Bursas and Accessibility

[Imvakihn]

A letter from a disabled player, on behalf of myself and others in our community:

This game has a lot of visual effects. We all know this.

For the most part, we have the ability to adjust these effects, for our own preferences and comfort. There are a lot of accessibility options in this game, and most of them are very functional and improve the game experience for many!

However. I call for DE to consider that the BLINDING WHITE FLASH that bursas emit is NOT an acceptable enemy mechanic for the medical health of many of the players of this community.

Such blinding light genuinely causes migraines, headaches, eye pain, and in some players, seizure activity.

There is no other enemy in this game that has caused me this much physical pain. And yes, of course I kill them as soon as I see them.
But I and others like me should not have to risk actual physical consequences to play this game. Especially when we can otherwise control most aspects of our experience.

So I beg you, Digital Extemes, to either remove the blinding beam or add a toggle to the accessibility settings to turn it off. Please make this small change for the health of a piece of your player base. You have shown initiative in making accessibility changes in the past, and I hope you continue to.

Edited November 13, 2023 by Imvakihn
clarification, wording

[Jivy]

If you think thats bad

every mission you play if you dont skip cutscene literally flashbangs you

Or SO/ESO

Flashbang every zone

[LittleLeoniePrime]

@Jivy those are much more gradual changes in contrast.

Both denial bursas and also executioner geth (I think) throw a flashbang that is out of nowhere - not even displayed beforehand like a granade - and just suddenly turns your screen entirely white within 1 frame.

I'd like to add to this list the cycle change on the cambion drift which does the same thing. It has 1 frame that has to reset the lighting so it just flashes completely white and it's godawful.

 

To solve both (or all three depending on how you see it) cases, an accessibility option that simply turns white flashes into black ones or for enemy times an entire off switch like OP suggested would be greatly appreciated....

 

For context: I have photosensitive epilepsy and I can play the game just fine toning my VFX intensity down and toggling on 'reduced teamates VFX'. I've played for long enough to where most things become fairly predicable and aren't an issue.

I'd also like to adress @Jivy again. I don't think you think you're doing anything bad, but rather adding a haha funny comment because yes this game is very FX heavy. But every damn time I go into any sort of accessibility thread, there's always people who seem to "argue against it" and your comment sadly is very close to that. I'd like DE to address these glearing accessibility issues, but it seems people just want for a disabled crowd to suffer so they can keep shooting people in the face with their white brammas and actually cause them physical harm...

Edited November 13, 2023 by LittleLeoniePrime

[Stafelund]

Isolator Bursas:

Spoiler

 

 

Edited November 13, 2023 by Stafelund

[Hinus]

5 hours ago, LittleLeoniePrime said:

@Jivy those are much more gradual changes in contrast.

Both denial bursas and also executioner geth (I think) throw a flashbang that is out of nowhere - not even displayed beforehand like a granade - and just suddenly turns your screen entirely white within 1 frame.

I'd like to add to this list the cycle change on the cambion drift which does the same thing. It has 1 frame that has to reset the lighting so it just flashes completely white and it's godawful.

 

To solve both (or all three depending on how you see it) cases, an accessibility option that simply turns white flashes into black ones or for enemy times an entire off switch like OP suggested would be greatly appreciated....

 

For context: I have photosensitive epilepsy and I can play the game just fine toning my VFX intensity down and toggling on 'reduced teamates VFX'. I've played for long enough to where most things become fairly predicable and aren't an issue.

I'd also like to adress @Jivy again. I don't think you think you're doing anything bad, but rather adding a haha funny comment because yes this game is very FX heavy. But every damn time I go into any sort of accessibility thread, there's always people who seem to "argue against it" and your comment sadly is very close to that. I'd like DE to address these glearing accessibility issues, but it seems people just want for a disabled crowd to suffer so they can keep shooting people in the face with their white brammas and actually cause them physical harm...

I'm in a similar boat as you, I have my VFX as low as it can go, and even have reduced brightness with really as many extra bits turned off just to minimize risk to my own health.

