2021-02-22 04:10:32 (edited by Caccio72 2021-02-22 08:56:05)

I was always dreaming of exploring planets, both irl and in games, many, different type planets, as many and as various as possible.

Any planet exploration focused, or at least containing, involving games you know of?

Nothing else matters, as long the game features detailed planet explorations of different types, it will suit me fine for sure.

(of course I mean only games accessible to us screen reader users)

2021-02-22 05:13:22

You'll probably enjoy WayFar1444, actually. It's got a big planetary component. It's due to come back up next week.

2021-02-22 06:18:23 (edited by matt1211 2021-02-22 06:20:38)

Not sure how close wayfar would be to what he's looking for, it's pretty difficult to get off your starting planet for a while. It's definitely a fun game, but if I remember correctly you really don't start with much and need to make or buy your transportation. I'm also not sure if planets were randomly generated. From what I recall, the admin had to make new planetary systems. There's a decent amount there, but I'm not sure if/when more would be added.

Prier practice and preparation prevents piss poor performance!

2021-02-22 06:56:04

Fair point.

Sadly, there's nothing quite like what you're looking for in an accessible format, as far as I'm aware. I know that there are plenty of games for sighted folks, like Elite Dangerous, which have this kind of gameplay, but no one has found a good way to translate this into accessible exploration yet. I'd love to find something similar.

2021-02-22 09:06:41 (edited by Caccio72 2021-02-22 09:16:47)

Yes, a game with randomly generated planets would be the best for sure, but I haven't heard of any screen reader accessible one either, so with no alternatives, I will give Wayfar a try, many thanks.

Although, as I just read in its main description, it is more about building than exploring the planet, while I like exploration much more...

2021-02-22 11:38:02 (edited by Dark 2021-02-22 11:39:01)

@Caccio, I'd love that sort of game myself, where you could explore different types of planets and find different things, and again, I'm waiting for the accessible version.

However,  you might actually like wayfar, since, while you do spend a lot of time on your starting planet, the planet is huge with lots of different environments, and a large part of the game involves wandering from place to place looking for materials, plus finding things like ancient artefacts and datachips you can hack.

Also, knowing your love of games without direction, Wayfar1444 might suit you since it really is just you in the wilderness starting from nothing going as far as building everything you need, right up to your own starships and robots, so give it a try.

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.)

2021-02-22 12:55:18

An offline choice may be New Horizons. It's an awesome game with lots of potential, though I have to admit it certainly doesn't have to offer as much as the games mentioned here but it's the greatest choice for space and simulation combined.

2021-02-22 14:24:38 (edited by Caccio72 2021-02-22 14:25:54)

Many thanks Dark, now I am actually curious to try Wayfar out...as for New Horizon, as I told in the previous thread I started here, I would love to play it, but all those different sounds in space are making me so confused, that I am simply unable to follow them, which results in me totally getting lost soon after I launch my ship.

If there would be more text, and less sounds to distinguish in open space, I would probably find my way better around in it though...

2021-02-22 15:21:04

@Caccio, New horizons is amazing, I'm just sorry there isn't more since I've been through that game from end to end.
It does have a bit of a learning curve though which is why I wrote This complete guide to the game, hopefully it helps.

But wayfar1444 is also awesome though, I'm really looking forward to trying it again.

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.)

2021-02-22 16:00:26 (edited by Caccio72 2021-02-22 16:05:52)

Ok, many thanks Dark, will try it again after reading that manual of yours.

Oh, and there is also a game called Sound Strider, accordingly it features many nice, different environments to explore, and objects to interact with, I tried it, but just can't get it start, any suggestions how to make it work?

2021-02-22 17:13:19 (edited by Dark 2021-02-22 17:13:37)

With sound strider, if you've downloded the demo and run the exe file, I suspect the simple problem your having is that you need to switch NVDA from browse mode to Focus mode, since even though the game is an Html5 game and plays in a browser, it interacts directly with NVDA like an audiogame.


Sound strider certainly lets you explore, and in a most relaxed way, and is quite unlike anything else around, so once again, though not exactly what you're looking for, is definitely worth a try anyhow.

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.)

2021-02-22 17:45:29

Actually I haven't downloaded the demo, but always tried to play it directly from browser, maybe that caused my problems, thanks for the suggestion.

