In the latest SVN build, the laser animation has been changed so that it begins to twirl as if it were a revolver in an old western movie. This occurs after a few seconds whenever the laser is held without being fired.

It's very distracting to have something spinning around in the field of view, especially when playing tense matches that require you to be alert to slight movements. As there is no way to turn off this animation and the only way to hide it is to hide the weapon model, I'd like to ask that it be changed before the release. If it were possible to limit it to when the player is completely idle (no mouse or keyboard input for 10 seconds or so), then that would be fine, but as it is now, it's very annoying. Considering that none of the other weapons do something like this (thankfully), it also seems out of place.

It can't be made to depend on whether the player walks or not. And it is not coded, but part of the weapon animation. So nobody can change it except morphed.

I agree with Xeno on this. I've been finding it very distracting as well, even if it is quite neat.

I think most people will either hardly use the laser and those that do usually only use it for a short time for jumping and then switch back. Or if the weapon is hold for a longer time it will be used. Thus i doubt most people will see the funky animation too often..

i actually think it's quite cool but i can see how someone may find it distracting. more feedback is probably needed here

While I like the animation itself, I find this thing annoying. And considering a long term testing I guess I will find it still annoying when it happens, just because I see it rarely. If I could see this movement many times, maybe my eyes could develop a habit to it, but since I see it rarely, this thing distract me every time.

Maybe a solution could be to see the laser twirling even more rarely, after 30 seconds not shotting at least. This way the probabilities that it happens during fights or when u r concentrate, are very very low.
Furthermore, with 30 secs delay, this effect should be more surprisingly for a player that sees it for the first time, perhaps after a month he is playing Nexuiz

I hate it.

terencehill wrote:Maybe a solution could be to see the laser twirling even more rarely, after 30 seconds not shotting at least. This way the probabilities that it happens during fights or when u r concentrate, are very very low.
Furthermore, with 30 secs delay, this effect should be more surprisingly for a player that sees it for the first time, perhaps after a month he is playing Nexuiz

Good idea

If this indeed is an animation and not coded then 30 sec idle and then a surprise animation is pretty much out of the question. I believe that the longer (or more frames) a animation has the bigger the file, and I believe these files gets really big (compared to small animations or no animated models). It would just be a waste.
However, I might be wrong about how much these files takes. I've only made a few short animated models but they took 1mb and above compared to static models which were below 1mb.