Galeophobia / Shark Phobia Safe Mode Option

This would give an unfair advantage to anyone who turns off sharks. Many times I have been defending my ship and the attacker was killed in the water by a shark. I have also had tuckers jump off my boat with loot and get killed by sharks before they can swim to an island. Everybody would just turn off sharks and there would be no sharks. I think your friend needs to just play a game without sharks, or maybe repeated exposure to animated sharks will cure them.

@alphawolf123905 said in Galeophobia / Shark Phobia Safe Mode Option:

@alphawolf123905 I meant chances. The cancer thing was a typo

You can edit posts matey.

@cornelius-ix said in Galeophobia / Shark Phobia Safe Mode Option:

This would give an unfair advantage to anyone who turns off sharks.

I think you have miss understood what he asked for as he didn't ask for being able to "turn them off" but allowing you to "change" their textures so they would look less like sharks.
Quote from OP: ....be able to adjust the scale of the sharks to be less shark like (such as removing tail, fins, teeth, sound effects ) or to not resemble a shark at all and be a simple blob/fish egg.

@j3nkman I'm terrified of the ocean but playing games like subnautica and sea of Thieves helped me. I'm terrified of deep water/open water IRL and I was originally scared playing SoT I would swim looking at the sky hoping for a mermaid or I would just pause the game until I was eaten and taken to the ferry. Now I'm doing great and feel no fear at all I just had to face them head on. Still wont go swimming in the IRL ocean but I'm fine with digital oceans.

@galactic-geek sagte in Galeophobia / Shark Phobia Safe Mode Option:

@j3nkman Your friend needs to face his irrational fears if he wishes to overcome them. What better way to do that then in a video game where they can't actually harm you? Explain to him that the worst thing that could happen to him from a shark is spending 30 seconds on the Ferry - then let him get eaten to experience it. Stay with him as a friend and anchor for comfort as he goes through this. Then have him do it again. And again. And again. Pretty soon, in short order, he should become acclimated to it and no longer fear it, as truth overrides belief.

I'd be careful with such general advices because for many other people, confronting them with their phobias is the worst thing you could to them, no matter how much you think you're supporting them. I mean those fears are indeed irrational, so...

@schwammlgott sagte in Galeophobia / Shark Phobia Safe Mode Option:

@faceyourdemon sagte in Galeophobia / Shark Phobia Safe Mode Option:

I dont mean to come off as rude but if your friend cant stand them then he should play something else.

Cater like that will simply break the game and cater to such a small amount of people, its just not worth it.

This, OR he could never jump into the water and stay under deck, when a meg attacks

Or we use a win-win solution as @limend has proposed above.

@robby0316 Exactly. It's psychologically unhealthy to avoid phobias because it only reinforces the fear of them. I used to deal with extreme OCD that made me avoid things like knives, but playing violent games like Red Dead actually helped me recover. Adding a shark-safe mode would probably only make the fear worse.

I think this is too much of an ask. Do you know how many phobias are out there? Lots and lots. I am afraid of spiders and play Skyrim where there are giant spiders. I close my eyes and run through the cave swinging my sword, in other words I deal with it.

@combatxkitty

He didn't propose a no shark mode

@sudsierboar5526 said in Galeophobia / Shark Phobia Safe Mode Option:

@combatxkitty

He didn't propose a no shark mode

Oh ok sorry read that while still kinda half asleep.

Still seems kinda like a big ask to me even without the advantage aspect.

@wolfmanbush said:

It's a lot to ask to help out such a small portion of the players

You could also say that was also true for the auto float mode for those that have a fear of being under water. Rare added that accessibility option just over a year ago to help those people that have a fear of being under water.

@cornelius-ix said:

This would give an unfair advantage to anyone who turns off sharks.

No it wouldn’t. First of all it’s not “turning off sharks”. It adjusts the appearance and sound effects for the person that adjusts the setting on their machine. It does not affect the appearance or sound of sharks for other players. The same way that if I turn on colour blind mode or single click for actions in the accessibility options it doesn't affect your game only mine.

@faceyourdemon said:

I dont mean to come off as rude but if your friend cant stand them then he should play something else.

Cater like that will simply break the game and cater to such a small amount of people, its just not worth it.

It doesn't break the game at all. It is about making the game accessible, playable and welcoming to as many people as possible. There are plenty of accessibility options that have already been added that are helpful to a lot of people that don't cater to the masses. Just look through the accessibility options menu, all of these features have been implemented to make the game more inclusive and welcoming for a small subset of gamers that need them.

@robby0316 said:

@j3nkman I'm terrified of the ocean but playing games like subnautica and sea of Thieves helped me. I'm terrified of deep water/open water IRL and I was originally scared playing SoT I would swim looking at the sky hoping for a mermaid or I would just pause the game until I was eaten and taken to the ferry. Now I'm doing great and feel no fear at all I just had to face them head on. Still wont go swimming in the IRL ocean but I'm fine with digital oceans.

