Can we get an update on the subject of AoE indicator colors?

A while back you changed the AoE indicators from a wonderful Red that made everyone afraid and want to run away from it, to a shade of orange/yellow that cannot be seen even half as well in most area's than the red one due to roads, sand or shining orange crystals or even tall grass.

I believe you were going to see about giving us uptions to set the color ourselves or atleast change between a few modes.

Back to red? No shooting out waves? things like that.

What's the status on those changes?

I prefer if they changed the AoE markers to represent how dangerous it is, like:

very feint yellow : estimated <20% HP damage
(current) orange: estimated 20-50% HP damage and/ or mild DoT
(slightly darker than previous) red: estimated 50-99% HP damage and/ or disabling debuff or severe DoT
dark purple: estimated >100% HP damage and/ or lethal debuff

I'm all for options, that would be awesome but, if not that, I much prefer the new indicators to the old. Particularly the waves. For me it makes the danger more noticeable when there are moving parts to the indicator.

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Originally Posted by Poringing

I prefer if they changed the AoE markers to represent how dangerous it is, like:

very feint yellow : estimated <20% HP damage
(current) orange: estimated 20-50% HP damage and/ or mild DoT
(slightly darker than previous) red: estimated 50-99% HP damage and/ or disabling debuff or severe DoT
dark purple: estimated >100% HP damage and/ or lethal debuff

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I love that idea.

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Originally Posted by WellFooled

I'm all for options, that would be awesome but, if not that, I much prefer the new indicators to the old. Particularly the waves. For me it makes the danger more noticeable when there are moving parts to the indicator.

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There is a small problem tho, color blind people have one heck of a hard time to notice them, we asked them to let us change the color for more visibility, they said they'd do something and months later, still nothing..

I'd rather we had one color for generic AoEs.
That way the unique boss-specific ones like CT/Primal AoEs can actually stand out/feel unique.

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Originally Posted by Poringing

I prefer if they changed the AoE markers to represent how dangerous it is, like:

very feint yellow : estimated <20% HP damage
(current) orange: estimated 20-50% HP damage and/ or mild DoT
(slightly darker than previous) red: estimated 50-99% HP damage and/ or disabling debuff or severe DoT
dark purple: estimated >100% HP damage and/ or lethal debuff

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Uh...no. You are supposed to know the attacks and mechanics of the boss you are facing. There is no need for the game to tell you "Here, have an AoE damage, but don't worry it does not hurt much so you can stay still, who cares".

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Originally Posted by Poringing

I prefer if they changed the AoE markers to represent how dangerous it is, like:

very feint yellow : estimated <20% HP damage
(current) orange: estimated 20-50% HP damage and/ or mild DoT
(slightly darker than previous) red: estimated 50-99% HP damage and/ or disabling debuff or severe DoT
dark purple: estimated >100% HP damage and/ or lethal debuff

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As someone who plays a healer semi-regularly, I'm a 100% against this idea. We don't need to give DPS justification for eating AoEs. They eat enough of them as it is and it's infuriating.

Get rid of the damned idiotic things completely. We had to learn the fights properly back in 1.0/1.23.

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Originally Posted by Poringing

I prefer if they changed the AoE markers to represent how dangerous it is, like:

very feint yellow : estimated <20% HP damage
(current) orange: estimated 20-50% HP damage and/ or mild DoT
(slightly darker than previous) red: estimated 50-99% HP damage and/ or disabling debuff or severe DoT
dark purple: estimated >100% HP damage and/ or lethal debuff

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This would be terrible... when I play as healer I don't want people prioritizing when to move out of incoming damage or not and that's basically what this system would encourage: "Oh, I'll just take it, it's only yellow." Yikes. People are already bad at dodging as it is... Also all those extra colors when there are multiples attacks happening at once, blegh.

I like some of the new non-blatant aoe's they've started adding, like the dark blue shockwave aoes they added with Ramuh. I'd much prefer a little bit of risk, not knowing every time I'm being attacked and having to pay attention a little more. And yeah, there are some of the orange aoes that get obscured already, esp. fights where you can't see the ground for the bodies (You know what I'm talking about, but let's not go down that road)

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Originally Posted by Poringing

I prefer if they changed the AoE markers to represent how dangerous it is, like:

very feint yellow : estimated <20% HP damage
(current) orange: estimated 20-50% HP damage and/ or mild DoT
(slightly darker than previous) red: estimated 50-99% HP damage and/ or disabling debuff or severe DoT
dark purple: estimated >100% HP damage and/ or lethal debuff

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i don't think that's a good idea because of lazy dps/different classes have different physical/magic resistance, it wouldn't make any sense if it was the same color for everyone

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Originally Posted by Phyllo

There is a small problem tho, color blind people have one heck of a hard time to notice them, we asked them to let us change the color for more visibility, they said they'd do something and months later, still nothing..

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I believe they actually changed the color in large part due to color blind people. There's so many variations to that though, it's hard to hit it with just one color.

