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Accessibility - Notifications and Flashlights cause Sensory Issues

ZoeyLynnNyx
ZoeyLynnNyx Member Posts: 4
in Feedback and Suggestions

Hey folks,

I know there are many discussion regarding the validity of things like "Flashlight-" and "Notification-Spam" as tactics. And while I have my issues with them in general, this here is about Accessibility.

At this point I have almost 600 hours in the game and I started 2017 (I think), though I did take a longer break. I have always had sensory issues, but they have worsened, especially during the last year. If a Survivor chooses to stay close to me, constantly clicking, that can very quickly give me some pretty bad issues. The Notification-Spam from Vaulting and such, tends to be even worse. It gets bad enough, that I have the choice between muting the game (or leave outright for that matter) or risk not being able anymore after the game, because I'll usually need to take a break from being at my PC at all.

Imagine you are playing your usual games and suddenly you need to choose between leaving or risking headaches, nausea and disorientation. At the moment that is happening ... every 5-10 matches (a rough guess).

When talking about this in the steam-forum, another user came up with the following suggestion regarding the flashlights:

  1. Flashlights consume 50% of the charges you would need to blind a killer right away.
  2. Afterwards it starts consuming charges 75% slower than normal.

This would punish clicking, without making the actual use (flashing) unviable.

Potential Changes for Notifications:

  1. Expand the Audio-Options. Allow players to change the volume of different effects individually. If you want to keep people from getting an Advantage just allow them to change these specific things.
  2. Add a switch between getting audio notifications and more visible visual notifications. This would also help players with hearing disabilities in general.
  3. Block Vaults and Lockers (for fast-vaulting, you can still slow vault), after someone fast-vaulted, while they a certain distance away from the killer. Outside of some very Niche situations with killers like Nurse or Freddy, this won't make intended gameplay any more difficult, and those could probably be worked fairly easily.

I love this game. And I want to keep loving it. But when I'm forced to stop playing or take a big hit, by giving up sound, that's just not worth it after a while. Especially if improving at the game and getting a higher MMR worsens these problems.

I'd love to hear from the Devs, but I'd also like to hear your thoughts and ideas on how to tackle this. Mine are mostly brainstorming, so everything else is welcome ^^