These announcements are queued rather than urgent, so anything you asked for
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yourself is spoken first, and any key that acts in the game clears them.
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Nothing outside your current field of view is ever reported.
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The game's own examine mode (**`x`**) is also fully spoken: the arrow keys move a
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cursor around the map and each tile is described with its distance and direction
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from you. Press `f` in examine mode to jump between exits.
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### Object tracker
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Finds everything you have seen, sorted by distance.
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| Key | Action |
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|---|---|
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| `Ctrl+PageUp` / `Ctrl+PageDown` | Previous / next **category** |
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| `PageUp` / `PageDown` | Previous / next **kind** of thing in that category |
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| `Shift+PageUp` / `Shift+PageDown` | Previous / next **instance** of that kind |
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| `Home` | Distance, direction, and number of steps by path |
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| `Ctrl+Home` | Walk to it |
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Categories: Creatures, Items, Alchemy, Interactables, Exits, Terrain features.
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So `Ctrl+PageDown` to reach "Creatures", `PageDown` to move between rat / beetle
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/ guard, and `Shift+PageDown` to step through the individual rats. `Home` gives
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you the walking distance, which indoors is often very different from the
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straight-line distance.
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`Ctrl+Home` does exactly what left-clicking the tile does with a mouse: it queues
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a walk along the game's own path. If the thing itself cannot be stood on — a
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creature, a chest, a bed — you walk to the nearest tile beside it instead, and
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the announcement says "next to" rather than "to". As with a mouse click, the walk
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stops early if something interrupts you, and while an enemy is in view the game
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only ever commits one step at a time.
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Your selection sticks. The list is rebuilt and re-sorted by distance every turn,
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but the tracker follows the thing you picked rather than the slot it was in, so a
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rat you are tracking stays selected as it moves around. It is only let go when it
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genuinely stops being visible.
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The tracker only ever reports things you have actually seen.
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### The journal (`j`)
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The journal has three parts, and all three are spoken:
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| Key | Moves |
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|---|---|
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| `q` / `e` | Between tabs — Quests, Lore, Bestiary, Components, Recipes, Tutorials |
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| Up / Down | Between entries in the current tab |
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| Left / Right | Between pages of the selected entry |
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Selecting an entry reads its title, its position in the list, and then the text
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of the page itself. The tab name is only spoken when you change tabs, and the
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title only when you change entry, so flipping pages doesn't make you sit through
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the heading again.
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Long entries run to several pages; you are told `page 2 of 3` when there is more
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than one. The page text also goes into the message history, so `[` and `]` will
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walk back through it and `\` re-reads a line — useful for a long lore entry you
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want to take in a piece at a time.
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### The inventory (`i`)
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Moving the cursor reads the item under it, or `empty`, plus the slot number:
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`a torch, slot 3`. `q` / `e` change tab, and the tab name is spoken when it
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changes. An item you are currently wearing, wielding or have switched on is read
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as `equipped`.
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Pressing enter (or `z`) on an item opens a small menu of the things you can do
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with *that* item right now — the list is different for every item, and changes
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with its state. It is read as, for example:
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```
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a torch, actions, Switch on, 1 of 2
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```
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Up and Down move through the actions, enter performs the selected one, and any
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other key closes the menu without doing anything. After the action runs you hear
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the item again, so `Switch on` is followed by `a torch, equipped, slot 3` — that
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is your confirmation it worked.
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Some items have no actions at all (plain crafting reagents, for instance). For
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those, enter does nothing whatsoever in the base game — not even a click — so the
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mod says `a pinch of sulphur, no actions` rather than leaving you wondering
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whether the key registered.
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Common actions include Activate, Wield, Unwield, Wear, Take off, Switch on,
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Switch off, Drink, Eat, Apply, Read, Open, and Prepare for throwing / Pack away.
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**Equipping is done from here** — there is no separate equipment screen.
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### Item details (`=`)
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| Key | Action |
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| `=` | Read the full details of the item under the cursor |
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| `Shift+=` | The same, including the item's name |
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Reading the cursor only tells you *which* item you are on. The details tell you
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what it is: what kind of thing it is, its condition if it can wear out, its
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description, and — the useful part for alchemy — **what it turns into**, listed
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per refinement method:
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```
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It is a raw material. Some fresh green leaves from ivy. They contain weak
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poison. Yields: x1 when ground in a mortar. x0.2 when distilled.
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```
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On the crafting, refining and trading screens the details also read the panel
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beside the grid, which is where the game keeps the things you most need before
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committing: a recipe's components and **whether you can afford them**, what a
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refinement produces and how much of it you already have, and — in a shop — the
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**price**, which appears nowhere else.
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You do not have to press `=` every time. **Stop on an item for about half a
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second and the details are read to you automatically**, which is what the game
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does for a sighted player: its own detail popup only appears after you have
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hovered a slot for a moment. Arrow through a tab quickly and you hear only the
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names, exactly as a sighted player sees only the icons.
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Details also go into the message history, so `[` and `]` walk back through a
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long description a piece at a time and `\` re-reads a line.
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### Your character
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| Key | Action |
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| `'` | Health and active effects |
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| `,` | Currently selected action |
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You are also told automatically when you take damage or are healed.
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### Wall tones
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Each step you take, a tone sounds from the direction of any wall within five
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tiles, positioned in 3D so you can hear where it is. Further walls are louder.
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---
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## Reporting problems
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Run with `lovec.exe` and include the console output. Lines beginning `[speech]`
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show exactly what was spoken and when:
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- `[speech]!` — interrupted whatever was being said
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- `[speech]*` — urgent alert, spoken immediately
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- `[speech] ` — queued normally
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If something is **silent that should not be**, that is the most useful thing to
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report, together with the screen you were on and the key you pressed.
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---
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## For developers
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See `accessibility/docs/` — start with `docs/README.md`, and read
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`docs/scratch.md` first if you are picking the work up mid-stream.
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