A basic question about dialogue timing and what goes where

[jcompton]

It is becoming the standard practice to avoid this as sometimes the banter engine will pick up an actual npc to npc banter instead of your intended romance banter. So, many modders now call their romance dialog via script so they get what they want when they want it. If you choose to do it this way it doesn't matter which file the dialog is in as you are directing the engine to your particular dialog file each time.

 

Only if you don't know what you're doing with weighting. If you're doing it right, you've got about the same chance of getting a banter instead of a B-lovetalk as you do of, say, getting the "omg the tanner skins people!" scripted dialogue instead of your J-located lovetalk.

 

Weights don't seem hard to understand - but is there anything special about WEIGHT #-1 compared to some other number? If I read the description correctly, you can use any number, so the only special ones should be the lowest possible and the highest possible numbers (as weight numbers seem not to be unsigned numbers, -1 isn't the highest).

 

Anything negative will always be the top of the stack as after compilation everything is reordered so that zero is the top.

 

And, hey, if you guys want to solve all your problems programmatically rather than procedurally, that's your lookout. But the fact of the matter is that the problem can be solved with far fewer lines of scripting than are called for by a method that relies on swapping dialogue files in and out. (And not coincidentally, it also makes it easier for people not reading your mind about when and where you're substituting DLG assignments to come in and read your code when you have questions.)