Arctic Labs
Log in Sign up

Changelog

This page will document the changes of PIE-Access

2026-06-25 — v1.6.2

  • New: Ctrl+F1 toggles auto-collect of DNA bubbles. When on, bubbles are popped automatically as they spawn and your DNA total is announced as it increases, so you no longer have to keep tapping F1. F1 still pops manually any time.
  • New diagnostic: tap the Control key on any screen to write that screen's full layout to PIE-access.log. It's used to audit which menus the mod reads correctly. It's a tap — holding Control as part of Ctrl+Tab and similar combos behaves as normal.
  • Added the groundwork for localization so the mod can speak game text in the player's language. Coverage will expand in later versions.
  • Credits screen now reads its full content. Previously, entering Credits only announced the Back button, now every line is a navigable item, with Back at the end. Arrow up and down to read the whole roll.
  • The disease screen now reads evolved techs from the live game disease, so the Upgrade and Devolve lists no longer show purchases left over from a previous run.
  • The world map no longer repeats "Country list ready, 58 countries" on every internal refresh , it only announces when the country count actually changes.
  • F3 during gameplay now reads total infected and total dead.
  • Menu navigation feels snappier, removed an 80 ms dead-air delay on moves.
  • Key combos in spoken text now read naturally, "Ctrl plus Tab" instead of "Ctrlplus Tab".
  • Fixed the world-map help dropping a line: it used "Shift+<" / "Shift+>", whose angle brackets were being eaten as formatting tags. It now says "Shift plus Comma jumps to the oldest, Shift plus Period jumps to the newest".
  • Braille output enabled. Speech can now be routed to a connected braille display.

2026-06-14 — v1.5.2

Backspace now exits the pathogen-select and gene screens (previous setup step, or back to the main menu from the first screen) instead of saying "No back here". The paused-game prompt now says "Press Escape to resume" (Alt+F1 could glitch the world map). Corrected the locked-disease message: unlocking requires Normal difficulty or higher, not Casual.

The country list now always rebuilds when you return to it — no more stale infection numbers. Returning to the world announces when the game is paused, with an Alt+F1 reminder, so a frozen simulation is no longer silent. Debug logging can be enabled in release builds by placing a pia-debug.txt file in the game folder.

Fixed active abilities firing and instantly cancelling (double dispatch with the game's own ability keys). Keys 1-5 are now the single firing path, note that this does not necessarily guarantee that active abilities will deploy smoothly and without incident. Ability keys 1-5 now work from the world map focus as well as the HUD.

Added JAWS and System Access support — the full 64-bit Tolk driver set now ships with the patch. NVDA remains the preferred backend. Removed the mod's boot announcements. Loading screens now read their own on-screen text, at boot and when loading saves.

The Options screen is now two-level: Up/Down picks a category (Gameplay, Audio, Video, Controls, Accessibility), Enter opens ONLY that category's settings, Backspace returns to the category list. Added the About, Report a Problem, and Speed Run screens, plus the multiplayer end-of-match overlay (win/lose was previously silent).

The disease screen now announces your real DNA on entry instead of the placeholder 999.

Options sliders, selectors, and dropdowns are now genuinely adjustable with Left/Right arrows (volume, sensitivity, resolution, anti-aliasing, windowed mode, and the rest). They previously did nothing. The Help menu has a dedicated binder (Start tutorial / How to play). The Scenario Creator launch button is labeled with a warning that it opens a separate, not-yet-accessible program.