Enjoying Shadow Empire While Totally Blind

[BlindGuyNW]

Hi All,

I wanted to write, as I've decided to purchase Shadow Empire on the off-chance I might be able to enjoy it despite being totally blind. This is not my first 4X game, and the procedural and SF elements intrigue me a great deal. Nevertheless I'm sure I'm in for a fairly complicated experience.

My screen reader is able to read most in-game text fairly well, though on occasion fonts and such might need to be adjusted to OCR better. Where I anticipate running into some trouble is with the hex map. I've not had a lot of luck dealing with these in other games, but that's largely because I don't have a great way of exploring them. Nevertheless, I'mw illing to give this a try in hopes that I can find some mechanism to do so.

I'm starting this thread as a way to discuss the way I might be able to enjoy this game. I realize it's a daunting undertaking, but would appreciate it if we could keep the negativity to a minimum. I know I'm doing something foolhardy in purchasing the game sight-unseen, quite literally, but this has paid off before and I hope can do so again.

Thus far, I am able to complete planet generation but get a bit lost at the main game screen. I get the sense that the manual, and an ability to bookmark certain parts of the UI will be invaluable.

I'd appreciate any further thoughts as I explore this game. Any tips or advice would be very much appreciated.

[Jdane]

What are your options as to how to picture in your mind the hex map?

That would be a crucial point, since the positions of units and the types of terrain are mostly what determine your choices when deciding where to move your troops. And moving troops is a big part since Shadow Empire is, at its core, a wargame, or so I think.

[eddieballgame]

Let me say, I admire your willingness to try this.
For the time being, I have nothing to offer but encouragement per your challenging task ahead.
Maybe 'Vic' can chime in & hopefully others who have some ideas can, also.
I, too, will think on what appears to an improbable & most difficult undertaking.

My first thought is navigating the many 'tabs' & can they all be voice activated.

[GodwinW]

Hotkeys:

+ ( also mouse wheel) Zoom In
- (also mouse wheel) Zoom Out
I Inspect Mode
M Move Mode
G Group Move Mode
S Strategic Move Mode
A Ranged (Artillery) Attack Mode
R Road Construct Mode
T Traffic Signs Mode
Z Zone Border Mode
V Vidcom Screen
H History Screen
N Management Screen
F1 Prefs Tab
F2 Stats Tab
F3 OOB Tab
F4 Strategic Map Tab
F5 Stratagems Tab
F6 Decisions Tab
F7 Reports Tab
F8 Mini
C Construct Asset Order
1 Show/Hide Units
2 Show/Hide Labels
3 Show/Hide AP&Stack Penalties
4 Show/Hide Hex Grid
5 Show/Hide Regime Colouring
6 Show/Hide Operational Logistics
8 Previous Unit
9 Next Unit
0 Enter Guard Mode, Leave Guard Mode
L Show/Hide Current Logistical Network
P Show/Hide Preview Logistical Network
Q Clear all Guard Modes
Escape
Returns you to Map, or if already there closes any Top
Tab that is open or if no Tab open exits the current
Order Mode and puts you in Inspect Mode.

I hope this may help somewhat.

I wish you the best of luck with it!

[DasTactic]

Good luck. I can't begin to imagine how difficult it would be for you.

If you are trying to get a handle on the hexes, you can imagine them as pretty much a grid if that helps. The coordinates are in the lower right of the screen.

[BlindGuyNW]

THanks, all, for the ideas so far.

The problems at the moment mostly revolve around the need to use OCR to get output from the game. It doesn't do a good job of separating the UI, I guess that's on me to bookmark important parts of the screen or try to de-clutter them as much as I can.

At the moment I can give an opening speech but am then left looking at what seems to be a list of game characters, not a map per se. I feel like the UI is easier to grok if it's seen in its entirety, not piecemeal. This isn't a surprise to me.

One thing I had wondered about was logging information. Games like this often log information about almost everything happening in one form or another, and I wondered if I might be able to get anything useful out of viewing that.

Granted, I'm not currently having a lot of success right now, but I'm hopeful and optimistic.

[Malevolence]

As a first starting point, were you always totally blind or did you become totally blind after seeing for sometime?

Jdane's question is my first thought as well. The map is just a representation. A visual representation.

If you have no experience with visual maps, then a better option is to think how best to represent the same information in another format.

Just one example would be a text based gazetteer that includes distances and directions between locations.

[BlindGuyNW]

I was born at 25 weeks, so have always been totally blind. The representation is definitely going to be an issue, but related to the game's larger issues of output format and such, more than anything, I suspect.

