The real reason to take keen hearing is so you can actually see where your going as you walk through a deep forest since the keen hearing circle ignores trees close to the player for some reason
I mean, hearing is different from sight; I would guess that trees, unlike an insulated building, does not block sound that well. Though if you are talking about in front of you, yeah, that's some X-men stuff right there or heavy training. (I don't know much about the game, so I may be off)
@@wrongnumber9389 he's talking about non-zombies. Like a cut-away. You get this huge cutaway of being able to actually see through/behind tree sprites. It's not realistic because it grants vision to completely inanimate things that make no sound at all.
This might have convinced me to try out hard of hearing as a negative trait sometime. Never going back to deaf though. Tried that and the absolute silence is just so quiet that it is deafening, funnily enough
@@fin3662 I like to be able to hear the games I play at least a little bit and while I do play games with other stuff going on in the background, having no auditory feedback at all from the game makes it very difficult for me to play the game
Not sure if it still does but I remember a few builds ago Keen Hearing increased the volume of all ambient sounds in the game too - got bit of a shock when I took Keen Hearing and the game decided to roll in a tropical storm the first time while I was wearing headphones.
Ahhh so that's why I could clearly hear the thunder ⛈️ when playing last night as if for the first time. The loud crashing and rain. Keen hearing is amazing they can't sneak up on you with it, well worth having.
Deaf is a really good trait to choose if you are playing with friends imo. They'll notify me anyways if something special is going on and since I was new to the game, I had no sounds to overwhelm me.
One of the cool things about picking deaf is that along with a few other staple negative traits, I can afford to take Strong and Athletic. Sure, I dont know when a house alarm or helicopter event is going off until I see zomboes coming from all directions, but with such strong stats, running from or even fighting the horde is a lot easier than most people realize. I really dont like playing without any audio though, even if it means I can watch Retanaru videos in the background easier. You're the only Zomboid-focused channel I know of that really breaks down the in game effects of different traits/skills and, more importantly, the hidden functionality and synergy between traits/skills. Anyone could read the wiki, but you are actually in the field running tests and making observations. It's much appreciated Edit: I forgot to mention Trombonaut
Retanaru mentioned Trombonaut in a previous video, although I can't remember which. Trombonaut also does deep dives into the lore and mechanics of Project Zomboid if you haven't checked him out.
@@plasmashade6339 I have. Slipped my mind to mention his channel, his weapon top 10's by different qualities are really valuable. I'd like to see someone release a more detailed and factual look at the firearms in game. Kyle Middleton I think has a good video over them, but out of all the skills/weapons in game, I think the firearms are subject to the most subjective takes on how they are best used, what the best ones are for different situations, what level my aiming has to be for hunting rifles to be useful. Most people just cover level 1-5 =shotgun only, the gun store in west point and the police stations, shooting in a vehicle, and warning noobs to not use until the late game. Firearms are easily my favorite weapon type in the game, and I enjoy making use of them with a freshly made character day 1. Maybe it's because I just got the game a little over a month ago, so I didn't live through the time period when guns were considered trash except for the shotgun. I've found handguns entirely usable from level 3, which is conveniently the level a police officer starts at in aiming. 9mm and 45. Auto is abundant compared to shotgun shells and .38 special, making exclusive gun use completely viable and a lot of fun. Really, I'm just waiting to see how to best use the hunting rifles, because even fully kitted, they're loud, cumbersome, and, worst of all, s l o w. A shotgun in a crowd if used well can kill 4 zeds a shell, but hitting collaterals with the rifles is so finicky and inconsistent, at least at aiming skill of 7 and below. The 8x scope gives great range, but it's practically pointless whenever a group of zombies can close that distance in less than it takes to fire off an entire mag. An entire 3 bullet mag. Does reloading skill affect rack time with the rifles? Now I feel the need to go play and find out, this game is great.
You can still take strong and athletic by slotting some of the "free points" traits, without hindering your sound completely; I never go out myself without Hard of Hearing, Hemophobe, Short Sighted, and Pacifist, they all are very easily manageable and make you reconsider your choices in most situations... ... which is to say, take it easy out there, a safe person is an alive survivor.
@@holomatic1549 I don't like fear of blood or pacifist. Pacifist decreases weapon skills xp gain by around 30%, including maintenance. Fear of blood is just frustrating to me, even if I try to exclusively use firearms. Hard of hearing is something I don't take unless I really need those four points. Thin-skinned, slow healer, smoker, weak stomach, conspicuous, prone to illness all make for more "free" negative traits than pacifist or fear of blood.
This is a very well produced video. I particularly appreciate the on screen conparison with the colored tiles. You have a new sub. Keep up the great work!
I used to run hard of hearing fairly often, but the muffled sound honestly just irritated me so I almost never use it nowadays. I always run keen hearing when playing with sprinters because at some point, one of the bastards is going to run up behind you and I do think keen hearing can give you an edge in that situation. And I've literally never taken deaf because I've always found the zed audio too useful
Lone zed: "Shuffles through grass" Me ransacking the far side of the warehouse: "Absolutely fucking not!" There's been so many times I'll stop what I'm doing just to clear a 50 tile perimeter around whatever building I'm in just because I know of their existence in which I cannot accept.
I used to take Deaf all the time because I felt I could easily play with it, however I had to play without the zombie death sounds which is one step too far
I showed this to a friend who is a PZ fiend, and he pointed out a very small but still potentially lifesaving difference - sleep. When asleep, the hearing traits directly affect the likelihood that the character will be woken up by alarming sounds, and thus alert the player to dangers approaching while asleep before theyre right on top of you.
Yeah this video is purely about debunking the vision myth. There's all sorts of reason for why you wouldn't want to take the negative traits, just not vision based.
@@Retanaru I find it particularly interesting because I was talking to him about the comments down here that say taking deaf as a character trait if you, the player, were also deaf is free points. He brought this idea up as one small reason why playing as a deaf person while BEING deaf would still have a handful of small downsides.
@@POTUSJimmyCarter Also deaf characters can't listen to the radio to get weather/helicopter updates, even when real-life deaf players could read the subtitles if they didn't pick the deaf trait. Not knowing about the helicopter is the deaf character death sentence. (And since I play with heli events repeated instead of once only, deaf is basically guaranteed death)
Thank you very much for all these in depth game mechanic testing to showcase how traits actually function in game compared to what their description says. Some players swear by certain traits and their effects, when in reality it never even made a difference in the game. Shows that most of the traits are really for role player purposes than for any real impact to gameplay.
the fact that the deaf trait still allows you to "see" zombies behind you is insane xD we recently started a x2 pop no respawn deaf run and it's not that bad, obviously it's not a beginner thing since whenever you loot anywhere you have to be extra careful with alarms and meta events
Major props for advocating evidence based testing. You're right about myths becoming lore. I wonder what sort of things I'm doing to manipulate non-existent game mechanics 😅
Hearing aid is specific to the hearing impairment you have. It depends of what frequencies you lost, so it would simplify it taking away realism, as doing it realisticly would be much complicated for the player for a not very good reward
@@joe78manalso Tbf, this is kind of already done with glasses in game with short sighted. Not all glasses are fitted to a certain prescription or even the correct type but from what I gather most glasses in the game work the same way, so yeah
Do deaf people have better "perception" due to other senses being heightened? im not saying Indie stone took this into account but could this headcannon it? I dont need to be able to hear to know someones coming up behind me, thats based on numerous other factors.