--

I love warframe more than any game I've ever played, but even before recent changes, for the sake of my own sanity and health, I was avoiding entire tilesets, strictly playing solo (especially when people found it funny to use weapons that would cause intense screen flashing), keeping the brightness of both the game and my monitor limited, etc etc. The community of this game is so big and fun, it felt awful when the few times I'd join pubs they'd be using some meme build and I'd have to leave so I don't get hurt by blinding light. And as excited as I am to be able to play on PC instead of Switch soon, I'm sad I'm probably not going to be able to enjoy the full breadth of the visual upgrades because I have to turn so much off out of fear.

To the devs, I sincerely understand not everything in a game is made with people with photosensitivity in mind, and I know there's the whole warning of being aware of the risks in the game, but I'd give anything for the white screen flashes that bursa causes, and even the deimos time cycle, cutscene flashes, ESO, etc., to just be turn-off-able? God, even just an option to make the magnetic status effect visual to be less painful to look at would be nice. The people that want that visual and can handle it can have it, but I'd like to not be constantly tense in a mission just because I know there's a chance one specific enemy I need to watch for that could ruin my night and give me a splitting headache as a reward. Things like ESO and Vome/Vass are predictable, but doesn't make it anymore bearable.

For example, for the nausea/distortion VFX in minecraft they gave an option to toggle the intensity much lower or off, making the effect into just a color overlay to indicate the effect was still happening; because it effected an actual game mechanic and wasn't just a gimmick to visually bother the player. That was incredibly helpful for me as a player at the time. These VFX shouldn't be done in an effort to disable or disturb the player beyond the realm of the game, which like the bursa flash, crosses that boundary. This is not a PVP game where there's some magical advantage to doing that for the enemy. There's a big difference to me between my warframe/operator being knocked prone unable to do anything or stunned or grabbed, and me in real life having to cover my eyes or stop playing because of a headache coming on. It ruins immersion for me. I understand WHY its done in a game design manner to some degree, but I'm sure there's a much safer option to indicate to players like me that we're in danger, or that a big change is happening, that isn't putting a barrier between enjoyment and safety.

I'm glad there's regular people that this sort of issue doesn't effect but having any consideration at all towards it by both devs and players alike would be grandly appreciated, instead of constant jabs and jokes that makes the issue into something ignorable. These tiny changes would mean a lot to me and a lot of other people, and I'm sure there's regular players that wouldn't mind a toggle either.

[Imvakihn]

15 hours ago, Jivy said:

If you think thats bad

every mission you play if you dont skip cutscene literally flashbangs you

Or SO/ESO

Flashbang every zone

It's not some kind of contest of what's worse.

Others said it better, but I want to reiterate that people who want the effects can have them. But this game should not cause real physical harm to its players, and there's no reason for you or anyone to argue against that.

[LittleLeoniePrime]

7 hours ago, (NSW)Hinus said:

There's a big difference to me between my warframe/operator being knocked prone unable to do anything or stunned or grabbed, and me in real life having to cover my eyes or stop playing because of a headache coming on.

I could honestly quote your entire things because I wholeheartedly agree with all of it, but this is by far the most relatable thing you've said in your entire reply and I cannot stress enough how often and how just... regularly I have to evert my eyes from the screen to be able to play this game in a way that is healthy for me.

[Voltage]

17 hours ago, LittleLeoniePrime said:

I'd like to add to this list the cycle change on the cambion drift which does the same thing. It has 1 frame that has to reset the lighting so it just flashes completely white and it's godawful.

Came here for this.

Just why man.

[LittleLeoniePrime]

On 2023-11-14 at 2:46 AM, Voltage said:

Came here for this.

Spoiler

Just why man.

That's not even the flash I mean (though that one is bad too..) but there's an even worse one after that.

Edited November 15, 2023 by LittleLeoniePrime

[Hobie-wan]

Having an invert button so the whole screen goes black, then slowly comes back up would make sense. It would still have the same effect of an enemy momentarily blinding you, just in the opposite direction. So you'd still want to prioritize eliminating the enemy, but likely not bothering certain players.

[Imvakihn]

Bumping this again. Accessibility, please, DE!

And if anything has been fixed or changed, I'd love to know :) I don't read every single patch note, to be fair.