Accessibility options for Disabled Players

Feedback/Feature Requests
1

Hi,

I’m reaching out because I’ve some questions about accessibility options for people who have disabilities, particularly people with motor control issues relating to their fingers.

It’s been brought to my attention that the new weapon wheel system that input controls, which used to be a single button input on controllers, now require a player to hold down the RB button while moving the right thumbstick and holding it in place before releasing both at the same time to select an item.

Even items that are mapped to XYAB still require RB to be held while an additional button press is made.

In comparison, the old system required either a single press of the Y button to cycle primary weapons, a single press of the dpad to choose a non-weapon item, and the only button requiring a double input was the Y to select the rarely-used secondary weapon (pistol/melee).

I’m raising this as feedback because I have an online friend who I used to play Gen 0 multiplayer with until the weapon wheel was introduced, but since then he’s been unable to enjoy the game (due nerve damage in his right hand as the result of a bike accident when he was younger) preventing him from being able to play.

He’s tried the option of changing the RB input to a press to activate the button, move the thumbstick, and then press the RB button to turn off the wheel, but finds this very clunky and really slows down his enjoyment, and makes him very frustrated when trying to select medkits, for example, mid-fight.

While I acknowledge that, in many ways, the weapon wheel is an improvement in terms of choice, at least for players on Keyboard and mouse, I am frustrated for my friend, because we both really enjoyed playing Gen 0 together, and I’m concerned that other players with fine motor disabilities will now find the new system far harder to engage with, and in worst cases completely impossible.

Do you have any plans to introduce any input-level accessibility options in the Main Menu, such as remapping, or even just the option to switch to a system similar to the old system to mitigate against this potential problem, which would mean that certain people (a small but growing contingent) within the gaming community would be excluding from fully enjoying your otherwise excellent game?

Thank you for your time, and I look forward to hearing back from you.

Pete

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2

That’s a fantastic idea, I’m sorry your friend is having difficulty. Maybe if they made the weapon wheel with as many slots, but made it a simple button press. For instance toggle it using one button so you don’t have to hold anything down.

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This is the most valid critique of the wheel so far!

I have had opinions, but this is real!

Hopefully some one from the dev team can give some feedback @Avalanche_Pontus

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4

Thank you, that’s really kind of you,

There is already an option to turn the “hold rb” command into a single press to activate the wheel, and then a single press to turn it off when you’re done, but that’s then three input commands ((RB-choose item-RB), and in a game that relies so heavily on rapidly switching between weapons (normally a long range/single shot and a shorter range auto) and medkits, this option ends up being very clunky for someone who already has difficulties. I even tried it myself to see what he was talking about, and it’s really not good.

Ideally, my friend just like to be able to map buttons as required. I know nothing about game design, so I I have no idea if that’s even possible, but it just seems like the right thing for the devs to at least consider if it is possible.

We’ll see though. It’d be a shame if it can’t be done, as we’ve bought all the DLC and really looking forward to more, but heyho.

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Thanks, buddy, that’s really kind of you!

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@Zesiir Perhaps my suggestion about visual aids for hearing imaired players can be merged with this thread. Accessability Features - Sound direction indicator

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Having lost my hearing on the left side suddenly I now realise how dependant I was on hearing what direction sounds come from. Nowadays all sound comes from the right side and it is seriously difficult to locate an enemy in a fight. If I’m in combat I often have to take the hits to try to see where the shots come from. If I’m trying to find that distant tank I can hear I have to run in one direction to hear if the sound gets louder or fainter and by trial and error try to home in on where it is.

My suggestion would be an optional sound indicator that shows sounds from machines as an overlay. It could be transparent arrows or dots around the edges of the screen. Proximity could be indicated by arrow or dot size.

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GZ sound indicator
GZ sound indicator1921×1080 773 KB

Here’s a rough concept of how arrows could indicate sounds. In the example red arrows indicate weapons fire sounds and yellow arrows steps, motors or calls. The size of the arrow indicates distance in the same way loud means close or faint means far away. There is close range weapons fire in red and close range steps/calls come from behind and right while mid range fire can be heard from front left and distant steps or calls can be heard from ahead to the right.
If an action can trigger an audio event then it can trigger a visual event too, right?

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9

Done and done :+1:

//Mod

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10

Hi!

Not 100% sure that these two issues should be combined in the same thread, since they address two very different problems with very different solutions.

Kinda like bundling all “bug reports” into one mega thread since they are all about bugs?

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I agree. Being deaf and having limited eyesight or colorblindness are all very different and shouldn’t all be thrown into one container.
Besides, it’ll help the devs better understand which one is in better demand for change if there are different topics.

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The topic was “Accessability options for Disabled Players”. It did NOT specify what disability.

Perhaps one lively thread with multiple issues and suggestions gets more attention from the devs than several more obscure ones.

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And how would you judge which disability deserves more attention? How do you measure which disability affects the player’s ability to play the game most?

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I have no disabilities but I do beliieve it should be different threads for each. If 90% of the discussion in this one would be about a apecific disability then the 10% taking up all the others could be drowned and not noticed enough. And they do need different solutions since they are different disabilities with different problems that affect the experience of the game.

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Yeah, I feel there should be an “accessibility concerns” section and then subthreads for each concern, as otherwise it’ll be easy for specific concerns to get overlooked.

And, just to address comments further up by others: This shouldn’t be about which concern should get priority. I suspect that will be judged based on which are relatively quick fixes requiring little work, and which will take longer because they’re more complex.

All I really want to know is that we’re being listened to, the concerns have been acknowledged and taken seriously, and that the devs are at least discussing if there’s anything they can do.

As I’ve said before, I don’t want to give up on the game, but me and my mate have had to move on for the time being because of this one specific issue, which is a real shame.

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That would work I reckon.

My point exactly. :+1:

That is really sad. I hope the devs can do something about this. And wouldn’t it be cool to see a game developer taking disabilities seriously and taking a lead in developing solutions?

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17

It feels like the next big thing, if I’m honest- Naughty Dog and the Forza team have been doing some good work, there’s some seriously notable examples in the Indie-sphere, like Celeste, and MS in general seems to want to have Accessibility options hardwired into their games. Sony isn’t doing great, and neither is Nintendo as far as I’m aware.

Check out the Access Ability series by LauraKBuzz on Youtube if this is something that interests you- She’s one of the few gaming youtubers who’s really zeroed in on this stuff, and it needs to become more of an industry standard, rather than a sort of “we’ll get to it if we remember” thing.

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18

This is very valuable feedback, thank you so much! The devs will be looking into ways to address this.

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19

Thanks for the reply, and I look forward to hearing back if they can come up with something.

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