QoL suggestion for our deaf players.

Just to play devil's advocate: You can't use your eyes to see the thing that's pulsating? You can't look around corners or swivel the camera around? You can't actually try to SEARCH for it?

I know in some places this can be a huge pain... Like CoT maps with gigantic rooms. But finding things is half the fun =)

Of course, I'm a former Thief player, so I'm used to my objectives being hidden in shadows and not having any indication that they can be taken until i'm looking straight at them anyway. I was a little dismayed when, upon first playing this game, i saw that the objectives were as obnoxiously obvious as possible, but I didn't mind. Like if the mission text said "Find the computer files", I would think to try to interact with every computer I saw... but then the tutorial makes it clear which computer it is, so your objective isn't "Find" the computer, it's "click this and wait for 3 seconds for no reason".

All that said, I'm behind this idea anyway. =) I think it would be only fair, so get on it, Devs!

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-STEELE =)


Allied to all sides so that no matter what, I'll come out on top!
Oh, and Crimson demands you play this arc-> Twisted Knives (MA Arc #397769)

Why can't you use your eyes? Because maybe the map is huge and you don't feel like clearing.

Chibi, great idea. I think a little mark in the navigation compass would do the trick nicely, kind of like the "how to get out of here" beacon when leading a hostage to the entrance.

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Definately agree 100% I prefer to listen to music anyway than another 12 hours of misc. grunts, the same music loop over and over and the sound of electricity crackling.

How about a texture change for patrol XP as well, if you're blue/green or blue/red colorblind it is virtually impossible to tell the difference between debt, patrol XP and normal XP.

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[ QUOTE ]
Definately agree 100% I prefer to listen to music anyway than another 12 hours of misc. grunts, the same music loop over and over and the sound of electricity crackling.

How about a texture change for patrol XP as well, if you're blue/green or blue/red colorblind it is virtually impossible to tell the difference between debt, patrol XP and normal XP.

[/ QUOTE ]

The latter was brought to the Devs in Open Beta for I13. They said they'd look into it but it wouldn't be for a little while (like I15, or sometime in the next quarter maybe).

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Deamus the Fallen - 50 DM/EA Brute - Lib
Dragos Bahtiam - 50 Fire/Ice Blaster - Lib
/facepalm - Apply Directly to the Forehead!
Formally Dragos_Bahtiam - Abbreviate to DSL - Warning, may contain sarcasm

Hear, hear!

Er... I mean /signed!

Bad jokes aside, I would probably use something like this myself. I have no problems with my hearing, but my laptop's sound card is shot. This would make playing CoH on it that much simpler.

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My story arcs: #2370- Noah Reborn, #18672- The Clockwork War, #31490- Easy Money

Sartre once said, "Hell is other people." What does that make an MMO?

/signed

This is a great idea. Maybe a sonar-like "blip" in the Navigation window or as a status icon?

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/HELL YEAH! Each and every time this idea gets suggested.

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ditto as well

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I think the general idea to use a console graphic to visually notify when you are within a certain range of an audible blinkie to support people with limited hearing is an excellent idea. There are, of course, minor quibbles over the details (blinking, size-variable, absolute range, etc) but the principle is sound game design.


On an unrelated note:

[ QUOTE ]
I should know better - my MA is in Deaf Studies/ASL Linguistics.

[/ QUOTE ]

Mission Architect? Nope. Martial Arts? Nope. Master of Arts degree?. Whew.

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[Guide to Defense] [Scrapper Secondaries Comparison] [Archetype Popularity Analysis]

In one little corner of the universe, there's nothing more irritating than a misfile...
(Please support the best webcomic about a cosmic universal realignment by impaired angelic interference resulting in identity crisis angst. Or I release the pigmy water thieves.)

/seriously signed

As someone who shares my play space, audio levels are often set very modestly. A visual cue would be outstanding!

Thanks, Chibi!

--Fate

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/signed

I'm deaf. Completely deaf. I can't count the number of times I've had to search every single inch of a map to find the last freaking glowie on the mission. I must've sent in dozens of petitions to the GMs to have them locate the final glowie for me so that I could complete the mission.

Some way that'd help me find the glowies a bit easier, the same way hearies can use the glowie sound to locate it, would benefit me tremendously.

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Play my MA arcs!

Tracking Down Jack Ketch - ArcID #2701
Cat War! - ArcID #2788

[ QUOTE ]

The second was an alteration of the first idea by a player "Chibi Lime" to instead have an icon appear in the health bar window like the proximity icons used for day job locations. I love this idea and hope the devs would seriously consider a QoL feature to help our friends enjoy the game more.


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Seems like a great idea to me. I usually keep the game sounds very quiet when I play, so I'd be happy to have an alternate means of locating shy objects.

Here's hoping this won't be a technical nightmare to implement!

-D

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Darkonne: Pinnacle's (unofficially) mighty Dark Miasma/Radiation Blast enthusiast!

Be sure to check out this mighty Arc:
#161865 - Aeon's Nemesis

How about the cursor changing when near enough to "hear" it.