That said, I can see the new one crazy better then I could the old red. To me, it blended in far too much and was hard to notice. I'm one of those that doesn't 'feel' like I'm colorblind, but I'll fail the tests for color blindness every time.

I'd much rather they give us a few options when it comes to the aoe indicators

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Originally Posted by ZephyrAM

I believe they actually changed the color in large part due to color blind people. There's so many variations to that though, it's hard to hit it with just one color.

That said, I can see the new one crazy better then I could the old red. To me, it blended in far too much and was hard to notice. I'm one of those that doesn't 'feel' like I'm colorblind, but I'll fail the tests for color blindness every time.

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Well as a color blind I can tell you, nothing changed, or at least it's still far from enough :/

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Originally Posted by Phyllo

Well as a color blind I can tell you, nothing changed, or at least it's still far from enough :/

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It's like Zephyr said, there are many variations of being color blind. I am like Zephyr, where I can see colors just fine, but differentiating between certain shades of blue/purple just can't be done. There is varying degrees in color deficiency, and then there are people (extreme cases) who can only see things in black/white/muddled shades of grey. The pulsing in the indicators can help immensely for people like that. When the ground AOE indicators changed from red to yellow like they are now, it made a 100% difference in me being able to see them.

However, I don't think "things should be done just to accommodate me". I was able to dodge things before when they were red, even if it was tough to see the outline, I learned the moves by the cast bar and was still able to situate myself appropriately. While I wouldn't want to see them change the AOE colors again, I'm all for having a slider or different color options so people that felt danger from the red can have that back.

I know that there many degrees, personally as long as the color is alone I can make the difference but if the floor is in a tone that looks slightly like the aoe... It's over xD

Well, not like I can't do but it sure is a pain to concentrate that much on trying to see it, I wish we could at least set our own color like it was promised :/
Indeed, the pulse is the thing that makes me notice it most of the time even tho I can see colors so yeah, I like the fact they changed the old red one for the pulsating one but the color is kinda meh since yoshi and the gang put light red/orange almost everywhere in the game xD

Color blindness is most common amongst men at 8% of the total world population (and as high as 13% in countries with a predominately white population). Adversely, only 0.5% of the total female world population has some form of color blindness. Color deficiencies generally have the greatest concentration in white males, and the most common form of color vision deficiency in the world is red/green. Since a large number of gamers are both white and male (largest of all groups/subgroups), any changes made would be with these people in mind. This is why the red AoE indicator was scrapped for an orange one.

Other forms of color blindness are much, much rarer, and usually not worth the time-cost investment.

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Originally Posted by WellFooled

I'm all for options, that would be awesome but, if not that, I much prefer the new indicators to the old. Particularly the waves. For me it makes the danger more noticeable when there are moving parts to the indicator.

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My only problem is they can sometimes be difficult to see if I'm standing in water (best example is the Hellbender in Brayflox's Longstop).

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Originally Posted by 3Jane

Get rid of the damned idiotic things completely. We had to learn the fights properly back in 1.0/1.23.

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I wouldn't mind this. Even during the early days of the 2.0 alpha/beta we didn't have them. It was kind of neat.

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Originally Posted by Eekiki

My only problem is they can sometimes be difficult to see if I'm standing in water (best example is the Hellbender in Brayflox's Longstop).

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Its funny you mention Hellbender. For me that is the most stand out case of how hard the red AoE indicators were to see, but I find the new ones much more clear during this fight.

But if there's one thing this thread seems to have nailed down is that what works for one person may not work for the next.

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Originally Posted by 3Jane

Get rid of the damned idiotic things completely. We had to learn the fights properly back in 1.0/1.23.

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Terrible idea.

Let's turn the game from: Complex fights where you can design the encounter around the fact that there will be clear indicators for you to REACT.

Your idea: Let's provide a guessing game for abilities or force people to watch cast bars and pay attention to even more stuff onscreen (animations, possible unclear/blocked) so that they can run to the forums to complain.

*bump*

Still want to know if this is going to happen anytime soon or is atleast being worked on.

Extremely anoying in some areas. Being able to set the color to a few additional options would quickly fix that :/

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Originally Posted by Poringing

I prefer if they changed the AoE markers to represent how dangerous it is, like:

very feint yellow : estimated <20% HP damage
(current) orange: estimated 20-50% HP damage and/ or mild DoT
(slightly darker than previous) red: estimated 50-99% HP damage and/ or disabling debuff or severe DoT
dark purple: estimated >100% HP damage and/ or lethal debuff

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Ew, no. This would just lead to DPS prioritizing their rotation over moving out of yellow/orange aoe's.

They already facetank enough, thanks. :/

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Originally Posted by Mizar

Terrible idea.

Let's turn the game from: Complex fights where you can design the encounter around the fact that there will be clear indicators for you to REACT.

Your idea: Let's provide a guessing game for abilities or force people to watch cast bars and pay attention to even more stuff onscreen (animations, possible unclear/blocked) so that they can run to the forums to complain.

