Toggle object and scenery animations off/on?

[Dr Clownius]

I did do a search for anything on this but nothing surfaced, so forgive me if this has been mentioned before.

I was revisiting the 3rd dev diary and noticed the stationary canon decorations are animated, vs static in the Alpha. I've no idea if this is merely object animation not yet implemented in the Alpha, or whether the team had a change of heart and concluded a standalone canon being animated didn't make much sense (I prefer those particular canons static, personally). Either way, would it be possible to be able to toggle animation for individual objects and scenery like that off and on?

This could be applied to items like the canon portholes that can be placed over scenery walls too, allowing for them to animate as they do in the Alpha, but also allowing for them to be applied in a permanently closed or permanently open static position. It would just allow for more flexibility in how we decide to implement these types of decorations, and in park designs with very dense theming reducing animations where the playerr might not consider them desirable might also have added benefit in easing up on CPU/GPU...etc.

 

[Dr Clownius]

I wanted to resurrect this post as I noticed watching a player's Alpha 2 video this evening that the standalone canons do indeed now animate which, again, just makes no sense whatsoever to me to see them firing unassisted, and it also doesn't make much sense from a realism and park maintenance point of view when you consider that it is actually quite rare to see animatronics left out in the open in parks where they might be at the mercy of the elements. I would really love to see a static option or for some of these animated objects to have on/off toggles.

 

[Coastin' Dave]

I would like to see the ability to toggle object animations on and off. I'd also like to see object animations with a third option of ride trigger so we can make ride events.

 

[Dr Clownius]

I believe triggers are planned for a future update.

I was thinking more about the cannons and honestly, the animated version would be better if it came in two flavours, one with a animatronic pirate beside it lighting it, and another with an animatronic colonial soldier beside it lighting it (I have to assume animatronic pirates are coming at a later date otherwise the colonial animatronics already in the game have nobody to fight).

A static standalone cannon option really is a must though, for reasons i have already touched upon. They can add a lovely sense of "lived in" and historical scenery to a themed area on top of or outside of buildings. Animated versions are great for on rides (though, again, they need to be linked to an animatronic character firing them or else we're left having to design rides around "ghost pirates"), but imagine our pirate/colonial sections in themed areas of parks, now with these constantly firing objects, blowing smoke and making noise. Not only would that drive me insane if I were a peep wandering around an actual park, it would probably begin to drive me crazy just hearing them blast constantly in the game.

Sorry to be a bit of a stuck record on this if anyone from Frontier is reading. I just want as many things in the game to have a sense of practicality to them.