Better Accessibility For Limited Audio

FIEND8LOODED · April 12

I've long held the belief that this game is severely lacking in terms of how accessible it is to people that can't hear very well, that can't hear at all, or even those who just can't play with their audio on for whatever reason they may have, and I would love to see improvements to this.

The visual heartbeat was a great step, but I think there's still a long way to go. One thing I would love to see is a visual indicator for skill checks. A skill check, like the terror radius, is a vital part of gameplay that is much harder to deal with when you have no warning for when it comes up. I mean, there's literally a perk which, at its most powerful, removes the skill check notification noise entirely, because it's known that that kind of hindrance makes skill checks harder. Why should some players have to play with that as the default?

I feel like this should extend to select killer powers too, though I'm hesitant to give many suggestions because I'm no balancing expert. As an example though to get my point across, consider Wraith. Being able to hear Wraith's bell is very important when playing against him. He's even got an addon—an iridescent addon—that allows him to get rid of the noise of his bell, further driving home how important his bell's audio component is. Why then is there no visual indicator for this? Some players have to deal with Wraith having an iridescent addon as basekit because the game isn't accessible to them. Such a visual indicator wouldn't have to be big red text saying "KILLER INCOMING" or anything, a simple fluttering at the edges of the screen I imagine could work well.

Another killer I take issue with in this department is Spirit. To deal with Spirit while she's phase-walking you have to not only be able to hear and hear well, but you have to own a decent headset too if you want to be able to pinpoint where exactly she is. Again, a very vague and broad fluttering in whatever direction she's in relative to the player would be great, and would make the game much more accessible to anyone that can't hear for whatever reason.

Also, please don't misunderstand me, just because these are all examples of accessibility options for survivors doesn't mean I don't think killers should have similar accessibility options. I bring these examples up just because they're the first ones that came to my mind.

TL;DR: Please give us visual indicators for things like skill checks and killer abilities that rely on sound to deal with. Players without sound are at a disadvantage compared to those with sound for no good reason.

(edited to change instances of "hunter" to "killer", i've been playing idv a lot lately and so i keep mixing up the words lmao)