Nerevar Whitestrake
Condotta Rouvenor
Gallente Federation
8
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Posted - 2013.02.09 18:41:00 -
[1] - Quote
We need full color customization for the HUD, as well as for battle notifications/orders.
I'm red/green colorblind. Also, on average, 25% of the male population, and therefore 25% of CCP's main target player base are to some degree red/green colorblind. This says nothing of those who are blue/yellow colorblind. I cannot imagine that this game would even be at all playable for them. Why is there not full HUD color customization available? That seems like it would be a fairly simple thing for the programmers to code for.
And yet for some reason, CCP has seemingly created the HUD in Dust 514 specifically to make it a pastel hell for the color-blind. The red bars that indicate an enemy do not catch the eye, and even when directly looked at, blend right into the desert rock and other backgrounds like camouflage. The indicators above my squad mates appear as an off-white to me, and therefore blend right in with all the brightly-lit metal-grey buildings, as well as any bright areas in the sunny deserts we're ALWAYS fighting in (as if every "temperate" planet in the EVE galaxy is actually a burning, lifeless desert filled with shades of brown and red more reminiscent of the planet Arrakis from the Dune novels than anything else). The indicators for what direction you are receiving damage from are faint pastel red, and against many of the background's color schemes, are all but invisible to me. Many times I simply do not know from what direction I am taking fire, turning most attempts at evasion into a blind stumble right into the enemy's firing lanes. The enemies that I found it difficult to spot on my mini-map, because enemies are a faint pastel red there as well. With the exception of the original Red Faction game, I have never had more trouble seeing what I need to see in a FPS game.
Hip firing, and even some aimed firing, is likewise often useless if you cannot even tell where the bullets are going with any surety, because when your cross-hairs turn pastel red, they effectively disappear.
I have been a gamer all my life, and I pride myself on my ability to adapt to, and even sometimes take advantage of my colorblindness in games. I know it was accidental carelessness rather than intent, but the color-scheme CCP has chosen for this game in general, and the HUD in particular, could scarcely be worse than if it were specifically designed to hobble the gameplay of colorblind people.
As there are different varieties of colorblindness, and as there are varying degrees of colorblindness within each type, CCP can make no "Colorblind Setting" that will solve the problems for everyone. So they must allow us each to create our own HUD color schemes. It would all be handled on my end by my PS3 in displaying the game anyway, so all they would have to do is write the code for it. |