If you can't hear then you can't know someone's behind you. There's been studies done on this, we don't have a magical 6th sense to detect presence, despite what some people like to think. If the person is right behind you and not moving, you won't know. However sound is vibration and moving causes air to move too, so it might be possible to very slightly perceive that something's making noise behind you, or moving behind you, even if you're deaf. I'm not sure there. Edit: btw I know some types of blindness are just a problem in the brain and the person can actually see, but the information doesn't reach the conscious part of their brain. Meaning that consciously they see nothing, but without being able to see anything they can still recognize faces and things. It's super weird. So maybe there's something like this for sound too.
@NatTardis Those who can't hear will learn to focus and rely on their other senses.. Not that their other senses actually become stronger, but they simply learn to pay attention to them. And it is as you said.. You can't magically tell that someone is right behind you, but if they walk, a deaf person might be able to tell with the ground's vibrations or the slight shift in air movement.
I find when I play deaf, zombies tend to fade in much slower. Normally, it takes about 1-3 seconds With hard of hearing it took about the same, but fade out is much faster, so when I turn away, they fade out of my view much faster. Deaf was a problem for me as it took anywhere between 7 to 9 seconds for zombies to fade into my view, which meant for the first couple of seconds, zombies standing right in front of me are invisible for quite a ridiculously long time. I suspect it's to do with the fact that I play the game on a potato laptop.
this should be an actual mechanic to them if not in-game lol, keen hearing having zombies fade in near instantaneously would be a good buff to the trait while deaf being a noticeably massive reduction would make it much more threatening for more than just regular players
Keen Hearing is great for obvious reasons, but I always felt Hard of Hearing > default and it's nice to see that mostly vindicated. I will take the points and quieter rain over the small situational awareness buff any day.
So, technically, hard hearings can be a positive trait because of a reduced bubble range. The panic increases drastically if a zombie sneaks up upon you, which is a problem if you luring the crowd or clearing out places w/ a shotgun and w/o aids, because large chunk of zombies tending to crawl behind you, so the panic meter goes wild. Reducing hearing bubble means that you can more easily control panic in combat. Although it becomes obsolete with pills, large chunk of zeds(at wich point the panic will be high any way) or after month in game. So yea
I mostly just counteract panic in large horde situations either with Brave or some beta blockers or booze. I almost always have a few bottles of blockers, and I never even step foot in any medical buildings. Zombies must have some bad anxiety
When you drew the distance for keen hearing, you cut the line short, not even reaching the nearest of the zombies let alone the furthest. Feels like sloppy reporting to make your point. When I used a pixel measuring tool on your own image (though now I wonder if it can be relied on) I actually got the following: keen hearing 250 normal 200 hard of hearing 180 deaf 180 So yes, deaf is still potentially better pick than hard of hearing, but keen hearing will still get you 25-38% more reaction time than anything else, which can be a life saver when you have sprinters.
I love the deaf trait. All my characters are deaf. In multiplayer the biggest downside- not hearing alarms- is negated entirely by having a friend nearby. In solo... well lets just say ive had a few unpleasant surprises. I started grabbing deaf because i always have stuff playing in the background when playing this game, so i could hardly hear anything anyway. I always grab eagle eyed and night vision as well. This has given me a huge appreciation for some of the visual cues the game has, since i always play it in total silence. I even turn the music off lol.
The massive downside to deaf is no radio. Fine for bad weather, outdoorsman makes you basically immune to colds anyways. But not having heli warning is extremely scary. Especially if you play with heli events on random instead of once only.
Deaf, prone to illness and high thirst are free awesome points. I find deaf to be the most fun because I cannot imagine being deaf during a zombie apocalypse.
The best thing about the bad traits is that if you know what you are doing you can use them as positive effects. Like Hard of Hearing during loud storms.
Even with sound turned up, from my experience with Hard of Hearing very rarely (maybe 1 in 100?) a zombie will make no apparent sound [for the player to hear ]while approaching a player's character. Ever since not taking the trait (so normal hearing, not Keen Hearing) I've never noticed that happening. If it wasn't for that one issue I'd have still used Hard of Hearing, but as-is it seems like an eventual a death sentence if ever you alt-tab or look at the map or just aren't facing the right direction while filling fuel or reading a book.
I've gotten silent zombies even with keen hearing, but hard of hearing definitely has its downsides. They often don't make noise until after you've seen them. It's also a whole new set of muffled noises you have to learn to pick out.
I used to think Keen hearing was a must have and I've had it the majority of the time I've spent on the game. After having condutced some tests it seems to me that the loudness of sounds between keen hearing and normal hearing is the same. I was under the impression that you'd spot zombies from behind you 50% further away. But now that I know it's 1 tile and the trait cost 6, I probably won't be taking it anymore. Bummer I have it on my current character I suppose.
Iiiiinteresting. I've personally been playing with all sounds off because I hate noise-based tension and jumpscares, so I might have to try Deaf sometime if I need the points.
My opinion is that "Hard of Hearing" should work as a super thick reverb filter so the sounds are unintelligible, not as flat volume reduction because that's countered simply through settings. Also hearing reduction traits should definitely reduce perception radius out of sight.
I had an ear infection in one ear and none on the other, and that is bullshit. I heard all the same thing but just out of tune and quieter, it was basically the same, there is literally no need to even distort the sound, just make it quieter, because that what it was.
My Zomboid characters have almost always had keen hearing and shortsighted because its what I have in real life. I eyesight is terrible, but I can hear someone's squeaky brakes from three streets over and everyone in my family thinks I'm crazy.
@@Retanaru well it fixed itself after restarting the video, i guess it's a youtube bug, weird. Nice, informative, and helpful video, I always thought hard of hearing and deaf reduced the perception radius because of the reduction of the circle behind your character. Kudos.
I can't test it atm, but if memory serves me right: When you have Hard of Hearing the range at which you hear things also diminishes vastly, which can lead to some very awkward situations.
Idk i always pick keen hearing. Its S tier for me. I have very good headphones and I can hear everything. It has saved and helped me so mutch. I also am pretty good at pinpointing where the zombies are based on sounds. Its my goto trait
I usually pick deaf when i'm playing in 6 month later scenario because not only i don't need to worry about house alarm but also the point it give allow me to go strong so i can fight the horde from the get go.
