How does a book trigger a dialogue?

I'm trying to understand why some items, like Joachim's note, telegram, and book, will trigger a dialogue with Virgil, and why other items, like the newspaper article about his brother, will not, despite the dialogue, sound files, and scripts all seemingly being in order.

So, you have the telegram. You read the telegram. Global flag 2306 is set to 1. X seconds pass, script 1697 fires, and Virgil initiates dialogue. All nice and tidy.

It seems the same drill for the newspaper article. You get the newspaper from the clerk. You read the newspaper. Global flag 2450 is set to 1. X seconds pass, script 1883 fires, and Virgil initiates dialogue. Except, of course, he doesn't.

What's the missing link here? Is it between the newspaper and the USE script that checks for Virgil in the party and fires the script that launches the dialogue? How does using an item launch a script, and how would I check on that? And are written materials the same as other items, or are they just a series of references in a file, or is that what all items are in the end....

Can you tell I've confused myself to death? Any help would be appreciated, I'm quite at a loss here.

 

You would attach the script to the item's "use" command in it's properties. So when you wanted to check if a scriipt were properly attached, you would need to click on the item, open it up, hit the scripts box, and see what script numebr is called when the use button is selected. Any script you make, say, in reference to a written item, would be attached to the use point--meaning that the minute the player drags that item into the hand icon in the game, it fires off. (Hence the delay, so you can at least read a little of it.)

Somewhat, though not exactly. Written materials can be treated like normal items--they can be given unique names, and internal coding so you can call on them directly. BUT written items are kind of a separate gendre of items int hat each one, when used, automatically loads up a script calling the text it is supposed to contain. But the game handles that script itself, so it never needs to be donw by the modder--hence the "use" attachment point is still avaialble for you to program a special effect. Does that help?

As far as the paper deal in arcanum itself, you can check on it, but I can't really offer you too much help there--mine always worked. But yes, the "use" point is where you'd look for trouble.

 

Splendid! Everything is much more clear now, thanks. :grin:

Just one more question, and keep in mind that I know this is going to sound imbecilic but I wouldn't ask if it weren't driving me crazy: How on Earth do you open existing Arcanum items in WorldEd? The closest I can seem to get is to create a new item by tossing it out into the wilderness and assigning it a known internal identification. If there's a way to browse through existing items, I've missed it.

 

Not imbecilic at all, but I am afraid that, depending on why you wanted to know, the answer may disappoint you.

So far as i know (and I don't have EVERYTHING mastered yet), there exists a complete listing of the items found in Arcanum, that can be found on DU's homepage. That's how one would have to browse through existing items. If you mean, how can I place an Arcanum-like object straight into world-ed, then unfortuantely you have nailed the only viable solution--stick an item template out into the wilderness, and then find the matching internal name and effect descriptions. This is, in my theory, becasue objects in Arcanum's World-ed are mere templates--they have no identity of their own until you give one to them. So you can have 6 different kinds of art for 6 different kinds of swords, and the computer knows they do different base-damage. But if you were hoping to browse thorugh and find a specific item, you might, if it were used as a common template, but then again you might not. The sword on the ground doesn't become anything special until you give it an internal name.

Weapons aside, if you were looking at books are written objects (I base this guess off of your previous post) then no, there is indeed no way to actually create a copy of the arcanum-item, or at least there wouldn't be any kind of record in it built in to world-ed. You would have to create the book template, then give it the identity in accordance to the scripts in Arcanum. Think of a formatted computer, if you will. It is a computer, it has the potential to do a vast number of things, and you have seen thousands of them doing these different things in your life. But a formatted computer does nothing but sit there and look like a computer. It is not until we give it internal programming that it becomes SOEMTHING. we can program it to be exactly like a friend's, down to specs and desktop scheme. Such is the case with every World-Ed item that we can create.

Ok. I got long winded there, and I apologize for that. the end result, of course, being that there are listings of the items, but unfortunately nothing more than that.