Quote Originally Posted by RedLolly View Post
It's just a toggle to switch models, right?
Not necessarily. If the enemy is using an animation to highlight where an attack is going to land, you would need to make sure the new model can account for that. If the new model doesn't have that limb, it will not show that tell. Depending on how the swap happens, it could cause issues in the code itself. Without knowing exactly how the game renders enemies, if the skeleton is embedded into the model, and you replace it the model and skeleton with one with less limbs, if the game calls for a limb to move and it doesn't exist, it could cause errors and all sorts of nonsense. If the model and skeleton are separate, it goes back to what I was saying before, where a tell might happen on a limb that doesn't and so you have no idea why you got hit.

It would mean you either need to make another model with the same characteristics so it can mimic all the same movements, which just puts you back to square one, or, you could have a special effect to mimic the 'phantom limb' to highlight what would otherwise be invisible, which is another special effect that needs to be made. Then there is, do you want the replacement model to follow the theming of the area still, or, do you not care that it sticks out like a sore thumb in most areas. Some people will not care, but others will.

I'm sure there are many other obstacles that might need to be considered and this isn't to say it shouldn't happen, but to say it is 'just a toggle to switch models', I feel, downplays that thought that is needed in the background before they even start to consider this as a possibility.