I think the aural clues (which are usually the first indication of a statue) are too subtle. I find it quite tricky to hear some statues and I have a mate who has hearing difficulties and he rarely finds any statues at all. Maybe the thrum could be louder, the music more pronounced or some sort of visual ripple for the sounds?
The Statue Thrum and Music
When I was hunting for the statues I turned down the music all the way to zero in the settings. That made it a lot easier. I also wore headphones, so I could "feel" the humming before even hearing it. And made it very easy to pinpoint the right direction.
But for people with hearing difficulties it would be impossible challenge, so some kind of visual clue on the surface would be a good idea. Ripples? Like the glass of water in the first jurassic park
Probably too late for this challenge, but if they're going to stay in the world maybe it's worth considering.
@xraylexx
I actually turned my music up all the way up to be sure I wouldn't miss it and then constantly got spooked when I heard some random music starting underwater. Eventually I figured out the exact sound from the statues which is really distinguishable from the rest. Like @Clumsy-George described it, it's the mist horn sound.After doing ~20-30 statues I lowered my music back to the 30% mark again and am still able to clearly hear the difference.
@fishst1ck That's strange that you raised the music. After I found a statue I turned down the music to zero and the sound from the statues stayed on the same level, So I left the music at zero.
@riareth @el-Dunco
It could be that it's completely unrelated to the music settings and is actually part of the FX, either way it was annoying to have any volume setting up really high as I usually prefer hearing my crew over hearing other sounds.Once you figure out the exact sound though it's pretty different from the other underwater sounds and you can even hear it above the water.
@xraylexx said in The Statue Thrum and Music:
People shouldn’t have to mess with their settings to make the Sound clues more visible. It should be a level playing field for everyone.
How does relate to having a level playing field for everyone? Everyone has these volume options available to them and you're free to use them any way you see fit. You don't have to mess with your volume settings because you can hear the sound perfectly fine if you never touched the volume settings. Some people however have some of their volume settings set so low, like me for example with everything on 30%, that you just have to adjust something to be able to hear it better.
@xraylexx You can't account for everyone. We must all make the best of our situations.
The best Rare can do is tweak little things to people with disabilities can play as smoothly as possible, but as with most things some things will give an advantage. If someone is Deaf well that's a problem when he of she's going to bet boarded since they can't hear the splash.Rare's made the game for a standard human being (wich is the lions share of the market) and has adapted some things to facilitate those who have slight disabilities. (colourblind mode is one example).
Some people will be sort of left out, in this case someone with a hearing impairment will be disadvantaged. Should rare krank up the volume for everyone and make us all deaf? No thanks, you've got an options menu and you can ajust sliders accordingly or use external software, people with disabilities should know their way around those.
I find the thrum annoying, I realise the mermaid statues have to stay so people who didn't finish this Bilge rat quest line can finish.
So a few suggestions for after the event
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could they only start thrumming after a ship rings the bell when they are at the island? Once the ship departs they could fall silent.
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Finishing the quest line stops you hearing the mermaid statues.
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Give us a menu option to turn off the thrum
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