Blind player's feedback on the halloween event

[Rogue.8235]

I know not much has changed but thought I'd give some feedback. With a few exceptions, this event is really awesome and something I was able to do completely on my own.

Labyrinth is super easy to get the hang of. As long as you have already figured out how to stay with the group, there's no reason why you can't do this blind. And it's really easy to follow the sound of a massive zerg killing everything everywhere. The Viscount and Horror bosses are easy to fight due to the awesome audio cues. I always know what to do to stay in the fight. However, the Lich is extremely problematic. I have no cue or feedback to go on at all. I just randomly die without any pattern in timing. I believe the Lich only has visual cues, and based on the number of players' characters asking for help from downed (thanks for that audio cue btw, easy to find players needing rezzes), the visual cues are insufficient. The way I currently do it now is either evade spam with a daredevil or playing as tempest support. The Lich can be frustrating due to the complete lack of cues for its one shot mechanics. There is no way for me to understand how I died when fighting the Lich. Everything else in the Labyrinth is good to go as far as a blind player succeffully playing it.

The raceway is really fun once you memorize the track. THe audio cues of passing through the checkpoint thingies is really helpful! I was able to get gold for the jackal and thumper races. As for the roller beetle, it's fun knowing that I have no idea how to use the thing. I can't even get bronze but it's funny to attempt it knowing I'm flying into walls and stuff. I don't think I'll be able to get gold without at least a year's worth of practice on a roller beetle (have to get one first). I have no problems with this kind of challenge.

Lunatic Inquisition is cool but the mad king says abilities are game enders. These things are purely visual and there is absolutely no way of successfully doing this while visually impaired. However, I personally don't care. The game is fun either way, I just have the additional challenge is all. I don't think this needs to change, and I have no conceptualization of how to make the mad king says portion accessible while maintaining its current functionality of skill button usage and randomization.

I didn't really play reaper's rumble too much. I know you get different skills and I didn't bother to read them on the wiki (which is the only way I can learn new skills. No way of me doing this in game). It's kind of fun, but I prefer the other events. I didn't give this event much time to be able to comment on it.

The jumping puzzle is impossible for me. I never completed it so I don't have memorization like I do with the jumping puzzles I can complete. There are no audio cues for me to go off of like I do with the Wintersday puzzle. I will never be able to do this blind, and that's no problem. I still got my meta achievement without it. I have no issue with some content being impossible due to my visual impairment, that's to be expected.

Ascent to madness is maddening. The first part is the same mad king says activity as in Lunatic Inquisition. It's impossible so I just stand there until it's done. The fights aren't bad and I can handle them easily. THe problem is the terrain. It's extremely frustrating falling off the map and dying all the time. Normally, there is differences in reverberation when you're near open spaces so I can hear it. However, emulating this in a video game may be a ridiculous undertaking. I have no idea how to feasibly solve this. The terrain issue is why I also find HoT maps very frustrating.

The Mad King Says event in Lion's Arch should be one fo the easiest things for me to do. It's an audio cue'd game. However, the mass of players spamming random skills drowns out what the mad king is saying, so I can barely hear him. My current solution is to situate my character so that I isolate the mad king on one side and as many players on the other, that way I can focus on one speaker to hear him. THis doesn't always work. He needs to be louder and clearer than other sound effects. No matter how close you get to him he sounds more muffled and further away than any other audio effect or npc dialogue. NPC dialogue also interferes, making it hard to hear. I don't know how to solve the player sound pollution, but for everything else, an adjustment to his volume and clarity will fix it.

For the awakened invasions, Iuse wiki to identify where it will be as per usual. Screen reading is bui9lt for tasks such as web browsers so it's far easier to do it than the long process of my work-around solution with in-game text. It's difficult to find out where the portals are spawning, but they seem to be consistent. It's just a matter of memorization at this point. I hadn't figured out if there is a pattern to which locations spawn an event (assuming locations are fixed). Regardless, this event is doable with a visual impairment. It's like any other open-world event.