Also, I liked to play Survive The Wild too, but Avast antivirus kept deleting its .exe file, plus last few times I tried to play it, there was some serious problem with orientation, which others suggested to solve by fixing my compass somehow, but it was just too complicated to me, so I kept failing with it and gave up.

2021-02-22 19:15:33

It's such a shame Outer wilds is not accessible. I played it with a sighted friend and it's a breathtaking experience. But sadly, accessibility is basically out of the question due to the mechanics of the game.

We are pleased, that you made it through the final challenge, where we pretended we were going to murder you. We are throwing a party in honor of your tremendous success. Place the device on the ground, then lay on your stomach with your arms at your sides. A party associate will arrive shortly to collect you for your party. Assume the party submission position or you will miss the party.

2021-02-22 22:40:06

Hmm i have several suggestion but it is not what you want, but maybe can help you:
for android devices there is: seedship. It is random based game in which you control collony ship and must find a planet to start a settlement for mankind.
Olso for android it have star traders, in which you can play as a explorer, and go to differend planets and collect artifacts ect ect...
For pc, you have smugglers, in which you can travel in several star systems, and explore planets.

2021-02-22 23:04:32 (edited by Speakertest 2021-02-22 23:07:49)

There is 4x4 galaxy, although it is  for a web browser.
While there are only 16 planets, they’re all procedurally generated and there are loads of things to see and events to find. You will also have a procedurally generated objective to accomplish.

2021-02-23 00:20:52

@milos star traders elite was available on Ios, though the ios version doesn't have as easy a time with the planet navigator list since it doesn't tell you how far away the different planets are or what faction they are.
Seedship is also playable right from your browser as well.

@speaker test, 4x4 galaxy is really good for what it is, but I do wish it had more resources and options for combat and it's activities, though I'm very interested to see what the dev's up and coming game is like.

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.)

2021-02-23 06:59:22 (edited by Caccio72 2021-02-23 07:17:55)

Well, games for android or ios I just cannot play right, tried to make them work with more emulators, hell, even my sighted software guru pal of mine tried it, we just never managed to make them normally playable for PC.

So since my desktop PC is all what I have for games and internet connection, please suggest me only games made for it.

Plus, I must admit I am still not too adept with my NVDA, what means, the more screen reader accessible, the more NVDA-friendly the game is, the better for me.

For example, since I like fantasy card-battle type games too, I recently bought Slay The Spyre on Steam, but needed lots of help of one of my blind collegues to adjust its settings, to make it work easily enough for me.

Knowing how unaccessible Steam itself is by default, I was always trying to avoid games running on it since my vision loss...this is why I fear a bit to download Sound Strider for example, namely, I noticed its only offered download is on Steam.

As for Seedship, I tried it out earlier, it's a too short and simple game for my taste, sorry, featuring no true planet exploration anyway.

4x4 Galaxy I will try for sure, with only 16 planets it is probably a not too long game either, and I aim for long ones, hopefully even endless, infinite ones, but it may  still serve well to provide fun to me for some time.

Oh btw, Survive The Wild seems to overcome that earlier orientation issueI mentioned here, so now I can play it properly, without issues again, at least until my Avast finds and deletes its .exe file again, pheww.

2021-02-23 07:57:22 (edited by Caccio72 2021-02-23 08:21:48)

Playing 4x4 Galaxy right now: it is very easy to play with screen reader, and I like its randomness too, so it is really close to what I am hoping for...if only it had more, many more planets to explore, providing a much longer gameplay, and an open end, sandbox type mode too perhaps...

Edit:
Yeah, the more I play it the more I like it, Dark, why isn't this game added to the list here, it is so screen reader friendly even I can play it fast, and totally smoothly.

smile

2021-02-23 13:52:39

@Caccio, there are lots of games that need adding to the db, indeed I've not been able to work on it for a few months due to things being generally crappy at the moment and my lady not being well up until earlier this month.
I should get back to things though since there are several games to add, 4x4 galaxy included, since it is a pretty awesome game and I donated to the developer.

You can download the sound strider demo, or indeed buy the game on Itch.io, Steam not required Find it here.


One trick with Steam, is once it's setup, you can actually use it with having as little to do with the thing as possible. You can download games by clicking links on the website, then letting the client do it's thing. Then,once you have the games, you can go to program files/Steam/steamaps/common, and find all the folders for your steam games there.

