A Message to Andy Sites.. again. *Colour Blind Plea*

Discussion in 'PlanetSide 2 Gameplay Discussion' started by TheRunDown, Jan 5, 2016.

  1. TheRunDown

    Hey Andy,

    If you somehow read this, I'm again trying to plea to you about the constant issues I have with PlanetSide 2..
    In the brief time we DMed each other on Twitter, I explained the constant struggles and problems I can't over come due to the limitation of PlanetSide 2.. At first you replied to me stating that you had someone in the Art department looking in to it and viewed the screen shots I took showing the some of the instances I find most difficult to see, now you have long stopped replying to me about this and I find it just plain rude..

    Will there or will there not be more HUD Options added to PlanetSide 2 for us Colour blind users?
    Right now I can not see Bullet Streams in ESFs, I can not see the difference with C4, AI and AV mine's "Icons".. and many many more small details which could be fixed if I was given the ability to change Icons colours and stuff if separated from Empire Colours options..

    There is loads of people experiencing similar issues and a huge demand for more HUD options for colour blind uses, I would imagine there would be less friendly mines blown up by team mates to.


    There are many forms of Colour Blindness, it doesn't always mean you can't actually see colours. In my instance, I can't tell if one colour from another of similar shades, (ie Green/Yellow Blue/Purple etc..) if placed side by side, but I can see them own their own..
  2. Hegeteus

    There's a better chance of him seeing it in reddit, I can post and link this there if you want ;)


    kjeh kjeh, free karma for me...
  3. TheRunDown

    I don't have reddit :(
    never used it, but he sees it feel free. ^^
  4. Hegeteus

  5. Taemien

    Great thing about UI changes to help those with color blindness is its VERY likely everyone else will benefit from more UI options. Up to and including CUSTOMIZING your UIs.

    So everyone should be on board for this. Even if for selfish reasons.
    • Up x 1
  6. TheRunDown

    The responses this has gotten on Reddit from me writing the post, going to bed shortly after and waking up was way more than I was expecting. ^^
  7. TheRunDown

    I've taken this from another post, I posted this shortly after posting this thread..



    I just wanted to add this because Colour correction applications, screens covers and Colour blind glasses don't have the "wow" effect as there are many forms of Colour blindness, and mine is something do with my brain translating the visual image and confusing the colours. It's not a problem with the "eyes" is a way to put it. I can see all the colours but confuse them under conditions.

    So basically, I can see traffic lights and the colours painted on the walls of my house, but I can't "Tell the difference" from blue and purple, (Yellow and green etc..) if painted in stripes on the walls of my house, and had to tell someone which one was which even though I can see they are two difference colours..


    I can not see ESF Bullet streams fired in to the distance, same with Flak rounds.. I can not tell the difference from Enemy and Friend Explosive icons on the floor. (C4, AI and AV mines)

    However... I do not have these issues on say Battlefield 4.. I can see my Bullet Stream from my Jet and chopper.. and I can see the difference from AT Mines.. Just because they don't use Team colours for their Bullet Stream and Mine icons are far bigger and wall presented in lettering you know "It's not friendly"..

    I'm not really asking for the ability to change Bullet Streams and Flak colours, but I would like them to be made more visually defined for in-game day time day light..



    I used Colour blind mode on Smite, but it doesn't change any colours, all it does is change the Health Bars and Player indicators (Red vs Blue), and they's enough for me. However the game does support many Colour blind colour correction settings, and the only game I know which has such a function.
  8. Hegeteus


    Yeah it's definitely more popular than posts usually are there. It would be weird if the devs didn't see it, but it's sort of typical from DBG and former SOE to hide their head in the sand when this kind of stuff is brought up
  9. TheRunDown

    I briefly spoke to Andy Site about this issue on twitter via DM, but he stopped replying mid conversation but said before the silence he's getting someone from the art department to look in to a solution and that's where it ended.. that was months ago.
  10. PS2 Bishop PS2 3D Artist

    I know I'm not Andy, nor do I post here very often. But I'll give my 2 cents...

    As a gamer, I see this come up for a lot of games. I hope that someday there is a more universal solution to it, rather than each game having to come up with a different way of solving it.

    When I was working on the red dot sights, a big part of it was trying to help color blind players. I think we accomplished that. But as OP said, there are many different kinds. So it's trickier than just adding an option to change the colors, because what might help one color blind person, may not help another.

