2007-02-09 22:09:10

aaron wrote:

The Game Will Not Let Me Move! On The Blind Vission Screen It Just Says "aaron (-1, 0) As If I Am Not Moving! I Use The Arrow Keys But It Just Does The Same Thing (after Pressing Escape As Well)
What Do Ido? I Can't Use The Number Pad Since That's What I Use To Make My Screen Reader Tell Me Certain Things.

If the Blind Vision screen displays "aaron (-1, 0)" that means aaron is not that character you currently control. Which character name is displayed in the character line (the one right above the weapon/armour line which shows the name of the currently controlled character and his EP).

Have you recruited any NPCs? If not, this looks like a bug. I could not find anything obvious, though.

Does the game still react to input e.g. can you still open and close the Blind Vision screen? There was a bug in the first test version (ftb_test.zip) which could cause the game to freeze (100% CPU).

2007-02-15 06:12:01

Hello.

I've now downloaded Adom and have been playing it fairly extensively, so hopefully I can offer some more helpful information.

I was wondering why you've rooted the curser in Warprogue to the title bar, rather than the first line (where text appears), as it seems to be in Adom. Having it there means that the screen reader will automatically read messages as they appear, rather than having to go and read them yourself. True, reading the game map this way isn't too helpful, but the virtual focus can always be used for this purpose if necessary (though in Warprogue, due to the sonar and blind vision functions, this shouldn't be needed much), and you can always interupt the screen reader if necessary.

I am using Hal V6.53, but I'm fairly certain that other software like Jaws work the same way, automatically speaking text that appears at the curser position (many accessible applications feature message boxes

The only thing Adom is missing (and perhaps you might considder contacting the author), are the blind vision and sonar commands, other than that I do find it extremely playable, though it does require me to look at the map, both with the virtual focus and visually though this is certainly not relyable and blind vision and sonar uld make life much easier, as well as make the game more accessible.

On the visual angle, you might considder adding a few high contrast colours to some of the symbols in the game, though of course this would only be helpful to some people and personally i'd stil be relying upon the blind vision and sonar commands a fair amount.

sorry to offer yet more cryticismsome up as I find out a litle extra info about roguelikes, hopefully though, once the curser thing is fixed everything should be fine (as I've said, the colour business is entirely optional).

With our dreaming and singing, Ceaseless and sorrowless we! The glory about us clinging Of the glorious futures we see,
Our souls with high music ringing; O men! It must ever be
That we dwell in our dreaming and singing, A little apart from ye. (Arthur O'Shaughnessy 1873.)

2007-02-15 07:02:57

dark empathy wrote:

Hello.

I've now downloaded Adom and have been playing it fairly extensively, so hopefully I can offer some more helpful information.

I was wondering why you've rooted the curser in Warprogue to the title bar, rather than the first line (where text appears), as it seems to be in Adom. Having it there means that the screen reader will automatically read messages as they appear, rather than having to go and read them yourself.

Warp Rogue has no visible cursor. It is turned off. You want me to place it at the message line? No problem.  However, in ADOM the cursor is placed at the player character's location, not at the message line..

I am using Hal V6.53, but I'm fairly certain that other software like Jaws work the same way, automatically speaking text that appears at the curser position (many accessible applications feature message boxes

Frankly, I do not know how I need to set up the message function to get this to work. I guess I need to experiment a little..
However, right now I have no time. A new version has been released recently (0.7.4 - but I cannot update the website right now because the server is down) and a new version is unlikely to appear any time soon (so much else do to), so hopefully the game is accessible enough as it is it. I will put this on the TODO, though.

The only thing Adom is missing (and perhaps you might considder contacting the author), are the blind vision and sonar commands, other than that I do find it extremely playable, though it does require me to look at the map, both with the virtual focus and visually though this is certainly not relyable and blind vision and sonar uld make life much easier, as well as make the game more accessible.

I happy to hear that I have not wasted my time by coding these features. I will post about them in the roguelike development newsgroup, maybe other developers will implement them, too.

On the visual angle, you might considder adding a few high contrast colours to some of the symbols in the game, though of course this would only be helpful to some people and personally i'd stil be relying upon the blind vision and sonar commands a fair amount.

You know, I am trying to make the game accessible but my time is limited, too. I doubt that I will find the time to add any more accessibility features.