I've been taking hard of hearing trait almost since I started playing. Regular hearing scared the crap out of me the first time I didn't pick the ttait after months. Was hearing in game sounds I had never heard before (Wolf howls, animal noises, how loud thunderstorms are)
Ran Deaf with a friend for a bit, as long as we stayed together it's negative of not hearing danger was almost never a factor. (Was funny when we would enter a house and he would say "Did you hear that?" Or we would enter and kill a zombie or two and I would start looting and he would open a door to more and not say anything expecting me to hear them and then act passed I didn't help him until I said "I'm deaf dumbass".)
Do you have 'auto-translate' on in the captions? That's the only time that issue happens to me. If you left it on at a previous video, it likely carried over to here.
I've been playing a local multiplayer with some friends in which I took hard of hearing. It seems almost every meta event that happens I have no clue about (gunshots, hele event, etc) but notified by my friends. I am guessing this is what the tool tip "reduced perception radius" is actually referring to.
personally, i always play with deaf because it allows me to get so much traits, and also adds a little bit of horror to the game. it is always fun when you suddenly see a zombie breaking in your base with no sound at all
I tried deaf (with the blind mod beacuse i thought it would be funny) and was shocked that you could still see zombies behind you, it wasn't that bad but not having any sounds will eventually kill you. Hard of hearing would be free points if it wasn't beacuse of the annoying muffled sound Keen hearing is a mixed bag for me beacuse I do love the increased vision but 6 points are NOT cheap Don't worry about the current trait meta if you're a new player though, build 42 is most likely going to change everything
Has anyone tried taking Fear of Blood, after having turned blood off in the settings? I don't imagine it'll do anything but I've not tried it so IDK!? >XD
oh, that's such a good point. I just tested this in a quick game (albeit modded, cause I didn't want to reload lua scripts) and the answer is: No, you can't hear Radio or TV sounds. The weird thing however is that you still get mood and skill bonuses from the TV. The walkman does not give mood bonuses however, and I assume the same applies to the radio, but that was a bit difficult to test. This mood bonus from TV still doesn't make full sense however, since you still get them even without facing the TV, also I don't think you should get the same amount of XP as non-deaf people get, since you don't have the benefit of anything being explained to you (although you could argue that all the station have closed captions, but then you should also be able to see what is being said)
I grew up in a household where sound was heavily.. regulated. Audio leaking from my headset caused many a problem throughout my teenage years. So now I just don’t play with sound. On any game. To this day, in my own house.. I still typically forgo sound. After 100 hours of Deaf PZ, I opted to try hard of hearing. The jumpscare music alone killed me the first three times I tried. Only reason I’d consider being hearing at this point is if it’s required for walkies / radios in MP.. which I have yet to confirm. Also, you have to stare at the TV if your deaf. Blew my mind that you could wander the house while still getting skill points from L&L.
I play deaf on every character because I'm usually listening to music or a video of some kind. The only trouble I've come across is in Vanilla where I can't tell if my gun has jammed/emptied or if I'm experiencing desync. It's also funny because you'll occasionally hear the weather for some reason. It made multiplayer RP fun and hilarious. Turns out it mutes proximity chat. My brother regularly conveyed to other players that I was deaf. I supposedly had a habit of leaving camp circles mid conversation. If they typed to me I'd only acknowledge them if I were facing them, as if I were reading lips. I'd also Ctrl+V " (ASL) " into chat before every sentence.
when i take traits that make it harder to hide and see, i take others that make combat easier, can usually clear out hordes with melee weapons without tiring too fast
Good question. Hard of Hearing affects it significantly, as you cannot hear thumping sounds nor breaking sounds from as far away. It's not that it gets quieter, the sound won't play at all. I think the reverse may be true with Keen Hearing, but I really don't use it much so never noticed, nor tested.
@Retanaru hello I have stopped using this perk since this video however I've noticed when I have time sped up zombies seem to be much closer before the pace returns to normal, would you do another test and see if the different hearing abilities return the game's normal speed from X5 speed at different distances based on hearing ability? Or am I crazy.
So is this another trait that got broken in some update long ago and never got fixed? Feels like it would be interesting to check the current state of all traits to see if they truly work as intended.
The game has such a fantastic, ASMR quality of sound, that the biggest negative to taking deaf is the irl inability to hear how gorgeous it is. But on topic - I use the advanced sound mod that lets you adjust individual levels of sound. I use normal hearing, but turn zombie footsteps and moans to 200%. It's free keen hearing.
I've akwyas have played this game at 2-3 master volume and hard of hearing, never got surprised at all nor felt like it was a bad trait. Is also good to play deaf while multiplayer with friends
I think it's kind of funny that playing with the deaf trait ... literally doesn't change the game at all if you're deaf. If anything, I guess it would just buy you points to make up for the lack of sound in other ways. It almost feels more like an accessibility option without actually being intended to be one.
if they do rework these traits someday, they should definitely give regular hearing subtitles for all noises at regular range and keen hearing subtitles at longer range as a optional setting, would make hearing in the game a much more important thing
Not quite. Real deaf people can still read the radio chatter to see the incoming weather, and more importantly, the helicopter event(s). Deaf characters can't listen to the radio at all. Having played deaf characters, sometimes you'll walk outside and think "Oh crap, that's a million zombies, did I get caught in a migration?" and in reality the helicopter is chilling above you but you never knew because you can't hear it or the announcement via radio.
I always take Normal or Keen as long as I'm not role-playing since it's easy to miss silhouettes of zeds at night. Yes, I can identify 99% of them. But the rest eat me. 🧟♀
lol I forgot how obnoxious the normal rain volume is because ive been using hard-at-hearing for so long. I started using it cause I wouldn't hear most things when im playing music anyways. The new dynamic music is pretty ok though so I was thinking about going back but yeah no need.
You gotta think too that people that are deaf or hard of hearing may still be very perceptive to make up for the lack of a sense. Feeling vibrations, better vision and smell etc
ive got fairly good hearing (as in i can pick sounds up out of a bunch of noise very easily, not anything about my actual hearing being better, i actually have very messed up ears) and loud noises stress me out and make me panic very easily irl so hard of hearing is just a given for me, literally no downsides because the back perception radius is pretty big (as stated in the video, as big as the default radius, although i didnt know this before watching) so thats no concern and the decreased volume helps me focus more and concentrate on sound easier without being overwhelmed by loud noise, so it actually have good effects for me
I'm actually hard of hearing IRL, so taking hard of hearing might make it difficult to hear anything at all.. Meaning I can't make as much use of the trait as other people. People will probably tell me to raise the volume, but I don't like messing with the settings.. I like to play with them on default. And even if I did raise the volume, I don't live alone. So while it would sound normal for me, it will sound loud for everyone else in the house.. I don't use headphones, as they make me uncomfortable, and a doctor said that thry might be a cause of my hard of hearing.