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Yeah, gods forbid you actually have to play a game instead of "press X now to dodge".

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Originally Posted by 3Jane

Get rid of the damned idiotic things completely. We had to learn the fights properly back in 1.0/1.23.

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As my FC mate said while we were discussing the current state of FFXIV:

"When the hell did players need to have their hand held so badly?"

This is coming from a guy who'd I'd call the farthest from "elitist". We had to drag him into coil >.>.

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Originally Posted by Poringing

I prefer if they changed the AoE markers to represent how dangerous it is, like:

very feint yellow : estimated <20% HP damage
(current) orange: estimated 20-50% HP damage and/ or mild DoT
(slightly darker than previous) red: estimated 50-99% HP damage and/ or disabling debuff or severe DoT
dark purple: estimated >100% HP damage and/ or lethal debuff

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While it would certainly be helpful, I don't think they'd be able to do that. Each job will take different damage from different abilities. It'd have to pre-calculate how much damage it's going to do to your specific character. I just don't see how that'd work.

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Originally Posted by Mizar

Terrible idea.

Let's turn the game from: Complex fights where you can design the encounter around the fact that there will be clear indicators for you to REACT.

Your idea: Let's provide a guessing game for abilities or force people to watch cast bars and pay attention to even more stuff onscreen (animations, possible unclear/blocked) so that they can run to the forums to complain.

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You do realize that lots of game have little to no indication other than the animation right?

heres your quick change... have the code controlling the AOE cone read the colors on the ground (is it forest, sand what not) and choose a color that would contrast nicely against it. Nothing crazy that stands out (ruining the immersion) and looks super saturated like the AOEs in Ultima HM... but something toned down just a little.

I've been wondering about this as well. I understand the need for allowing color-blind people to see the AOE markers, but at the same time, turning them from red to the present "cheddar cheese" color makes it more difficult for me, a NON-colorblind person, whenever I'm fighting something in the following scenarios:

- desert areas
- areas with those yellow-orange "calamity" crystals
- when bards are using Flaming Arrow
- when black mages use Flare or other fire spells

I would just prefer some sort of option to change it, that's all. Have a toggle for "colorblind mode" in the options menu somewhere, like a lot of other games have, or set up some sort of RGB slider where you can select what color you want.

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Originally Posted by Tetsaru

I've been wondering about this as well. I understand the need for allowing color-blind people to see the AOE markers, but at the same time, turning them from red to the present "cheddar cheese" color makes it more difficult for me, a NON-colorblind person, whenever I'm fighting something in the following scenarios:

- desert areas
- areas with those yellow-orange "calamity" crystals
- when bards are using Flaming Arrow
- when black mages use Flare or other fire spells

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as a color blind myself, I can't see anything under the situations you talk about, so in the end I'm really wondering if they thought about color blind people when they made such changes, cuz sure it made things better when you're in dark environments than it was before but... It's like the one kind of place where we had almost no trouble seeing them >_> (I talked about it with other color blind people and we all agreed that it changed little to nothing in the end >_>)

Not to mention that people have various levels of color blindness, in the end, the best option is to let the player himself set the colors like for the nameplates.

The change from red to orange was to have a color that's a blend for less colorblind people to be unable to notice. The pulsing was added on top of that for even the most severe colorblind people to be able to notice.
I'm not colorblind at all but the orange can be hard to see in some maps, but the pulsing still lets me know there's something on the ground and I should get out of it.

Short of a slider for AoE colors (which would only work for generic ones) they've done many things to accommodate colorblind people without making aoes too blatantly obvious. Things like the lines on Chirada/suparna in garuda for instance

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Originally Posted by Kiroh

Yeah, gods forbid you actually have to play a game instead of "press X now to dodge".

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That's a bit of an over exaggeration, wouldn't you say? This isn't Dark Souls. People already have a hard enough time doing content with big visual markers to avoid.

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Originally Posted by Poringing

I prefer if they changed the AoE markers to represent how dangerous it is, like:

very feint yellow : estimated <20% HP damage
(current) orange: estimated 20-50% HP damage and/ or mild DoT
(slightly darker than previous) red: estimated 50-99% HP damage and/ or disabling debuff or severe DoT
dark purple: estimated >100% HP damage and/ or lethal debuff

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This was one of the biggest learning hurdles for me getting into the game. Sometimes I would move out of a very low damage AoE and end up making the rest of the party mad since I was moving around so much, and other times I would think I could stay and then end up dead. As a result I just dodged all AoEs even when unnecessary or hindering the situation.

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Originally Posted by 3Jane

Get rid of the damned idiotic things completely. We had to learn the fights properly back in 1.0/1.23.

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Back in my day we had to learn the fights properly both ways up the hill in the snow!

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Originally Posted by Raxion

That's a bit of an over exaggeration, wouldn't you say? This isn't Dark Souls. People already have a hard enough time doing content with big visual markers to avoid.

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Having no AOE indicator is now Dark Souls level of difficulty? HAHAHAHAAAA.