Galactic Colonies

The problem is that especially when colonies get larger you really can't tell properly what buildings are next to each other because of the way the tiles are shaped and the way that VoiceOver just doesn't give accurate information about how your colonies are built, when we build our buildings are not in straight lines, but VoiceOver gives no indication of how our colonies are laid out, I have given up playing the game for now. I was really annoyed when I found recently I hhad put factories and things up where I thought they needed to be in relation to my robotic centre and turns ot they are nowhere near it. you can have buildings a maximum of 7 regions from each other, but 7 flicks with VoiceOver or accessibility mode doesn't mean that they are still in range of each other. the problem is that this game was never designed with accessibility in mind from the ground up, its a game designed for sighted players with accessibility being added in after, the game is playable but as missions get more and more complex they become increasingly unplayable, its no joke if you put up a warehouse or living quarters costing several hundred thousand and you can't connect to anything. we need the spacial information that accessibility simply doesn't provide at the moment. also the colony seems to reshape itself whenever you expand the map and numbers of buildings change making it really hard to keep track of stuff. also timers in the game are still utterly broken for me. I really do like the game but its got major problems which is why i'm not going to change its accessibility information at this stage, I do hope we can work with michelle to address these big issues. they really do need to factor in accessibility from the ground up, its obvious she cares which is great, but its still a work in progress. to give you an idea of what impact special issues have in the game recently I built a warehouse which seemingly to VoiceOver was right at the left hand side of the map, but was unable to connect it to anything so total waste of space and money but I couldn't knock it down due to this not being accessible yet. anyway I carried on building, and eventually after exposing about 75 other areas I put up a living quarters towards the right most edge of the map at least according to VoiceOver, but I was able to connect it to my warehouse which I bbelieved was on the left most side of the map.

thanks.

I've been able to make the asteroid field work, it isn't precise but it does work.

First, where it says use 10 energy cells to prospect the field, you have to double tap on it even though it doesnt report it is usable. Then, you'll be in the asteroid field. Voice over won't say anything, but you can double tap and hold on screen, and you'll hear a sound that sounds like a rushing sound or an engin working. Drag your finger arround the screen, and as you land on asteroids you'll hear something that sounds like an explosion. Keep moving arround until the game tells you that the asteroid field is done.

I have to say that I totally love this game! The only reason I’m not playing it now is that my brain hurts from doing all the calculations! So, if you don’t like games where you have to think and plan, this might not be your cup of tea.

But, if you do, read on! From what I can tell from the last few posts, people are doing two things that are getting in the way. First, don’t use VoiceOver. The voice built into the game usually works much better, reading all info, even if the last bit was interrupted. This is a problem with VoiceOver. The built-in voice is also more responsive. Sometimes, though, after watching an ad, you may not be able to get out by flicking down with one finger. This is how you usually get out when not using VoiceOver. Then, turn it on, do a two-finger scrub, and turn it off again.

The other thing is that this game doesn’t work well with flicking. Because of the hexagonal nature of the sites, nothing is in straight lines. Learn how to use the explore by touch feature. Run your finger carefully over the screen, and discover what is where. Once you are in a region, you can flick to the various things you can do there, like connecting or upgrading. But when you are on the map, use the touch method whenever possible. I’ve made Community parks that connected to four living quarters, relatively easily! And I always put my farms by a lake, unless, like my current planet, there aren’t any. Then, I mostly cry!

If you get lost on the map, touch with three fingers. You will be put in the Colony base, which is in the center of the map. Flick to back, and then you can orient yourself. Also, when colonies become very large, place two fingers on the screen. It wil start telling you how rich you are, but ignore that! Move the two fingers slightly in the direction you want the map to move. If you want to see what is on the left side of the screen for example, move the map slightly to the right.

I hope this has helped some of you, and that you’ll give it another try! And, if you have questions, ask, and I’ll try to be more clear!

Happy gaming!

Exactly I'm at very complex missions and I'm having no issues. The explore by touch works all the time for me. Plus I do expand the map like 10 times and scroll with two fingers as well which helps me see new regions.

The research timer is still broken for me. When I completed the last update, the problem was still not solved. The only sure fire way to get any research done is to use research boosters, and whenever I try to watch videos for energy cells, it says I have over 2800 hours to go. When I launched the latest update, it said I had over 3500 hours to go, so the timer is counting down, just not very quickly.
I hardly play now because of the timer bugs affecting the way I make money to continue the game, but I'm at sector 14, level 55

Wow, I'm not having any issues even with this update. Bug it on their discord, they know about it, and this is a random thing that happens on some people's phones and some not.

