What makes an activator so that the player can activate it? What I am trying to refer to by activate is by use of the activate key.

From what I can tell it must be the mesh. I can't see any way to use say the evil stone for an activator even though vanilla objects using this mesh have scripts with an on activate block.

Along with this thought, what makes a static object show a name and an icon when the cross hair is over it?

All you need to do is have the "activator" menu clicked when you're making the object.

I [no] longer have a wish to use it at this point but I tried making a new object by editing ARTraqevilStone01 and giving it a new form id. I put it in the world and put a script on it with an OnActivate Block. It was a simple script It just showed a MessageBox. It didn't work. I neither saw a cross hair icon nor a name.

Some activators don't seem to be so much as activator but a no-collision object with a OnTrigger block in it's script.

What I am not getting at this point is how activators have cross hair icons and show a name when the cross hair is over them and others do not. How could I possibly make a custom object this way. I AM creating an activator in the "activator menu." These objects even have the activator icon in the CS next to the Editor ID.

anolyzing the Basin of Renewal it seems that only the other part of it actually acts like an activator. It must be defined in the mesh somewhere. It seems I have found my answer.

Sorry for the bother.

Edit: added the bracketed text

An activator that has no name (name field is empty) will not change the crosshair. It will act like a regular static, only difference is that you can put a script and sound effect on it. Activators also need collision to be activatable.

The OnTrigger activators are called 'trigger zones'. To make use of the OnTrigger block you need special collision properties. They're used to trigger traps or other things (like an actor walking into one of these zones causes a trap to activate). Since you can't put a script on a static you need an activator.

Ah I see. The evil stone did not have collision. Thanks.

That also explains the Basin of Renewal. There is water in it.