1.7.1 Screenreaders and Syntax

Welcome to Aetolia! Our syntax has been a constant difficulty to explain for folks using screenreaders. This file will attempt to rectify that with tips from other blind players and more vocally friendly paragraph structure.

Syntax in Aetolia is almost universally represented with all capital letters. If you can configure your screen reader to recognize strings of text that are all in uppercase, you should recognize most of the game's syntax. Even players find it acceptable in character.

A good example and first step is turning your screenreader setting on:

CONFIG SCREENREADER ON - Turns on screenreader mode and adds you to the screenreader channel. 

SCR - Sends messages to the screenreader channel. 
Example: SCR Hello I could use some help
This will broadcast, "Hello I could use some help" to the screenreader channel. 

The administration also sees the Screenreader channel. We'll know the issue is specifically related to screenreaders when questions are asked here.


When explaining syntax, Aetolia uses a few basic modifiers. You will want to make sure that your screen reader recognizes the following:

<angletest>
[squaretest]
|pipetest|

In this case, the first phrase, angletest, was bracketed by greater than, less than brackets. That is used for expressing the need of a target or variable. An example syntax would be: SMOOCH <name> or THROW FLOWER AT <person>. You replace the angle bracketed text with your choice.

The second test, squaretest, is bracketed by square brackets. This is for optional modifiers. For example: MINIPET DISPERSE [ALL]. In this case, MINIPET DISPERSE with nothing else works fine, but adding ALL would target all of them.

The third test, pipetest, is bracketed by the pipe character. A |. This is not a very common character used. When it is, it is to show options. You might see syntax like: MINIPET [DANCE|SPEAK], which means you could choose either DANCE or SPEAK.


A lot of text is mutable here, so we have a number of config options to make them easier to trigger sounds on, if you like. For example, the following:

CONFIG TELLSPREFIX ON - This will make tells look like a normal channel

CONFIG COMBATMESSAGES ON - this will change combat to use short, easy to figure out combat messages, followed by the normal long ones.

CONFIG COMBATMESSAGES GAG - This will cut off the long parts and leave combat as just short, succinct, flavorless info

That should be a start! We are very interested in any ideas you have to make this a more visually impaired friendly game, so please do not hesitate to IDEA or MESSAGE RAZMAEL whatever you think.