We are excited to announce the release of Mudlet 4.17! (What is Mudlet?)

A major improvement in this release is the increased accessibility of both the main display and the code editor. Previously, screen readers were unable to read text within these areas, but we have now made them accessible – allowing players with visual impairments to more easily use Mudlet. These improvements were made possible through the generous support of our Patreon community, with a total of 1800USD paid out in bounties to fund these enhancements! We would like to take this opportunity to thank our Patreon supporters for enabling us to make these improvements – and if you aren’t already a Patreon supporter, we encourage you to consider signing up to help us continue to improve and develop Mudlet.

While we have cleared the biggest blockers for visually impaired players, we recognize that there is still more work to be done in terms of accessibility. We will continue to work on making Mudlet as accessible as possible for all players. If you are a visually impaired player, we recommend reading the manual on screen readers for more information on how to use Mudlet with a screen reader.

We would also like to recognize the contributions of gamecreature, Tamarindo, and Vadi who worked on the accessibility improvements for this release.

Additionally, we have made it much simpler to edit room properties in the mapper. Instead of having separate dialogs for different property types, there is now a single dialog that allows you to edit all properties in one place. This should make it easier for players to customize their maps and create the game environments they want. Big thanks to Leris for making that happen.

A number of improvements were also added to the Mud Client Media Protocol (MCMP). Tamarindo has worked on making sound fadeout and fadein smoother, correcting a symptom where more media was stopping than was intended using the key parameter, and fixing volume management for music when the continue parameter set to true is used. This ensures that the expected volume is heard after the fadein completes and before the fadeout starts on successive calls to play the same music. The continue parameter has also been fixed to match its related specifications and standards for playing music.

Finally, we have added a new feature that allows players to automatically upgrade to a secure connection if the game they are connecting to offers one. This is particularly useful for players who may not be aware that their connection is insecure, as they will be prompted to upgrade as soon as they try to connect. We encourage more games to start offering secure connections, as most modern clients are able to support them. It is now up to the games to do their part in providing secure connections for their players.

Overall, Mudlet 4.17 is a significant step forward in terms of accessibility and ease of use. We hope that these improvements will make it even easier for players to enjoy their favorite games with Mudlet!

Speaking of games, MorgenGrauen has made its way to Mudlet, welcome!

Full changelog available here. 4.17.1 fixes tab windows going permanently bold, the F6 keybinding, and nested buttons.

macOS can’t update to 4.17+ automatically due to an issue outside of our control – update by downloading a new version from mudlet.org/download. Your existing settings will stay.