Forum Discussion

Hero (Retired)

5 years ago

Quality of Life Changes - community requests

Hi legends, This new QoL thread is inspired by @Cabowse's thread here. This is a place to get your own request on the list, or to link a good idea you found somewhere else! The ideas from t...

gameplay discussion

8jpg

5 years ago

I have tinnitus (ringing in the ears) and hyperacusis (extreme sound sensitivity) and while I've managed to deal with it well and prevent any triggers while playing, the SFX used when the arena match shop opens up and the explosive hold opening are extremely triggering. The ringing/ dentist drill sound makes it really hard for me to play and focus. I try and avoid explosive holds, letting my teammates do it and I have to turn my volume OFF every time before the arena shop opens up, but most of the time I just end up avoiding arenas altogether because it's too much of a hassle keeping track of that.

I've seen a couple of posts on Reddit also talking about their tinnitus and having the same issue with the arena sound.

The noise sensitivity and ear disorder are quite new to me (in the last year) and out of all the Apex requests I could ask for, this one is my top priority. I would love to play without having to worry about being triggered and getting upset with certain sounds, and I think others with this diagnosis might agree too. It might not be much to people who have normal hearing, but it's painstaking and anxiety triggering for someone with tinnitus.

It would be such a small change but mean so much.

Eshshshss

Seasoned Ace

5 years ago

@8jpg not very familiar with the issue yet I would suggest you to look into playing around equalizers, maybe turning one or another frequency up or down might help.

Not sure if Apex will ever do it because sound effects in this game are either just pure chaos or it was done so intentionally so the visual clutter and hardship spotting an enemy (unless they play Gibby in the polar bear costume) matches the chaos going on in your ears - all those fake sounds, sudden healing sounds in the distance, crazy loud sounds of carepackage dropping miles away etc.

p.s. turn off music and voicelines, which helped me a bit in terms of getting ride of audio clutter.

8jpg
5 years ago
@Eshshshss I'm totally okay with the noise clutter, it's just those two specific triggering SFX. And yes I've been trying out equalizers and such, my solution was finding one that maps out audio-visually and directionally on the screen, so you could pretty much play with no audio, but people have considered that cheating so it's not as widespread and no real program that's easily accessible. Just wish there was a simple solution :/ changing the SFX would be such an easy fix to everything but I understand that they try to differentiate sounds and usually don't change them. I just wish they didn't use such distorted/ highpitched/ ringing/ dentist drill noises in the first play, it's not pleasing on the ears :c

There's a post about tinnitus on Reddit, talking about the same exact problem with the arena sound, so I know I'm not alone.

I've turned off music and lobby music. If I were to turn off SFX sounds, I think it would get rid of pretty much all sounds in-game (footsteps, gunshots, arena sounds, explosive hold etc), I would only have dialogue left.