BATTLE OF HEROES
================

A fighting game you play by ear. There is no screen to watch: everything
is sound and speech, and everything you need to know is something you can
ask for and hear.

The game speaks through your screen reader, so start your screen reader
BEFORE you start the game.


WHAT IS IN THIS FOLDER
----------------------

game.exe      the game. Run this.
sounds.dat    the audio. The game will not start without it.
lib\          support files the game loads when it starts.
readme.txt    this file.

Keep all of them together in the same folder. Nothing needs installing
and nothing is written anywhere else on your computer - the game keeps
your settings in a file called player.ini, beside game.exe.


GETTING STARTED
---------------

Run game.exe. You will land on the main menu. Use the up and down arrows
to move through any menu in this game, enter to choose, and escape to go
back.

The first thing to do is make an account:

  1. Choose "Account", then "Create a new account".
  2. Type a name and a password. Tab moves between the boxes, enter
     sends, escape goes back.

Your account lives on the game's server, so the same name and password
work from any computer. There is nobody who can reset a forgotten
password, so pick one you will remember.

Note: your screen reader may read your password out loud as you type it.
The box is masked, which stops most readers doing this, but not all.

Once you have an account, choose "Play". You will arrive in the lobby.


DO THE TUTORIAL FIRST
---------------------

From the lobby, press shift and enter together to open the lobby menu.
Choose "Practice against a bot", then "The tutorial".

It is the whole game as a drill: one instruction at a time, with the game
watching for you actually doing the thing rather than moving on when a
timer runs out. Nothing in it is on a clock, nothing is recorded, and you
can stop or skip a step from the pause menu at any point. It takes about
fifteen minutes and it is by far the fastest way in.

There is also "Learn the sounds" on the main menu, which plays every
sound in the game one at a time and says what each one means. Worth half
an hour before your first real fight.


THE CONTROLS
------------

These are the defaults. Every one of them can be changed: "Controls" on
the main menu, or Settings then Controls while you are playing. Press F4
in game at any time to hear the current list, which is always your list
rather than this one.

Moving
  W, S, A, D      forward, back, left, right
  left and right arrows    turn 45 degrees
  hold shift with them     turn smoothly
  shift           sprint
  space           jump, and climb if your hero flies
  alt             descend and land

Fighting
  J               light attack
  K               heavy attack
  L               block
  U and I         your two specials
  O               ultimate
  control         grab, and control again to throw
  semicolon       hold while attacking for the enhanced version

Where am I
  tab             health, guard and resource
  F               which way you are facing
  C               your position
  Z               your altitude
  B               which zone you are in
  R               resource and ultimate meter

Where is everyone
  E               the nearest player, how far and which way
  Q               everyone, in order of distance
  N               the nearest breakable thing
  F1              who is online
  F3              your connection

Talking and reading
  slash           chat
  V               repeat the last thing said
  Y               read the last few messages
  comma, period   step back and forward through messages
  brackets        move between channels

Menus
  shift and enter the lobby menu, in the lobby
  escape          the pause menu, in a fight
  F2              the message of the day
  F4              this control list
  F5              who is here
  F6              friends


HOW A FIGHT WORKS
-----------------

Everyone in the arena gives off a quiet blip on their own position, so
nobody ever disappears by standing still. Press E to hear who is nearest,
turn towards them, and walk.

Light attacks are fast and safe if they miss. Heavies hurt far more and
leave you standing there if they miss. A block guards the front of you
and nothing else, wears down as it is hit, and a grab goes straight
through it.

Attacks that LAND can be continued. When one connects you will hear a
short click - that is a window, a fraction of a second wide, in which the
next attack in your hero's string comes out early. It only opens on a
hit. If they block it, there is no click. Press T in a practice session
to hear your hero's string.

Your ultimate does not cost your hero's resource. It costs a full meter,
and the meter is only earned by landing hits and taking them. You keep it
when you die.


WHEN SOMETHING GOES WRONG
-------------------------

The game will not start
  Check that sounds.dat and the lib folder are both beside game.exe. If
  you moved game.exe on its own, move it back.

It cannot reach the server
  The game connects to blindprogaming.com. If your firewall is asking
  about game.exe, say yes. If the server is down there is nothing the
  game can do but say so.

You were disconnected
  Choose Play again. You will be signed back in and put in the lobby.

It is silent, or too quiet
  Home and End change the game's volume in Windows' own mixer. There is
  also a volume slider under Settings.

The game is not speaking
  It speaks through your screen reader, and it has to be running before
  you start the game. Start your reader, then start the game again.
  NVDA and JAWS are the two this has been played on most.