I am a little hard of hearing IRL, live with people, and couldn't imagine playing without a headset or tbh doing my IRL day job without one. You deserve reasonable accommodations for your disability. There are a lot of types of headphones and headsets that work differently, some that don't even touch your ears. When you say a doctor said this, was that an audiologist? You probably have options that would work well for you and would not add to your hearing loss. If it is impacting your life beyond Zomboid, I hope you can get some better help with this at some ppint, and I wish you the best.
I could be mistaken but if you have Hard of Hearing in game (which reduces the volume) and you raise the volume then the raised volume would sound the same as without HoH in game. You might have to do something like turn down the sounds that don't get influenced and/or mess with your PC's audio settings but it should work.
I've always played with hard of hearing, used my volume mixer to lower other stuff (if im listening to youtube or something else in the background) and then turn the volume up for PZ. I remember someone telling me this was stupid of me because "hard of hearing reduces your perception radius to almost nothing" lmfao
which it really should nerf your perception radius imo, would actually allow the trait to be a proper negative instead of free trait points for audiophiles lmao
Hard of hearing and deaf might be more viable playing with friends. I’m playing a custom server with some friends of mine and my current character has hard of hearing and I’m actually feeling really immersed with how my character actually feels unique whenever a car alarm goes off in the distance and I can’t hear it in game. I took the trait because all the people I play with are really loud in discord so I figured I wasn’t loosing much. I might take a deaf character next time.
Deaf educator here. I’m hearing and I was born to hearing parents but I’ve been involved in the Deaf World for over ten years. In terms of realism, this isn’t that far off. Deaf people tend to have three advantages over hearing people. Firstly, they think in 3D. This is because sign language uses 3D space and thus it’s much easier to communicate and conceptualize height, width, and depth. This doesn’t really have any direct consequences that can be seen in gameplay, I just think it’s cool. The second advantage is that they’re much better at perceiving movement. There’s a common expression that says hearing people are led by their ears and deaf people are led by their eyes. They’re much more likely to notice small movements before a hearing person would and more easily pick up on movement in their peripheral vision. They generally just have more situational awareness than we do. One of my sign language professors once said he thinks it’s cause hearing makes us lazy, we can passively listen to our environment while doing something else. You can tell someone’s deaf usually because they’re actually having to pay attention to what’s going on around them. Lastly, the third advantage is that they’re often better at feeling vibrations than we are. To me, this is kind of like how blind people can feel differences in texture better than sighted people. When we, say, use toilet paper, we’re given visual feedback so we don’t notice the difference in feel when we’re done. It’s the same with vibrations. Someone might stomp their foot and as hearing people, we can hear the sound so our brains ignore the vibration it causes in the ground. Deaf people don’t have that sound to rely on, so they are aware of that vibration. It’s the same with someone talking. If someones voice is loud enough, you can feel it in your chest. So one possible reason that the radius doesn’t change, besides lazy devs, is that the Deaf character can feel the zombie behind them, either by feeling their footsteps or perhaps even feeling it’s moaning in their chest.
Haven't even tested the hearing but then again I tend to spawn in rosewood and go for axe perk I find myself moving around checking my six constantly so honestly I probably wouldnt even notice the changes deaf is really free 12 points so guess il be taking that.
I cannot wait for NPCs and Wildlife to get added while the vast majority of the game stays in a buggy mess requiring the hours of youtube videos or wiki reading. Its insane how every week I find a new bug or just clear mis-information.
Deaf is only really worrying for the helicopter event and the occasional scream/gunshot in the distance that can be hard or impossible to hear as a deaf person. Being caught out in the open during a mass migration is never pleasant, especially in the early game or when you're tired from loot running.
ya know I don’t know why i didn’t think about that till now, but people who play the game who are deaf irl just get a free 12 perks every run. based game design
Isn't it changing how the game sounds? If i remember correctly when i picked this trait game suddenly was a bit more muffled. I heard everything but the change of a sound really bothered me
The real reason to take keen hearing is so you can actually see where your going as you walk through a deep forest since the keen hearing circle ignores trees close to the player for some reason
It's a little messy and doesn't always work. Helpful though.
I mean, hearing is different from sight; I would guess that trees, unlike an insulated building, does not block sound that well.
Though if you are talking about in front of you, yeah, that's some X-men stuff right there or heavy training.
(I don't know much about the game, so I may be off)
@@wrongnumber9389 he's talking about non-zombies. Like a cut-away. You get this huge cutaway of being able to actually see through/behind tree sprites. It's not realistic because it grants vision to completely inanimate things that make no sound at all.
@@MsHojat Yeah, I was tired when I wrote that, so I probably made no sense.
@@MsHojat echolocation
This might have convinced me to try out hard of hearing as a negative trait sometime. Never going back to deaf though. Tried that and the absolute silence is just so quiet that it is deafening, funnily enough
you aint got spotify?
@@fin3662 I like to be able to hear the games I play at least a little bit and while I do play games with other stuff going on in the background, having no auditory feedback at all from the game makes it very difficult for me to play the game
@@RokstarMD this is a great description of how it feels to have zero sound on a videogame
You still have music and jump scare noises man up
It definitely feels weird the first time. Not to mention tense.
Still, might try it again for another character in the future.
the deaf trait is quite flattering to the actual deaf folk, I can imagine they appreciate it
True accessibility, you get free points if you're deaf!
@@SirZelean "Free" haha
@@thewearyexile9000 "ive won but at what cost"
@@RatKingTerryme after stabbing my ears with a screwdriver
@@thewearyexile9000 who cares about the "deaf" trait when the player IRL is deaf... that was their comment. so yeah free points...
I feel like Hard of Hearing does need the perception radius lowered a bit, but the real annoyance is the muffled SFX imo, they just sound weird to me
Agreed, I stopped using it because it's incredibly annoying , not difficult.
Funny, i actually like it for that muffled effect, especially how it mutes engines and generators.
Not sure if it still does but I remember a few builds ago Keen Hearing increased the volume of all ambient sounds in the game too - got bit of a shock when I took Keen Hearing and the game decided to roll in a tropical storm the first time while I was wearing headphones.
Ahhh so that's why I could clearly hear the thunder ⛈️ when playing last night as if for the first time. The loud crashing and rain. Keen hearing is amazing they can't sneak up on you with it, well worth having.
Deaf people in real life choosing the deaf trait for a free 12 points:
"I see this as an absolute win."
Deaf is a really good trait to choose if you are playing with friends imo. They'll notify me anyways if something special is going on and since I was new to the game, I had no sounds to overwhelm me.
