Glorious Alpha Two Testers!
Phase I of Alpha Two testing will occur on weekends. Each weekend is scheduled to start on Fridays at 10 AM PT and end on Sundays at 10 PM PT. Find out more here.
Check out Alpha Two Announcements here to see the latest Alpha Two news and update notes.
Our quickest Alpha Two updates are in Discord. Testers with Alpha Two access can chat in Alpha Two channels by connecting your Discord and Intrepid accounts here.
Phase I of Alpha Two testing will occur on weekends. Each weekend is scheduled to start on Fridays at 10 AM PT and end on Sundays at 10 PM PT. Find out more here.
Check out Alpha Two Announcements here to see the latest Alpha Two news and update notes.
Our quickest Alpha Two updates are in Discord. Testers with Alpha Two access can chat in Alpha Two channels by connecting your Discord and Intrepid accounts here.
Arachnophobia - Spiders: Possibility to make them cute/appearance different?
Chufu
Member
Guys I am really hyped already for your game, the more I read the more I feel that's definitely a game I would love to play. Especially because it looks like a really good MMO. 
One thing that reaaaaally bothers me though because of my Arachnophobia are the spiders ingame. I noticed a picture today and they look super real, especially on the Cleric Animation video. So real, that tbh when they attack me in the game, I see myself already screaming, neighbours wondering if somebody gets killed, and me so in shock that my character is just dying.
Therefore I have a superspecial request or question for you: Would it be possible to implement a function that can be enabled for people like me who are superscared of spiders, to let them either look cute or change their models to something else (e.g. all spiders are lizards or something)?
I know most of you probably don't see a problem with spiders, but it's really horrific. In older games, I never had a problem, even the spiders in The Elder Scrolls Online are still fine more me, but your new models (I must admit though they are super realistic and therefore amazing!) are just too much in that regard. As the game is still in development, I am just asking if if would be possible to implement something that helps all the players with that fear of spiders, but all the ones who still enjoy and love MMOs and especially follow Ashes of Creation!
One thing that reaaaaally bothers me though because of my Arachnophobia are the spiders ingame. I noticed a picture today and they look super real, especially on the Cleric Animation video. So real, that tbh when they attack me in the game, I see myself already screaming, neighbours wondering if somebody gets killed, and me so in shock that my character is just dying.
Therefore I have a superspecial request or question for you: Would it be possible to implement a function that can be enabled for people like me who are superscared of spiders, to let them either look cute or change their models to something else (e.g. all spiders are lizards or something)?
I know most of you probably don't see a problem with spiders, but it's really horrific. In older games, I never had a problem, even the spiders in The Elder Scrolls Online are still fine more me, but your new models (I must admit though they are super realistic and therefore amazing!) are just too much in that regard. As the game is still in development, I am just asking if if would be possible to implement something that helps all the players with that fear of spiders, but all the ones who still enjoy and love MMOs and especially follow Ashes of Creation!
MOD NOTE: Hi guys. When discussing this topic please avoid personal attacks or implications about mental instability for people with phobias. A little compassion and empathy never hurt when dealing with things. Thanks.
3
Comments
I'm actually a huge fan of spiders, but I can understand your phobia. I was once in a bookshop and went to buy a spider book (a rubbish one btw, it kept calling them insects! But that is besides the point). The book had a drawing of the silhouette of a spider on the cover. When I went to pay for it the lady behind the desk literally screemed and ran away, and that was just a silhouette drawing!
So yes, I totally support your suggestion!
I'm not against the idea in a general sense, I'm just not sure it can be implemented. The good news is IS won't publish in China to my knowledge so the death parameters aren't affected
On the other side if the switch did just change the design to a different creature, they'd then need to consider how the new skin would be distinguishable as they'd most likely have different skills and animations, which would also have to be tweaked in order to adjust. This would also raise the problem of how a player would know whether or not this was a spider vs the mob skinned type.
I understand that many people suffer from a variety of things, but I don't think this is feasible from a long-term perspective.
Cute spiders are lame.
Replacing mob meshes with blobs or default models would give an advantage in areas where mobs might be more difficult to visually track (e.g. in tall grass, dark areas).
Also, I don't know how common it is to use machine learning to automate things in mmos, but if you're using machine learning on raw display output, this could make it extremely easy to identify mobs with such an option. Machine learning on display output would be difficult to detect and ban too, since it emulates how humans interact with the game. It would be actually fairly robust and easy to code if it just needs to trained on a default model.
_____________________________________________________________________________________
Current Member of the Gray Sentinels.
/whispers "invisible spiders...."
An adult
outfits
weapon skins
mount skins
colours
non combat pets
from which I can select and tick off the ones I dislike and then I won't be seeing non of that. They upset me. See where I am going with that?
