[RESEARCH/BUG] Flickering Mercs?

[Elad]

Since I typed this all in this morning before I found out 84b was locked. will try again.
Just downloaded 85b, but have not installed. Since I have decided to look for cube recipies and take a break from the battle, will have a lot more to look for. Haven't had any luck so far. In Act 2 Hell, and not ready to take on Duriel.
Information--- Is this my computer or a minor bug of no consequence?
Ran an experiment---The Magic Merc made in act 1 Hell, flickers when she shoots in all acts of Norm and NM. She does not flicker when she shoot in Hell. It does not affect her killing monsters. Has anybody else seen this?
This all started in 84b.
Elad
Will make a act 1 merc in Norm and again in NM and try her to see if it is Norm, NM, and/or hell related.

[Phrozen Heart]

As this seems to be an ongoing problems I've split this off to it's own topic. Let me know how the testing goes.

[Elad]

Here is what I found.
Made a magic act 1 merc in Norm-- she does not flicker in Norm, she flickers in all acts of NM and Hell act 1 &2 ( this is far as I am)
Made a magic act 1 mer in NM----she does not flicker in NM, she does flicker in all acts of Norm and Hell acts 1 & 2.
Made a magic act 1 merc in Hell--She doe not flicker in Hell, she does flicker in all acts of Norm and NM.
She does not flicker every time she shoots, but really frequent
Has anybody else had this happen?
Elad

[Phrozen Heart]

So essentially you're saying that from your point of view that all act 1 mercs only work properly in the difficulty you get them in? Hmmm...

[Elad]

Thats how it appear to be. I did not run into this prior to 84b, and then only in act 5 NM and later in Hell.

[Phrozen Heart]

Make sure to get rid of any magic mercs and try this fix.

[Elad]

Sorry it doesn't seem to fix the problem.
Stripped the Magic merc and hired a Cold merc.
Ended game. Installed fix. Started game and outfitted my new Cold merc. I hired her in Hell. No flickering in Hell. Went to Norm. She flickers on/off.
It is really no big deal as she seems to function OK. Did she flicker in any of your tests.
Installed the Somber Hills fix, but haven't tried yet.
Have started to write down the BoL's that work. How many are there total?
Elad

[Phrozen Heart]

Well it fixed the Merc problem this end I may have to try switching all mercs back to vanilla D2 and see if that helps.

There are 100 books although I believe Myhrginoc is looking into it.

[Elad]

I have seen this animation of the merc in other Mods without any problems. Is anybody else having this problem or is it just me? I even tried removing all her equiptment, but it didn't help. I did not see this problem all the way through Normal. It didn't happen until the last act of NM. If nobody else has this problem, then maybe when I upgrade from 83b to 84b, something didn't install. Did you see any flickering prior to your fix? Can I reinstall 84b and all other updates without starting over? As I said before it doen't seem to affect her performance. Just a minor annoiance.
Elad

[Phrozen Heart]

You should probably be able to upgrade from any previous version to the latest one and no I hadn't seen it before sorry The bug isn't animation related, it's either hireling.txt or skill/skill level related.