Honestly, one idea which comes to mind is a way for me to move a hex-cursor around the map, independent of the mouse. If I have a way to move from hex to hex I can gradually build up a feeling of what's where. Some sort of gazetteer is also an idea, of course.

I'm not sure how big the maps are in general. Are we talking about hundreds of hexes on a side, depending on the planet terrain?

[GodwinW]

Maps exist in braille though. I think feeling a dotted line representing a river next to a cluster of more dots representing a city could give a blind person the same info as a drawn river and drawn city. But that's just me assuming.
Problem is that here I think it has to be all auditory. To convert a map, braille or no, into auditory queues efficiently seems challenging. I can imagine a system where you have a set of sounds and then just scan through the map left to right top to bottom, but... no idea how feasible that is. And moving the map a little you'll need to scan again etc.

Edit: posted before your answer was visible. There's a way select hexes which gives info on what's on that (in 4-5 different levels even (owner faction, military units present or not, any buildings (= assets), terrain, item info of the region)), but there's no way for moving it other than with a mouse I think.

[eddieballgame]

This is a long shot suggestion, but maybe some form of co-op multiplayer game via email.
Working together, you could give your partner your ideas on how you want to move your troops, where to build roads, etc.

[BlindGuyNW]

Of course I'm open to playing with other people but would prefer to try to enjoy the game on my own if at all possible.

I hope that I might get some help from the developer, if only because they're most familiar with the game's internals and we can talk about ways to make the game's information available in alternate presentations. I suspect it will be easier than one might expect. In the mean-time, I will read the manual and poke at the game screens I can access as much as I can.

[Malevolence]

I think your idea of moving the selected hex with keybinds is a really good idea. Given the changes on the screen by that (and reported by your reader), it might be a good first step. Not perfect, but a good place to start.

[Twotribes]

The largest map I have seen is 129 by like 43 or 47. Average size is around 100 and around 40. There are 3 smaller maps on small planetoids moons or such.

[BlindGuyNW]

Another thought…

A lot of games have a console mode of some kind for debugging purposes. I don't know if Shadow Empire does as well, but if so I could see myself gaining information on units/map locations/etc via text commands. It strikes me that a lot of the game is statistics and numbers already, it's not a game in which I need hand-eye coordination or in which a ton of information is presented in environmental ambiance, like Skyrim et al.

[BlindGuyNW]

Hey all,

Just as a quick update, I'm continuing to poke at this. I'm hoping I can get sighted help to get me oriented and maybe help me add a few bookmarks. I was surprised to discover that the game uses typical Windows controls for at least a couple things, namely changing my leader's name and title.

At the moment I'm trying to figure out how to dismiss all the first-turn stuff and get to the map view; the "esc," key doesn't seem to be working as I thought it would. Do you always see dialog from characters and such even while the main map is open?

Thanks for any help with this. I look forward to continuing to explore.

[Soar_Slitherine]

ORIGINAL: BlindGuyNW
At the moment I'm trying to figure out how to dismiss all the first-turn stuff and get to the map view; the "esc," key doesn't seem to be working as I thought it would. Do you always see dialog from characters and such even while the main map is open?

After the introduction, the game will go into the main map with the Decisions menu open. This can be dismissed with Esc. The game will then display a smaller message box in the top left corner with one of your leaders giving you some advice, there does not seem to be a hotkey that closes this one, you have to minimize it with the left-arrow button to its center-right or dismiss each remaining piece of advice individually with the "Del" or "Dismiss" buttons at the bottom left of the box. After that, everything on the screen is part of the main map UI.

Edited for clarity.

[Jdane]

Aren't there first several so called video messages? (The static screens telling you "The previous leader is dead." "You're in charge." "The times is a time of bureaucracy." you must click on to pass and can watch again when going into the VID tab.)

Since I've never tried, I don't know if there's a keyboard shortcut to pass them. Let me check real quick.
Edit: Space bar does the trick.

There's some text on those screens though, so I might have been missing the point entirely. If so, apologies.

It might indeed rather be the Advice stuff Soar_Slitherine is talking about.

[BlindGuyNW]

Thanks.

I've been able to get past the video messages, but seem to be having trouble with the advice. Am I imagining things or can I not click on any of the other map tabs or do much else until that's dismissed?

[Jdane]

I couldn't tell because the very first thing I do is dismiss them.
However you can deactivate Advice by unchecking SHOW ADVICE under PREFS > General from the top right tabs, but I'm not sure if you can do that without dismissing the advice.

Edit: I'll start a new game and check real quick.

[Soar_Slitherine]

Everything is still clickable while the advice box is open.