Accessibility
Use a simpler page whenever the walk is the wrong tool: the scene will not start, motion is uncomfortable, or you want to read. The hub only offers that page when the card has a second button.
Hotel Lobby, Scopa’s Office, The Garden, Scopa’s Lounge, Turf Club, Red Rock, and Retro Arcade have no reading page. The lobby card’s Realm button is the hub.
The Data Centre’s hub button is Models. The room’s catalogue also has Harness Operations, which links to Harnesses. That reading page is not on the hub card. Change Room does not list it.
Change Room lists the other walkable rooms and home. It does not list the reading pages. The Realm name returns you to the hub, where the second button is. The Continental Shop also shows Pantry in the room. Beer is the same idea for The Rusty Spur: the page exists, and the pub is the walk.
Keyboard
In a walkable room, when you are not typing in a field:
- W or Up moves forward. S or Down moves back.
- A or Left moves left. D or Right moves right.
- Hold Shift to run.
- Drag the pointer to look.
- E uses the thing in front of you. A click does the same. The prompt says Press E to open or Press E to inspect.
- Esc closes Change Room when that list is open. Esc also leaves an inspection view, a record, a seat, or a station.
Keys do nothing useful while the cursor is in a text field, so you can type a filter without walking.
Touch
A pad sits on the screen for movement. Run toggles running. Drag the scene to look. The prompt is Tap Open, or Tap Inspect where the room inspects a record. You do not need a physical keyboard. Change Room opens as a sheet from the bottom of the screen.
The controls start hidden. Display HUD brings them back. Hide HUD puts them away. That choice stays while you travel. The movement pad, Run, and the labels above people stay either way. Targets are large enough to tap.
Labels
Players show the name they typed. Ambient figures — staff, shopkeepers, animals, robots, and the rest — show NPC. The labels do not block movement.
If something fails to load
A room can be on screen while its stories, companies, or catalogue cannot be fetched. You will see an error and, where Realm can try again, a retry. You will not see stand-in headlines, filings, or orbits presented as real. A demo feed, if one is showing, is labelled Demo.
Switch to the simpler page and retry there if that room has one. The hub remains available from the Realm name.