formatting

Formatting -- color, layout, accessibility, prompt

Text is the whole UI. Color is decoration only -- tags and labels stay in plain text even when ANSI is on.

How you play
  1. config screenreader on -- flatten frames, directional exits instead of the ASCII map, shorter combat for speech. Bare help becomes Start Here; type help topics for the full A-Z catalog.
  2. config plaincomms on -- optional: plain say/tell/OOC without channel brackets (works with or without screenreader).
  3. color on|off -- turn ANSI color on or off (or type color alone to toggle).
  4. help config -- every other display pref (spacing, width, map, combat tags, prompt, traffic, …).
  5. commands -- short verb names. Nested hubs (missions take haunt, chaseboard take) are the listed form; glued names stay off this list. commands here lists hubs for this room. commands travel | combat | work | social buckets the compact list. commands detail shows every dispatch name; commands <verb> prints one tip.
  6. help topics -- every topic sorted A through Z (bare help still lists categories).
  7. help formatting more -- maps, combat tags, NPC traffic quiet, nearby, fightlog, channel colors.

New characters are asked about screenreader at chargen; yes applies the same settings.

Room look is a short classic sheet (title, prose, items, people, Exits last). Score, who, and help keep gothic frames. Story prose stays unwrapped; config width <40-120> sets how wide framed sheets may be.

Spacing and score
  config spacing airy|packed -- airy (default) adds a blank line after other people's room events (say, emote, their actions) and incoming tells, so a busy room does not blur together. Your own command replies, combat, who, score, maps, and lists always stay packed. Screenreader ignores airy spacing.
  Sighted score draws gothic Lifeforce bars by default; config scoremeters off keeps the same layout with clean numbers (screenreader always uses numbers).

NPC foot traffic
  config traffic quiet|normal|verbose -- how much Cadence NPC and Echo leave/arrive you hear in busy shops and plazas. Quiet samples the crowd feed; normal is the default for sighted play; verbose hears every NPC step. Screenreader on defaults to quiet. Live players always keep gait verbs on movement (walks south, jogs east, …). Traffic quiet only throttles NPC and Echo spam, not your verbs or other players'.
  nearby -- list who is in the room without a full look (same as look people). Handy when traffic is quiet and you want presence on demand.
  watch room in a plaza opts into the full crowd feed even when traffic is quiet.

Getting around (especially with a screenreader)
  Screenreader mode turns map into directional exit text (no ASCII grid).
  For longer trips use walk -- it works for everyone:

  1. walk -- list places you can reach from here.
  2. walk clinic -- path inside a settlement (garage, kitchen, …).
  3. walk city -- on the overland: path to a pocket and enter.
  4. help walk -- full how-to (also help map | help enter | help wilderness).

Map embeds (sighted)
  config map on|off -- ASCII minimap after look when outdoors.
  config maplook on|off -- embed minimap inside look itself.
  config mapmove on|off -- minimap after every move.
  config mapzone on -- nearby zone bearings under minimap dumps (help map).

Combat and progress tags
  Combat lines can lead with plain tags ([DMG], [HIT], [CRIT], [MISS], and more) so direction is never color-only. Sighted play keeps full fight prose; screenreader mode uses a short subject-verb-object sentence that still names where the blow landed. Tags default on; config combattags off hides tag prefixes. Screenreader combat lines still say hit, miss, dodge, and limb in plain words when tags are off. Screenreader turns fightlog on by default so you can reread full prose after the fight (help fightlog).
  Personal progress: [GAIN] when a primary rises or Mastery ranks up; [TIER] when your Tier wall breaks -- soft color when ANSI is on, plain tag when color is off. Periodic [TIP] hints and [RIFT] ashen-tear lines use a gold or alert tag with prose body when color is on.

Channel colors
  Room say, emote, smote, tell, OOC, and questions each have a channel color role (config channel say|emote|tell|ooc|questions <role>). Default OOC paints the whole line bright aqua so it cannot hide in room descriptions. Questions uses dark-grey parentheses, gold QUESTIONS letters, and a parchment body. A custom role paints the whole line one color. Plain comms only rewrites say/tell/OOC/questions sentence shape -- it does not strip symbols from what other players type inside their messages.
See also: help config | help fightlog | help walk