The problem with walkie-talkies

[Shippu]

I'm aware that a huge pull of this game is its atmosphere and aesthetic and the sound design does tie into that heavily - the way your friend's screams echo through the rusted metal halls is absolutely flawless.

I know that the walkie-talkie is supposed to play into that; the company you're working for is clearly more invested in themselves than their employees, which is why you're given really crappy walkie-talkies that aren't the best quality but it's all you got.

My problem is sensory overload. For those who are unfamiliar with the term, allow me to give a brief, very simplified explanation:
I am autistic. Among other things, I am hypersensitive to various stimuli, especially sounds, but generally all 5 senses. This means that when there's too much stimulation all at once, I am unable to cope or focus and become very disoriented and frustrated.

So when I'm in-game, and I'm in the building with some friends and someone tries to talk to me over the radio, I'm having to contend not only with crappy walkie-talkie audio, but also the people near me talking (amplified due to the reverberation from being indoors), as well as the environment ambience such as the steam pipes or doors opening or items being dropped, as well as all of the footsteps from other players and monsters.

It's unfortunately so bad that I'm pretty much always forced to be the person who stays in the ship, or I have to be the only person without a walkie talkie.

My proposed solution:
I would like to suggest a keybind that simply lowers the volume of everything except for the person talking on the walkie-talkie, by like 75% (or a configurable amount). If you need some way to have it make sense from a gameplay perspective, you could equate it to holding the walkie-talkie up to your ear to better hear it, at the cost of awareness to your surroundings.

Though I can understand if this could potentially be seen as hindering the atmosphere in a sense, so I'd even just be happy if any modders reading this would be up to the task. I'd greatly appreciate it.

[Kibular420]

I don't see how that's hateful lol. You are an extreme minority of the playerbase and the game shouldn't cater to your needs. The sound design is fine. Maybe play a different game like Hello Kitty Island

[Chaos]

Sorry but this sound like a *you* problem, maybe you should try other game?

[Shippu]

Originally posted by Kibular420:

I don't see how that's hateful lol. You are an extreme minority of the playerbase and the game shouldn't cater to your needs. The sound design is fine. Maybe play a different game like Hello Kitty Island

The fact that you think that I shouldn't play anything besides a children's game is pretty indicative that this is a bad faith argument, but I'll roll with it.

I already said the sound design is fine and it's a personal issue. I'm merely requesting an accessibility option so that I and others can have a better time with the game. I'm not demanding the game be changed in any way and it's not like I'm telling you that you should have to use it. It literally makes -no- difference to you. You're not a developer/modder so this thread also wasn't even directed towards you. So what other reason would you have to comment here just to make me feel unwelcome if not for hate, plain and simple?

Does it tick you off when buildings have wheelchair accessibility too? It's not like you need 'em so maybe they should just go somewhere else, eh? Heaven forbid someone held consideration for another human being with different circumstances to you.

I truly hope that the day doesn't come where you end up needing help only to be spoken to the same way you spoke to me.

[Shippu]

Originally posted by Chaos:

Sorry but this sound like a *you* problem, maybe you should try other game?

What's wrong with making a small feature/accessibility suggestion for a game I am otherwise enjoying? I have no problem with the rest of the game and whilst this isn't enough to stop me it would be cool if it was an option.

Why does having a suggestion for what would make the game more enjoyable for me mean I should just not play it at all?

[Chubkis]

I have a slightly autistic friend and think this is actually a good idea

[Chaos]

Originally posted by Jake:

What's wrong with making a small feature/accessibility suggestion for a game I am otherwise enjoying? I have no problem with the rest of the game and whilst this isn't enough to stop me it would be cool if it was an option.

Why does having a suggestion for what would make the game more enjoyable for me mean I should just not play it at all?

Because time taken to develop this feature for the very small group of people is taken from the time to develop new content/bug fixing for everyone else that didn't have this problem?
It's simply more cost effective for the majority of people.

[Woody]

Originally posted by Chaos:

Originally posted by Jake:

What's wrong with making a small feature/accessibility suggestion for a game I am otherwise enjoying? I have no problem with the rest of the game and whilst this isn't enough to stop me it would be cool if it was an option.

Why does having a suggestion for what would make the game more enjoyable for me mean I should just not play it at all?

Because time taken to develop this feature for the very small group of people is taken from the time to develop new content/bug fixing for everyone else that didn't have this problem?
It's simply more cost effective for the majority of people.

I don't understand how adding in sound sliders takes away time from developers in a meaningful way?

[Shippu]

Originally posted by Chaos:

Originally posted by Jake:

What's wrong with making a small feature/accessibility suggestion for a game I am otherwise enjoying? I have no problem with the rest of the game and whilst this isn't enough to stop me it would be cool if it was an option.

