Colorblind assist

[eggrollonedolla]

Forgive me if this has been mentioned before, but I was thinking the other day about the colors and specifically me being red-green colorblind like many other are what about an option to change the starting colors?

My thought process behind this might not work for say an 8 player map with so many colors already used, but say like a 1v1 game an option when in game selector to use colorblind mode (CBM). Instead of having Red and Green as the 1v1 colors, the CBM could be blue orange maybe. For everyone else the colors would still be viewed the same way. I dont think it would be too diificult to code, but then again it could be.

I think it would greatly help people like me who are colorblind, esp for games like poker club, kings court, ect be more competative. I know i played KC during random and had no chance squinting all over the place.

This is my first suggestion so hopefully I have filled everything out right.

[sparkyball]

In the top right corner when you are in the games above the players names there is a tab marked color codes click on that and it puts the letter of the color next to the armies so you know what is what. That was the best solution to come up with when they were trying to help the color blind people. I sometimes use it when I'm going for a kill on an escalating game to make sure I'm not missing anybody.

[eggrollonedolla]

In the top right corner when you are in the games above the players names there is a tab marked color codes click on that and it puts the letter of the color next to the armies so you know what is what. That was the best solution to come up with when they were trying to help the color blind people. I sometimes use it when I'm going for a kill on an escalating game to make sure I'm not missing anybody.

Ohh I'll look for that. Thx

[Metsfanmax]

OP makes an interesting point. Red-green color blindness is so common that it doesn't make much sense for the two most commonly used colors to be red and green. We can't do much about the maps, but this seems like a simple change that would help a lot of people.

But yes, for now just stick to the color codes -- I use them all the time, and I can distinguish colors just fine.

[2dimes]

Swap red for the number 8 colour and cue the whining.

[eggrollonedolla]

OP makes an interesting point. Red-green color blindness is so common that it doesn't make much sense for the two most commonly used colors to be red and green. We can't do much about the maps, but this seems like a simple change that would help a lot of people.

+1

[chapcrap]

We need to get more color options anyway for those 12 player games, right?

[AndyDufresne]

Red and green will always be in use most likely. I think the best thing is to simply use the color codes! In fact, I always play with color codes on and I don't have any colorblind issues, I just think it helps me identify quickly my opponents.


--Andy

[Metsfanmax]

Red and green will always be in use most likely. I think the best thing is to simply use the color codes! In fact, I always play with color codes on and I don't have any colorblind issues, I just think it helps me identify quickly my opponents.


--Andy

Yes, if you're playing a slow sequential game, then using the color codes is just fine. But if you're playing a fast speed game, it takes way too long to figure out the state of the board by looking at the color codes. Color codes were always designed to be an aid to help clarify what's going on, not the main determinant of who is where. And for a red-green color blind person, that's exactly what they are right now.

[koontz1973]

Just swap the green for another one of the colours. Why have map makers make CB friendly maps if the first two colours are not. Considering most games are 1v1.

[eggrollonedolla]

Just swap the green for another one of the colours. Why have map makers make CB friendly maps if the first two colours are not. Considering most games are 1v1.

I think making blue and yellow the starting colors would solve everything indeed

[agentcom]

I don't know much about color blindness. Would blue and yellow be the best two colors? Could someone put together a list of the 8 colors that we currently use and what order they would be in that would be best for the most typical types of colorblindness? So, the top 4, for example, would be the ones used in 4-player games. I'm sure there's extensive research out there on this point that someone could find, especially if someone is at a university and has access to scholarly articles on the subject.

[eggrollonedolla]

I don't know much about color blindness. Would blue and yellow be the best two colors? Could someone put together a list of the 8 colors that we currently use and what order they would be in that would be best for the most typical types of colorblindness? So, the top 4, for example, would be the ones used in 4-player games. I'm sure there's extensive research out there on this point that someone could find, especially if someone is at a university and has access to scholarly articles on the subject.

Blue and orange are found in lots of first person shooters as colorblind assistance for peoples tags.

