As Richard said the parameters are interacting, meaning...the behavior of one parameter is dependent on the setting of another. It's kind of like "gobo rotation" and "gobo function" in moving lights. The behavior of "gobo rotation" is dependent on which mode "gobo function" is set to.

Also, the more parameters you change, the more processing catalyst has to do. This is especially applicable if you fade between two different values, even if it's on a layer that isn't visible. Basically you are sending 1000's of commands to catalyst over the course of a few seconds. It just can't process changes that fast. I often see choppy fades and video playback because of this.

My rule of thumb is "change as little as possible, and do it as quickly as possible."

Once again as Richard suggested, the GUI really is the best tool for figuring things out. It's far more intuitive than any lighting console interface. Play around with the GUI. Snapshot some presets that do what you want, then recreate those settings from the console.