That’s great to hear you have made progress, but you have to remember everyone is different. What works for one may not work for another.

@faceyourdemon said:

@schwammlgott When they had a solution for phobia from deep waters I was all for that because it dosent hurt anyone but this one will.

Either he chooses not to play the game or just stay the hell away from the water.

This change doesn’t impact any other player other than those that turn on the setting on their own machine. The feature would not turn off sharks on the server, it merely re-skins them and removes sound effects on a varying scale just for the person that turns on and adjusts the setting.

---

Thanks for all the input folks. Rare have said they are committed to improving accessibility in the game, which has been evident in a number of updates over the last year so kudos to them. This is another suggestion for the team to consider that will make the game more accessible.

@wolfmanbush said in Galeophobia / Shark Phobia Safe Mode Option:

@j3nkman said in Galeophobia / Shark Phobia Safe Mode Option:

@wolfmanbush said:

It's a lot to ask to help out such a small portion of the players

You could also say that was also true for the auto float mode for those that have a fear of being under water. Rare added that accessibility option just over a year ago to help those people that have a fear of being under water.

I'm not opposed to it I just don't know if the resources are there to invest in it.

Features like these trickle in slowly so picking and choosing who's phobia is more or less important can cause issues as well.

That is my feelings on this aswell. Why sharks? What about people afraid of snakes? Volcanoes? Fire? Chickens ?

Ok this may sound weird well it is weird almost wasnt going to bring it up but I will admit it I’m afraid of trees, particularly at night lol. Yeah I told you it was weird. I was young and was home when a very large oak tree went right through my house so that could be why.

Should Rare also add in something for Dendrophobia? I would say no.

It’s just gets to point where it’s just too much in my opinion.

@faceyourdemon said in Galeophobia / Shark Phobia Safe Mode Option:

@j3nkman hahaha you are completely ignoring the reason why it would be a problem.
If you can basically toggle sharks ON or OFF people will use it for long swims, when somone is doing a fort they can easily use it to sneak in without being eaten.

Are you for real or are you just trolling on purpose? You have completely ignored the opening post and clearly not read it. This suggestion is not to turn sharks off for anyone, it simply changes the appearance and sounds of the shark for those that have a phobia.

@j3nkman If this were a different game, i'd just say use mods.
That'd be the easiest way to fix this issue without waiting for the long and possibly never happening reaction of the dev team.
Unfortunately, this game doesn't seem to be very open to mods because those "mods" that exist can be counted by one hand :/

@faceyourdemon said :

You do realise that this solution is absurd what would they change it to, diving clowns?
There is no troll in what im saying but your idea is simply bad.

They cant cater to that because it will either ruin part of the game or efforts will go to something that wont even gurantee good results.

If you have read the original opening post, which it looks like you still have not, you would see I linked a YouTube video which shows how Obsidian, another Xbox Studios game development company like Rare, have implemented this as an accessibility feature in their current game Grounded to deal with arachnophobia. It's simple and delivers a good result for those with phobias. It doesn't ruin the game the changes do not impact any other players.

@faceyourdemon sagte in Galeophobia / Shark Phobia Safe Mode Option:

@j3nkman said in Galeophobia / Shark Phobia Safe Mode Option:

@faceyourdemon said in Galeophobia / Shark Phobia Safe Mode Option:

@j3nkman hahaha you are completely ignoring the reason why it would be a problem.
If you can basically toggle sharks ON or OFF people will use it for long swims, when somone is doing a fort they can easily use it to sneak in without being eaten.

Are you for real or are you just trolling on purpose? You have completely ignored the opening post and clearly not read it. This suggestion is not to turn sharks off for anyone, it simply changes the appearance and sounds of the shark for those that have a phobia.

You do realise that this solution is absurd what would they change it to, diving clowns?
There is no troll in what im saying but your idea is simply bad.

They cant cater to that because it will either ruin part of the game or efforts will go to something that wont even gurantee good results.

And how is that of your concern if it's changed into diving clowns when this is only visible in the client of concerned player?? Also this is by no means a new concept, it exists in other games too. There goes your bad idea.
Heck, if this were a different game you'd just need to give me a few days to create a mod people could use to replace their client textures. It's not a million dollar project.

I don't suffer from arachnophobia and i personally love Obsidian's solution for their game. I do think it would be difficult to impliment in Sea of Thieves however, especially in regards to the Megalodon. I personally would find a giant white Pac-man like sphere coming to bite my ship somehow more terrifying than the meg but that's just me. Anything it became would have to be smaller to stay in the hitbox without keeping the megs general shark shape making it harder to see and target because of the waves on the sea. In heavy fog it would be even worse.