One of the cool things about picking deaf is that along with a few other staple negative traits, I can afford to take Strong and Athletic. Sure, I dont know when a house alarm or helicopter event is going off until I see zomboes coming from all directions, but with such strong stats, running from or even fighting the horde is a lot easier than most people realize. I really dont like playing without any audio though, even if it means I can watch Retanaru videos in the background easier. You're the only Zomboid-focused channel I know of that really breaks down the in game effects of different traits/skills and, more importantly, the hidden functionality and synergy between traits/skills. Anyone could read the wiki, but you are actually in the field running tests and making observations. It's much appreciated
Edit: I forgot to mention Trombonaut
Retanaru mentioned Trombonaut in a previous video, although I can't remember which. Trombonaut also does deep dives into the lore and mechanics of Project Zomboid if you haven't checked him out.
Trombonaut is good too
@@plasmashade6339 I have. Slipped my mind to mention his channel, his weapon top 10's by different qualities are really valuable. I'd like to see someone release a more detailed and factual look at the firearms in game. Kyle Middleton I think has a good video over them, but out of all the skills/weapons in game, I think the firearms are subject to the most subjective takes on how they are best used, what the best ones are for different situations, what level my aiming has to be for hunting rifles to be useful. Most people just cover level 1-5 =shotgun only, the gun store in west point and the police stations, shooting in a vehicle, and warning noobs to not use until the late game. Firearms are easily my favorite weapon type in the game, and I enjoy making use of them with a freshly made character day 1. Maybe it's because I just got the game a little over a month ago, so I didn't live through the time period when guns were considered trash except for the shotgun. I've found handguns entirely usable from level 3, which is conveniently the level a police officer starts at in aiming. 9mm and 45. Auto is abundant compared to shotgun shells and .38 special, making exclusive gun use completely viable and a lot of fun. Really, I'm just waiting to see how to best use the hunting rifles, because even fully kitted, they're loud, cumbersome, and, worst of all, s l o w. A shotgun in a crowd if used well can kill 4 zeds a shell, but hitting collaterals with the rifles is so finicky and inconsistent, at least at aiming skill of 7 and below. The 8x scope gives great range, but it's practically pointless whenever a group of zombies can close that distance in less than it takes to fire off an entire mag. An entire 3 bullet mag. Does reloading skill affect rack time with the rifles? Now I feel the need to go play and find out, this game is great.
You can still take strong and athletic by slotting some of the "free points" traits, without hindering your sound completely; I never go out myself without Hard of Hearing, Hemophobe, Short Sighted, and Pacifist, they all are very easily manageable and make you reconsider your choices in most situations...
... which is to say, take it easy out there, a safe person is an alive survivor.
@@holomatic1549 I don't like fear of blood or pacifist. Pacifist decreases weapon skills xp gain by around 30%, including maintenance. Fear of blood is just frustrating to me, even if I try to exclusively use firearms. Hard of hearing is something I don't take unless I really need those four points. Thin-skinned, slow healer, smoker, weak stomach, conspicuous, prone to illness all make for more "free" negative traits than pacifist or fear of blood.
This is a very well produced video. I particularly appreciate the on screen conparison with the colored tiles. You have a new sub. Keep up the great work!
I used to run hard of hearing fairly often, but the muffled sound honestly just irritated me so I almost never use it nowadays. I always run keen hearing when playing with sprinters because at some point, one of the bastards is going to run up behind you and I do think keen hearing can give you an edge in that situation. And I've literally never taken deaf because I've always found the zed audio too useful
Lone zed: "Shuffles through grass"
Me ransacking the far side of the warehouse: "Absolutely fucking not!"
There's been so many times I'll stop what I'm doing just to clear a 50 tile perimeter around whatever building I'm in just because I know of their existence in which I cannot accept.
I used to take Deaf all the time because I felt I could easily play with it, however I had to play without the zombie death sounds which is one step too far
I showed this to a friend who is a PZ fiend, and he pointed out a very small but still potentially lifesaving difference - sleep.
When asleep, the hearing traits directly affect the likelihood that the character will be woken up by alarming sounds, and thus alert the player to dangers approaching while asleep before theyre right on top of you.
Yeah this video is purely about debunking the vision myth. There's all sorts of reason for why you wouldn't want to take the negative traits, just not vision based.
@@Retanaru I find it particularly interesting because I was talking to him about the comments down here that say taking deaf as a character trait if you, the player, were also deaf is free points. He brought this idea up as one small reason why playing as a deaf person while BEING deaf would still have a handful of small downsides.
@@POTUSJimmyCarter Also deaf characters can't listen to the radio to get weather/helicopter updates, even when real-life deaf players could read the subtitles if they didn't pick the deaf trait. Not knowing about the helicopter is the deaf character death sentence. (And since I play with heli events repeated instead of once only, deaf is basically guaranteed death)
On three, repeat after me,
RETANARU! RETANARU! RETANARU!
Thank you very much for all these in depth game mechanic testing to showcase how traits actually function in game compared to what their description says.
Some players swear by certain traits and their effects, when in reality it never even made a difference in the game. Shows that most of the traits are really for role player purposes than for any real impact to gameplay.
the fact that the deaf trait still allows you to "see" zombies behind you is insane xD we recently started a x2 pop no respawn deaf run and it's not that bad, obviously it's not a beginner thing since whenever you loot anywhere you have to be extra careful with alarms and meta events
2:13 Snipping the definition and just putting it on the screen made me giggle a lot more than it should. :D
As always, great stuff.
YESSSSS I was JUST combing your videos yesterday for these types of videos.
Always doing the god's work. Thank you.
ive always played deaf~ its 12 points to allow me to blast whatever music i want to die to. The perception range is now a cute bonus
Considering i watch UA-cam on my phone while playing, deaf is just free points. Nice
Major props for advocating evidence based testing. You're right about myths becoming lore. I wonder what sort of things I'm doing to manipulate non-existent game mechanics 😅
They should add hearing aid parts as a rare loot
Hearing aid is specific to the hearing impairment you have. It depends of what frequencies you lost, so it would simplify it taking away realism, as doing it realisticly would be much complicated for the player for a not very good reward
@readuth1488 Fair enough
@@joe78manalso Tbf, this is kind of already done with glasses in game with short sighted. Not all glasses are fitted to a certain prescription or even the correct type but from what I gather most glasses in the game work the same way, so yeah
@robertothesupermutant830 I guess they cannot pelase everybody
Do deaf people have better "perception" due to other senses being heightened? im not saying Indie stone took this into account but could this headcannon it? I dont need to be able to hear to know someones coming up behind me, thats based on numerous other factors.
It'd be a nice touch what with it otherwise being unimportant. Would be fun to give deaf characters a tiny field of view buff to really play into it.
