With the 5xx series of byond, we get some pretty neat options to make many different kinds of effects happen. However, an increasingly prominent problem (especially with the introduction of 509's client.color) is that animations for different effects cannot be effectively combined without making it jumpy. To make matters worse, you have no idea what kind of animation an object is doing at any given time. It can be represented, interpolated, blended at great effort and cost, which is mostly why we're not too eager to bother with it

Now, I understand animations are entirely on the client's side and the server is done with it after it's committed, so it's all complicated. Still, handles would be phenomenal so at least animations can be added or removed from a pool of blended-together animations and have them be re-committed, or even be reused for other displayed things.

Another option would be not to expose animations but allow a sort of blending on the client's side instead. Basically, the ability to tell BYOND to commit another animation and tell the client to blend the overlapping time portions.

Now, I'm basically just throwing ideas out there, but I do believe the animation component could use some improvements to allow us to fully realize the potential of the cool stuff you can make with the new effect toys.