That is an inappropriate thing to suggest.
A phobia is an irrational fear. People can know a thing isn't something they need to be afraid of, yet that phobia will persist. It is not something the person has control over.
Saying "get over it" to a person with a severe phobia is like telling someone that is a limb short to just grow another one back - neither are things the person has control over.
Have a bit more compassion for others than this.
I would actually say this is fine, for anything that is considered one of the top 20 phobias.
An MMO attempting to not force things on to players that are common subjects of a phobia - as long as it doesn't affect the rest of us - is in no way a bad thing.
Some of the top 20 phobias are things like spiders, snakes, water, blood, heights, flying, enclosed spaces and thunder.
The thing is, of these, only three of the top 20 phobias that I can see are really able to be triggered in an MMO - spiders, snakes and thunder. Things like water, heights and enclosed spaces are not triggered by seeing them, they are only triggered by being in them. - and I assume someone with acrophobia probably doesn't have their computer set up next to a cliff.
I see no reason at all why Intrepid couldn't add in a model/sound effect replacement for these few things - as it wouldn't affect you or I at all. It doesn't even need to be a unique model/sound effect.
Edit to add; there are some phobias, such as porphyrophobia, that could affect players in an MMO, but that they would have to have taken steps to alleviating anyway if they wish to use a computer in general, so Intrepid need do nothing at all to assist here.
You can't expect the development to spend tens of thousands of dollars to provide alternative solutions to the many phobias people have.
Some people are afraid of clusters of small holes, why shouldn't this be tackled?
Or the heights or depths.
As an adult learn to accept no. Respectfuly it is too expensive to implement.
Respectfuly, there are epilepsy warnings on videogames and people make their own choices.
Respectfuly there aren't enough people affected so severely by those phobias, to merit a development design, unlike colour blindness.
These people absolutely could make a decision to not play Ashes. Without a doubt.
However, for the sake of a days worth of work for one employee (more like an hour, but hey), Intrepid could give people with COMMON phobias the option to not have trigger events in their game. They could make it as simple as adding an option for "bovine mode", wherein all snakes and spiders have their model replaced with an existing cow model, and all thunder is replaced by the sound of a cow mooing. All of those assets are likely to be in game anyway, so the total sum of work needed is creating the UI option, and then setting that option to redirect from one asset to another asset.
They obviously could do much more than that if they wanted, but at a base level, this is all that is needed.
The cost is low, the potential benefits are an unknown number of potential subscribers, and the downsides to the rest of the player base are zero.
I'm not seeing your argument here.
If the spiders don't make your skin crawl. Then they are just another bag of hit points to swing at.
Being scary is what makes spiders special. Be grateful that you can be humbled be somethings appearance alone. I get no emotional response from Nagas, or giant snakes. Some people get that same fear I get with spiders when dealing with snake monsters. I am kind of jealous that only spiders really invoke that fear in me.
It could be so much more.
Who knows, maybe after killing some spiders in Ashes you might be slightly better equipped mentally to deal with a real spider when the time comes.
This is my personal feedback, shared to help the game thrive in its niche.
I just want to say that this is totally false.
A lot of people get anxiety and sweaty palms just from seeing heights, dangerous situations etc... No idea why you assumed that people with acrophobia need to literally be next to a cliff lol.
No, I’ll just have a really thrilling experience every time I’m out on a ship at sea or, god forbid, I fall off the ship or sink and then the fear really kicks in.
I also have actual arachnophobia (not just one of those people who say “I have _ phobia isn’t that so crazy omg”) so I can sympathize but as others have mentioned, I can process that it’s just a game and while I might be sickened by the sight of the beasts, I can keep my composure.
I would advise you to do one of two things: expose yourself to them, because it really is the only way to dampen the intensity, or avoid doing content that includes them and miss out.
I know you can do it! 🙂
Don't play this game.
Don't watch Lord of the Rings.
Don't watch Harry Potter.
Don't watch National geographic.
Be safe. Your welcome.
You forgot don't watch Spiderman.
There's an enormous spider...
Watching youuuuuu......
Because I've never seen it.
I've known a few people with different phobias in the past. All of the people I have known with acrophobia have only ever had it trigger when they themselves were at elevation.
I'm not necessarily saying that this is the case for all such people, but I wouldn't take a YouTube video as proof of anything, as I'm sure a video of someone appearing to be so afraid of heights that photos can trigger it would get a lot of views.
That is why I am not suggesting they attempt to address all of them, only the appropriate ones that are in the top 20 most common.
If you look at it that way, there are only a small handful in the top 20 that are relevent to the discussion, all of which are easily fixed. I mean, no one is suggesting Intrepid do anything to assist the two people out there that are likely to have onomatophobia.