Accessibility Discussion: Color Problems and Arena Design

Given I'm going off of this thread, I didn't want to have this post get lost in the sea of posts that tend to happen once a thread picks up traction.

We need to talk about Arena Design and how certain colors can cause issues with players with color blindness, even using the color blind wheel that is supposed to be their "accessibility tool"(it's not a very good one, and there are actually mods out there that help the game be playable compared to that).

I understand that the Graphics Designers on XIV's team want to make interesting arenas for the Battle Team to use, whether it be thematic or even just plain cool(look at P9's arena). However, there are instances where we have color occlusion due to the ground being a bright hue and close to the same color as the game's base AoEs. Identifying these are rather difficult due to how it not only strains the eyes, but also with bright effects flying around(i.e. Shock in Zelenia) or merely just because the colors "blend".

Any graphics designer would think "maybe I should have a color to make the Area of Effect markers 'pop out' since it's hard to see otherwise with gameplay" - but that doesn't seem to be the case. One of the solutions is to make AoE markers a different color as an option. This would allow players to actually see what's dangerous without it being occluded.

Bright flashes on the other hand can be eye straining as well, namely with Shock and Stock Break. Sure, it's a rip from FFIX's effects, but they need to take in thought the intensity because with so many blinding VFX it can be bad for the eyes, even at a normal ergonomic distance from the PC and normal monitor settings. We don't want VFX to be bland, either, but we don't want them so intense that it makes it hard to see what's truly going on.

Some of this has to do with the graphics update as well with lighting, since I think that plays into it as well with the brightness of some VFX. Bright backgrounds with bright effects don't help if there are other things going on either.