That's my feedback. Hopefully it's an interesting read to see a blind player's perspective on things. =)

[Ashantara.8731]

While I am not in your shoes, I too depend a lot on sound cues in gaming, especially in tactial shooters. I don't know how players do those while listening to loud music.

I didn't know, though, that sound cues were that well implemented in GW2 to make it possible to play the game completely without visuals. Truly awesome! =) I hope the devs read your post and think about making slight adjustments.

P.S. Mad King Says is always a trollfest. I don't know how easy it is for you to adjust the sound settings, but there is an option to disable player chatter by checking a box. You could use that during the Mad King Says event.

[Rogue.8235]

@Ashantara.8731 said:While I am not in your shoes, I too depend a lot on sound cues in gaming, especially in tactial shooters. I don't know how players do those while listening to loud music.

I didn't know, though, that sound cues were that well implemented in GW2 to make it possible to play the game completely without visuals. Truly awesome! =) I hope the devs read your post and think about making slight adjustments.

P.S. Mad King Says is always a trollfest. I don't know how easy it is for you to adjust the sound settings, but there is an option to disable player chatter by checking a box. You could use that during the Mad King Says event.

Thanks for the suggestion, I'll give it a try! That may be a fix without the devs needing to do anything at all.

As for the cues, yeah they did an amazing job. Every condition and every boon has audio feedback with the character's dialogue. The only problem is that they get culled out a lot. Also, there are distinct audio cues and feedback for every skill in the game. For example, I have an easy time fighting thieves because they have the loudest dodge in the game (ironic). Back in the day, I could be standing on point and hear the black powder shot followed by heartseeker. With timing, I can predict the engage from the thief and beat it. Not many d/p thieves anymore, but their engage is so telegraphed from an udio standpoint. You can hear those skills from very far away, no visuals necessary.

[Ashantara.8731]

@Rogue.8235 said:For example, I have an easy time fighting thieves because they have the loudest dodge in the game (ironic). Back in the day, I could be standing on point and hear the black powder shot followed by heartseeker. With timing, I can predict the engage from the thief and beat it. Not many d/p thieves anymore, but their engage is so telegraphed from an udio standpoint. You can hear those skills from very far away, no visuals necessary.

Amazing. I'll have to pay more attention from now on!

[Gryphon.2875]

King Thorn definitely needs to be louder. The downing and teleportation effects from his game reach all the way to the bank, but without hearing him or having his chat telegraphed, you just get swatted seemingly at random.

[Rogue.8235]

@Gryphon.2875 said:King Thorn definitely needs to be louder. The downing and teleportation effects from his game reach all the way to the bank, but without hearing him or having his chat telegraphed, you just get swatted seemingly at random.

This explains a lot. I didn't realize the event reached so far. Now I can finally remove the permanent fixture of hysterical confusion from my face when using the bank in LA.

@Ashantara.8731 said:

@"Rogue.8235" said:For example, I have an easy time fighting thieves because they have the loudest dodge in the game (ironic). Back in the day, I could be standing on point and hear the black powder shot followed by heartseeker. With timing, I can predict the engage from the thief and beat it. Not many d/p thieves anymore, but their engage is so telegraphed from an udio standpoint. You can hear those skills from very far away, no visuals necessary.

Amazing. I'll have to pay more attention from now on!

If you ever get a chance in the open world, try fighting some mobs with your eyes closed. You definitely can do it with the audio cues and feedback built in. Then you can show off to your friends! "Psshht, I don't even need my eyes to do that part"

[Kaltyn of Torbins Deep.294]

I'm reading this and I'm completely blown away. The idea of trying to play this game without being able to see it is mind boggling. I am speechless. And your positive attitude is something that these forums, in my opinion, could definitely use more of!

/salute sir, you have my utmost respect!