I’ve heard people say you can explore by touch but I haven’t been able to see the entire screen. How do you scroll. The standard voiceover gestures for scrolling don’t seem to work.

If you read the help, you will know that with voiceover off you scrol with the 2 fingers while in the map. Do the gesture lightly though.

Take care.If you rea

So, I’ve read the help but don’t remember seeing that. Also, what part is considered the map. The part with the regions?

Let me see if I can provide some clarification, as there are a couple of issues here. First, as you have already discovered, standard VoiceOver gestures don't work all that well. If you turn VoiceOver off and use the built in speech, you will almost certainly have a better experience. Flicking, for example, does not follow the logical order that it does in most apps. I'm not entirely sure what happens when you flick, but you don't move from region to region, row by row, as we are used to. So, when navigating the map using explore by touch, turn VoiceOver off. Oh yes, the map refers to the area where the regions are, empty as well as those containing crystals, gas, etc.
Now to the issue of explore by touch itself. If the map does not appear on the screen, tap once with three fingers. This will take you to your colony base. Flick to the back button and double tap it. Flicking works well enough when you're in a region or option screen. It's only the map screen where flicking becomes unreliable. So, flick to the back button and double tap it, which will return you to the map. Now, if you explore the screen with one finger, you will be able to find regions. At first, regions will only appear in the middle. If you move your finger too close to the edges of the screen, it won't say anything or give you other feedback as to what's happening. Move your finger back toward the center of the screen to find regions again.
When you need to slide the map around to explore regions that aren't on the screen, here's how. Place two fingers on the screen. Then, while the speech is announcing how much money you have, gently slide the map away from the direction you want to explore. For instance, if there are hidden regions on the right side, slide the map to the left and they will move onto the screen and become visible. it's as though you've got a big piece of paper on a table, with a small frame, the screen of your phone, on top of it. Use two fingers to slide the paper around so the desired regions move into the frame. Keep your slides small at first, until you get used to how much the map moves. I hope this makes sense.
All of this works better if VoiceOver is not active. The only time I load VoiceOver while playing the game is when I get stuck in one of those ads that you can't close without using VoiceOver.

Hi,
I'm at the part in level 3, where you have to do a bunch of research.

I can't figure out what I'm supposed to be doing, to accomplish my current mission, or how its progressing.
Can anyone help?

There are over 100 research projects in this part of the game.
Thanks for any tips.

Click on mission status and it gives your prpgrwss

Well, I’m finally making computer parts! It’s like night and day when you explore by touch. It definitely makes things a hell of a lot easier. Once again, thanks to all that helped!

Will there be any extra cash with several comercial complex or are they still givingthe same cash?

Hi,
I’m still having serious issues making computer parts. It now says that I am missing an ingredient, but I’m not sure what that is.
I have 2 wearhouses that can store ore. 1 that can store crystals.
What else do I need?
I also need 150 colonists in order to complete this mission, and I currently have 58. Any tips on getting more?

Okay, first to colonists. The more living quarters the more colonists. You can use one warehouse for four living quarters. Make sure there are enugh farms to supply them with food. Also, try not to build them close to industrial buildings, except for farms. I suggest touch explore, and not swiping.
Okay, so computer parts. You need a crystal extractor, which you can only get on regions with crystal. You need a warehouse for those. Then you need an ore extractor and a warehouse. You need a factory. Connect those two warehouses to the factory, build a warehouse for the factory, make sure the factory is set to computer parts. To connect the crystal and ore warehouses go to them and choose connect. Then connect the factory to the warehouse for computer parts.
Hope that helps.

I need crystals but cannot find it in my current regions. Is there a way to refresh that?

as stated before, somewhere, you need to go back to the space map and back to the planet you are trying to build up several times to see the crystles. Do this about 25 times and you will be good.

Just a bit of an update. Mining asteroid fields seems to be accessible with VoiceOver. As all I had to do was move my finger along the screen to find an asteroid to destroy. There will be a sound indicating when you have found an asteroid and VoiceOver should announce what award you've won immediately afterwards. Hope that ⠓⠑⠇⠏⠎⠲

Yep this has been the case since about september or so.

Good luck.

Hey so I'm checking this post out and haven't heard of any new updats to this game as far as accessibility goes. Is it still being worked on, or has it just gone dead?

