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There's an easy way to change the speech engine used by all configurations. This is really useful if, for example, you find that eSpeak is not working on your system, and you want to use espeak-ng instead.

Just type **;config all engine esng**. This will change all the configurations that you're allowed to modify. (By the way, you can only use the word **all** in this situation.)

##16.7 Configuring text-to-speech for tasks

Axmud comes with a number of built-in tasks, some of which have text-to-speech capabilities.  The configuration called **attack**, **chat**, **divert**, **locator**, **status** and **watch** change the sound of the voice used by each of those tasks.

Tasks often have their own task windows. When using optimised settings, these windows don't open (but the tasks are still running in the background).

We'll discuss each task in turn. This is the last part of this Section, so if you aren't interested in the tasks, you can stop reading here.

###16.7.1 The Locator task

The Locator task captures information about the character's current room, including the room's title, description, list of exits and sometimes even its contents.

The Locator task doesn't magically know how to interpret all possible worlds, so it's useful only when connected to one of Axmud's pre-configured worlds, or when connected to a world you've configured yourself (or which someone has configured for you...

The client command **;read** will instruct the Locator to read out some of the information it has gathered.

For example, type **;read title** to hear the current room's title (if known).

Type **;read description** to hear the current room's description.  If it's a very long description, type **;read description 100** to hear the first 100 characters.

Type **;read exit** to hear the exit list, and type **;read content** to hear the contents list.

###16.7.2 Auto-reading the room title

The Locator task is able to read out information about the current room automatically, every time the world sends that information.

This is probably not very useful, since all text received from the world is already read out by default.  However, perhaps you want to limit the amount of text that gets read out, in which case you can stop Axmud reading out all received text by typi...

You can then use the client command **;switch**.

If you type **;switch title**, the Locator will start reading out the room title, every time it is received.  If you type **;switch title** again, the Locator will stop reading out the room title.

To read out room descriptions automatically, type **;switch description**.

To read out exit lists automatically, type **;switch exit**.

To read out content lists automatically, type **;switch content**.

###16.7.3 Auto-read the room title permanently

The command **;switch title** will make the Locator task automatically read out room titles for the rest of the session.  However, the next time you start Axmud, a brand new Locator task will start, and it won't know that it's supposed to read out ro...

The client command **;permswitch** is the solution to this problem. (It's spelled with a semicolon, followed by perm and switch as a single word, without spaces.)

To read out room titles in this session, and in all future sessions, type **;permswitch title**.

###16.7.4 The Status task

The Status task gathers information about your character, such as the their health points and experience points.

Like the Locator task, the Status task doesn't magically know how to gather this information.  Both tasks work best when connected to a pre-configured world.

The client command **;read** can be used to read out some of this information, as long as the world provides the information and Axmud knows how to collect it.

Type **;read health** to read out the character's health points.  You can also type **;read energy**, **;read magic**, **;read guild**, **;read social**, **;read experience**, **;read level** and **;read lives**.

**;read status** will read the character's life status - alive, dead, passed out or asleep.

**;read alignment** will read the character's alignment (good or evil).

**;read age** will read the character's age.

**;read time** will read the game time.

**;read bank** and **;read purse** will reveal information about your character's finances. Money is tracked by the Inventory task, so you will need to start that task before you can use it.

The client commands **;starttask** and **;addinitialtask** are both typed as a semicolon followed by a single word with no spaces.

To start the Inventory task, type **;starttask inventory**. To make the inventory task start in every session, type **;addinitialtask inventory**.

###16.7.5 Status task alerts

It would be very useful for the Status task to issue an audible warning when your character's health points fall to a certain level, and again when they recover.

You can do this with the client command **;alert**.

To get an audible warning when your character's health points fall to 20%, type **;alert health down 20**.

To get a warning when they recover to 90%, type **;alert health up 90**.

You can also use the **;alert** command to get audible warnings for your character's energy, magic, guild and social points, where available.

The **;alert** command only affects the current session.  If you want these audible warnings every time you run Axmud, use the **;permalert** command. (It's spelled with a semicolon, followed by perm and alert as a single word, without spaces.)

For example, to warn about low health points every time you play, type **;permalert health down 20**.

By the way, you can use the **;switch** command to make the Status task read a notification when your character dies, falls asleep, passes out or recovers. Type **;switch life** to turn on these notifications, or to turn them off again.

###16.7.6 The Attack task

The Attack task keeps track of your fights.

You can use **;switch** or **;permswitch** to get an audible notification of fights that have just finished (and, for some worlds, when they start).

Type **;switch fight** to hear the results of fights, and the same command to stop hearing them. Type **;switch interaction** to hear the results of interactions. (Interactions - encounters that aren't a fight, but still result in a success or a fail...

###16.7.7 The Channels and Divert tasks

The Channels and Diverts task are commonly used to divert certain lines of text from the main window into a separate task window. It's handy for making sure you don't miss an important messages in the heat of battle.

Visually-impaired users can use either task to make sure that important messages are read out in a different voice, but the Divert task is probably more convenient.

To turn on the reading of all diverted lines of text, type **;switch divert**. Use the same command to turn them off.  Use the **;permswitch** command to make this change in this and all future sessions.

You can also turn on or off specific lines of text. The Divert task distinguishes between tells (private communications between players), social messages (public communication channels), custom messages (any other line of text that should be diverted...

If you're using optimised settings then there is probably no task window open. To turn on the reading out of all tells, type **;switch tell**. You can also type **;switch social**, **;switch custom**, **;switch warning**.

###16.7.8 The Chat task

The Chat task allows players to communicate with each other directly, independent of the world in which they are playing.  It uses a standard protocol, so users of different MUD clients can talk to each other.

This form of peer-to-peer communication isn't much used any more, but it's available if you need it.

To read out all Chat task communications, type **;switch chat**. Use the same command again to turn it off.

You might prefer to hear only incoming communications or only outgoing communications. For that, type **;switch chat in** or **;switch chat out**. To read out group communications, type **;switch chat echo**.