Small Request Re: Gate Animation

[Igneous]

I've noticed in your more recent version(s) of SCSII that the Gate animation has been tweaked, such that the resultant fiend will only pop its head out once the animation has been fully completed. I seem to vaguely remember some discussion a while back that the reason for this change in behaviour was to disallow damage done to the fiend while it's still frozen in 'suspended animation', so to speak. In other words, to block player exploits.

 

While this is all quite well and good, and I appreciate the reasoning behind it, the end result is not really to my tastes. Whenever Gate (etc.) is cast, whether by me or by enemies, it now seems to take something of an age for the demon to actually materialise. I know out-of-battle the difference in timing is not dramatic, but it makes quite a difference in the thick of pause-heavy combat. In short, I prefer the pacing of the old animation. In my opinion, it's just more 'cool' to see an immense demon spawn through the midst of a fiery-red skeleton-archway. More climactic, anyway, and it lets the fiend get to work obliterating things faster in the meantime.

 

With that in mind, I was wondering if it would be possible for this tweak to be split off into a separate, optional component. (I guess you'd probably group it under 'Spell Tweaks'.) That way, those who would like to close off this particular exploit are free to do so, while those of us more relaxed about such things can enjoy the pacing of the old animation. Preserving the integrity of encounters is important, but my attitude towards the issue is much the same as with mage pre-buffs: to simply allow the sequence to fire off as intended and then start laying the smackdown.

 

Thanks.

[DavidW]

I'm a little puzzled by this, as I haven't actually changed the animation at all so far as I recall. I'm at work, so I can't check, but I think the demon never appeared visibly until the portal animation completed playing, and I haven't changed that. All I've done is make it immune to damage.

 

However, I'm happy to be corrected if that's wrong.

[Igneous]

Hm. I may very well be misremembering. I'll try cloning a fresh installation for comparison and get back to you.

 

[EDIT] Sigh. It would appear I've wasted your time. I've just tested my current SCSII install alongside vanilla, and it seems the difference is something I've vastly exaggerated in my mind. The animation does, indeed, take slightly longer with SCSII, but no more than a quarter of a second, if that. The only other notable difference is that with the vanilla animation, the Pit Fiend appears to 'stand up' from a prone position when summoned. The SCSII-induced Pit Fiend, on the other hand, is summoned in a standing position, and seems to take action more quickly than the vanilla one.

 

In summary, it seem that I've written a moderately lengthy post, complete with feature requests, based on nothing more than a brain fart. Ah, the world can be so cruel sometimes.