If you can't hear then you can't know someone's behind you. There's been studies done on this, we don't have a magical 6th sense to detect presence, despite what some people like to think. If the person is right behind you and not moving, you won't know.
However sound is vibration and moving causes air to move too, so it might be possible to very slightly perceive that something's making noise behind you, or moving behind you, even if you're deaf. I'm not sure there.
Edit: btw I know some types of blindness are just a problem in the brain and the person can actually see, but the information doesn't reach the conscious part of their brain. Meaning that consciously they see nothing, but without being able to see anything they can still recognize faces and things. It's super weird. So maybe there's something like this for sound too.
@NatTardis Those who can't hear will learn to focus and rely on their other senses.. Not that their other senses actually become stronger, but they simply learn to pay attention to them.
And it is as you said.. You can't magically tell that someone is right behind you, but if they walk, a deaf person might be able to tell with the ground's vibrations or the slight shift in air movement.
Anime power obviously
@@Derakon_peak anime power right here
I find when I play deaf, zombies tend to fade in much slower.
Normally, it takes about 1-3 seconds
With hard of hearing it took about the same, but fade out is much faster, so when I turn away, they fade out of my view much faster.
Deaf was a problem for me as it took anywhere between 7 to 9 seconds for zombies to fade into my view, which meant for the first couple of seconds, zombies standing right in front of me are invisible for quite a ridiculously long time.
I suspect it's to do with the fact that I play the game on a potato laptop.
this should be an actual mechanic to them if not in-game lol, keen hearing having zombies fade in near instantaneously would be a good buff to the trait while deaf being a noticeably massive reduction would make it much more threatening for more than just regular players
Keen Hearing is great for obvious reasons, but I always felt Hard of Hearing > default and it's nice to see that mostly vindicated. I will take the points and quieter rain over the small situational awareness buff any day.
So, technically, hard hearings can be a positive trait because of a reduced bubble range. The panic increases drastically if a zombie sneaks up upon you, which is a problem if you luring the crowd or clearing out places w/ a shotgun and w/o aids, because large chunk of zombies tending to crawl behind you, so the panic meter goes wild. Reducing hearing bubble means that you can more easily control panic in combat. Although it becomes obsolete with pills, large chunk of zeds(at wich point the panic will be high any way) or after month in game. So yea
I mostly just counteract panic in large horde situations either with Brave or some beta blockers or booze. I almost always have a few bottles of blockers, and I never even step foot in any medical buildings. Zombies must have some bad anxiety
as someone who plays without audio, i see deaf as a absolute win.
When you drew the distance for keen hearing, you cut the line short, not even reaching the nearest of the zombies let alone the furthest. Feels like sloppy reporting to make your point.
When I used a pixel measuring tool on your own image (though now I wonder if it can be relied on) I actually got the following:
keen hearing 250
normal 200
hard of hearing 180
deaf 180
So yes, deaf is still potentially better pick than hard of hearing, but keen hearing will still get you 25-38% more reaction time than anything else, which can be a life saver when you have sprinters.
I knew this tip before I got into PZ and I've been playing the game with hard of hearing every single run I did because of that
I love the deaf trait. All my characters are deaf. In multiplayer the biggest downside- not hearing alarms- is negated entirely by having a friend nearby. In solo... well lets just say ive had a few unpleasant surprises.
I started grabbing deaf because i always have stuff playing in the background when playing this game, so i could hardly hear anything anyway. I always grab eagle eyed and night vision as well. This has given me a huge appreciation for some of the visual cues the game has, since i always play it in total silence. I even turn the music off lol.
The massive downside to deaf is no radio. Fine for bad weather, outdoorsman makes you basically immune to colds anyways. But not having heli warning is extremely scary. Especially if you play with heli events on random instead of once only.
for me i always look for a zombie near the building im entering as a landmark for alarms if i see them coming in my direction i know its time to leave
Deaf, prone to illness and high thirst are free awesome points. I find deaf to be the most fun because I cannot imagine being deaf during a zombie apocalypse.
The best thing about the bad traits is that if you know what you are doing you can use them as positive effects. Like Hard of Hearing during loud storms.
Even with sound turned up, from my experience with Hard of Hearing very rarely (maybe 1 in 100?) a zombie will make no apparent sound [for the player to hear ]while approaching a player's character. Ever since not taking the trait (so normal hearing, not Keen Hearing) I've never noticed that happening.
If it wasn't for that one issue I'd have still used Hard of Hearing, but as-is it seems like an eventual a death sentence if ever you alt-tab or look at the map or just aren't facing the right direction while filling fuel or reading a book.
I've gotten silent zombies even with keen hearing, but hard of hearing definitely has its downsides. They often don't make noise until after you've seen them. It's also a whole new set of muffled noises you have to learn to pick out.
I take hard of hearing almost every single time. It's always felt like easy points, and now I know why.
If you never don’t take hard of hearing, it’s free.
I used to think Keen hearing was a must have and I've had it the majority of the time I've spent on the game. After having condutced some tests it seems to me that the loudness of sounds between keen hearing and normal hearing is the same. I was under the impression that you'd spot zombies from behind you 50% further away. But now that I know it's 1 tile and the trait cost 6, I probably won't be taking it anymore. Bummer I have it on my current character I suppose.
Iiiiinteresting. I've personally been playing with all sounds off because I hate noise-based tension and jumpscares, so I might have to try Deaf sometime if I need the points.
My opinion is that "Hard of Hearing" should work as a super thick reverb filter so the sounds are unintelligible, not as flat volume reduction because that's countered simply through settings.
Also hearing reduction traits should definitely reduce perception radius out of sight.
agreed
I had an ear infection in one ear and none on the other, and that is bullshit. I heard all the same thing but just out of tune and quieter, it was basically the same, there is literally no need to even distort the sound, just make it quieter, because that what it was.
@@TheIziPizihaving an ear infection in one ear doesn’t make you hard of hearing.
My Zomboid characters have almost always had keen hearing and shortsighted because its what I have in real life. I eyesight is terrible, but I can hear someone's squeaky brakes from three streets over and everyone in my family thinks I'm crazy.
It's okay for these sorts of things to be quirky. It makes the game more interesting.
love how the captions bombard me at the first 2 seconds of the video
Yeah the autogenerated is bugged. My US English ones are working.
@@Retanaru well it fixed itself after restarting the video, i guess it's a youtube bug, weird.
Nice, informative, and helpful video, I always thought hard of hearing and deaf reduced the perception radius because of the reduction of the circle behind your character. Kudos.
0:57
the window after 9 months: 🤰
I can't test it atm, but if memory serves me right: When you have Hard of Hearing the range at which you hear things also diminishes vastly, which can lead to some very awkward situations.
the only downside for hard of hearing to me is getting used to the muffled sounds but after a bit i dont even notice it
weird moment with deaf is when the tv is on and you still get the xp boost even when you arent watching.
