Color Your Thoughts
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This has been raised a dozen times over the years, as either a QoL update in and of itself to modernize the UI a bit, perhaps a compromise by doing it through IC means (chrome, hackable or upgradable SIC chips, etc.)

It's also a legitimate accessibility issue, though you're not going to find staff receptive to that notion ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

The design philosophy has been and continues to be that 'noisy, messy' SIC is 'themely', so I wouldn't hold your breath.

Obviously manually handling your own re-coloring options with your own client remains possible, but as you say it's against policy so I'm sure no one's doing it, rendering the hold out moot anyway, but there's only so much policing that can be done.

It is Johnny who has the final say on things like this. There are multiple different themes for webclient coloring available from the webclient options page.

There are also options for changing your SIC color in game. 'help sic-color'. You can see these options with @options sic. They run the range from dark to light red, the lightest one falling within accessibility guidelines for brightness and contrast ratio.

These have been in place since 06/2018.

Given this, Jameson, I find your answer somewhat disingenuous. We have indeed talked about this a number of times, and actioned on it on multiple occasions–with themes for the webclient, and with in game accessibility/customization options. That is hardly the staff being non-receptive to feedback.

@Volo, if the existing options are still making it difficult for you to read, please take a look at @colors 256 and reply with one in the 'red' family that you think we should add to @options sic and we can raise it with Johnny.

(Edited by Slither at 10:14 am on 10/8/2020)

@Slither,

We're simply not going to agree here, which is all right. The staff has their stance, and 'it is what it is'.

I'm not being disingenuous. I spent a great deal of time laying out – in good faith -- how the status quo SD UI (both at the time, and in present iterations) continues to create both casual accessibility issues (like the poster above complaining about headaches, which is an eye strain issue, and they are hardly the first to make the complaint) to far more difficult visual clarity / visual processing issues for some players, myself included.

It literally triggers migraines and vertigo spells for me that makes the game nearly unplayable. So I taught myself very trivial lua scripting in Mudlet, because I didn't expect the staff to suddenly cater to just me. I shared on the BGBB how to do it for anyone who might have similar issues, or who just might want a clearer experience, because either by design or by priority, it's not otherwise on offer.

Those posts were genuine and thorough and took time because to be direct, I like the game being accessible -- Sindome can be a difficult game, but it should be difficult IC, but because the design as-is wants you to suffer, 'cuz theme'.

Johnny does indeed have the final say, and his one-line response, almost verbatim, was 'this is cheating, don't do it'.

People can make of that what they want.

Letting people change SIC from color1 to color2 makes minimal difference. Contrast is probably most crucial, and that offering doesn't change that at all. It's all still the same color. This is 101 stuff, the change was kind of a head scratcher. It wasn't a step forward or a step backward, just a step sideways. I 100% appreciate that the topic received any attention at all but it's clearly not achieved what anyone (for -years-) has been complaining about.

The highest color red in the SIC isn't horrible.

My current struggles are the OOC channel blues, the game and ooc channel blues are hard to read and I find myself having to lean in and squint.

Other than that my only visual issues are figuring out what the layout of rooms versus characters, I'm finding myself missing lots of players in the layout, but that's more of an experience thing I'm sure.

The standard lineBufferFont option for the webclient is Source Code Pro. It's my favorite. :)

SIC is red because it is not optional. It is not a QOL piece of cyberware that characters opt into.

It an oppressive piece of chrome that everyone gets as a condition of admission to the dome. It is a mass produced piece of cyberware, and because of that is done as cheaply as possible.

The red SIC font is not about us as players and what is easiest for us. It is about immersion into the game.

Red SIC sucks and "you" as the player don't like it? Great. Odds are that your character doesn't like it all that much either. Lean into it. Deal with it ICly.

Who knows. Maybe if 90+ million Withmorian's get together and make a big enough stink about it, for long enough, the corporations will certainly care. Right? Because the corporations care about the serfs dying on the streets and whimpering in the alleys. Right? =)

Snarky joking aside, characters can change the world. I think it was @nymphali who recently brought up the extensive plotting and work that "brought biomods to Mixers".

The game doesn't change via BgBB. The game changes through roleplay.

Yeah have to agree with Nepika here. It's hard to fucking read on my phone. So what do I do? I don't play when I can't be near my computer. Womp womp

How the fuck do you ICly respond to an OOC aesthetic choice

Red lines of SIC text is the closest metaphor of what we as players can perceive as our character's lived experience.

If your character doesn't like (whatever you think your character perceives instead of red lines of text) SIC as it currently exists, then work ICly to change it.

That's my two cents.

I'm not staff.

All I'm saying is that as players of characters, we have agency to change the world that our characters live in. And through that, the way we as players experience that world that our characters live in.

I did read all of your response. Even the bits I think are just you being frankly a mix of belligerent and far from understanding. I just chose the part I wanted to respond to just as you have when addressing mine.

Your point that the game does change doesn't undermine the fact that this game isn't exactly friendly for players with certain difficulties such as reading certain shades over certain backgrounds. An issue that can't be changed in game, because again to my understanding SIC is a voice in your head. If you went around complaining that the voice in your head is a bad colour, it would be insane. Feel free to correct me if I have misunderstood how SIC works, but I feel like it's a valid question that deserves more of a response than yeah it sucks for you, deal with this purely user issue in character.

I wouldn't have an issue if SIC was a different color honestly, but I personally use the lighter red color in @options sic to make it easier to read. Maybe it'll help?

Right, that's what I have it set to currently, Cowbell. As mentioned, it mostly works, but still makes me wonder why there's such a hard stance on having to be red.