I also want to know if this game is still being updated. I just started playing yesterday and really enjoy the theme of the game. thanks to all who have posted along the way. The forum has given me many great tips to solve my own problems in getting started. Hopefully someone will have any info from the Devs, as to whether or not the game is still being updated?

Thanks.

There is actually a way to destroy a building wich is really fiddly. Just double tap with two fingers and hold them there until a message pops up. Not reccomended though because you have to be right on the building with your fingers. Or is it single tap and hold?

Hi, its double tap with two fingers and hold, I got the message to come up once but haven't managed it again you really must have to get your fingers in a precise location for this to work which is really not possible with either VoiceOver or self voicing mode unless you happen to get lucky.
This game is usable but not accessible, we are definitely at a total disadvantage to sighted players with many aspects of this game. I thought I would just try the destroy building option out see if I could get my colony working again, but its two fiddly to bother with, plus VoiceOver is just two unstable still when navigating the screen and so is the self voicing method. I know people say to explore with dragging a finger on screen and don't use VoiceOver, but you still don't get a real sense of the layout of the colony even when doing this. I found when I tried dragging my finger on screen I was unable to reliably return to the same area twice or really get a sense if I was moving in a proper straight line. Over all sad to say but this game just doesn't seem worth bothering with because of how accessibility just hasn't been thought through properly, its once thing to make the game work with VoiceOver great, but if you fail to implement a design which isn't totally reliant on the visuals of the game especially with more complex colonies its not worth playing. also the game does seem to have been abandoned I think just like crafting kingdom. I don't think they ever got timers for research working properly either. I will be deleting from my phone once again.

Oh man, okay. I'm so sorry to hear that. I've been holding off on playing the game in hopes that it'll become more accessible with time. Seems like that's not happening. Sorry to hear it.

To me, it is accessible except for the destroy thing.

I’ve been playing this game for a while and have had no problems. As someone mentioned earlier we are in a pandemic right now. Crafting kingdom has been updated with in the last few months. The closest thing to destroying a building is to cancel it during the building process. Sorry you’re having so many problems with the game Alex.

Agreed. /according to the discord they are hexaganal areas we are dealign with so if you can trace that shape with your finger, you will have no problems.

your quite right about crafting kingdom being updated, but with the galactic colonies game, just you wait till you get on to missions where you have to do things like have 2000 colonists and sell 100 fusion engines, onces you start needing a lot of buildings it gets very easy to put them in the wrong place because reality is you can't easily tell with VoiceOVer or self voicing mode if your actually putting them up in range where they can connect to each other, you might think you are but your cursor is in fact nowhere near where you think your putting it up and it won't connect to what you need it to. the 2 finger thing for destroying a completed building does work, but unless you get your fingers when you tap and hold in exactly the right place it won't work. and even then when it does work you don't actually know what building your about to destroy as the message asks are you sure you want to destroy this building without actually saying what you have selected to destroy. problems come with navigating as you expand the map and your colony gets larger. yes its fine for missions when you first start out but not as they get really big.

It sounds like you're doing a lot of flicking, which doesn't work well in Galactic Colonies. I'm here to tell you, I am totally blind and on level 413. I have made planets with over 8000 colonists and fusion engines. It's all perfectly doable without any vision at all. I posted about explore by touch in one of these threads a while ago. I can dig it up and repost it if it would be helpful. There are some good instructions about how to know where you're placing buildings in that post. yes, destroying buildings it's difficult without vision, but it can be done. I got my mother into this game. She is also totally blind and almost 70 years old. The only thing she has trouble with is occasionally destroying buildings. That's when she asks her demolition crew, otherwise known as me, too make that pesky building go away!

Hello to all you intrepid space explorers! I’m the mom Skhye told you about, and I had to laugh at your example, Alex. About the people and engines, because that is exactly what I’m doing right now. It’s huge, and a tad bit unwieldy, as I imagine even a sighted player would agree! I need 7130 people! And the engines! I’m done building the engines, and now I’m building the people. My purpose in telling you all this isn’t to brag, although I admit to having fun writing it! It’s to say that the game is very playable, and you don’t need any vision to do it. I can’t stress enough how important it is to explore by touch. Flicking goes around the hexagons in a spiral, so you really have no idea where you are. But if you touch the screen, and remember that you are dealing with hexagons, you can tell where things are. If there are any questions about all this, I’d be happy to try to answer! And thanks for reading all this nonsense. Please stay strong and stay safe!