Requesting an 'Arachnophobia mode' client setting to alter Trapper's ult model

R

ranskooty

New member
(not sure where else to post this on the forums)


With the recent addition of Trapper to the Hero Labs, players with arachnophobia or similar fear of spiders may be put off by his ult while playing against him. The addition of an 'arachnophobia mode' feature in the settings menu that alters the appearance of the spiders would allow people with this phobia to comfortably play against the character. As long as the replacement mesh correctly communicates the size of the abilities hitbox and does not provide such an advantage that players who do not actually require the setting feel the need to use it, this feature would not need to have any impact on the moment-to-moment gameplay.


Current model:

1731027069551.png

Example alterations:

Grounded, Obsidian Entertainment
1731027396976.png

Hogwarts Legacy, Avalanche Software
1731027694716.png

Satisfactory, Coffee Stain Studios
1731027771332.png

Spiders could turn into smaller versions of these dudes:
1731028748925.png
 
+1 to this, I wanted to create the same thread!
I'm 350 hours committed to this game, which hasn't happened to me in over a decade with any game. If the spiders make it into the non-labs-mode, I'm worried it will become unplayable for me. This isn't about esthetics or preferences but accessibility.

To someone who isn't familiar with this condition it may sound stupid, but I urge the devs to consider accessibility here. Arachnophobia effects something like 5% of the global population.
 
I came in to open exactly the same topic. There should definitely be an arachnaphobia setting. I'm a gamer of about 200 hours. And I have an extremely serious phobia for spiders, it would never be an unplayable game for me. Please take it seriously, I don't want to leave such a beautiful game.
 
I absolutely hate spiders and seeing one IRL makes me want to run far far away. But I want the devs to see through with their vision and not waste their time and resources on accommodating everyone on small stupid things like this.

Also seeing spiders in a controlled and safe environment, like a game, may help you slowly lessen the fear.

And nobody is going to leave Deadlock because of a few spiders… We are too addicted…
 
Amaterasu said:
I absolutely hate spiders and seeing one IRL makes me want to run far far away. But I want the devs to see through with their vision and not waste their time and resources on accommodating everyone on small stupid things like this.

Also seeing spiders in a controlled and safe environment, like a game, may help you slowly lessen the fear.

And nobody is going to leave Deadlock because of a few spiders… We are too addicted…
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I'm glad you're feeling that way, but I'm not playing Deadlock cause I want to treat my phobia like its some therapy session. This is a fix that takes a minimal amount of time and there are plenty of easy solutions.

You're right, it's a "small stupid thing" that requires a fix that's as easy and "stupid".

Minding your players feelings is never stupid tho.
 
This is good feedback.
I don't have the problem, but I fully recognise that other might. Hopefully Valve makes a way to accommodate you. Another thing is that Trapper's final design might not have anything to do with spiders.
Posting to bump this thread.
I would highly recommend you post this in the Trapper section of the forum.
 
gimmekeyplskthnx said:
I refuse to believe that this isn't some sort of avant garde satire
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I mean ofc you do. You seem to have no ability to see other's perspectives.

I used to think arachnophobia was dumb but its a phobia. Theres no rationality to it, there's nothing you can really do about it other than long uncomfortable treatment that doesn't always work. I think its a very easy thing to fix and itd be practically resourceless to do. Look at examples in other games. They just remove the eyes and legs or change it to orbs or whatever. Its a very simple accessibility change and accessibility options are good for all parties. Its just a nice empathetic and easy thing to do
 
Amaterasu said:
I absolutely hate spiders and seeing one IRL makes me want to run far far away. But I want the devs to see through with their vision and not waste their time and resources on accommodating everyone on small stupid things like this.

Also seeing spiders in a controlled and safe environment, like a game, may help you slowly lessen the fear.

And nobody is going to leave Deadlock because of a few spiders… We are too addicted…
Click to expand...
This is not stupid and itd be easy as piss to implement, look at other examples of such a feature in games.

Also those last two paragraphs are just lunacy as youve just read posts of people saying they may not play because of it. Imagine if you had a nut allergy and at your favourite restaurant they added small trace amounts of nuts to all their meals, not enough to kill you but enough for your skin to itch a lil and your face to swell a tiny bit. Sure eventually you may feel better but this isnt clinical trials, this is a restaurant. You would simply not go to the restaurant.
 
bloodfrost27 said:
This is not stupid and itd be easy as piss to implement, look at other examples of such a feature in games.

Also those last two paragraphs are just lunacy as youve just read posts of people saying they may not play because of it. Imagine if you had a nut allergy and at your favourite restaurant they added small trace amounts of nuts to all their meals, not enough to kill you but enough for your skin to itch a lil and your face to swell a tiny bit. Sure eventually you may feel better but this isnt clinical trials, this is a restaurant. You would simply not go to the restaurant.
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Its not about this specific option. Its about wasting time and resources on accommodating small groups of people on things we don’t like. That the vast majority of people are ok with. I would rather see Valve working on more important things.

I’m not against it if they have spare time and decide to add it to the game. I also have arachnophobia, but I just don’t particularly care for this option and wanted Valve to hear my perspective.

Also comparing a digital spider to a restaurant sneaking in, potentially lethal products into their customers food, in secret, is pretty dramatic lol.
 
