The trigger tool is the newest tool added to Happy Wheels, added on July 6th, 2012 with the v1.67 update. A trigger looks like a transparent box, with diagonal yellow stripes and a transparent black border around it. It is used to activate objects such as jets, fans, and even wrecking balls, play sound effects from the game, including character and game sounds, win a level, and more. Jim is planning on adding ambient sounds to the trigger tool, but had to release the update without them.
In the v1.68 update, after using activate object on any object, there are different options given. For example, shapes can wake up from their sleep, set as fixed, set as non-fixed, change their opacity, apply impulse, be set as uninteractive, and delete themselves. Along with this, triggers now show a number inside them representing an ID. This way, people will not get confused on which trigger triggers what action.
Great uses for all of those are, for example, to change opacity in 1 second to 0 and with another trigger with the delay 1 delete self to make an object disappear.
Since v1.68, you can decide what object needs to touch the trigger to trigger it. You can decide between the player, any character (with NPCs), any non-fixed object or the objects attached to the trigger.
There are options for the sound effects, such as the panning for the sound or the volume of the sound. It isn't possible to make any of the settings higher than they should go, unlike previous settings in the past.
In the v1.75 update, triggers can now be activated, enabled, and disabled through other triggers. They can also repeat the assigned action multiple times. Sound effects can also be heard at the trigger's location, which pans left or right depending on the player's location relative to the trigger.
Triggers can be activated by (1) only the playable character, (2) any character including NPCs, (3) any non-fixed shape, (4) the items attached to the trigger, or (5) only other triggers.
Triggers will play their actions (1) only the once and the trigger gets deleted, (2) once every time the trigger has been touched, (3) on a repeated interval while the triggering object is touching the trigger, or (4) on a repeated interval after the first time the trigger is activated.
Triggers with repeat settings (3) or (4) can have the interval that their actions repeat set to a time value between 0.1 and 10 seconds.
Triggers can be set to activate objects, play sound effects, or cause a level victory. Trigger targets can be added to the objects to be activated by the trigger and the action that the trigger does on the object can be found on the object's menu. For sound effects, the specific sound, its perceived location, volume, and panning can be toggled. Triggers that activate objects or play sound effects can be delayed up to 10 seconds, while victory triggers cannot be delayed.
Sound effects can be played.
The volume can be changed from 0 to 1.
The panning can be changed from -1 to 1 (default setting is 0), which lowers the volume on one side of the speaker to play the sound more to the specified speaker.
Items that can be triggered by the tool
Homing mines and landmines still work as normal, but if they are triggered by the trigger tool, they explode instantly.
Wrecking balls can be put to sleep, and, when triggered, will start moving.
Fans will not make noise or push anything until activated, same for boosts.
Shapes and groups have a few options for it to do things, such as make it wake up from sleep, fix, unfix, make itself uninteractive, change its opacity, delete itself, and move itself from different places around the map.
Text will change its opacity or slide to different coordinates upon contact with the trigger.
The pin joint can disable its motor, change motor speed, and delete itself.
The trigger tool can trigger nearly every sound and vocal in the game, as well as some sounds that are not in the game or might potentionally be added in the future.
Trigger tool sound options in the editor.
The types of sounds are:
Air
Character voices
Electronic
Gore
Impacts
Miscellaneous
Shatters
Smashes
Snaps
Thuds
Video
Happy Wheels - All character voices-0
All the character voices heard in Happy Wheels.
Glitches
The bob (ball) on a wrecking ball that hasn't been activated by its trigger yet is non-interactive, while the holder for the wrecking ball is.
There's a glitch that allows you to trigger an NPC, but it will not do anything to them.
Dead body parts can still activate a victory trigger.
You cannot type in a decimal point (.) into the delay of the trigger.
Sleeping objects touching a trigger will awaken if the triggering objects have touched the trigger, even if the sleeping objects weren't even connected to the trigger.
If you change the LevelXML to make the trigger play a sound that has an ID of over 307, and the triggering objects have touched the trigger, the game will freeze.
In the level editor, if the list of sounds are open, pressing any of the number keys from 1 through 6 will enter a designated tool, but the list of sounds will not disappear. Besides refreshing the page, the only way to remove the menu is to re-enter the trigger tool and hover the cursor in and out of the list. If you exit the level editor with the menu still visible, it will become impossible to remove the menu. No matter where you are (e.g. a level or the level browser), the menu will always be there.
If there are enough triggers that activate a single fan, many hazards will be disabled. For example, homing mines won't float in the air nor home on a character (but they can still explode when crushed), spike sets won't be able to stab anything, and harpoon guns won't shoot at the player, even when he/she is right in front of the gun. This glitch can also cause NPCs to become invincible (only large characters can be harmed) and nonvocal, despite them being alive.
Trivia
An example of a trigger that doesn't trigger a sound effect.
It's possible to continuously put the same sound effect over and over in the same place, resulting in a louder noise.
The delay doesn't actually delay the amount of seconds you have made it delay once hit; it delays itself until the delay is up.
Hazards can't be activated by the trigger, but certain hazards like the wrecking balls and homing mines (although they explode) can.
Nearly every single sound in the game is present in the drop-down menu.
Jim explained the tool as 'waking the item up if it's in a sleeping state.
It's possible to activate multiple items at once by using the 'Add New Object' button when the trigger tool is clicked (and not playing a sound effect unless the "triggered by" setting is set to 4).
The trigger tool, as stated by the news post that came with it, is unfinished.
There are a total of 295 sounds to choose from.
There is also the level victory sound, but for some reason it is not in the sound category.
After activating the level victory sound, you will not be playable, making it act like the Finish Line or tokens, which is the third item used to complete a level, although does not count as a Special Item.
The spelling error (underlined).
There is a typo in the yellow box that appears if you place your cursor over the "triggered by:" option, on number 2, it says "Triggered by any character, including NCPs." It says NCPs instead of NPCs.
Some users forget to change the trigger's sound effect, meaning that some levels have all of the sound-making triggers set on one of Wheelchair Guy's grunts.
If a level victory triggers' collision is set to 1, 2, or 4, and the attached objects are characters, the specified characters who have died are still able to win the level as long as the heart of those characters have touched the level victory trigger (NPCs and playable characters that are now just a heart who touched the trigger with the collision set to 2 will not make you win the level).
Strangely, the "play sound effect" setting allows the volume slider to be set to 0, resulting in no noise at all.
A trigger that plays a sound effect with the "triggered by" toggle set to 4 can also attach fixed objects (fans, fixed shapes, boosts, etc.), but they will not play the sound effect even if it's touching the trigger.
From 1 to 12, each numbered sound for the characters all represent a certain part of the body being ripped off. The numbers are listed below:
