Suggestion: Audio Toggle For Allies Weapons/Warframes

[emper_or]

I'm going to start this off by saying I'm autistic, and this is directly tied to my suggestion/request for changes.

 

So, a common issue in autism is some sounds are just, to put it lightly, bad. Not just that someone doesn't like a sound necessarily, I mean that some sounds cause physical responses upon hearing them that are extremely distressing.

I have encountered this issue ingame before. I'm lucky that my friend circle is extremely small, and the people I play with are completely willing to NOT use the things that cause sounds that distress me when we're grouped. I've been just, ignoring it when I can, leaving groups when I have to to avoid the issue, but I've run into a sound that's worse than anything else I've had to deal with today and that is Hildryn's third ability. The connecting light beam one. I think it's called Haven? The buzzing noise was....extremely terrible. I can't possibly try to describe the reaction a "bad" sound gives me because I have no idea how to put it into words. You know how everyone uses the phrase "nails on a chalkboard" to indicate a discordant sound that bothers people? It's like that, but it's literally scratching the inside of your head and makes you want to claw it out. I was almost in tears after a few seconds of the noise. Even phrasing it like this doesn't really cover it, but it's the closest I've got. Thankfully, it was my friend who was running her, and they stopped using the ability as soon as I said something.

Now, the issue with sounds is obviously subjective. I'm sure not everyone has the same sound triggers, because not everyone even HAS sound triggers. I know I can turn my game sounds down - I did, for reference, and it made it easier to deal with things - but that means that all my sounds are down, even the ones I enjoy.

To my knowledge, people with the sound based issue do have some things in common - obviously this is a generalization and won't apply to everyone, but I know that the sound of a vacuum is a very common sound trigger, and I'm sure there are others. So the fact that I find certain similar sounds terrible, is, possibly, an issue that others are having as well because of overlap. (I also hate the Baza, the Cestra, and a few other guns. I just don't use them, but.)

The core of my suggestion is this - give us a toggle similar to the "allies mandachord" toggle that lets us mute the sounds of our allies weapons and warframes. If someone doesn't have any issues with something like this, it won't really affect them, but I feel that it could be very useful for people who, like me, have sound triggers that can completely ruin our playing experience, our moods, or even our ability to deal with things. Or, honestly, I'd adore DE being willing to change the sound of her third ability in general, because I was interested in trying her out and this has absolutely killed my desire to do so.

 

Now, I know that not all parts of the game have to be for everyone - I don't have to like all the warframes/weapons/etc to still enjoy the game. But to my knowledge, DE has been pretty good about actual accessibility issues, and I definitely feel this is one. I use this game for stimming when I'm having issues, because there is a period between "having issues and needing to stim" and "sensory overload" which, Warframe can also give me, but thankfully it usually helps instead of making things worse. I also just enjoy the game in general because it's beyond amazing, and I hate that sometimes the game causes me problems instead of enjoyment.

Maybe this isn't a feasible suggestion/request. I have no idea, honestly, how hard it would be to implement, and you'd probably have to get feedback from various members of the playerbase who have similar issues, but I don't gain anything from not asking about it, right?