Improvements for visually impaired

Hello Exiles (and GGG I hope),

I've been playing POE for quite some time and I'd like to share my feedback on the game's accessibility for visually impaired players. I'm not completely blind, but I have a very low vision. I'm aware that the game is not designed to be played by visually impaired people, but I think there are some improvements that could be made to make the game more accessible and eliminate some aspects of the game where eye sight is becoming a difficulty factor.

1. UI configuration

My condition makes my field of vision very narrow, so I'm unable to see crucial information on the screen (Health/ES/Mana pool, buffs and debuffs bart, etc.). I'd like to be able to move and, if possible, resize elements of UI. It would also be helpful If I could change colors of Health, ES and Mana pool. Dark red on dark grey/black-ish is realy hard to see (at least for me).

2. Low-life

Another issue of mine is a consequence of lack of configurations mentioned in previous point. Because I have problems with seeing my health pool, I can't react fast enought to prevent certain situations (mainly death). One think that was made right ind D3 in my opinion was the "turning red" screen when being on low life. There was also a heart beating sound and the character says something. In my opinion it may be a better solution then lowering light radius int quite dark and gloom environment int the first place.

3. More sound effects

Doubling down on the suggestion from point 2 I'd like to se some more sound notifications when certain conditions occure. Maybe in form of a small voice line from the character. Recentyl, the bleeding sound has been changed but it still dies in the pandemonium of sound effects (skills, monsters, etc.). Simple voice line should do the trick. Here are some suggestions for conditions that require this kind of change:
- Ailments (bleeding, poison, burning, shocked, etc.)
- Low life (mentioned previously)
- Big hit (i.e. when we take a 25% of HP hit)

4. Shiny next to shiny on textured

Some parts of the game are designed in a way that make them visualy appealing but at the same time nearly invisible. Great example is obviously the Maven fight. Shiny beams, shiny balls, quite shiny ground and basicaly invisible ground effects. THe ony way I know that I stay in it is because I'm slowed. In comparison, shaper fight is filled with hight contract effects. Shaper ball ground degen is a definition of high contract. What I would like to see is a toggle switch that could change some visual aspects of ground effects. I suggest it as a option. I dont excpect that new game mechanics are going to be built withou the aspect of "looks".
There is also a different aspect that is not solvably by any number of options - Sirus fight. This one is designed in a way that even healthy people struggle with and not because the fight is difficult. Grey on dark grey, black, dark red, veird light effects, etc. This is thematicaly suitabe but creats additional difficulty factor related to the ability to see. This isn't fixable but I'd like the designers to be more considered in regards to visual mahem.

I'm pretty sure that many of my suggestions should be easy to implement. If you guys have more suggestions related to any kind of accessibility improvements, please write them down here.

I hope to "see" some improvements soon :D

I wear glasses and I'm not exactly eagle eye so I sympathize. It seems to be visual clarity is against POE design philosophy. It is as if they're afraid that if you can see what is happening it will make the game too easy and boring. As far as health pool goes you can turn on the little health bar on top of your character if that helps you. Also there is a MTX helmet that you can purchase that has a visual indicator of your health status, it glows less bright as you lose health. Maybe that would be helpful. I like your sound effect suggestion like some sort of a "ouch" grunt when you get hit with a big one. As far shiny on shiny or dark red on dark red goes then forget it. It's pretty much core POE design

Sound effects shoulb be easy to add. We already have some random quotes here and there (e.g. by killing a rare monster).

As far as MTX goes, some of them have some kind of QOL feature built-in but it almost always is to subtle to make a difference. And also being forced to pay to be able to overcome simple to solve UI issues is a bit offputting ;)

I don't expect the game will change for the sake of every sort of disable player. I'm just putting some ideas that may solve some issues and maybe help some people ;)

I think it would be interesting if you could add your own sound/voice effects and triggers in the custom filter for certain things like low health. If your character never shuts up about low mana then why not. Some streamers have a TTS voice tell them what dropped instead of a usual sound effect.

As far as my last comment goes about core POE design, it's mostly me just moaning because all the visual clutter especially on the ground is one of worst aspects of this game. In reality they do listen to suggestions and do make improvements. It's just that ground effect visual clutter is an old problem that only gotten worse and I hope they address it in POE2 from the get go. From what I've seen of POE2 so far it looks nice and the action is easy follow and doesn't strain my eyes so we'll see.