Lithmeria: The Endless Siege announces release date
 

The wait is (almost) over!

After years in non-stop development, will be released on 12 October 2012.

You may remember Lithmeria from threads such as this one:


From the very beginning, the intention of the Lithmeria development team was to take a big step back from where MUDs are at as a hobby, identify the various boxes they tick and deliver a game that matches or exceeds them in delivery of that service.

The idea was to create a game where the PvP, PvE, Lore, Roleplay, Crafting, Mini-Games, Sailing and Questing all rival (or we hope, build on) the offerings of the best in the genre.

Over the last few years, we have combined the full time efforts and know-how of industry veterans with passionate input from volounteers and the community. We've debated, built, reviewed, torn down, rebalanced and rebuilt every aspect of the game multiple times in order to deliver a product we intend to blow you away from the moment you create your character.

Between now and October 12th, we plan to roll out an exciting pre-launch schedule of announcements, contests and events. An event calendar is currently being finalized and will soon be available via our forums and in a subsequent post in this thread.

Until then, I'm more than happy to answer any questions or hear any comments both here and on the .

I'd like to take this oppurtunity to thank everyone here at TMS and in the MUDing community more generally for their patience with us during this long journey. We hope that when we throw open the doors, you'll see that the wait has been more than worth it.

A very special thank you also goes out to our volounteer builders, writers, beta testers, editors and coders. Whether you built a room or half a continent, your contributions helped to make Lithmeria the truly outstanding game that it is. Thank you!

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Re: Lithmeria: The Endless Siege announces release date
 

So, this is just a hopeful question, but will this be blind accessible? Don't feel bad if you don't know the answer--you won't be the first.

Re: Lithmeria: The Endless Siege announces release date
 

That's a great question. Had to stop and think about it carefully, as well as do some research into vision imparired MUDing. Hope what I've come up with below helps.

Let me begin with the bad news. There are going to be a few aspects of the game that a blind player will likely have extreme difficulty with. Sailing and the firing of siege weapons both utilize what is essentially a graphical interface to display the positon of the ship, other vessels, the shore line, possible arcs of fire and so forth. Someone who had difficulty making out individual features on the generated ANSI map would not be a good candidate for steering a ship or firing a catapult.

There are also one or two mini-games that, if used with a voice-reader would probably be too time consuming to be enjoyable.

Now, on the flipside, roleplaying, writing, contributing to the lore and so forth will of course be blind accessible. The pace of emotes and conversation may get hectic with many people in the room, but otherwise a blind gamer should be on firm ground.

Participating in combat, both (PvE and PvP) in Lithmeria as a vision impaired gamer will require more preparation and careful selection than doing so with unimpaired sight, but I don't think it will be impossible.

The biggest challenge would be calbirating ones sounds and voice reader, along with careful gagging of MUD output and using the game's built in features. However, if you combined 'focusing' on your immediate target (a built in feature), shortened affliction names (a built in feature), a custom prompt (a built in feature) and clever uses of gagging, sounds and voices such as those found in VIP-MUD client for example, I don't see why you couldn't be a formidable foe on the Lithmerian battlefield or a mighty hunter in the wilderness.

Re: Lithmeria: The Endless Siege announces release date
 

Thanks for taking the time to think about your answer. I pretty much expect that for sailing systems--it doesn't make me happy, exactly, but I understand why it is what it is. I'll definitely be taking a look; hopefully you're right. Does it have an ascii worldmap and, if so, could someone navigate without it? That seems to be the most common sticking point--technically everything works, technically, but it's pulling teeth to get to areas. I don't mean a map on the website, I mean something like the godwars wilderness system, where you've got like 1000x1000 rooms and link areas to it.

Thanks for taking the time to answer. As for me and my client, my screen reader (and those for most of the blind mudders I know) reads sufficiently fast to keep up--mine's somewhere around 400 words a minute, and I keep saying I'm going to get around to teaching myself to understand it at a faster speed. And, unlike many, I can use my client, if not like the back of my hand, at least well enough that I can script a small bot without going crazy (I'm not going to bot, but that's the best example of my capabilities with it).

Re: Lithmeria: The Endless Siege announces release date
 

The only places we use an ASCII map of the God-Wars variety are sailing and siege weaponry.

Just walking about on land, you have the option to switch on a five by five map to help you get around, but you're not obliged to use it. Each room has a name, a description and a list of exits.

Sounds like you're in pretty good shape then. I can't pretend there won't be challenges and frustrations, but I do think it should be possible.

Conversely, if you've got any specific suggestions on how a MUD can be made more accessible, feel free to post them on our forums. We may not be able to get to them before release, but we'll sure try!

Re: Lithmeria: The Endless Siege announces release date
 

Well, that's a really case-by-case basis--I can't suggest things until I see the mud in question. I'm glad you're open to suggestions, however. So much of it is situation-specific that I can't really just pull stuff out of the air.

If it's possible to log on atm, I don't mind taking a look to see, but I get the impression you're in the last stages before opening and have closed to allow for working through the bug list/adding last minute features/building areas, and the like,.

Re: Lithmeria: The Endless Siege announces release date
 

Unfortunately that's true.

With that said, development is not going to stop when we launch. Suggestions you make after launch can still be implemented!

Re: Lithmeria: The Endless Siege announces release date
 

I wasn't saying it would.

Out of curiosity, is your codebase full custom, or did you start with something else?

Re: Lithmeria: The Endless Siege announces release date
 

Completely custom.

Re: Lithmeria: The Endless Siege announces release date
 

I've been keeping an eye on the development of this mud. It sounds like a kick-ass experience to be sure.:)

I as a blind player myself am very happy to see that the needs of blind-players will be considered in the future.
CONGRATULATIONS!

Can't wait for the opening!

Carry on

Brawny

Lithmerian Pre-Release Contests!
 

In the weeks leading up to our October 12th release, we'll be running non-stop announcement and events! So far, we've announced the .

Today, I'm thrilled to be able to announce the first of our bi-weekly(ish) contests which give players a chance to win in-game rewards that will be waiting for them at launch, as well as many other cool prizes.

To read more about our first contest, head over to:

Re: Lithmerian Pre-Release Contests!
 

Just ten days to go until release.

We're tremendously excited to finally (almost) be able to invite you all into the Endless Siege!