"Ear" is a specialized software package containing a set of utilities, designed to make life easier and brighter for blind people. "Ear" is not only a game client, although below we will talk about the "Ear" game client, designed to replace "OnToys". After reading the following information, you will understand why we created "Ear" and how it is better than the old game client. You will also find out the current status of the application development, and how it is arriving.
The game room core in the "Ear" now works on a central server, and not on the computer of the game organizer. Any started online game is now guaranteed to reach its logical conclusion and cannot be interrupted due to the human factor. A number of mechanisms have been implemented to protect the server part of the game rooms from various emergency situations and malicious influences. Even, for example, if the central server reboots, all game rooms are pre-saved and then fully restored. Generally, technically any game, at any stage, can now be saved, frozen or postponed. Similarly, any game can be played later.
The developer pays close attention to the visual design of the application. The games in "Ear" have an animated graphical interface, and at the same time all controls are native, that is, fully accessible for blind users. The program speaks equally well both with third-party screen readers, as well as the standard system tools. There are no more non-standard programming solutions, nativeness and accessibility are at the core.
Game settings are configured at the moment the room is created, and they cannot be changed later on. To change even one game setting, you must close the current room and create a new one. In the game room search window, you can see the opened games as well as their settings, so it is no longer necessary to enter the game in order to find out its settings. By the way, the game room search window is also a room itself. By opening this window, you will see when all rooms are created, changed and closed in real time.
Games can work in three modes: Offline, online and in development mode. Offline games, as their name suggests, are available without connecting to the server, but only those games that you previously used with an available connection, that is, the games which were downloaded to the device. In the future, it will be possible to implement game modes via Bluetooth or Wi-Fi, also without connecting to the central server, but played with real people located in the area covered by the relevant network. The development mode allows you to create new interfaces for "Ear", including games, again locally, without connecting to the central server, but by imitating such a connection. The API with which the "Ear" interfaces are created is still closed, since its development is still not completed, but in the future it will definitely be available to everyone interested and curious. In general, creating games for the "Ear" became significantly easier than for "OnToys".
The concept of a "game server owner" has been abandoned. Instead, we have introduced the concept of a "room manager". The room manager can select the game participants and start the game itself. The room manager has no other advantages compared to other connected players. The right of a room manager can be transferred to another player if the previous manager leaves, their connection is interrupted or he voluntarily does not want these powers. The room manager cannot restart or stop the game on his own, and as mentioned earlier, he cannot change any settings in a game which was already created. The mechanisms of selecting participants, adding bots and starting the game have been simplified as much as possible. You do not need to add names to the bots, this will automatically happen.
Every person entering a game room, other than the manager, always has the status of "observer only". In order for the manager to be able to make this person a "participant", he must press the button "ready to play". Immediately after the game ends, all its participants automatically again become "observers only" and must again confirm their consent to play further by pressing the button "play again". If the manager becomes "observer only", he loses the right to manage the room. The right is transferred to the first ready-to-play participant.
Rating units are now called "hertz": 1000 hertz is 1 kilohertz, 1000 kilohertz is 1 megahertz, 1000 megahertz is 1 gigahertz and so on... The largest rating unit currently supported is "quettahertz". Rating units can still be used as a virtual bet in a game.
The virtual bet can be in the range of 2 to 999 hertz, from 1 to 999 kilohertz, from 1 to 999 megahertz, from 1 to 999 gigahertz and so on... A number greater than 999 as a virtual bet is not accepted, which should be easier, both visually as well as audibly.
The rating units of each participant are removed by the specified virtual bet once the game starts. The rating units removed this way are added to the prize fund. At the end of the game the prize fund is distributed among the winners. When a participant leaves before the game ends, and does so on purpose, he automatically gives up and leaves the game, and his rating units remain in the prize fund and will still be distributed among the winners.
The games have mechanisms to protect against quitters, pranksters or simply too slow players. For each action in any game, a participant is given a certain amount of time, most often this is a minute, during this time they must either play their turn, or do something. Depending on how complex the game is or its current state, this time can vary, it can both be increased and decreased. If the participant does nothing during the allotted time, for example due to losing connection to the game or for his own reasons, opponents have the opportunity to rush the slow player. After that, if at least one opponent presses the appropriate button, the timer starts again, and after another period of inactivity the button appears again. If a participant is rushed five times, he will receive a technical defeat. The counter telling how many times a player was rushed is reset from time to time if the player begins playing without delays. Thus, to eliminate a player from the game, on average five minutes without activity are required, during which it does not matter if he is in the game or is just not playing. Please keep in mind that even if you have problems, always try to return to the game as soon as possible, and while you are in the game, do not pause too long when it is your turn. Your everyday concerns should not cause discomfort for all other participants. We assume that the one who came to play should play, and not solve other issues.
The early departure of one of the participants or a technical defeat cannot affect the whole game. Depending on the game type and its current situation, the player who left will either be removed from the number of participants and the game will continue without them, or this participant will be replaced by a bot. If all participants except one leave the game early, or if only bots remain in the game, such a game will immediately be stopped, and the remaining participants will get the victory.