At that point, it's easy enough to create shortcuts to the games exe files, which you can then run like any ordinary windows program, ignoring the silly Steam client entirely.

Slay the spire does take a bit more setting up it's true, though most of that involves just putting files in the right place and installing the right mods all of which is normal windows and website stuff, and once you've done that, again you can use read the spire to just run the game with a handy shortcut.

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.)

2021-02-23 14:18:39

good times when we had deatmach a new beginin...

Sorry for my english

2021-02-23 14:49:48 (edited by Caccio72 2021-02-23 15:05:33)

Many thanks for the download link for Sound Strider Dark, I used your suggested method to download Slay The Spire too after buying it, this is how I made it start at all on Steam, to have it ready for my blind collegue to make it playable for me, which he did probably exactly the way you described.

And np, no rush with those game addings, glad to hear your Lady is finally well, especially in these covid endangered times.

Btw I just finished my 1st 4x4 Galaxy game, it was really a short, but interesting experience, worth trying for sure, it took me only a couple of hours:

You helped free all the slaves from the Iron Hand and ended the threat the slavers posed!
CONGRATULATIONS, YOU WIN!

So will move on to Sound Strider now, to determine, wether it is worth for me to buy its full version, will make some further attempts with New Horizon too, based on your instructions this time...and shall also keep waiting for Wayfar to start running again of course.

2021-02-23 19:33:44 (edited by Caccio72 2021-02-23 19:38:46)

Damn, it seems I am still doing something wrong in Sound Strider, I downloaded it, and can start the game, but when I select open end version, I can only hear my footsteps, nothing else, no background sound or whatever, and even footsteps I can hear only when moving up/down with arrows...while when I select adventure, the only difference is I can hear some beep sounds, one I can approach and reach, the other one however I don't seem to be able to come closer, but only move into left and right direction from it...any idea what I am still doing wrong?

I guess I should hear some background sounds, noises, or some text announcing my location, the current area, or terrain...similar to how it works in Survive The Wild...

This is probably all due what you said about changing NVDA from browsing to focus mode...sorry, told you I am still far from being adept enough with it, so please explain to me how this should actually be done?

2021-02-23 23:58:35 (edited by Dark 2021-02-24 00:06:09)

Actually, I suspect sound strider is working correctly, it's just a very different style of game.
Read The documentation here.

There are no announcements or text speech in the game itself, it's all about exploring the soundscape. Use up and down arrow (or s and w), to move forward or backward, and hit r to continuously move, turn with q and e or left and right arrows, and sidestep with a and D, then use the other keyboard keys to play your virtual instrument (you can find new ones as you play).

In free mode, just wander around and hear the sound. In adventure mode, you can move between beacons to fulfill little quests and tasks, but again, even these are optional.

Check out the documentation for details, and also the sound glossary for the sound of the beacons and the compass, which tells you if your heading the wrong way.

Parts of the soundscape are quiet, parts are louder, it's just a case of wandering around, seeing what you can find, and activating beacons when you come to them, since sound strider really is more an experience than a game.

Hth.

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.)

2021-02-24 10:22:27 (edited by Caccio72 2021-02-24 10:23:59)

Yeah, now I could hear some ambience sounds, but Sound Strider is just a too peaceful experience for my taste, I mean what's an exploration without any danger, lol, you are right, it is more an experience than a game, more for relaxing than gaming entertainment.

So I shall stick to Survive The Wild for now.


Now, moving on to New Horizon again, read your instructions Dark, you start with telling how we should set NVDA not to interrupt messages, it would explain some of my problems, since I noticed messages I got in open space were interrupted whenever I pressed a key...but should I change this setting in the NVDA menu itself, each time I play the game, then change it back after I finished playing, or there is an option for it in the game itself too?

2021-02-24 13:13:36

@Caccio, fair enough on sound strider, I can see it's not for everyone's taste.

For New Horizons, You initially need to change the speech interrupt and key echo setting on NVDA every time you start. However, you can create a configuration profile in NVDA to do this for you automatically when you start the game.

Launch the game, then hit Nvda+N to open NVDA settings, make the settings changes you need, go down to configuration profiles and hit new. It will already be set to trigger on the currently focused application, that being new Horizons, give the config profile a name and then save.

After this, every time you launch new horizons, NVDA will automatically use the configuration profile and set the settings you set for that application.

Hth.

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.)