Startling Revelation!

Ok, guys, check this masterpiece of puzzlework out:

I have an earlier post that questions why I can't get a particular dialogue to work. Dark Underlord wrote back and suggested ways to make it work, and so i tried it--and still to no avail. I spent the last three days and three nights on this, and over the course of this time have discovered something absolutely amazing:

Whatever you number the script and the dialogue, you must number the starting line of your dialogue itself!

No really! Check this out.

In my first dialogue (labeled 0002_Checkard), Checkard Lain, he WOULD NOT say line one of his greeting at all, and instead skipped driectly to line 2. I shot up line one as a filler line ({1}{G:}{G:}{}{}{2}{}) With a command on the end to go to line 2, and thought that was what fixed it.

But then I worked on this other dialogue, and no matter what i did, how I modified it, the guy ALWAYS started the dialogue off with one of MY options. This option would change as i tweaked it...but over time I realized a pattern: he ALWAYS spoke what was on LINE THREE, and his dialogue was labeled 00003_Errol.

Is this some sort of fluke? When the script calls a dialogue, does it call only the line number of the dialogue as well? If any of you have ever run into this before, let me know--but if anyone else was pulling their hair out and slowly losing sanity, I hope this revelation helps you out. Um...if no one else has experienced this, then...well, revel with me in the joy of having figured this out before I admitted defeat!

 

Shouldn't it be more like this: {1}{G:}{G:}{}{}{}{}

First pair of curly brackets is line number. Next two you write anything you want that guy to say. First line shouldn't have go to number. This line makes NPC to greet PC. Next lines are what PC can say. For example, this smithy dialog. This isn't whole dialog. And it is from AMTUT tutorial.

{1}{G:}{G:}{}{}{}{}
{2}{What kind of goods do you sell?}{}{5}{}{20}{}
{3}{W'at kinda stuff you sell?}{}{-4}{}{20}{}
{4}{Can you repair something for me?}{}{5}{}{0}{ri}
{5}{Me need some stuff fixed.}{}{-4}{}{0}{ri}
{6}{B:}{}{1}{}{0}{}
{7}{E:}{}{1}{}{0}{}

Now, smithy's line is line number 1. Other lines are what PC can say. Line 2 is for PCs intelligence 5 or higher, 3 is for dumb PCs intelligence 4 or less. They have go to number 20, which means they call line 20. And then lines 4 and 5 call repairing screen, and they have go to number 0, which means it ends dialog. 6 calls barter screen and ends dialog. 7 just ends dialog.

 

nonono

you missed the point. I know how to dialogue. heck, i even cut and pasted parts of Amtut into my dialogue, to see if they would work! But in the case of the smithy one you included, if I had put that into my 00003 dialogue, the guy would have greeted me with "What kinda stuff you sell?" And then my options would only be what followed after that. in dialogue 4, I get "Can you repair something for me" when i click on him, instead of the greeting. That's what i mean by this whole thing being sort of weird--no one seems to ever have had this sort of problem before.

My computer is possessed!

 

The problem could be with the script that is calling the dialog. Can you post the contents of your script file? Because your script file is what defines the initial line that your NPC opens with.

 

Aaaahhhh... so I DONT have a possessed computer... this is good, I was really worried there for a second. Thanks, guys.

Is there a way to fix that without redoing all of the existing dialogue? If not, this is no biggie, I can just work with it the way it is.

Incidentally, and this is changing the subject a little, does anyone know a page or a link that would have help concerning the scripting required and dialogue necessary for quests?

 

Theoretically, he shouldn't have to change both. The script file "Dialog X" number is rather arbitrary, and he can really choose to start his dialog at any line he likes. So unless he wants to make all his scripts uniformly start at 1 or some such, he only needs to change either the script file "X" number, or fix the dialog file. Not necessarily both.
Hope that wasn't too confusing.

 

Hey, all kidding aside, after checking out AMTUT thoroughly, i noticed this little addendum at the bottom of part 4...a smaple quest. So thanks--I picked up literally everything I needed to know from it. It's great how one example leads to so much tinkering!

This is getting frustrating, though... It seems like everytime I make a breakthrough and sit down to get some serious mod-making done, i hit a NEW road block! How does ANYONE make a mod around here without A) losing most of their hair and b: getting checked for mental disorders!!?? I have this dialogue with quests and the whole 9 yards, and now the NPC has decided to up and buy a cloaking device! I can see them in world-ed, but not in arcanum. i remember reading SOMETHING about this problem, so I have gone through four pages of posts on this forum to try and find it, but I could not. So, as much as I hate to ask for help here yet again, I must inquire if any of you have had this problem, and how to fix it. i have re-created the NPC several times, tampered with the art, internal names, protraits, etc. (I promise, guys, I really do try everything i can think of befpre [pestering the forums.)

thanks again for all the help.

-Ruelz

 

Did you set their (cant remember exactly what its called) Day and Night Stand points?
Regardless of where you drag them to in WorldEd, they will always show up at their Day and Night stand points... those points are initially set to the first place that NPC is placed on the map when created, and thereafter, to move those points, you need to make sure the NPC is in the location you want him to be for his Day and Night stand, and right-click him, then select Day and Night stand from the right-click menu.
It might not be called "stand", but it is definitely day and night...

For the purposes of explanation, just find the NPC in WorldEd, make sure you got him where you want him, right click him, look for something in the menu that says Day Stand and Night Stand, select each one, then Save, close, and fire up the game.

 

Don't worry--I knew exactly what you were talking about .

Unfortunately, it didn't work--I even revealed waypoints to make sure that all of my NPC's weren't travelling wayward without me. It's the weirdest thing--about 4 of them now--all new ones I created--don't show up. Nor does a treasur chest I made, if it helps pinpoint the problem any. I've made an mpty chest and loaded it myself, and IT is invisible in the actual game too!

Thanks for the tip, though.

 

Love overcomes all

Love for Arcanum.Love for Fallout .Love for Planescape Torment.
Love for Divine Divinity.
Hate for ID1
Love for hard core RPG.
If they are not making one soon you got to make your own.

I dont know how many time Arcanum crashed in the 500-1000 area and my PC crashed 10-50 before i learned the basic staff of Arcanum on my own without tutorials or anything .

But love true love overcomes almost anything just remember that .

 

heh. Yeah, if you mean what i think you mean... Love of the game is the only thing keeping me persistantly working at this.

So no one else has any idea how to fix this, if the simple changing the art thing doesn't work? Bummer drag. I've even, at this point, created an entire line-up of NPC's, giving them different armor and different set=ups, and none of them will appear in Arcanum itself. Ah, well. If I figure out what went wrong eventually, I'll let you know, so that if anyone ELSE ever runs into this, they'll know what to do.

 

I really do love the sound my hand makes when it smacks into my forehead.

Thank you, once again my mod and I are in your debt.