The players can end the game early by mutual agreement, that is by declaring a draw. In that case, the virtual bet is returned to all players completely, without any fees. The bet of a player who gave up or lost, in case of a draw is not returned to him or divided between the remaining players, it is simply burned away. A situation may also occur in which it is not possible to declare a draw. This can happen when, for example, the rules of the game allow several winners, and one winner was already declared. Precisely, to protect the interest of the winnner, declaring a draw is forbidden.
The participant who has only one rush remaining before receiving a technical defeat does not need to agree to a draw. This is done specifically for the cases where opponents of a participant who stopped playing, not wanting to punish them, simply stop the game. However, if at least one opponent decides to rush the player, they will definitely receive a defeat. Bots will never rush anybody, but will always agree to a draw.
Some games eliminate a specific player. Such a player is neither a winner nor a loser. They also receive all the rating units completely, and the remaining prize fund is distributed between the winners. If the game ends normally, that is without mutual agreement to finish it earlier, a system fee of 5% is applied to each win, but not less than 1 hertz.
In games with virtual bets, bots do not participate, but they can appear if they need to replace a player. If the bot replacing a player who left wins, no one will receive its prize, it will simply burn away. In online games you cannot play with only bots, for this purpose use the offline mode. This is done to reduce the load on the central server.
If there is no action in an online game for one hour, such a game automatically ends in a draw, the corresponding room is closed, and all virtual bets, if any, are returned to the active participants. In cases where you need a break, but do not want any sanctions for slow players, as well as to avoid automatic closing of the game room due to inactivity, the game should be frozen. The game can be frozen for any time period, for example, several minutes, an hour, a day, a week or a month, as well as until you manually restore it, that is for an unspecified time period. Freezing a game, as well as unfreezing it earlier, can be done only if all participants agree. A frozen game can be stored on the central server for as long as needed, but for reasons of expediency we limit this period to one calendar year. After freezing the game, the corresponding room is closed, the user can unload the application and not worry about sanctions. Immediately after the game is unfrozen, all defense mechanisms resume their work, so anyone who does not return in time again risks earning a technical defeat.
Automatic saving of the current state of offline games has been implemented. Now, having started an offline game once, you can play it as long as you like, periodically closing the "Ear", rebooting, turning off and turning on the computer again. Each time the application is launched, all unfinished offline games will also be launched. However, unfinished online games will also open automatically immediately after authorization.
The number of available online games is limited for each user by daily and monthly limits. In free mode, each user is provided with sixty online games per month, but no more than five games per day. A unit of game resource is considered spent as soon as the online game starts and does not depend on its further outcome. You can increase the number of available online games, as well as get other advanced features of the application, by paying for one of five commercial subscriptions. Once started online game, for example after freezing and unfreezing it, does not consume repeated game resources. In case of a draw, the spent game resources are not restored. Offline games are not limited by any limits.
All members of the specialized social network "Tiflo-Space", that is, all active users of the old client "OnToys", are additionally provided with unlimited access to online games, regardless of whether they have a paid subscription or not. This applies only to online games, other advanced features included in paid subscriptions will not be provided to users of the old client free of charge. Thus, by switching from the old client to the new one, no user will lose anything, they will retain almost all of their previous freedoms. When purchasing any subscription or subsequently canceling it, unlimited access to online games is retained.
In order to get free unlimited access to online games, it is enough to link the e-mail address to which your account in the specialized social network "Tiflo Space" is registered to "Ear". Please note that this e-mail address must be real and you must have access to it, since a mail with a confirmation code will be sent to it during the linking process. If you have lost access to the e-mail address to which your account in "OnToys" is registered, please change it in your profile settings before registering in "Ear".
You can link an email address to Ear in the following way:
- Log in to Ear using your mobile number.
- Open the Notifications section in the app settings and click the Email button.
- Enter the e-mail address to which your OnToys account is registered and click the Save or Send button.
- Enter the confirmation code sent to you at the specified e-mail and click the "OK" button.
The only limitation is that the account in the specialized social network "Tiflo-Space" must be registered before the release date of the current news, i.e. you will not be able to register an account on the old site right now and thereby get unlimited access to online games in "Ear". Of course, the old account must also be active, i.e. not blocked or deactivated.
"Hertz" and any derivatives thereof cannot be bought for money, they can only be earned and won. Similarly, "Hertz" cannot be sold or exchanged for any material values. Paid subscriptions are not required to earn rating units, but with paid subscriptions, earned rating units can be increased by thousands, millions, billions or more times, i.e., each earned "Hertz" can be turned into "kilohertz", "megahertz", "gigahertz" and so on...