Make it change it glow or pulse a little.





And as far as the devil's advocate post, "Why don't they look around?"...

Well, as I have experienced, and likely most of the player population....sometimes the glowies are not visible, stuck in a wall or crate or something....


You can see part of it, enough to click, but definitely difficult to find even while hearing it.

I have had to /petition to get a gm in to show me where one was before....it was in the wall.

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[ QUOTE ]
On an unrelated note:

[ QUOTE ]
I should know better - my MA is in Deaf Studies/ASL Linguistics.

[/ QUOTE ]

Mission Architect? Nope. Martial Arts? Nope. Master of Arts degree?. Whew.

[/ QUOTE ]

Very funny, Arcanaville. I didn't think of that until AFTER I'd posted it. And yes - in this instance, MA = Master of Arts.

Michelle
aka
Samuraiko/Dark_Respite

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OH FOR THE LOVE OF FNORD YES.
My sister is hearing impaired, and we're both mildly autistic. There are many facets of the game that are very difficult for me, from blue caves (I can't perceive where the openings are, it all looks 'solid' to me), to trying to find glowies..

Sound helps when I have it on, but so many other sounds are extremely distressing for me, that I usually just leave it off. I made an attempt a while back at trying to disable the problematic sounds (overriding them with silent .ogg files), but it ended up being too much trouble in the long run, so I just gave up.

SOMETHING like this, please! I've spent an hour running around in an otherwise empty mish looking for a glowie before because I was out of drops (usually from blue cave missions), and didn't have it in me to 'bother' a GM yet.

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I totally agree with this idea. They could just make the glowies shout "Woo woo woo!" every few minutes.

Or they could make the character say "It's got to be around here somewhere!" to himself (in the same way he says, "I'm getting too far away from my mentor!"). And when he gets out of range of the glowie, he can say, "I'd better keep looking."
[ QUOTE ]
But what about the blind? Braille touch screens for all?

[/ QUOTE ]
Um.

Braille Screens + Mission Architect + Custom Enemies + Chest Slider = Never leaving home again?

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I /sign for sure
I can't usually play with the sound on even though i have full hearing so i think this would be great

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[ QUOTE ]
Both of my ears work fine, but I'm still behind this 100%.

[/ QUOTE ]

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Paragon Wiki: http://www.paragonwiki.com
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I kinda like Hertz's idea about having the character think something to themselves when near it, and think something else when they start getting farther away. It would serve the same purpose as the other ideas and probably be easier to implement so they could possibly do it between issues.

Also would be open to customiziation so you could have you character think "It's got to be around here somewhere" or (like what I'm usually saying IRL) "Where the hell is the &#%!*& thing?!?"

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I would sign off on this.

Those with disabilities have every right to find that damned glowie that not even Jack Bauer can find.

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/signed

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Issue 23: All your base are belong to us?

How about making glowies act as friendlies with a series of point blank area of effect buffs that ignore line of effect, each with a progressively smaller radius?

Have the buffs do nothing, but they stack with each other. So as you get closer and closer to the center more icons appear as 'effecting' you.

-Rachel

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I'm not deaf, but I know I don't take good care of my hearing. I listen to music very loud and I go to clubs alot. This causes my hearing to suffer after extended periods of time where I am victim by choice to these sounds. Sadly, I can't relate to those who are deaf, I can understand how difficult it can be as my last relationship was with a girl who had difficulty hearing (completely) out of her left ear.

I for one would love to have something on the map pop up or some notification that there is a glowie/blinky/object near by. How can I relate to the talk of woes in this conversation? Well, I play with my sound off so I can enjoy the music of Bjork, Lil Jon, and The Who. I have to pause my music so I can hear a glowie, sometimes in the issue 14 missions people have put 125 glowies on a single map (I have personally experienced a mission like this). I had to keep my music off for quite some time to find them all. If I were even partially deaf, I'm sure I would have an even more difficult time finding them even with my music off. So my yay or nay? I choose yay. I'm all for something to help us out more.

That's my input, have a great day.

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[ QUOTE ]
Just to play devil's advocate: You can't use your eyes to see the thing that's pulsating? You can't look around corners or swivel the camera around? You can't actually try to SEARCH for it?

[/ QUOTE ]

Just to reply to the devils advocate portion:

Small bundles of dynamite against reddish-brown terrain in a giant refinery map. They blend VERY well. There are times I've had barrels not be visible just because of what they're against.

And without an audio cue (either from not hearing it, or from "fake" audio cues like in several tech maps where the sounds can blend and "pulse,) it can make a mission frustrating - you may not even know you SHOULD be seeing something nearby.

At least there's an occasional map that has a marker for where an objective should be. it's very uncommon though.

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Oh and on a few rare occasions I've come across glowie/blinkies that didn't glow/blink. The audio cue was the only thing that let me know something needed to be clicked.

Without that sound I'd have been really pissed. I have nothing but the deepest sympathy for my hearing challanged friends.

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/signed

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