[accessibility request] a List of strobing/flashing effects occurrences.

LunaFlora

Happy Saturday.
in January ZOS posted a Pain Point thread to which i added a list with all occurrences of strobing and/or flashing effects.
i updates it a few times, but it seems better to make a separate post for it, similar to the Tassets and Loincloths post.

here is the link to my Pain Point thread comment:
https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/comment/8260693#Comment_8260693

The aforementioned comment and its list:
(Will update when i can)
As someone with photosensitivity issues,, high bright effects, flashes, and strobing can cause problems like migraines. Which isn't pleasant.

So it would be lovely to have a Toggle for these things and/or a slider for intensity.
a Toggle would ideally let us turn off these effects completely.
a Slider would ideally let us decide the intensity of these effects,
- 100% would be how it currently is.
- 0% would be no flashing/strobing at all.
- in-between would be slower if it's strobing.

Some examples of where this causes issues:


- Hard Mode Scrolls/Scroll of Glorious Battle in base game and imperial city dungeons
Big white flash for the entire screen.

- Dungeons, Arenas, and Trials
- Aetherian Archive.
the portals cause a big white flash to appear on the whole screen.
- Spindleclutch.
the Whisperer and Swarm Mother have attacks which causes a big white flash for the whole screen several times during the fights.
- Dragonstar Arena. has the Shadow Knight who uses a skill with a blinding bright light.

- Quests
Certain quests have points where there's the same flash, one of the Blackwood Prologue quests is one of these. the Daedric Unwarding Amulet memento from that Prologue causes a flash as well.

- Mementos
- Daedric Unwarding Amulet, screenwide flash. (Emperor's Secret, Blackwood Proloque quest).

- Crown Store Outfit styles
examples:
- The purple flash effect that appears when you Equip a weapon that uses the Prior Thierric style.
- The glow effect pulsing too fast in Y'ffre bound, Aetheriusbound, and Order of the Lamp weapons.
- Devourer's Dragonbone weapons from Akatosh vs Alduin crown crates. (lightning effect).
- Iceshard weapons. personally painful ice sound everytime you unsheath the weapons. (All Maker Crates).

Item Sets
- Darloc Brae. there's purple and yellow effects which constantly move.
Orbs moving around your character
- Ebon Armory
- Sanctuary
- Hircine Veneer
- Pearlescent Ward

- Skills
Arcanist
- Strobing in the Arcanist's Fatecarver, Remedy Cascade, and Unblinking Eye skills.
Sorcerer
- Winged Twilight. same as flying non combat pets: the wings are too fast and it would be helpful if they would sit and rest regularly.
Templar
- most skills' brightness is too intense. skills like Nova strobe too.

- Mounts
Explosive/flashy mount summoning effects like from:
- Spellscar Quasigriff, meteor explosion summon effect. (Buoyant Armiger crates).
- Spirit Queen Welwa (Ragebound crates).
- Harrowstorm Bear and the other Storm Atronach mounts. (Storm Atronach crates and available with the crates).
- Shackled Titan, dark anchor summon effect. (Diamond Anniversary crates).
- the Kynareth Quasigriff mount and Gryphon pet both have constant lightning effects, they seem worse than the Storm mounts. (Carnaval Crates).
- Living Armor senches, strobing fire effects (Akatosh vs Alduin crown crates).
- Kyne-Blessed Thundersnow Steed, Lightning effects (Akatosh vs Alduin crown crates).
- Meridian Sabre cat, pulsing glow (Crown Store).

- Non-Combat Pets
- Kynareth Fledgeling Gryphon, lightning (Carnaval Crates).
- Meridian Sabre cub, pulsing glow (Crown Store).
- Flying Pets. the wings are too fast and it would be helpful if they would sit and rest regularly.


- Antiquity Scrying
there's a flash when you open the Antiquarian's Eye to Scry for a lead.

