Synchronizing Animated Scenery

[cf451]

Hey all!

Just loaded into one of my parks earlier today, where I'm making a sort of "Pirates vs. the British Empire" theme (definitely not inspired by Pirates of the Caribbean). I had intentionally made sure that all my animated Redcoats Marching props in my giant fortress of DOOOM--uh, I mean the British Military--were staggered in their animation, so it looked like pseudo-random, uncoordinated patrols going around the walls. Except today, when I reloaded the park, they had all fallen into the same frame of the animation. So they all turned at the same time and took steps in perfect synchronization and generally looked like a big army of robots. Which, hey, is pretty cool if you want to make a giant block of soldiers marching perfectly in formation. But if you want them to be desynched, it's kind of a problem. As nearly as I can tell, in the current iteration of the game, when you pull an item out of the menu it starts at a random frame and keeps playing. But because the "current frame" data isn't included in the save file (I'm assuming that's why this happens), it auto-synchronizes everything.

With that story in mind, I wanted to ask if we could get some improvements to how animated props work. I have some things like a redcoat firing into an explosive barrel, but it took ages to get them synched by taking potluck on their starting frames and hoping they're close enough. Now they're desynched. Would it be possible to "link" animated props to get them synchronized, when you want them to be, and then to implement a delay on starting some of the linked animations, so as to make sure that the frames line up? Alternatively (and all things considered this may be the better option) could we get a slider bar or something similar to determine the frame of the animation on placement? And just to be clear--making sure that the current frame is included in the save file so that synchronization doesn't get messed up when reloading saves would be really nice. I'm assuming that that much, at least, is possible. If that functionality is a bug and not "intended" on the current build someone please let me know so I can go make a bug report too. [tongue]

 

[gregorburns]

I agree the we need to be able to control the timings of props and sync them with each other. You are right about the time data not being saved. There have been a few big reports submitted about it and that's the reason they gave. It would be good to have it implemented though. [happy]

 

[Milzbury]

This would be a very, very helpful add-on... Especially if anyone wants to create something like, maybe, an audio animatronic show?

 

[breezerHOG1]

This has been posted before if you search around

Want to know the solution to your problem? Simply pause the game when placing animated objects

[cool] cheers

 

[gregorburns]

This has been posted before if you search around

Want to know the solution to your problem? Simply pause the game when placing animated objects

[cool] cheers

Yes but the point of the original post was that the time data is not saved and it would be good if it was, and if it was possible to have control over the interaction of objects with one another. The OP doesn't have a "problem" that needs a solution, they were making a valid suggestion, and if you have nothing to add to it then there's no need to comment.

 

[breezerHOG1]

they were making a valid suggestion, and if you have nothing to add to it then there's no need to comment.

I admit it was a valid suggestion, I was simply trying to help [cool] How are you adding to the conversion by the way? Complaining about me again? Glad you found that important

 

[cf451]

Whoah guys chill out, no need to fight! All friends here. [happy]

This has been posted before if you search around

Want to know the solution to your problem? Simply pause the game when placing animated objects

[cool] cheers

I'm not surprised to hear that it's been posted elsewhere. BUT, it's a big forum and I figured that rather than go dig up an ancient and buried post and try to revive it it'd be more productive to make one myself. Unless there's an active one like it already, in which case I'm just an idiot sorry >_<.

I hadn't known about the pause solution, but it seems like it's more useful as a temporary fix. That sort of workaround isn't really a well-implemented gameplay feature so much as an exploit. Besides, it's still pretty imprecise and I'd rather have a permanent feature that I know for a fact is intended functionality.

Also, again, I'd like to see frame information saved with animatronics. That's something that, to my knowledge, doesn't have a workaround right now at all. I figured that someone would already have reported the issue but decided that I might as well repost just to make sure.


Glad to hear that there are people who agree with me. [happy] It always annoyed me in RCT3 that synchronization was so imprecise and there was no way to delay between loops or anything like that. Thanks for the support!