Yes, that is what I'm saying. I want to maximize the proportion of the game that is engaging and reduce the wasted waiting time. It will make the game more immersive to do this.
It depends on how you play the game. On lower difficulties, you can just breeze through and ignore half of the stuff. But on higher difficulties, I have to go back and forth more, chip away at a few different zones at the same time, run away to reload essence, go back to pick that lock, go back to loot stuff you didn't have room for in your inventory the first time, etc. So all that walking really adds up then. If you are hitting a zone for the first time, it's a minor factor. Many games have speed controls. I'd like Jeff to build this in. Why not check to see if its in combat and if not, and only then apply it? Combat animations are far faster anyway, so it does appear there is at least some disconnection in the code.