- Customised actions
Recall actions.
- Legionaire's Recall, very bright.
- Coldharbour Recall, dark anchor which is very bright.
- Accursed Recall, bright purple orb. screen wide flash.

- Skill Styling
- Shield Charge, Dragonclash. flash at activation

Overland stuff
- Spellscar in Craglorn. strobing.
- Lightning Weather. sudden flashes with explosive noise. I know this is realistic weather, but other games like Minecraft also have a toggle for it.


edits:

August 9:
- edited the title, forgot the word "of" and changed "inaccessibility" to "accessibility request"
- added sources for mounts.
- removed the spoiler tags from the list, oopsie forgot that at first.
- added customised actions.
- consolidated Aetherian Archive and Spindleclutch into a Dungeons and Trials category.
- added Mementos
- added pets

August 18
- added skill styling.
- Overland. for Spellscar, maybe more later
- winged Twilight + flying pets.
- item sets
- lightning weather
- dragonstar arena

birdmann1230

The shield bash style with the spinning hourglass was especially bad, and some of these mounts have gotten ridiculous and I don’t even have an issue with lights.

BretonMage

Dragonstar Arena has the Shadow Knight who uses a skill with a blinding bright light.

I find the intense glowing red skill style of the Twilight summon visually painful, and the flapping motion makes it 20 times worse for the eyes.

I have mixed feelings about all this, I wish we could turn off some effects but not all. I like a bit of colour and variety, but not to the extent that we're getting these days, and definitely not the ones that give me a headache.

Araneae6537

Some of these which bother me I can adapt to — the flash when doing scrying for instance. I don’t know why they decided to make the screen flash, but I know it’s coming and can momentarily close my eyes.

There is armor I won’t wear because the effects bother, including Darloc Brae (doesn’t bother me when others wear it, but if I use, I feel like a migraine is coming on). Certainly some pets and especially mount summons and and recalls are obnoxious at best and if I had a way to not see (or hear) the explosive/meteoric/whatever effects, I’d be glad for it, but my number one problem is much more subtle.

Flickering lightning. I love rain, in game and irl, but the constant flicking lightning really triggers me and I have to stop what I’m doing and relog, change characters, or move to a different zone (and sometimes the weather I swear comes with me so I have to change switch characters anyway. The frequency with which this happens and the degree to which it disrupts my game (I can’t wait for a player to pass or adjust where my character is looking, but have to completely stop what I’m doing) is what makes this the number one pain point for me.

Danikat

I don't know if it's a problem for anyone but the whole area around Spellscar in Craglorn can be irritating.

I don't have epilepsy or anything and I avoid spending time there if I don't have to because of the constant flickering.

wolfie1.0.

Eso in general is lacking in accessibility. Not only does it have effects such as this (with no warning) it also doesnt have a viable colorblind mode.

I feel both options should be added to the game as settings.

Soarora

I mentioned this last time it got brought up but I don’t even think the hard mode scrolls (at least) should be a toggle, it should just be changed to not flash white at all, the purpose it serves can be done in a way that makes more thematic sense (a slow red pulse with Evil Sounds or magic shooting to the boss or something). I don’t have photosensitivity and I play in a bright room and it still hurts sometimes, I presume because the dungeons appear dark and perhaps the sudden flash of light mimics getting blinded by a flashlight whilst in a dark room?

SickleCider

Ah, yes, the Blackwood prologue and memento. I remember that dropped at a time that posts like this talking about accessibility concerns re: full screen flashes had really picked up momentum. I participated in a lot of them, as a photosensitive person. I know that correlation doesn't necessarily indicate intent but I couldn't help but feel like it was targeted and petty.

[Edited to soften the language a little.]

LunaFlora

added the stuff from all your comments to the list ♥ and agree with y'all

Syldras

Thank you for making this list!

spartaxoxo

They really need a performance mode that reduces all of this and hides cosmetics and perhaps reduces the amount of grass or whatever.

It would help so many different types of players.