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Hot Take: Spirit STILL Needs An Actual Rework
I feel ashamed that this has to be considered a "hot take" to begin with.
Spirit is an accessibility nightmare, and the last time I pointed this out I had a LOT of people who disagreed with Spirit being reworked to be made more accessible, so let me address some of the claims head on.
"If Spirit is an accessibility issue, just dont play her, there are other Killers."
- By the logic, I can face Spirit as Survivor as well, and they are an accessibility nightmare for BOTH SIDES, so suddenly I should stop playing Survivor as well over a single Killer? Why should ANYONE be forced to avoid over one-half of the entire game over a single Killer?
"But Spirit will be made weaker than before."
- You cant predict the future, sometimes reworks are not meant/intended to make a Killer weaker or stronger, the point of a rework is to fundamentally change how they function, and if they are made weaker, we can BUFF them, it's not that hard to understand.
"Just use Dried Cherry Blossom, youll be fine."
- Does not consider the Survivor role.
- Why do I need a PURPLE RARITY addon just to play Spirit?
"They should make it so you get the haze effect on the visualize Terror Radius."
- Does not consider the Killer role.
- Good idea generally but I think there are better solutions.
I cannot stress this enough, people often just look at one side of things but often dont consider the other side. I have presented these ideas MANY times before any every single time they get dismissed because people cannot understand that Spirit's accessibility issues affect the Killer AND Survivor, not just a single side.
I really do hope that BHVR reworks Spirit in the future.
Comments
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I find very interesting how they added the visual heartbeat for "accessibility" purposes but Spirit is still a thing lmfao
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Oh Lord help me. And how exactly do you plan on addressing her? You never mentioned any suggestions, just the issues you have.
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My main thing is provide better visual and auditory clarity.
If you look at a Killer like Knight (which I am aware is a weaker Killer), they have an animation for sticking their sword into the ground and an audio cue (the audio for the sword being planted + the wisp audio).
Killers like Wraith have their Bell audio, the crackling when uncloaking, and visual clarity as to when they uncloak and cloak (hitting the bell and becoming more visible).
Maybe an animation can play to indicate when the Spirit starts to phase, and having better auditory indicators for phasing. As for the Killer POV, visual aids can be used to help Spirit a bit more, Scratchmarks can become a lot more visible or providing Killer's Instinct post-phase to help with tracking after she is done with her power.
It isnt much but it's something, and it still keeps her core concept without reworking her entire power.
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She's an accessibility nightmare, you're right. I'm sure there are things BHVR could do in order to help, but, unless they're willing to straight up murder her identity, she's always going to cause issues.
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The spirit stands-still for 1.5 second to begin the power. as for audio clarity, the game expect you to have proper hearing when playing as the spirit. the game cannot account for disabilities. your free to play the game on your accord with said disabilities however those disabilities may impair your performance in the game.
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What's wrong with a killer being different? Part of playing as and against spirit is the mindgame of "do nothing"
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The lack of ambition really shows with this.
Why not want BHVR to strive to do better? Especially when making the game more accessible helps players get into the game, draws in more money for the Developers, and thus funds better quality content.
The developers released the visual Terror Radius to help people with hearing impairments, and Im asking for this system to be expanded and improved, as well as making a Killer more accessible for both sides, only to be met with "oh yea, they have disabilities, they should know they are at a disadvantage, they shouldnt ask for improvements," like what?
Also "The Spirit stands still for 1.5 seconds to begin their power" isnt even an appropriate way of judging? If I cant hear them using their power, they can just sit still without using their power. They can use addons that increase their power charge speed. There are MANY, and I mean MANY situations in which that does not clarify as meaningful counterplay.
That's awful design. If every single Killer has visual and auditory clarity with their power, why should Spirit be the exception?
It literally does not matter if they are different or not, the only other Killer that cannot see Survivors while using their power is Knight and Spirit and Knight are fundamentally different enough in terms of identity to begin with.
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Her phasing sound should be illuminated by the visual terror radius (it can use the lullaby visual). This doesn't really solve the issue of direction, but the devs have mentioned a VFX of the killer kicking up dust while phasing. That could also be implemented. Her strength mostly comes from her being incredibly fast during the phase anyway, so it wouldn't likely be that detrimental to her kit. The furin add-on might need a rework if this is done since you can notice that the phasing sound is global and not local only by listening. The visual terror radius probably wouldn't help distinguish between a local/global phasing sound.
From the perspective of the killer you can have that dust effect apply to running survivors. I'm not really sure how you can emulate the static breathing of healthy survivors in a visual way that wouldn't also grant an advantage to players who are not hard of hearing, but It wil be better to accommodate those with poor hearing and give a slight advantage to everyone playing the killer than to leave them out. If the killer becomes too overbearing because of accessibility features being implemented then you can always tweak the numbers to her power (e.g. reduce phasing movement speed, power recovery rate, etc.).
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There’s no reason to fully rework Spirit unless it was to add more clarity to her audio.
As in the while the Spirit is phasing; it would give the same lullaby visual heartbeat you get with Huntress, an actual animation that indicates to the player “Hey, she just started phasing”, and more clear audio on her location while phasing. Sometimes the audio sounds a bit muffled.
Although the Spirit can get cucked by things like no footstep sound effects (I’m looking at you Eyrie of Crow) or general sound just not playing.
The problem is that’s she’s unique and is the killer that relies the most in auditorial queues and your sense of hearing. Which is why I love her because she’s so different that the rest of the roster in terms of tracking. I don’t wanna see her auditorial dependence change.
You cannot give survivors too much info while phasing or it’s just too easy to counter her. Things like seeing her physical body or anything like that should be off the table.
I’m all for accessibility but it can’t be at the expense of making a killer weaker especially when it’s someone who relies on audio more than any other killer in the game
But her actual design and balance is quite strong and more fair than she’s ever been.
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Not everything in the world has to be accessible for everyone. The spirit is a unique and interesting killer who has been through enough already. I think we can leave her alone now.
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Wouldnt a visual representation of her starting to phase invalidate the whole mindgame of "did or didnt she?", especially if it's the glowing survivor heart instead of something like glowwy shards on her body?
I mean making audio work is a good thing, but as far Im concerned bhvr has a track record of just messing up audio for killers ( sound occlusion throzgh walls got worse at least 3 times, billy chainsaw etc)
Wouldnt be surprising if it ends with survivors being 100% able to track a completely invisible enemy while she gets drowned in whooshing with unusable scrtchmarks.
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She is fine. Buff Yakuyoke amulet or what its called cause its weakest purple add on in the game from last nerf
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No. Improve on the heartbeat icon and make it have that “haze” effect as if it’s a lullaby and have it grow bigger or smaller in size the closer or further she is with a tiny arrow that points to the general direction she’s in that isn’t precise, This is all. People without a hearing impairment already have this info when wearing a headset so it’s no big deal.
As for the killer side, maybe make the scratch marks brighter by default?
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Omg this! I really wish they’d removed the speed debuff but oh well. If they do decide buffing or reworking it, i hope it turns out actually good and not the “ inflicts x status effect or make survivors scream bullshit”
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I don't see a big problem with them treating the phasing sound like a lullaby. As long as it is only noticeable at the same time a reasonable abled hearing player would notice the sound this wouldn't hurt or overadvantage anyone.
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