Idk i always pick keen hearing. Its S tier for me. I have very good headphones and I can hear everything. It has saved and helped me so mutch. I also am pretty good at pinpointing where the zombies are based on sounds. Its my goto trait
I usually pick deaf when i'm playing in 6 month later scenario because not only i don't need to worry about house alarm but also the point it give allow me to go strong so i can fight the horde from the get go.
I've been taking hard of hearing trait almost since I started playing. Regular hearing scared the crap out of me the first time I didn't pick the ttait after months. Was hearing in game sounds I had never heard before
(Wolf howls, animal noises, how loud thunderstorms are)
thanks for this, it's pretty useful
Ran Deaf with a friend for a bit, as long as we stayed together it's negative of not hearing danger was almost never a factor. (Was funny when we would enter a house and he would say "Did you hear that?" Or we would enter and kill a zombie or two and I would start looting and he would open a door to more and not say anything expecting me to hear them and then act passed I didn't help him until I said "I'm deaf dumbass".)
me start the video :
the subtittle/cc : *here 10 paragraph of retanaru what about to say
I really do hate the way the CC works, but enough people use it I make sure to dump my script into it anytime I have one.
Do you have 'auto-translate' on in the captions? That's the only time that issue happens to me. If you left it on at a previous video, it likely carried over to here.
I picked keen hearing once and I can't go back, as someone who's quite inattentive while looting the extra second to react has saved me several times.
I've been playing a local multiplayer with some friends in which I took hard of hearing. It seems almost every meta event that happens I have no clue about (gunshots, hele event, etc) but notified by my friends. I am guessing this is what the tool tip "reduced perception radius" is actually referring to.
personally, i always play with deaf because it allows me to get so much traits, and also adds a little bit of horror to the game. it is always fun when you suddenly see a zombie breaking in your base with no sound at all
I love how far this game has come, and ive only played 400 hours
I tried deaf (with the blind mod beacuse i thought it would be funny) and was shocked that you could still see zombies behind you, it wasn't that bad but not having any sounds will eventually kill you.
Hard of hearing would be free points if it wasn't beacuse of the annoying muffled sound
Keen hearing is a mixed bag for me beacuse I do love the increased vision but 6 points are NOT cheap
Don't worry about the current trait meta if you're a new player though, build 42 is most likely going to change everything
Has anyone tried taking Fear of Blood, after having turned blood off in the settings? I don't imagine it'll do anything but I've not tried it so IDK!? >XD
Btw - I've been wondering... Can you listen to the radio when deaf?😅
no radio yes tv, since it has subtitles
oh, that's such a good point. I just tested this in a quick game (albeit modded, cause I didn't want to reload lua scripts) and the answer is: No, you can't hear Radio or TV sounds.
The weird thing however is that you still get mood and skill bonuses from the TV.
The walkman does not give mood bonuses however, and I assume the same applies to the radio, but that was a bit difficult to test.
This mood bonus from TV still doesn't make full sense however, since you still get them even without facing the TV, also I don't think you should get the same amount of XP as non-deaf people get, since you don't have the benefit of anything being explained to you (although you could argue that all the station have closed captions, but then you should also be able to see what is being said)
I always pick the deaf trait but sucks when I don't hear the zombie moan when I stick em with my 2 inch hard punisher.
I grew up in a household where sound was heavily.. regulated. Audio leaking from my headset caused many a problem throughout my teenage years. So now I just don’t play with sound. On any game. To this day, in my own house.. I still typically forgo sound.
After 100 hours of Deaf PZ, I opted to try hard of hearing. The jumpscare music alone killed me the first three times I tried. Only reason I’d consider being hearing at this point is if it’s required for walkies / radios in MP.. which I have yet to confirm. Also, you have to stare at the TV if your deaf. Blew my mind that you could wander the house while still getting skill points from L&L.
I play deaf on every character because I'm usually listening to music or a video of some kind. The only trouble I've come across is in Vanilla where I can't tell if my gun has jammed/emptied or if I'm experiencing desync. It's also funny because you'll occasionally hear the weather for some reason. It made multiplayer RP fun and hilarious. Turns out it mutes proximity chat. My brother regularly conveyed to other players that I was deaf. I supposedly had a habit of leaving camp circles mid conversation. If they typed to me I'd only acknowledge them if I were facing them, as if I were reading lips. I'd also Ctrl+V " (ASL) " into chat before every sentence.
Yeah i was checking few days ago and was surprised that deaf or hard of hearing dont actually do that much. Just took it as another zomboid jank
when i take traits that make it harder to hide and see, i take others that make combat easier, can usually clear out hordes with melee weapons without tiring too fast
Don't even play zomboid but I still watch
Try it. This game is insane =)
how did U find this channel if U haven't played Zomboid
That's like me with TotK content.
Same. Plan on pivking it up when it goes in sale though
How do the hearing traits affect zombie break-ins while sleeping?
Good question. Hard of Hearing affects it significantly, as you cannot hear thumping sounds nor breaking sounds from as far away. It's not that it gets quieter, the sound won't play at all. I think the reverse may be true with Keen Hearing, but I really don't use it much so never noticed, nor tested.
My big problem with hard of hearing is it seems to muffle all sounds. It ends up bothering me and not being worth the extra points
@Retanaru hello I have stopped using this perk since this video however I've noticed when I have time sped up zombies seem to be much closer before the pace returns to normal, would you do another test and see if the different hearing abilities return the game's normal speed from X5 speed at different distances based on hearing ability? Or am I crazy.
So is this another trait that got broken in some update long ago and never got fixed? Feels like it would be interesting to check the current state of all traits to see if they truly work as intended.
Hard of hearing also mutes some environmental sounds (as far as I can tell) and makes some sounds much quieter, banging on doors etc
With deaf chosen you can still hear the weather!
The game has such a fantastic, ASMR quality of sound, that the biggest negative to taking deaf is the irl inability to hear how gorgeous it is.
But on topic - I use the advanced sound mod that lets you adjust individual levels of sound. I use normal hearing, but turn zombie footsteps and moans to 200%. It's free keen hearing.
I've akwyas have played this game at 2-3 master volume and hard of hearing, never got surprised at all nor felt like it was a bad trait. Is also good to play deaf while multiplayer with friends
I think it's kind of funny that playing with the deaf trait ... literally doesn't change the game at all if you're deaf. If anything, I guess it would just buy you points to make up for the lack of sound in other ways. It almost feels more like an accessibility option without actually being intended to be one.
if they do rework these traits someday, they should definitely give regular hearing subtitles for all noises at regular range and keen hearing subtitles at longer range as a optional setting, would make hearing in the game a much more important thing
Not quite. Real deaf people can still read the radio chatter to see the incoming weather, and more importantly, the helicopter event(s). Deaf characters can't listen to the radio at all. Having played deaf characters, sometimes you'll walk outside and think "Oh crap, that's a million zombies, did I get caught in a migration?" and in reality the helicopter is chilling above you but you never knew because you can't hear it or the announcement via radio.