The order we use now is...

red
green
blue
yellow

pink
cyan
orange
silver

I couldnt find and specific order of best colors to use however i did come across this.. "Less than 1 percent of colorblind people have trouble seeing blue, so blue is an ideal color to use when designing something for people who are colorblind."

So im thinking this order...

Blue
Yellow
Red
Cyan
Orange
Silver
Green
Pink

blue-yellow 2 players (B/Y)
blue-yellow-red-cyan 4 players (B/Y vs R/C)
blue-yellow-red-cyan-orange-silver 6 players (B/Y/O vs R/C/S)
blue-yellow-red-cyan-orange-silver-pink-green 8 players (B/Y/O/G vs R/C/S/P)

anyone else that can find a list please feel free.

[eggrollonedolla]

anyone see anything that should be changed?

[rishaed]

Wouldn't that make it harder to differentiate between your teamate and your enemy? Red/green look the same . . . for 1v1s it would be helpful, but for 8 player quads, I think that it would make it more difficult. You also have more time in 8 player games normally so color codes might be in order there.

[koontz1973]

Wouldn't that make it harder to differentiate between your teamate and your enemy? Red/green look the same . . . for 1v1s it would be helpful, but for 8 player quads, I think that it would make it more difficult. You also have more time in 8 player games normally so color codes might be in order there.

It would, I tested this with the 888s on the maps. Some surprising things and some really bad things.

The troubled areas that I noticed are not just red/green but:
Protanopia - Pink & Blue
Deuteranopia - Pink, Cyan & Blue, Red & Green
Tritanopia - Red & Pink, Orange & Yellow

So depending on what type of colour blindness you have and how bad you have it, these are the main areas of problems. Not as I though at first just red and green.

[eggrollonedolla]

Wouldn't that make it harder to differentiate between your teamate and your enemy? Red/green look the same . . . for 1v1s it would be helpful, but for 8 player quads, I think that it would make it more difficult. You also have more time in 8 player games normally so color codes might be in order there.

people would have to learn the colors on each side to make sure they dont attack a teammate. obv that would be a learning curve to battle through.

[rishaed]

Wouldn't that make it harder to differentiate between your teamate and your enemy? Red/green look the same . . . for 1v1s it would be helpful, but for 8 player quads, I think that it would make it more difficult. You also have more time in 8 player games normally so color codes might be in order there.

people would have to learn the colors on each side to make sure they dont attack a teammate. obv that would be a learning curve to battle through.

People could say that about about the current system as well. I suggest to find the best possible solution for this, not only something to help those that are colorblind, but also to keep appeal to those who aren't. Koontz thats very helpful . Another suggestion that I might have would be to have the numbers layered, as in outline in red, inner white. Outline in white, inner green? It would have the colors remain the same, but colorblind people would be able to differenciate based on how different each outline/inner is. I don't know how difficult this would be for coding, but it might be a step in the right direction.

[ManBungalow]

If you have BoB enabled, you can locate a player's regions by hovering over their username.

[rishaed]

True, but not all people use BoB, and not everyone likes it. You should not have to use BoB to recognize where starting positions are if you are colorblind.

[agentcom]

So im thinking this order...

...

blue-yellow 2 players (B/Y)
blue-yellow-red-cyan 4 players (B/Y vs R/C)
blue-yellow-red-cyan-orange-silver 6 players (B/Y/O vs R/C/S)
blue-yellow-red-cyan-orange-silver-pink-green 8 players (B/Y/O/G vs R/C/S/P)

anyone else that can find a list please feel free.

At first, I was thinking that you should keep the "order" of the colors the same as the existing set-up. By that I mean that the first 3 colors to come into play would be the three players on a trips game Team 1. But now that I think about it ... having each color come in and "join" a set team would actually be pretty nice. You would know that B/Y/O/G are always Team 1 if they are present. Same for R/C/S/P.

As I said before, I don't know enough about colorblindness to know if this set-up would help this problem, but it would be nice not having to figure out which team yellow (for example) is on in every game I'm in.