Okay, well I know you can't actually turn a static object into an activator, but I'm wondering can you do it by linked references or something? Basically I've created an activator object, and I want all the static versions of this object in game to be able to be activated. I could go round replacing each static object with the activator, but that would take ages seeing as there are around a hundred of them. I want to know if there's an easier way to do it, like adding a linked reference to the activator on the base static object, and if so how do I actually do that so it works. I've already tried adding a trigger to the static object but that didn't work. Thanks in advance.

As far as I know, it's all elbow grease for this one.

To set up an individual object so that it appears to be activated, click the static, then click the Create Trigger button up on the toolbar. You'll want to create a new form for the triggerbox and give it the appropriate label. You'll also want to go into the Primitive tab of the object reference for the triggerbox and set Primitive to "Box", Collision layer to "L_NONCOLLIDABLE" and (this is very important) make sure the Player Activation checkbox is ticked. From there, your triggerbox is now an invisible activator and any instance of it can be positioned to make it look like the player is activating the static - this is great for player activated candles and the like. If you wanted to make every candle in the game player activated, then either you'd have to do them all individually (loads of work and possible memory issues when you've tricked up enough of them).

The only alternative I can think of is to apply the static mesh and texture, etc. to an activator model using Nifscope or maybe Blender but I have no idea how as I haven't played around with these tools often enough. Maybe someone here might know how. I'd love to see how to combine an off-lantern and an on-lantern into an activator which turns the lantern on and off as part of the activator's animation. It would be so much better to be able to place just one of these without having to set up two triggerboxes, an off-lantern, an on-lantern and the appropriate light model for every one that gets set up. Also interesting would be some information on how to localize activator coverage so that a model only activates from certain parts or has more than one activation zones which activate the model in different states, if possible.

If any of that can be done, it might be the beginning of that shortcut you're looking for...

Thank you very much your response was very helpful