How and when are banters triggered?

[martix]

Title says it all. I have been trying to figure it out, but I can't seem to find the mechanism that triggers the random banters. I did find out how LoveTalks work though

P.S. And what does Ctrl+I do in that regard?

[berelinde]

OK, let's deal with the easy question first. CTRL-I toggles through the available animations for the selected creature. "Animations" here means turn right, turn left, look like you're going to cast a spell, that kind of thing. Well, one of the animations seems to be "access the B file." This only works in single-player mode, not in multi-player. So by hitting CTRL-I, there's a good chance that if there are any unscripted banters available, it'll fire.

 

All of the CTRL- commands were originally intended as debugging scripts to use while testing the game. Need to remove effects (including damage) from a creature, hit CTRL-R. Need to kill it? CTRL-Y. Testing on a schedule and need to get from one place to another in a hurry? CTRL-J. Need to find out where in the game world you are, and the precise tileset coordinates? CTRL-X. I imagine that it made life easier for the testers.

 

Now, on to your first question. I don't suppose you'd accept "It's magic" as an answer, would you? No, I didn't think so.

 

Banter is stored in a file commonly referred to as the B file because BG2 nomenclature uses the format BNPCname to identify the files. The unique feature of unscripted banter is that it has conditions that will return true without additonal scripting, like timers. Every once in a while, the game engine will make a random call on the banter files, so one of these "always available" banters will fire.

 

Since these random banter calls happen very infrequently, some mods, banter accellerators, use script to call the banters more frequently than the engine alone would, if left to its own devices. The scripting involved is a little beyond my ability to explain concisely. If you want to learn how banter accellerators work, I would suggest downloading PPG's Banterpack and looking for the folder inside called bantergoose, and looking at the scripts inside.

[martix]

So its basically naming conventions and internal (private?) engine calls...

Can I put the PPG Banterpack on top of BGT? Any incompatibilities I should be aware of?

[berelinde]

About the only reason I could think of why you would not want to put the Banter Pack on a BGT installation would be the possibility of having Banter Pack BG2 banters happen in the BG1 portion of the game. This would apply to BG1 characters that also appear in BG2, like Imoen, Minsc, Edwin, Jaheira, and Viconia. You might get a few banters that sound a little out of place. If you think this would drive you nuts, you might want to wait until you have entered the BG2 portion of the game to install Banter Pack.

 

If you want banters in the BG1 portion of the game and are planning on waiting to install Banter Pack until you make the BG2 transition, you might consider the BG1 NPC Project, which adds banter, friendship, and romances to BG1. It's proven stable on a BGT installation and is coded to prevent BG1 banters from happening in BG2.

[martix]

Eh well... I'm already past BG1, and even it I wanted to, I wouldn't have the time to revisit BG1, after this BG2 play-through, so the only caveat is irrelevant by now.

[Kaeloree]

Jason applied my solution to that problem in the last version of Banter Packs, just fyi.

[berelinde]

Ah, cool. Didn't know.