Due to the fact that the core of the room, as previously mentioned, now works on the central server, the game as a whole has become independent of its participants. The new algorithms for the device of virtual rooms allow you to automate almost any stage of their functioning. Tournaments, duels and other competitions known to users of the old client, in the new client are held absolutely without the physical participation of the organizers, administration and anyone else. Tournament servers are opened here by artificial intelligence, it also monitors all related processes: it is responsible for collecting participants, maintains the tournament table, monitors compliance with the regulations, and so on. Opponents in duels are also selected by artificial intelligence, users do not need to look for anything else, search for, it is enough to simply declare their readiness and wait. Our tournaments, duels and other competitions are, as always, available to any users, including those who do not have paid subscriptions, and do not consume game resources in any way, that is, they do not affect the daily and monthly limits for online games.
Online games have become completely invulnerable to hacker programs, including cheating ones. Despite the fact that in the old client we also paid great attention to tracking this kind of software, here its use has become completely pointless. While publicly open game parameters are loaded into the RAM of the computer of all participants and observers, private data remains only in the server part of the room. For example, the game deck is completely imitated here, and even the process of its shuffling is as close to the real one as possible, but after shuffling the deck, each card is assigned a random index, which is subsequently transmitted to all participants and observers. Until a particular card is opened, any information about it, except for the index, in the RAM of the client computer will not be found at all, since it simply is not there. Unauthorized changes to any properties of rooms, including game rooms, have become basically impossible, since multi-level data integrity control is now implemented. With all this, the mutual exchange of data between the participants now occurs much faster than in the old client, and any signs of such an exchange are carefully hidden from the user. The game in online mode feels absolutely no different from the game in offline mode, since there are practically no delays, the interface response has become lightning fast.
The old game client is getting ready to close, eventually all its servers will be stopped and support will be completely discontinued. We expect this to happen at the end of this year. Rating units of the old client "Toys", up to the complete termination of support for the application, can be transferred to rating units of the new client "Hertz". This kind of exchange will be allowed to be made only between previously linked accounts. One account of the old client can only be linked to one account of the new client and vice versa. It is not possible to change or cancel already created links. How to link accounts via email was described above.
The exchanged "toys" are converted into "hertz" at an equivalent rate: for every million "toys" you get 1 "megahertz", for every 1000 "toys" - 1 "kilohertz", and for each remaining "toys" - 1 "hertz". There are no limits on the frequency of exchange or commissions for the exchange. It will no longer be possible to exchange "hertz" back for "toys". Virtual values of the specialized social network "Tiflo-Space" ("stars") also cannot be directly converted into "hertz", for this they will first have to be exchanged for "toys" according to the long-standing rules. In this way, the continuity of the new client in relation to the old one is observed. None of the long-standing users will be deprived, no previous financial investments and merits within the framework of "OnToys" will be zeroed out, everything will flow safely into the new client if the participants wish.
It should also be noted that "Ear" has become truly multilingual. The application interface has already been translated into 100 of the most common languages in the world, and some of them support transliteration mode. Each new game, as well as any other new functions of "Ear", are immediately translated into all supported languages using automated tools and implemented in the final distribution and intermediate updates. The application has implemented algorithms with which absolutely any user can edit the language constants of a particular interface. Moreover, if you have the appropriate rights, such revisions can be immediately implemented in future application updates, which ultimately speeds up and simplifies the process of localizing the entire software package.
Note for the future. If you, as a native speaker of a language other than Russian, find any errors in the corresponding translation of the interface of the new application, and if you subsequently wish to correct the errors found, please contact us. Any user of "Ear" can send a request for permission to interactively edit language constants, but we usually consider and approve only those requests that have been previously discussed with the manager. We also try not to assign more than one editor to one language in order to avoid misunderstandings and contradictions between them. At the time of publication of this news, only Serbian and Czech have permanent editors, all other positions are vacant. Editors do not receive any material reward for their work, they are our voluntary and selfless assistants.
And finally, "Ear" has also become cross-platform. Right now, client versions for Windows and Android are available. Clients for iOS, macOS and Linux are also planned for release, but a little later... The server part of "Ear" runs on the Linux operating system, including the server part of online games.
The implementation of the described capabilities of the new application required considerable effort and resources from the developer, as it was created practically from scratch and even redesigned several times, including changing the name. Nevertheless, the experience of working with "OnToys" when creating "Ear" turned out to be extremely useful, as it helped to think through more thoroughly the most diverse aspects of the gameplay. The main task that the developer set for himself was to make this very gameplay as comfortable, reliable and invulnerable to various external influences as possible, as well as to automate everything that can be automated. The solutions used in the game engine are 100% original, no third-party game libraries were used in its creation.
Let us emphasize once again that the Ear application is free, its main functions are available without commercial subscriptions. The main functions of the application are more than enough to satisfy the needs of most users. Users of the old client, when switching to the new client, will not notice almost any limitations in relation to their previous capabilities.
Please also note that some of the features and capabilities mentioned here are currently still being finalized and may not be available or may be available to a limited number of users. We plan to make a full transition to the new gaming platform by the end of this year, which at least means transferring all games, features and capabilities that were in demand on the old platform to it. How much we will be able to implement the announced plans depends, among other things, on you, so join us, test and keep in touch with us.
Thank you for reading to the end...
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