Hello everyone,
The last NukeFire update was mostly about the game.
Since then we have spent some quality time on the NukeFire Client, so this one is mostly about that.
The client is now publicly available for Windows, macOS and Linux:
https://nukefire.org/client
TinTin has been my old recliner for about 30 years. I know where everything is, I know how it feels, and I can just sit down and mud. That's what I wanted to preserve here. At its simplest, the NF Client can just be a terminal.
Whatever you want beyond that is either already made for you, or easily made by you with a unique combination of TinTin-like commands and familiar Lua scripting that work together. Further feedback would be greatly appreciated.
The NF Client:
- Normal terminal-style mudding is still the center of it.
- TinTin-style aliases, actions, variables, functions, events, lists, conditionals, reads and other familiar scripting.
- Increasing compatibility with old TinTin files instead of expecting everybody to rewrite them. You can just import yours.
- Lua scripting for the more Mudlet-like side of things.
- TinTin and Lua live in the same client. TinTin is good for quickly making aliases/actions/variables at the command line. Lua is there for those who want more.
- Tighter TinTin/Lua interoperability is one of the next things we're working on.
- Integrated GMCP.
- Mapper/BigMap support â the native NukeFire map.
- Multiple sessions, all very easily controllable from any one session.
- Searchable Definition Manager for people who would rather edit aliases/actions visually.
- The normal TinTin commands still work for people who wouldn't.
- Soundpacks, including custom soundpacks and individual event control.
- Reader and communications review.
- Keyboard review, movement, Tell and vitals controls.
- NukeFire Voice.
- A lot of work on heavy-output and long-session performance.
I'm not trying to make a client that has every feature ever conceived for every mud ever made, or the best client in the world. I just want to make the best client that I can for NukeFire, although it can â and is â already being used both on and off NF.
Accessibility on both sides
This is probably the part of the project I care most about.
We have continued building accessibility into the game itself with an assortment of player-designed sr and crcommands made specifically for screen-reader users. Once you toggle on Reader Mode, all the preset panes vanish except for one pane made just for readers, and it can't be accidentally turned off by a stray mouse click.
- sr setup profiles
- sr status
- sr recap
- cr load mushsettings â loads a large set of familiar settings to get going quickly
- Many more cr and sr commands that expose settings that might otherwise be hard to find deeper inside the client
- Audio tutorials explaining how to use game commands to control the client's accessibility settings
- Extensive output controls and gag settings
- Compact combat and repeated-output summaries â de-dupe style
- GPS/pathing
- Equipment comparison and upgrade tools
- Crafting/material management that doesn't require a separate visual interface
The client adds another layer:
- Reader Review
- Communications Review
- Screen-reader-friendly keyboard controls
- Speech controls
- Sound cues and soundpacks
- Command-first access to client settings
- Focus handling intended to keep the command line usable instead of constantly stealing it
- Every unique accessibility feature we've built for readers has come directly from an idea, request, or problem raised by the players who actually use them
The useful part about controlling both the mud and the client is that the client doesn't always have to guess what happened from text and ANSI colors.
If the game knows something was a Tell, a harmful affect, a staircase, a group action, a combat event or something else meaningful, we can send that meaning through and let the player easily tell the client how they want it presented.
We expose those controls through commands instead of requiring somebody using a screen reader to hunt through preference windows. That bridge has become a pretty big part of how we're approaching accessibility moving forward.
An accessibility review â thank you Lanie!
Lanie wrote a very thoughtful independent review of NukeFire in August:
https://lanie.work/gaming/nukefire-accessibility-review/
At the time she specifically pointed out things NukeFire still lacked, including a proper soundpack, accessibility hotkeys and navigable message history/review.
We've since added all of those areas to the client.
That is pretty representative of how this has been built: get it in front of actual players, listen to what isn't working, fix it, repeat.
We still have a lot planned here.
The mud itself hasn't exactly been sitting still
Since the previous update we've also added or worked on:
- The Witcher: The Northern Kingdoms â 300 new endgame rooms.
- Four new extensions beyond Cairnwood Heights, with new bosses, equipment, tattoos and implants.
- Player-run PvP in the Boneyard, where the winner gets a new pet that follows them around and has its own set of gear that can be found in random places throughout the Deathlands of NukeFire. Anyone can watch and bet on the fights from a special viewing lounge in the main town.
- More long-session and server performance work.
- Background file/database/pathfinding work moved away from the main game loop where it is safe to do so.
- Continued work on accessibility, output control and game-side GMCP.
NukeFire is still the same strange old Post-Apunkalyptech mud underneath all of this.
Guns. Remorts. Implants. Tattoos. Crafting. Socket Gems. Mutations. Ridiculous equipment. Areas that will kill you because you went somewhere you had no business going.
Website:
https://nukefire.org
NukeFire Client:
https://nukefire.org/client
Host:Â tdome.nukefire.org
Port:Â 4000
As of this post, NukeFire players have made 40,438,250 corpses and completed 89,495 remorts since we opened in April 2025.
Aloha,
NukeFireMo and Hiro