calling flick(icon_state, atom) on an atom will cause that atom's maptext to disappear for the duration of the flick call.
Numbered Steps to Reproduce Problem:
Try the codes below:
Code Snippet (if applicable) to Reproduce Problem:
Example 1:
mob
gotHit()
maptext = "Dying"
flick("die", src)
spawn(16) del(src)
In the above example, you will not see the map text at all if your flick animation is 16 frames long.
Example 2:
mob
gotHit()
var/atom/movable/a = new
a.maptext = "Dying"
src.overlays += a
flick("die", src)
spawn(16) del(src)
In the above example, you will also not see the map text at all, I suspect this may be because the overlays list is also being replaced by flick().
Expected Results:
The documentation for maptext describes it as being, "text that displays in front of an icon if an atom has an icon at all". So I would expect the behavior to be in that flick calls are affecting the icon and not the atom's maptext.
Actual Results:
maptext is removed during flick() calls when I feel the intended design was that it should not.
Workarounds:
In order for the overlays to update before the flick, you must call sleep(world.tick_lag). Maybe not the best option for people with low FPS settings in world, though.
Try setting a.icon=null & a.icon_state=null on the new atom/movable/a & see if that makes a difference.