    The best solution would definitely be to allow players to change specific HUD elements to fit their needs. Problem solved. But the big problem is that none of this was done from the start. So going through and adding support for it is like adding plumbing to a house that's already built. It's definitely not impossible, but it's definitely a whole lot more work. Also, keep in mind that anything we do on PC will then need to be done again on the PS4.

    That being said, our current UI guys are very talented and could definitely give you more details than I ever could. But maybe a good in between would be changing the icons of the explosives, since those seem to be universally hard to read. The ESF chasers were recently updated (within the last 6 months or so) because they were hard to see for everybody, are they worse now than they were? slightly better? But changing the color of a HUD element is way different than a bullet tracer, which is also way different than a reticle.

    Sorry my post isn't more helpful, but I just want to let you know that we're not deaf to the issue and it is something we talk about. It just doesn't have an easy/fast solution.

    TL;DR - It really is a tough thing to solve and we're sorry that we can't fix it sooner. Hopefully we can fix the explosive icons in the short term since those seem to be frustrating across the board.
    • Up x 12
  11. Savadrin

    I keep telling everyone I know you guys lurk but stay out of the mud for the most part. Customizeable UI elements are a pain to work with, I'm sure, but they're also a staple of MMO's and something I'm sure most of the playerbase would love to have, for many different reasons.

    Keep up the good work! I've only recently started playing Planetside and I wish I had found it sooner.
  12. TheRunDown

    Thanks for the reply, I really do appetite it and I understand you can't simply accommodate to everyone with the limited HUD/UI options available/possible. Changing the actual UI colours isn't that important, it's the Hud Icons and Empire colours assigned to certain things that makes it difficult to see these things.

    If I could ask for 2 things those would be;

    Better ESF nose gun and Flak bullet Streams/Trails, like a more solid outstanding colour, even if it was just client side so the bullets remain the same effect to the third person seeing epic display above them. The only reason I don't play ESF is because I can't see my bullet stream, which leave me at a huge disadvantage to other ESF pilots.. and I'm sick of getting MLG Try hard tells from players I kill using the tomcats.. The only bullet Stream I can see, is the Tank Buster rounds on the Lib.. Ohh and the Banshee trails.. although it's TTK and multi kill ability is disgustingly low compared to the PPA and AH.. anyway..






    And,
    The ability to change just icon colours, not attached to Empire Colours and actually have two difference icons for friendly mines and enemy mines would be nice to.

    I use Red vs Blue, my Team is Blue(Good Guys) and Red for everyone else(Bad Guys).. even though I'm TR some people don't understand the logic of using Blue for friendly.. so it would be nice to change elements like explosives indicators.

    I took this picture with AzK and showed Andy, two mines are mine and two are his, and to be honest, it's very hard for me to see the difference when driving at 60kph.. again using different icons for friendly mines would greatly help with this issue.

    [IMG]

    Simple things like changing the crosshair to a X when pointing at Friendly Objects or Players would also be a great help too.


    That's all I'm really asking for as a short term and quick solution. If I could see my Bullet Stream on my Mossy, that would open a whole new experience of the game for me to play, as I only play Infantry and AV with Harasser.. and sometimes, only sometimes HE Lightning..
    • Up x 1
  13. Savadrin

    It's actually kind of interesting that we have ES AI mines but not ES AV mines.

    Put that on the wish list!
  14. Luminus


    Color blindess wasn't just get discovered in the last five years and this studio should be absolutely full of designers and artists that have been in this field for longer than they've been working on this one product.

    Build better houses.
  15. Iridar51

    The modern graphics drivers control panels are supposed to have color configuration, why don't color blind people use that? Seems universal.

    EDIT: Just checked. My mistake, apparently we can only configure desktop and video player colors, not 3d applications.
  16. toast2250

  17. Ryme_Intrinseca

    I'm a PS4 player, and I don't know if this is specific to that system, but I have terrible difficulty distinguishing a TR player with a bounty on them from VS. I understand that you want to make the bounty visible, but the extra marker on them does that. There is absolutely no need to make the player's dorito purple, so they look almost exactly like a spotted VS! And likewise, they should not be purple on the minimap. Many TR have been sprayed with my bullets since this change, and I see other friendlies doing the same. Note, I am not colourblind, and never had a problem with the game until you started making bountied-TR purple...
  18. Ronin Oni

    That would be great actually...
  19. Scr1nRusher

    Maybe they will figure something out in the future.
  20. TheRunDown

    Shame this went quite, I was hoping Bishop would at lease give us recognition and let us know that this is being thought or discussed internally..