2007-02-15 07:50:06

The game is certainly extremely accessible at the moment, the colour thing was merely an extra, though thinking about it, given the sonar and blind vision commands, it'd probably be unnecessary anyway sinse I only look at the map to gain basic layout information, which would be much more easily accessible through the sonar and blind vision commands.

I have no idea what's going on with the curser, or why hal is reading from the top of the window not merely what's under the curser.

I've been quite surprised at the speed you've managed to produce versions of Warprogue, because from what I know about programming it can be a lengthy process, and I certainly appreciate that you have other calls on your time.

the accessibility features you've added to the program have deffinately changed my rather negative opinion on Roguelikes, and are very much appreciated. I'd certainly like to see more roguelikes implimenting them, sinse roguelikes offer a very different style of game to other available text games.

Thanks for all the hard work your putting into accessible gaming (particularly accessible rpg games).

With our dreaming and singing, Ceaseless and sorrowless we! The glory about us clinging Of the glorious futures we see,
Our souls with high music ringing; O men! It must ever be
That we dwell in our dreaming and singing, A little apart from ye. (Arthur O'Shaughnessy 1873.)

2007-02-24 08:10:41

Warp Rogue 0.7.4 officially released now:

http://todoom.sourceforge.net/


Thanks for testing/suggestions!

2007-02-24 21:06:18

I'd see that right away!

2007-04-09 11:58:15

Warp Rogue 0.7.5 has been released!

Download link:
http://todoom.sourceforge.net/


Changelog:

Permadeath is back.
Career tree improvements.
New perk: "Doctor".
New careers: Drug dealer, Imperial officer, Medic.
New function: certificate of honour (replaces hall of fame/character dumps).
The PC generator now skips the naming part.
The number of elevators was reduced (to one per level).
Colour tweaks.
Scavengers now start with an axe instead of a knife.
Engine: multiple dungeons support was added.
Engine: world map support was added.
7 additional enemies (contributed by warfarin).
New object attribute: "Inherent" (for bio weapons).
Negative EP bug fixed.
Machine blood bug fixed.
The "Rogue trading" perk was broken. Fixed.
New object attribute: "No parry".
New bio weapons: bile gland, claws, sharp teeth, daemon talons.
Balancing (Atad, Doombreed).
The stats of machine creatures are no longer randomized.
"Manufacture drugs" description fixed (it IS implemented).
The Perk info UI was improved.
The silent weapon / detection bug was fixed.
A minor look/object bug was fixed ("gore level" was not displayed).
More male character names were added.
Power rating now considers unspent EP.

(Save file compatibility broken)

2007-04-19 23:26:20

Unfortunately, I will have to discontinue the FTB version of Warp Rogue. The reason are new dungeons with more complex structures. Caves for example, their structure is very irregular. Navigating such dungeons is very painful if cannot easily process the entire map. To make things worse line of sight is a critical issue there. Trying to avoid being spotted by the enemy is a major part of the challenge there. And you must see the entire map to be able to do that. Basically, if you do not move carefully suddenly five enemies with ranged attacks might be in line of sight! Which means your character is pretty much dead.

The good news is, that I am seriously thinking about doing an interactive fiction RPG next. That game should be accessible by default. I prefer party based RPGs, so the game will must likely end up being one. I think nobody has done a party based IF RPG before. Combat will probably end up being phase-based. Basically, I thinking about Wizardry 8 without the graphics wink

I will post here again if I actually start working on the project.

P.S.: Warp Rogue 0.8 will feature extensive support for "scenarios". Which basically means you can make your own world just by editing th data files. I could try doing a special FTB scenario, and ship that with the FTB version instead of the default scenario.  The FTB scenario would continue to use only the current (easy to navigate) dungeon type. But I won't do this unless there is enough interest (it's quite a bit of work). Please post if you are interested in such a thing.

2007-05-02 22:01:09

I'd love to try it out!
I've never heard of this genre of game.

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2007-05-03 07:51:02

Trajectory wrote:

I'd love to try it out!
I've never heard of this genre of game.

The FTB version has been discontinued because of a lack of interest. However, the last released version will continue to be available. Download Link:

http://downloads.sourceforge.net/todoom … b-i586.exe