This feels like a bug. At least I hope it is because deaf should have zero perception from behind.
I always take Normal or Keen as long as I'm not role-playing since it's easy to miss silhouettes of zeds at night.
Yes, I can identify 99% of them. But the rest eat me. 🧟♀
lol I forgot how obnoxious the normal rain volume is because ive been using hard-at-hearing for so long. I started using it cause I wouldn't hear most things when im playing music anyways. The new dynamic music is pretty ok though so I was thinking about going back but yeah no need.
People who are deaf in real life making deaf characters, made for swag.
You gotta think too that people that are deaf or hard of hearing may still be very perceptive to make up for the lack of a sense. Feeling vibrations, better vision and smell etc
ive got fairly good hearing (as in i can pick sounds up out of a bunch of noise very easily, not anything about my actual hearing being better, i actually have very messed up ears) and loud noises stress me out and make me panic very easily irl so hard of hearing is just a given for me, literally no downsides because the back perception radius is pretty big (as stated in the video, as big as the default radius, although i didnt know this before watching) so thats no concern and the decreased volume helps me focus more and concentrate on sound easier without being overwhelmed by loud noise, so it actually have good effects for me
Would love a video on claustrophobic, super confused on how it works
Time to put hard of hearing now!
I'm actually hard of hearing IRL, so taking hard of hearing might make it difficult to hear anything at all.. Meaning I can't make as much use of the trait as other people.
People will probably tell me to raise the volume, but I don't like messing with the settings.. I like to play with them on default.
And even if I did raise the volume, I don't live alone. So while it would sound normal for me, it will sound loud for everyone else in the house.. I don't use headphones, as they make me uncomfortable, and a doctor said that thry might be a cause of my hard of hearing.
I am a little hard of hearing IRL, live with people, and couldn't imagine playing without a headset or tbh doing my IRL day job without one.
You deserve reasonable accommodations for your disability. There are a lot of types of headphones and headsets that work differently, some that don't even touch your ears. When you say a doctor said this, was that an audiologist? You probably have options that would work well for you and would not add to your hearing loss. If it is impacting your life beyond Zomboid, I hope you can get some better help with this at some ppint, and I wish you the best.
To be fair headphones are an option for you too though.
I could be mistaken but if you have Hard of Hearing in game (which reduces the volume) and you raise the volume then the raised volume would sound the same as without HoH in game. You might have to do something like turn down the sounds that don't get influenced and/or mess with your PC's audio settings but it should work.
I've always played with hard of hearing, used my volume mixer to lower other stuff (if im listening to youtube or something else in the background) and then turn the volume up for PZ. I remember someone telling me this was stupid of me because "hard of hearing reduces your perception radius to almost nothing" lmfao
which it really should nerf your perception radius imo, would actually allow the trait to be a proper negative instead of free trait points for audiophiles lmao
Hard of hearing and deaf might be more viable playing with friends. I’m playing a custom server with some friends of mine and my current character has hard of hearing and I’m actually feeling really immersed with how my character actually feels unique whenever a car alarm goes off in the distance and I can’t hear it in game. I took the trait because all the people I play with are really loud in discord so I figured I wasn’t loosing much. I might take a deaf character next time.
Hey, there it is.
I have pretty good hearing irl, so i’m used to relying on sound for tracking, silence in games makes me uneasy
Deaf educator here. I’m hearing and I was born to hearing parents but I’ve been involved in the Deaf World for over ten years. In terms of realism, this isn’t that far off. Deaf people tend to have three advantages over hearing people. Firstly, they think in 3D. This is because sign language uses 3D space and thus it’s much easier to communicate and conceptualize height, width, and depth. This doesn’t really have any direct consequences that can be seen in gameplay, I just think it’s cool. The second advantage is that they’re much better at perceiving movement. There’s a common expression that says hearing people are led by their ears and deaf people are led by their eyes. They’re much more likely to notice small movements before a hearing person would and more easily pick up on movement in their peripheral vision. They generally just have more situational awareness than we do. One of my sign language professors once said he thinks it’s cause hearing makes us lazy, we can passively listen to our environment while doing something else. You can tell someone’s deaf usually because they’re actually having to pay attention to what’s going on around them. Lastly, the third advantage is that they’re often better at feeling vibrations than we are. To me, this is kind of like how blind people can feel differences in texture better than sighted people. When we, say, use toilet paper, we’re given visual feedback so we don’t notice the difference in feel when we’re done. It’s the same with vibrations. Someone might stomp their foot and as hearing people, we can hear the sound so our brains ignore the vibration it causes in the ground. Deaf people don’t have that sound to rely on, so they are aware of that vibration. It’s the same with someone talking. If someones voice is loud enough, you can feel it in your chest.
So one possible reason that the radius doesn’t change, besides lazy devs, is that the Deaf character can feel the zombie behind them, either by feeling their footsteps or perhaps even feeling it’s moaning in their chest.
So deaf can be pretty good if you are playing co-op and you always have a friend nearby
That's pretty wild
I always play deaf can’t hear much anyway, this is the best game I ever played
Haven't even tested the hearing but then again I tend to spawn in rosewood and go for axe perk I find myself moving around checking my six constantly so honestly I probably wouldnt even notice the changes deaf is really free 12 points so guess il be taking that.
If you think about it, deaf peoples other senses get better to make up for the loss of hearing
YOu know, this video makes me wonder why there aren't Hearing Aids available to wear, in game?
I always took hard hearing because i play on a very low volume
tried keen hearing once , never going back
I cannot wait for NPCs and Wildlife to get added while the vast majority of the game stays in a buggy mess requiring the hours of youtube videos or wiki reading. Its insane how every week I find a new bug or just clear mis-information.
Deaf is only really worrying for the helicopter event and the occasional scream/gunshot in the distance that can be hard or impossible to hear as a deaf person. Being caught out in the open during a mass migration is never pleasant, especially in the early game or when you're tired from loot running.
ya know I don’t know why i didn’t think about that till now, but people who play the game who are deaf irl just get a free 12 perks every run. based game design
this will be another video that the dev team will make note for B42 lol
im not a big fan of hard of hearing myself because it muffles regular sounds and i like the zomboid ambience a lot
Isn't it changing how the game sounds? If i remember correctly when i picked this trait game suddenly was a bit more muffled. I heard everything but the change of a sound really bothered me
It does change how the game sounds. The myth is that its making it so you can't see zombies behind you until they are in bite range.
So tldr. If you are deaf irl. Either take deaf (no changes to perception radius) or keen hearing to see more.