Newbie Dialog Help

[rushin]

oh dear, 4 hours trying to get a simple dialog going with no luck.

so if someone could explain how to do the following i would be very grateful.

we have npc_1

first player target npc_1 says 'one'
second player target npc_1 says 'two'
third and subsequent player target npc_1 says 'leave me alone you pervert'

i wont go into all the ways i have tried to do this at risk of complicating discussion

[tridman]

Hi.

You will need three dialogs for this task.

All dialogs are started with an event when the NPC is targeted.

First dialog is set to Active and lets the NPC say "One"
Second dialog is inactive and lets the NPC say "Two"
Third dialog is inactive and lets the NPC say "leave me alone you pervert"

The trick is to define some additional events:

1. Dialog 1 reaches end of script -> Dialog 1 deactivates, Dialog 2 activates
2. Dialog 2 reaches end of script -> Dialog 2 deactivates, Dialog 3 activates
3. Dialog 3 reaches end of script -> Dialog 3 deactivates

In this way each dialog is trigered only once and only if the previous dialog was triggered before.

BUT: Since there is no way to differentiate between players all dialogs may be trigered by different players or by the same. No chance to change this afaik.

[rushin]

nope. *tears more hair out*

i make that event for the npc but it just doesnt save in the event window.

when dialog_1 reaches end
deactivate dialog_1
activate dialog_2

[sidusar]

That's what you would think, isn't it? I was about to tell Rushin the exact same thing, but decided to try it out first and it doesn't work as it should. Dialog 1 deactivates properly, but Dialog 2 won't activate no matter what I do. Even if I flip a usertrigger to activate it, no luck.

[rushin]

well lets see. I was trying to add the 'script end deactivate/activate' to npc event window and it wasnt appearing. checked events from the dialog_1 and there were 10 idential commands doing this so left one in and ran it. still doesnt work

i cant believe they have made something so simple so complex. dialogs with events?, objects without variables, no debuging - even checking states of objects, tries not to let list go any further

*heads for vodka and smokes to clear head*

[netzz]

For what it's worth, I'm having the same problem with Dialog components. It gets even messier if you add a Task component (like deliver message).

I tried activating the Task component (set to inactive on start) by setting it's activate to the end of the first Dialog component (Stand alone dialog 1 component).

No matter what I do, the Task component dialog fires at the same time as the intro dialog 1 (from a player targeting it).

I'm beggining to think dialogs are bugged, and with no way to "debug"......

Got any more vodka?

[sidusar]

Okay, my conclusion after half an hour of testing:

Once a Dialog is non-active, it can not be activated anymore. There's a nice event action that says "Activate Dialog 2", but it doesn't work.

I doubt that's how it supposed to work, but that's how it is. If anyone can find a way to activate a non-active dialog, I'd be interested to know how.

[rushin]

yeah thats kinda my thoughts also. you could get around this if the conditions section of events allowed you to check if a dialog was active or not, but there is just is/is not running.

must be missing something surely? and if we are i go back to my first comments of how an earth can you make this so complicated to use? Nevrax might want to look at scripting for dummies books or the rather spiffy RPGmaker that does these things with ease and much more transparency for the user

[rme2001]

Dialogs aren't bugged, you just need to use them in the way they are ment to be used.

First of all, make sure all 3 dialogs have the active setting checked and the "auto" start setting unchecked.

As said above, just create 3 dialogs with the NPC as target.

1. Create the 1st event on NPC1 : If he's targeted that dialog 1 starts script
2. Create an event on the 1st dialog : When Dialog 1 script ends Deactivate Dialog 1
3. Create the 2nd event on NPC1 : If he's targeted dialog 2 starts script with the CONDITION that Dialog 1 is not running anymore
4. Create an event on the 2nd dialog : When Dialog 2 script ends Deavtivate Dialog 2
5. Create the 3rd event on NP1 : If he's targeted dialog 3 starts script with the CONDITIONS that Dialog 1 and 2 are both not running anymore.

Resetting after this step is just a matter of adding an event to dialog 3's end of script to activate dialog 1 and 2 again.

I tried it, and it works, could upload the file if you can't figure it out.

[sidusar]

Originally Posted by rme2001

Create the 2nd event on NPC1 : If he's targeted dialog 2 starts script with the CONDITION that Dialog 1 is not running anymore.

That's a nice way of working around it! You're right, it does work, but technically speaking that shouldn't work. After all, the first time you target NPC1, Dialog 1 isn't running yet (it doesn't start until you target) so Dialog 2 should start as well.

It does solve rushin's problem, but it's really another thing that doesn't work the way it should.

Originally Posted by rme2001

Resetting after this step is just a matter of adding an event to dialog 3's end of script to activate dialog 1 and 2 again.

Have you tried that part too? Activating dialog 1 and 2 after they've been deactivated has been, in all my tests, impossible.