Why does having a suggestion for what would make the game more enjoyable for me mean I should just not play it at all?

Because time taken to develop this feature for the very small group of people is taken from the time to develop new content/bug fixing for everyone else that didn't have this problem?
It's simply more cost effective for the majority of people.

If the developer decides "I don't want to allocate resources for that" then that's fine, it was only a suggestion. That doesn't mean I shouldn't have made the suggestion in the first place. I think it's rather pretentious for you to try to decide what the developer should deem as worthy of his time.

Not to mention, like the original post says, it's entirely possible a modder might see this and decide "I could probably do that".

I'm genuinely curious; do you actually just hold zero value in any sort of improvement that doesn't directly benefit you? To hell with everyone else? I get it. You and most other people aren't going to ever make use of it. But does the idea that the developer might make something that doesn't specifically cater to you bother you so much that you'd just rather that someone else not even voice their suggestion?

ASD affects about 75 million people in the world, about 1%. As I'm writing this, the game hits about 120,000 concurrent players per day. That's 1,200 players per day that might appreciate an accessibility option like this.
For comparison, the amount of people who are wheelchair-bound is roughly 1%-2%. Would it bother you if they requested an accessibility ramp to a building you frequent? After all, you and 98% of other people don't need one. Why don't they just go to another building?

[Chaos]

Originally posted by Woody:

I don't understand how adding in sound sliders takes away time from developers in a meaningful way?

For this one in particular?
Probably not that long, but do see how many request of this nature of the forum right now?
If dev add this, then what?
What about the other guy niche problem? don't he deserve it too?
Why this guy get it and not me?
so on and so forth.

Then all the small little thing for all the small group of people with their niche problem.
We probably won't get out of EA by the end of the next year.

So isn't better draw the line while we still can?

Beside while the first guy reply may be rude, it is logical.
I mean disabled people are called disabled for a reason.

[Shippu]

Originally posted by Chaos:

Beside while the first guy reply may be rude, it is logical.
I mean disabled people are called disabled for a reason.

What, you think I shouldn't be allowed to enjoy games because I was born with a different set of obstacles in life? Does "disabled" mean "not worth our consideration" to you?
You're forgetting the second half of "disabled people" - we're still people.

You're also presenting a slippery slope fallacy - Just because one accessibility option is added doesn't mean you then have to add every other one.
I'm also not pitching this like it's some top-priority feature that needs to be added right here, right now - just that if it's a possibility down the line, it would make the game more enjoyable for me and people like me. Despite your clear loathing for our existence we do exist.

Once again, I truly hope the day never comes where you end up needing help or support only to be treated like a lesser being.

[Chaos]

Originally posted by Jake:

Originally posted by Chaos:

Because time taken to develop this feature for the very small group of people is taken from the time to develop new content/bug fixing for everyone else that didn't have this problem?
It's simply more cost effective for the majority of people.

If the developer decides "I don't want to allocate resources for that" then that's fine, it was only a suggestion. That doesn't mean I shouldn't have made the suggestion in the first place. I think it's rather pretentious for you to try to decide what the developer should deem as worthy of his time.

Not to mention, like the original post says, it's entirely possible a modder might see this and decide "I could probably do that".

I'm genuinely curious; do you actually just hold zero value in any sort of improvement that doesn't directly benefit you? To hell with everyone else? I get it. You and most other people aren't going to ever make use of it. But does the idea that the developer might make something that doesn't specifically cater to you bother you so much that you'd just rather that someone else not even voice their suggestion?

ASD affects about 75 million people in the world, about 1%. As I'm writing this, the game hits about 120,000 concurrent players per day. That's 1,200 players per day that might appreciate an accessibility option like this.
For comparison, the amount of people who are wheelchair-bound is roughly 1%-2%. Would it bother you if they requested an accessibility ramp to a building you frequent? After all, you and 98% of other people don't need one. Why don't they just go to another building?

If modder make it then dev simply port or copy/paste it into the game, then why not?
It's pretty cost effective and he can focus on game development.

As for the other part, It's depend, if it doesn't affect me negatively at all then why not?
Since I run by the simple "You can do whatever you want, as long as you don't bother me"

[Shippu]

Originally posted by Chaos:

If modder make it then dev simply port or copy/paste it into the game, then why not?
It's pretty cost effective and he can focus on game development.

As for the other part, It's depend, if it doesn't affect me negatively at all then why not?
Since I run by the simple "You can do whatever you want, as long as you don't bother me"

Literally none of what I suggested affects you negatively at all. It was a request - not a demand - for an accessibility feature that is not mechanically demanding nor impacts gameplay for anyone.

