I am not sure if this has been stated before because there is a lot to go through on this thread, and I apologize If I am repeating someone else.

One thing that we need is the ability to queue events together or with a timer. This way we can create a poof of magical smoke with some swirls happening at the same time, then a fraction of a second later, we can place NPCs in that smoke (and many other events where you need to place several events or effects into play in a small amount of time.)