Local chooses local or world coordinates.
As Erika said, you probably meant Loop. When unchecked it is indeed similar to clamp: the animation is limited from 0 to its max frame. You can use this just like you would clamp. When checked the animation loops instead, so the name makes sense.
When a slider's frame is driven by a bone property, the frame can go negative, which is not normally valid for an animation. When not looping you'll get 0. When looping it will loop even when negative. In other words, just below 0 will give you a frame near the end of the animation. This makes it easier to get repeating effects from the slider.
@AssafHayut You can get a "clamp" effect with loop unchecked (described above) without using another constraint.
as you can see the slider bone is not the one that actually controls the coral movement
Eh? I do see the slider bone controlling the movement.
is there anyway to make time-offset?
Physics for translation can give a delayed effect.
any other ideas you have to push this system further would be greatly appreaciate
It's mostly driven by the end result that you want, so it's hard to give suggestions. Ideally you use the simplest setup that gives the desired results.
