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.

[Skinny buggo]

i like the suggestion

[Sasha Mason]

Originally posted by Jake:

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 feel you hard on that one. I used to struggle with that but managed to overcome it some time ago. Back when I was playing Dark Souls 3, I was trying to PvP while also talking to someone on Discord and it was a nightmare, I simply could not focus on both of those things at the same time and was completely overwhelmed with the situation.

Some other time when I got into Arma 3, I was playing with a group and we used a radio mod + teamspeak to be able to talk ingame directly and with radios ingame using Teamspeak, and here too I was completely overwhelmed when I had two different radios + the people in close proximity all talking. Guns are loud, so that overwhelmed me fairly quickly as well.

I don't know if the developers read the forums but you can try suggesting something on their Discord server, though both the forums and Discord are getting flooded with suggestions so it might be hard to actually reach the developer.

Though if and whenever he decides to add some volume sliders for general audio, voices, radio, it might be a lot better, would be able to make the radio much louder. Or alternatively, some keybind to hold it close to your ear to that's louder and everything else quieter, though basic volume sliders in the menu is industry standard so I think it'll come eventually.

[Shippu]

Originally posted by Sasha Mason:

Originally posted by Jake:

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 feel you hard on that one. I used to struggle with that but managed to overcome it some time ago. Back when I was playing Dark Souls 3, I was trying to PvP while also talking to someone on Discord and it was a nightmare, I simply could not focus on both of those things at the same time and was completely overwhelmed with the situation.

Some other time when I got into Arma 3, I was playing with a group and we used a radio mod + teamspeak to be able to talk ingame directly and with radios ingame using Teamspeak, and here too I was completely overwhelmed when I had two different radios + the people in close proximity all talking. Guns are loud, so that overwhelmed me fairly quickly as well.

I don't know if the developers read the forums but you can try suggesting something on their Discord server, though both the forums and Discord are getting flooded with suggestions so it might be hard to actually reach the developer.

Though if and whenever he decides to add some volume sliders for general audio, voices, radio, it might be a lot better, would be able to make the radio much louder. Or alternatively, some keybind to hold it close to your ear to that's louder and everything else quieter, though basic volume sliders in the menu is industry standard so I think it'll come eventually.

Yeah more often than not when I'm in comms on Discord as soon as I start focusing on the game itself I stop communicating or listening to what people are saying at all in order to concentrate, even if I don't need audio to focus.

I may try their Discord server at some point but given how warm the welcome here was I think I'll wait a while before I attempt to stir the proverbial circuit bee hive again with my audacious desire to enjoy a video game as if I'm not a sub-human!

[Neko_Baron]

I love when I tell people dont give me the only walkie talkie, and then im standing there, listening to the person on ship talking and the crew around me talking, and I have no idea what they said because I cant listen to 2 conversations at once :3.

I dont really know if theres an ideal solution to this because its kind of a realistic thing, people talking over each other adds to the panic.

I would say one thing, is it seems if your near someone who has a radio, you dont seem to be able to hear it which is why people talk over each other because they dont realise the radio is on? At least that's how it felt like to me.

[Shippu]

Originally posted by Neko_Baron:

I dont really know if theres an ideal solution to this because its kind of a realistic thing, people talking over each other adds to the panic.

In a real situation I can hold the radio close to my ear and cover my other ear. I do this with my phone often.

Do note that my issue isn't just people talking over each other, but rather other sounds continually overpowering the walkie talkie. It's definitely debatable whether this truly adds to the atmosphere but for me it just gives me a headache.

Originally posted by Neko_Baron:

I would say one thing, is it seems if your near someone who has a radio, you dont seem to be able to hear it which is why people talk over each other because they dont realise the radio is on? At least that's how it felt like to me.

You would be correct. There is a mod for this.

[Shippu]

Originally posted by sherwood:

I cannot believe that a one man indie team didnt make a game for ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

Guess you're out of luck then, huh?

[FoxBoxLive]

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

How do you not see that as hateful? And, Hello Kitty? What.

Karma is real, it'll be coming to you in the future. I hope that you will not only feel what it's like being the "minority" but also that you will receive the hatred you put onto Jake.

Though I have no particular needs to play this game, I understand Jake's point and believe it is a very, very valid suggestion. Jake; I hope that the dev will see this and make it more accessible to you! Cheers, friend.

[McMessenger]

I do think this is a nice suggestion towards giving players more options, especially for those with disabilities. That being said, this game is being worked on (at least currently) by a single person. Stuff like key rebinding, graphics options, FOV / UI tweaks, etc. - options that are almost expected to be included for PC games - are also not in the game yet.

This game's popularity & player count has exploded over the past few weeks, and I have to imagine the dev is probably at least a tad overwhelmed by all the reception, as well as the countless other suggestions being made here. You could try joining the unofficial Discord servers and seeing if it might be possible to make a mod for something like this - otherwise, you'll just have to wait.

[Shippu]

Originally posted by McMessenger:

I do think this is a nice suggestion towards giving players more options, especially for those with disabilities. That being said, this game is being worked on (at least currently) by a single person. Stuff like key rebinding, graphics options, FOV / UI tweaks, etc. - options that are almost expected to be included for PC games - are also not in the game yet.

This game's popularity & player count has exploded over the past few weeks, and I have to imagine the dev is probably at least a tad overwhelmed by all the reception, as well as the countless other suggestions being made here. You could try joining the unofficial Discord servers and seeing if it might be possible to make a mod for something like this - otherwise, you'll just have to wait.

By all means, like I've said a few times in the thread, this isn't meant as a "why isn't this in the game yet" type of criticism or like, an implication that I think this should take priority. I'm more than happy waiting and I'm still enjoying the other aspects of the game in the meantime.

Just wanted to put it out there, so that maybe at some point down the line the dev might find an opportunity to include it, which would be nice, but if not, it's no problem.

[The Fountaineer 🖋]

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?

Unfortunately you’re arguing with a forum infested with antisocial weirdos. I get over stimulated as well using walkies, and while a decent solution would be to tell my team to be quiet for a second or just run off solo, dampening surrounding sounds would also be a good fearure.

Accessibility options are what help keep games alive and allow MORE people to enjoy it. Just report the malicious comments and move on.

[Applekid]

Originally posted by Reddit:

games shouldnt be made for disabled people imo

As I was reading through his post I thought he was about to request something outlandish and silly. What OP is asking for isn't outlandish in the slightest and would benefit even people without sensory issues. I think you just took issue with why he wants that option. It would be no different than using discord and controlling independent volumes like that.

[Shippu]

Originally posted by Applekid:

As I was reading through his post I thought he was about to request something outlandish and silly. What OP is asking for isn't outlandish in the slightest and would benefit even people without sensory issues. I think you just took issue with why he wants that option. It would be no different than using discord and controlling independent volumes like that.

I demand the developer give every player sensory processing disorders so everyone suffers with me.

/s, of course.

[The_Dipl0mat]

Yeah, I think it'd be nice to have an option for that. I've gotten fairly decent at handling audio inputs, but it does get to the point where I often just leave the walkie behind and screw myself over with mission control (the sacrifice we leave in the ship) if I get separated. Hopefully a modder, or even the dev can do something with your suggestion :)

[Bill]

Originally posted by Jake:

Originally posted by Cant let em hit me:

games shouldnt be made for disabled people imo

Can't tell if you're trying to farm jester awards or are just a very hateful person. Maybe both?

Found the jester farmer lol

[Bill]

Originally posted by Neko_Baron:

I love when I tell people dont give me the only walkie talkie, and then im standing there, listening to the person on ship talking and the crew around me talking, and I have no idea what they said because I cant listen to 2 conversations at once :3.

I dont really know if theres an ideal solution to this because its kind of a realistic thing, people talking over each other adds to the panic.

I would say one thing, is it seems if your near someone who has a radio, you dont seem to be able to hear it which is why people talk over each other because they dont realise the radio is on? At least that's how it felt like to me.

You need less panicked friends