Light Sensitivity Levels and Customization

I'm not sure if this is the proper place for this sort of comment, but it seems like the most fitting.

I've run into a very unfun issue as of late. I have some very specific light and effect based sensitivities linked to my ASD. I've mitigated it for quite some time but I've come to resent what I lose in order to not end up with anxious

Summoner effects trigger my light sensitivity issues and cause dizziness and confusion. My answer for over a year now has been to turn off everyone else's effects, but honestly now the fights seem a lot more empty. Other attacks never caused this problem (with the exception of certain LB3s, but those are sparing enough that they're fine) but the frequent huge flashes and blasts from titan and ifrit create a slow-building tension that impact my ability to focus and play. I miss seeing bards fire their arrows and songs, ninjas doing their cool blasts, the breadth of a healer's big heal on the whole party... Watching my effects join those of others felt like contributing to a big fun thing. Having to turn them all off just makes the game that much less engaging to me. I turned them on again recently and realized what I had been missing, only to have my second roulette have a SMN whose summons just made me kinda sick and irritable.

Yes I have the pets turned to small. It's not enough. I still get flashbanged every 30 seconds (or however long it is). It's frustrating that my options are to either turn off other players' effects every time i'm in a party with a summoner OR turn them off always and just continue to put up with less game. It puts a major damper on my enthusiasm thinking that because I can't maintain mental stability with certain lights and effects. I would like a more nuanced option for what should or shouldn't be limited in the party effects menu settings. All, limited, or nothing isn't particularly useful when the problem isn't all effects, it's simply one subset of effects from one job.

Sorry if this is scattered and fragmented, I honestly don't know how to explain this sort of thing very well, but I wanted to say it somewhere. Maybe this doesn't seem super important to most, but I'm sure there are others who struggle to articulate similar problems so I wanted to at least try. Thank you for your patience.

Good morning! Thank you for posting in the Final Fantasy XIV Technical Support Forums.

We apologize for any inconvenience that has occurred when playing Final Fantasy XIV. Unfortunately, the issue you are describing does not appear to be a technical issue. I will go ahead and move this thread to “General Discussion" instead.

Thank you once again for visiting the Final Fantasy XIV Technical Support Forums!

I'm not in game to check but IIRC there's a Limited option instead of just completely off. Have you tried that?

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Originally Posted by Votraftur

Good morning! Thank you for posting in the Final Fantasy XIV Technical Support Forums.

We apologize for any inconvenience that has occurred when playing Final Fantasy XIV. Unfortunately, the issue you are describing does not appear to be a technical issue. I will go ahead and move this thread to “General Discussion" instead.

Thank you once again for visiting the Final Fantasy XIV Technical Support Forums!

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http://media.tumblr.com/5c6cf8ce068c...p141r79k32.gif

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Originally Posted by Votraftur

Good morning! Thank you for posting in the Final Fantasy XIV Technical Support Forums.

We apologize for any inconvenience that has occurred when playing Final Fantasy XIV. Unfortunately, the issue you are describing does not appear to be a technical issue. I will go ahead and move this thread to “General Discussion" instead.

Thank you once again for visiting the Final Fantasy XIV Technical Support Forums!

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This is why I wish there was a downvote option

I doubt that they could create settings for every individual spell effect that might cause issues for a tiny percentage of players. You're the first one I've heard mention the Summoner pet summons though I've seen other effects mentioned on occasion.

Have you tried changing some of the display and graphics settings in System Configuration as well? Perhaps those might help.

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Originally Posted by DiaDeem

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Not sure why you pulled out the gif. It's not a technical support issue because things are working as intended. It is a suggestion for there to be more options to adjust graphical effects. There's a difference.

I can handle one summoner in a party, but if two or more are going, I have to drop. They just bring so much obnoxious visual clutter. It's like watching a Vermilion Scourge every thirty seconds.

Granted, a lot of jobs feel excessively flashy these days. Reaper doesn't really need giant swathes of color with every swing, for example, and I've complained about machinist's Heated shots more times than I care to recall. But summoners are actively painful to play around.

I wish we had an effects option somewhere between "Full" and "Limited" specifically for attacks.

I don't want to completely hide attack effects, like "Limited" does. I just want to tone them down or make them smaller, similar to how they are when we're attacking a ridiculously far away enemy like [minor ShB Alliance Raid spoiler]

Engels in Copied Factory.

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Originally Posted by Jojoya

Not sure why you pulled out the gif. It's not a technical support issue because things are working as intended. It is a suggestion for there to be more options to adjust graphical effects. There's a difference.

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I mean, yeah but... could they possibly be any less helpful?

A response after 7 days is more involvement than the diablo 4 forums :)

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Originally Posted by TaleraRistain

I'm not in game to check but IIRC there's a Limited option instead of just completely off. Have you tried that?

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Thank you! I have tried Limited. In fact, I've used Limited throughout EW. Limited very heavily truncates the effect to the point of it barely existing. It feels very empty in comparison. I flipped effects back to all just to see what it was like and got really wistful for a time I could leave them on. I might try keeping the button Character Config>Control Settings menu in a hotbar and just train myself to turn them to limited or off when i'm in a group with a Summoner. It's just frustrating, because it is specifically those effects and their frequency that get to me. It's a combination of the severity and opacity of the light, the inability to discern it from dangerous effects, the sensory overload therein that makes me stop processing everything for a few seconds... If I could avoid just that (or it didn't happen so often maybe?) I would be fine. I can't though so my choices are suffer, go without, or manually change it situationally. Particularly since the game has such robust customization options otherwise...

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Originally Posted by AmiableApkallu

I wish we had an effects option somewhere between "Full" and "Limited" specifically for attacks.

I don't want to completely hide attack effects, like "Limited" does. I just want to tone them down or make them smaller, similar to how they are when we're attacking a ridiculously far away enemy like [minor ShB Alliance Raid spoiler]

Engels in Copied Factory.

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That would be GREAT! there's still some juggling I'd need to do personally but smaller or something would make limited at least a little more visually engaging.

Oh and yeah moving my post is fine. I genuinely didn't really know where to say any of this, I just hope to put it on someone's radar somewhere.