@skintone is rad, I'd love to see more things like it.
Things like separating a hair @naked so it can show the mechanical color in ANSI, and maybe having all the clothing text be the color of the item, though that may turn some descriptions into rainbow vomit.
If I remember right, coders have said before that adding new nakeds is a hassle due to it needs to be coded in combat and worse it would break @coverage on clothes.
While I don't think much other than the SIC one because it was a big move to make stuff more readable with colorblind/bad eyesight folk, having colored tattoos with a called color (like clothes) would be kind of cool. Added bonus it would boom tattooist income with all the people wanting to update their sick tats.
Mainly because I feel like missing private/key messages in all of the red and SIC chatter helps to remind me of the ambient noise and chaos of SIC.
And, also, "missing" messages can be a tool as much as it can be a hindrance.
That being said, somebody did suggest "upgraded" SIC chips that allows organizing different SIC messages in different colors.
Mainly because I feel like missing private/key messages in all of the red and SIC chatter helps to remind me of the ambient noise and chaos of SIC.
And, also, "missing" messages can be a tool as much as it can be a hindrance.
That being said, somebody did suggest "upgraded" SIC chips that allows organizing different SIC messages in different colors.
I have an extremely hard time following people's speech/emotes/poses unless it's a 1 on 1 interaction and we're stationary due to them blending in with everything else. Some times even to the point of eye strain. I understand not wanting the game to be a rainbow of colours, but allowing players to change it to what ever colour they like on their side surely couldn't do any harm? Similar to how we can change the colours of NPCs and items in a room to what ever we want, which is a great option that I made immediate use of. Some of us just have sensitive eyes and/or are more colour-oriented visually and this would be a huge help. I know there are optional themes for the entire MOO and I tried all of them, but they don't really fix the issue and as far as my experience I feel the base model with black background suits the game best for that atmospheric feel.
I essentially can't play the game without clientside assistance that is considered cheating for more than an hour unless I'm just sitting in my cube, but these kinds of complaints haven't been taken seriously.
The MOOside UI experience either needs some modernization or players need to he allowed to use their clients to make the game palatable to view, whatever their needs. There's nothing to that which breaks the word or spirit of the client 'playing the game for you'.
Staff have said they want the game to have a certain feel based on the color scheme, etc. Cool, then you play it with that color scheme. I'd like to play it period, without paying an uncomfortable physical price.
The new nonprofit's aims are noble. Maybe let's start here.
I have a seriously hard time parsing when someone is talking or posing at me in a room, especially with more than a few people in the room all posing or talking. I have searched for an elegant way for my client to highlight 'you's but haven't been able to figure it out for the most part, I didn't know it would be considered cheating.
Sometimes it gets so bad that people think I am ignoring them when I couldn't actually tell that someone said anything to me at all. I'll scroll back up and painfully search through recent logs to eventually find where they said something to me, but that also takes some time where I'm effectively out of the scene.
I have ADD and my eyes pretty much glaze over when I see a large scroll of text. I have been trying to get better at quickly scanning over it all to see what's for me and what's not, but I still miss things and get anxious that I am missing something.
On XOOC the argument was raised that if you couldn't parse it yourself then maybe the room is too overfull of people and it's reasonable that you missed something. I think that's really unfair to some people, especially since there's already a mechanic for that already which blocks messages and tells you when you are missing something due to it being too loud at a location. If my characters' stats allow my character to hear it, but I cannot understand or find it myself due to my own real-life issues, I'm depending on a accessiblity option that can help even that out a bit.
This doesn't have to make the game into a rainbow as Slither said. Since it's evident that most people don't have issues with this, the option can be off by default.
I've read arguments along the lines of 'well if a room is busy...' or 'well SIC is noisy...'
There are already, or could be, mechanics present along these lines. If your character can perceive incoming information, you should 100% be able to parse it. A cluttered, poor UI should not interfere with that.
I don't care about XOOC input. If folks have opinions, they can offer it here for more permanent, pubic consumption.
So many arguments made are based on subjective tastes about aesthetics, color, etc. I don't hear those same arguments being made against blind players using screen readers.
Either you accept making accessibility a priority and understand a variety of players engage with the game with a variety of challenges, or you choose to be ignorant.
Silence from staff is an answer of a kind.
I think this would make it easier to engage with people in loud events and also help out on the eye strain.
Being addressed in speech / poses / SICs should absolutely stand out. Not doing so actually dissuades public gatherings / greater activity, and does absolutely nothing except cause players to lose out on potential RP.
It's a lose/lose/lose.
It's a headache (oftentimes, literally!) for players for no good reason.
As I've gone on at length about before, if staff don't want to deal with it as an issue, they can at least quit carrying the ridiculous water of calling client-side highlighting / recoloring 'cheating'.
Players can already do more accepted client-side tweaking of fonts / broader re-coloring choices to their preferences and it's fine. Unless you're going to offer some diktat that everyone has to play via web client only, you're accepting that.
As it is, players without certain accessibility issues play with an 'advantage'. If this capricious hill is the one you want to die on you're never going to win.
I honestly feel you're being a little dramatic in how you're labeling my posts in this thread.
To quote Leslie Knope:
"If I seem too passionate, it's because I care. If I come off too strong, it's because I feel strongly. And if I push too hard, it's because things aren't moving fast enough."
To quote yourself:
"if you wish to re-up your membership, you'll be agreeing to donate to Withmore Hope Inc, which is a c3 non-profit that has a mission of providing & supporting accessible text-based online games. Any donation you make will be used to further that mission"
Either this is a statement made in good faith or it isn't. That's not inflammatory, that's a simple statement of fact. Over the last few years I've counted at least half a dozen players (other than me!) who have raised these concerns who don't even cite accessibility issues necessarily, they just think it's problematic design that makes the game physically uncomfortable to play.
What feels so silly is that this is something that can potentially cost the staff / coders absolutely zero time to fix. Players can resolve this themselves, client-side, customizing whatever things they feel they need to for their needs. Many players probably already are.
I get the concerns that it will give some clients a perceived advantage if people can't or don't want to use them. Tough! People play every day with all kinds of advantages. We have blind players, mobile players, players who engage with the game every day with disadvantages. But they find ways to continue engaging in ways that work for them because they want to be part of the world and community.
The 'even playing field' is a myth. No one as advocating for automation macros or triggers. These are things that allow for -more- RP and interaction, not less. This makes the game more comfortable and accessible, with -- depending on whether you want it handled MOO-side or client-side, costs the staff zero time and attention.
This is a no brainer, a home run.
There are already coded mechanics that decide whether or not your character hears something in a crowded space, being a player with ADD/ADHD or any kind of visual handicap should not have to be an additional disadvantageous factor when trying to keep up with conversation. It's to the point that I actually missed an initial attack on my character because the block/grapple blended in with the atmospheric flavor text while I was moving around and I lost a handful of precious seconds to react.
This game is fantastic and I'm constantly in awe of how much detail and life has been put into it, I just think it could be so much better of an experience without this one hassle. I shouldn't have to constantly pause the feed and scroll through to try and pick out missed dialogue/actions towards me, it takes away from the immersion and like already mentioned can cause a genuine headache, even with protective eye wear. Letting us have the option to colour speech/emote/pose text can only be beneficial and would make a lot of us happy :)