Amaterasu said:
Its not about this specific option. Its about wasting time and resources on accommodating small groups of people on things we don’t like. That the vast majority of people are ok with. I would rather see Valve working on more important things.

I’m not against it if they have spare time and decide to add it to the game. I also have arachnophobia, but I just don’t particularly care for this option and wanted Valve to hear my perspective.

Also comparing a digital spider to a restaurant sneaking in, potentially lethal products into their customers food, in secret, is pretty dramatic lol.
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Plz just stfu up. Valve has all the time and resources. They've been very open to hear community suggestions, which they have implemented on several occasions (active reload this week).
 
Amaterasu said:
Its not about this specific option. Its about wasting time and resources on accommodating small groups of people on things we don’t like. That the vast majority of people are ok with. I would rather see Valve working on more important things.

I’m not against it if they have spare time and decide to add it to the game. I also have arachnophobia, but I just don’t particularly care for this option and wanted Valve to hear my perspective.

Also comparing a digital spider to a restaurant sneaking in, potentially lethal products into their customers food, in secret, is pretty dramatic lol.
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My point with the restaurant bit is that you wouldn't go to your favourite restaurant (deadlock) if they changed something and that new thing (spiders) made you feel uncomfortable. There's a difference between being afraid of spiders and having arachnophobia. Its not just "things we don't like". I dont know how severe or even if you have actual arachnophobia but some people struggle with it hard and they dont really have the option to just suck it up and power through like you can.

Its an accessibility thing. Im sure you wouldn't argue that support for colorblindness is unnecessary, but as far as i know they make up less than 5% of the worlds population, far less than the "vast majority".

But personally I dont need to care, i dont suffer from any fear of creepy crawlies. So to me, it doesn't matter. But I have a friend who does have arachnophobia and if he were to ever play deadlock I would hope he'd be able to enjoy the game without having to deal with a fear that he has no control over. And im sure other people, including those in this chat, would like that too.
 
I dunno, is a spectral exploding spider, that doesn't even look hyperrealistic gonna trigger arachnophobia? I could understand this if we were talking about, some realistic looking spiders that actually did spider "things" like in the listed examples but... we are talking about exploding spectral spiders...

Also this isn't a bug report. You posting it like this to gain attention is exactly the stated purpose of why they DON'T want public posts for suggestions, because it becomes easy to socially push suggestions that aren't all that requested in the first place.
 
heelydon77 said:
I dunno, is a spectral exploding spider, that doesn't even look hyperrealistic gonna trigger arachnophobia? I could understand this if we were talking about, some realistic looking spiders that actually did spider "things" like in the listed examples but... we are talking about exploding spectral spiders...

Also this isn't a bug report. You posting it like this to gain attention is exactly the stated purpose of why they DON'T want public posts for suggestions, because it becomes easy to socially push suggestions that aren't all that requested in the first place.
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Not someone with arachnaphobia, but have a friend who has it that I've asked about. It sounds like people are triggered by different things, but from what I've seen it seems to fall into a couple categories.

My friend for example doesn't care about spiderwebs, or seeing close ups of other bugs like beetles, but the thing that really gets her is the particular shape of the legs and the way they move. It means that even "Sphere with spider legs" will still trigger it for her a little, but a beetle for example is not really an issue.

For people with that sort of trigger, even unrealistic looking things still have all the hallmarks of what make spiders viscerally scary for her. She doesn't get angry at games that have them, but it definitely heavily reduces her enjoyment or stops her from playing at all. She's always extremely grateful for arachnaphobia settings, or even mods.


For your second note: Trapper didn't have a section on the forum when this thread was made. This was probably the best option at the time.
 
newbienice909 said:
Not someone with arachnaphobia, but have a friend who has it that I've asked about. It sounds like people are triggered by different things, but from what I've seen it seems to fall into a couple categories.

My friend for example doesn't care about spiderwebs, or seeing close ups of other bugs like beetles, but the thing that really gets her is the particular shape of the legs and the way they move. It means that even "Sphere with spider legs" will still trigger it for her a little, but a beetle for example is not really an issue.

For people with that sort of trigger, even unrealistic looking things still have all the hallmarks of what make spiders viscerally scary for her. She doesn't get angry at games that have them, but it definitely heavily reduces her enjoyment or stops her from playing at all. She's always extremely grateful for arachnaphobia settings, or even mods.


For your second note: Trapper didn't have a section on the forum when this thread was made. This was probably the best option at the time.
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I see, I mean that is what I would assume is how it would work too, but that still doesn't really address if its a meaningful thing that affects many people, which is why it would make more sense to let it sort itself out with people reporting it anonymously to see how widespread of an issue it is. After all, otherwise we could point out a whole host of potential other phobias that are triggered by the game that we need to add alternatives for in the game.

And you're right, there was no trapper thread this morning - there is now.
That aside, there would've still been better solutions for that kind of feedback, that goes in the spirit of what the purpose of their feedback process works, which would be like the general art feedback section.

Understand me well, I am not trying to downplay anyone with phobias here. However I think that there also needs to be a tangible reason that these things are addressed, which is easier for Valve's team to assess if they actually get a representative number of people asking for this. For instance, if only 2 people made threads asking for this to be addressed, then they'd probably come to the conclusion that its not a huge issue that needs to be solved. However if they suddenly sat with A LOT of threads asking about this as a problem/barrier for their gameplay, then they'd probably have to take it a lot more serious.
 
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