At the end of the day I paid for this game just like you did. I have just as much of a right to want the game to cater to me as much as it does to you.
You don't see me going into threads about wanting things like bigger lobbies even though there's already mods for it, to tell them to just go play something else because they're suggesting something I don't want. And I don't see you doing that either - so what specifically about the idea of the game having a very minor inconsequential accessibility option that you'd probably never even know was a thing, bothers you so much that you had to voice your disapproval?

[Sasha Mason]

Oh dear those comments. To the people commenting, if this doesn't personally bother you, then just let it be. More options hurt no one, and as you aren't the developer, it isn't up to you to be there to get every suggestion you have no use for shut down~

People should be free to suggest what ever they want. It's not up to you to decide if the game should have it or not. Of course, if someone were to suggest a feature that would end up negatively impacting your own experience, then I can see why you would disagree, but in this case, a feature like this wouldn't do any harm for those who have no use for it.

Games shouldn't be made for disabled people? I guess accessibility options in various games that exist, specifically to cater to disabled people, shouldn't exist, then? Colorblind should just play something else instead of providing colorblind options like some games do?


Anyways, as for OP, I think the suggestion is pretty solid, lowering overall volume so you can focus more on the walkie talkie would be nice, and a lot of games actually solve that issue by providing separate volume sliders for voice over and for other audio. Again, very basic feature, hurts no one if it's there, and a lot of games already have that in an indirect way and I always bump up player voice and lower music and other sound effects.

Just know, there is always a lot going on in this game, from random noises, to monsters, to various people trying to talk to you, to everything of what I just mentioned happening at the same time. There is only so much the game can do to make it easier to play without fundamentally changing everything about the game to have as few sounds playing as possible.

[Chaos]

Originally posted by Jake:

What, you think I shouldn't be allowed to enjoy games because I was born with a different set of obstacles in life? Does "disabled" mean "not worth our consideration" to you?
You're forgetting the second half of "disabled people" - we're still people.

Why of course?
When one is blind, one can't enjoy anything that need sight.
When one is deaf, one can't enjoy anything involve with sound.
When one is mute, one can't enjoy anything with their voice.

Maybe someone with too much time or money on their hands may try to change this truth.
But one shouldn't expect it to be the norm. Those people should've know their lot.
Beside what is "people" but an animal? the same as any other cat and dog.
Does it truly hold any special meaning?


Okay okay sorry, Guess I took one bit far, I hope you aren't too offended, but I have a laugh writing all these cringy ♥♥♥♥ from time to time, I swear my character are not always this much of an ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥.
I hope you can enjoy this game without your problem in the future.

[Shippu]

Originally posted by Sasha Mason:

Oh dear those comments. To the people commenting, if this doesn't personally bother you, then just let it be. More options hurt no one, and as you aren't the developer, it isn't up to you to be there to get every suggestion you have no use for shut down~

People should be free to suggest what ever they want. It's not up to you to decide if the game should have it or not. Of course, if someone were to suggest a feature that would end up negatively impacting your own experience, then I can see why you would disagree, but in this case, a feature like this wouldn't do any harm for those who have no use for it.

Games shouldn't be made for disabled people? I guess accessibility options in various games that exist, specifically to cater to disabled people, shouldn't exist, then? Colorblind should just play something else instead of providing colorblind options like some games do?


Anyways, as for OP, I think the suggestion is pretty solid, lowering overall volume so you can focus more on the walkie talkie would be nice, and a lot of games actually solve that issue by providing separate volume sliders for voice over and for other audio. Again, very basic feature, hurts no one if it's there, and a lot of games already have that in an indirect way and I always bump up player voice and lower music and other sound effects.

Just know, there is always a lot going on in this game, from random noises, to monsters, to various people trying to talk to you, to everything of what I just mentioned happening at the same time. There is only so much the game can do to make it easier to play without fundamentally changing everything about the game to have as few sounds playing as possible.

Firstly thank you for the much needed dose of rational thought in your response.

Secondly, I've found that it's not the sounds in general causing any issues but rather when I'm trying to understand speech at the same time. I can quickly and easily identify a spider's chittering or a coilhead's spring sound and that's no problem; but when someone is trying to talk to you and you are trying to parse whatever information they are trying to relay to you it's a different story. It's already hard enough to understand someone when two people speak at once, doubly so when the person you're actually trying to listen to is distorted due to the radio's audio filter (which, again, great for atmosphere, not great for understanding).

In short, people talking on top of the other stuff is causing my issue, so just being able to single out the radio voice is all I'm asking.