Guest Guest Posted July 23, 2006 Share Posted July 23, 2006 Is there a particular editor that'll be newbie-friendly for a project of this kind? DLTCEP? Link to comment
Grim Squeaker Posted July 23, 2006 Share Posted July 23, 2006 Is there a particular editor that'll be newbie-friendly for a project of this kind? DLTCEP? <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Well, you'll want something like DLCTEP when it comes to making items and spells. However, for most of making an NPC you'll just need a decent text editor (like ConTEXT) as dialogue and scripts are entirely written as glorified txt files. Link to comment
Guest Guest Posted July 23, 2006 Share Posted July 23, 2006 Thanks much! Where can I find that? I don't see it listed here under Tools and Resources, or at PPG's Dialog and Scripting Tools section. Link to comment
Andyr Posted July 23, 2006 Share Posted July 23, 2006 http://www.context.cx/ It's not an IE-specific tool, just a useful text editor. Thinking about it, though, it might be useful to recommend its use somewhere. There's syntax highlighters available for it which are listed near the bottom of http://www.weidu.org/main.html . Link to comment
Lemernis Posted July 23, 2006 Share Posted July 23, 2006 That was me as 'guest' above. Thanks! Which would I want? * Idobek's Color Syntax Highlighting for TP2 files for the Dialogue Compiler (v1, 2 K) * Color Syntax Highlighting for the Dialogue Compiler (v7, 2 K) * Color Syntax Highlighting for BAF files (v1, 12 K) All of them? I take it these allow you to highlight the text in different colors so that it's easier to keep track of the dialog nodes? Link to comment
Grim Squeaker Posted July 23, 2006 Share Posted July 23, 2006 All of them? Yes as they're all for different file types. I take it these allow you to highlight the text in different colors so that it's easier to keep track of the dialog nodes? No, what it does is highlight keywords in various colours. It makes it a bit easier to see the structure of a file but more importantly makes in damn obvious when you make a typo. Link to comment
Lemernis Posted July 23, 2006 Share Posted July 23, 2006 Okay, although since I'd have no idea how it will of use to me yet, I'll wait on the highlighters. I have no coding background at all, and what I want to do is (hopefully) very simple: I just want to create dialogue trees with nodes. For now I don't need to worry about attaching any conditions to a node. The tutorial I referenced gives me a sample of something more complicated than I need. After BEGIN L#Eldarian IF ~NumTimesTalkedTo(0)~ FirstMeeting SAY ~Greetings, friend. I caution you to take great care in this dark wood. I sense that some sinister force afflicts it. Many farmers have mysteriously gone missing in the Umar Hills to the south, and it is rumored to be the fault of an ancient crone who resides here. Whether there be any truth to this tale I have little idea, but the matter bears investigation.~ what basic convention(s) can I follow to write further dialog for the first encounter with the NPC? (Btw, should I start a new thread on this in another forum?) For reference sake here's the first draft of the greeting: Eldarian: Greetings, friend. I caution you to take great care in this dark wood. I sense that some sinister force afflicts it. Many farmers have mysteriously gone missing in the Umar Hills to the south, and it is rumored to be the fault of an ancient crone who resides here. Whether there be any truth to this tale I have little idea, but the matter bears investigation. PC: 1) Ho! A half-breed! Give me one reason that I should stay my hand from spilling your foul orc blood! Eldarian: *shakes head sadly* The coffers of the Cradle would be overflowing, had I a copper for every time I've heard such words uttered at me and my kind in Purskul. It may surprise you, but I too loathe Orcishkind with every fibre of my being. PC: 1) It does surprise me. I suppose now you are going to try to tell me that you kill orcs on sight? Eldarian: No, I never harm anyone or anything without provocation. But I revile the wanton death and destruction wrought by the orcish race. I am ashamed to have their contemptable blood coursing through my veins. In my own right, I can only serve as an exemplar of the good works my "half-breed" kind are capable of achieving. And in the power of an individual to chart his own course in life, whatever his lineage may be. PC: * looks slightly jarred, as if lost in thought for a brief moment* You seem sincere... I... I am interested in hearing more of what you have to say. Your reason for being here to investigate the disappearances of the folk of the Umar Hills? [note: continue with Eldarian: "It is in part...] PC: 2) I'll not listen further. Prepare to descend into whatever stinking hellhole your abominable kind goes to in the next world. Eldarian: I see there is little chance of reasoning with an uncivilized lout such as yourself. But know that in the next life I will stand for eternity at the side of the blessed Earthmother in Elysium, and with honor. I fear death not in the slightest. PC: 1) * looks confused* Hmm. Blast! My deity would disapprove of taking your miserable half-orc life then... I can only hope you meet the fate your kind deserves--which I cannot imagine is a "good" one... Eldarian: My soul already rests in the loving bosom of Chauntea. Murdering me only brings me closer to her. Do your best and have at me then. [end] PC: 2) Meet your maker then. [end] PC: 3) *blinks, stares for a moment, then laughs* I admit, at each turn you confound my expectations... I have never seen one the likes of you. Much as I hate to admit it, it appears that I have been rash. Tell me again... you say your reason for being here is to investigate the disappearances of the folk of the Umar Hills? [note: continue with Eldarian: "It is in part...] PC: 3) Is that why you are here? Eldarian: It is in part. Anywhere those who till the earth may require assistance it is my duty to aid them. I also seek to explore the nearby ruins for other more personal reasons. [continue] Eldarian: But forgive me, I have not introduced myself. I am Eldarian Jehzair. I serve the Great Mother, and attend to her faithful. It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance. [note: in the node for the near fight: "It is a... pleasure... *smiles wryly*... to make your acquaintance."] PC: 1) Well met Eldarian, my name is [charname]. I too seek to solve the riddle of the mysterious disappearances in the Umar Hills. I have been commisioned by the mayor of a village there to remedy the problem. I have in my possession some documents that offer a few clues. You are welcome to read this journal and letter. Shall we join forces? Eldarian: *studies Merella's diary and Mazzy Fenton's letter* I would be delighted to combine our efforts to end these strange disappearances. By the will of my goddess, Chauntea, I possess skill in the healing arts, and other divine magics that may be use. I am also trained in the arts of exploration of subterranean ruins. PC: Then a welcome addition you shall be. Let us continue exploring. [end] PC: 2) Well met Eldarian, my name is [charname]. I am here on the same mission. I fear that I have no room in the party for another companion, else I would ask you to join. I wish you good luck, however. Eldarian: May the Great Mother bestow her blessings upon us both. Please let me know if your efforts meet with success. PC: 1) Aye, that I will. 2) If I have time to try to find you, I will certainly try. [end] PC: 4) This is of no concern to me. Eldarian: In that case I will leave you to your affairs. [end] PC: 5) Best of luck to you then, I must be on my way. [end] Link to comment
Grim Squeaker Posted July 23, 2006 Share Posted July 23, 2006 BEGIN L#Eldarian That filename is too long. The Infinity Engine only allows filenames of 8 characters or less (plus file extension). what basic convention(s) can I follow to write further dialog for the first encounter with the NPC? What do you mean by conventions? Do you mean how would you code up a branching dialogue like that? If so, I can give you a hand but you'll have to specify a bit more clearly which PC options belong to which of Eldarian's lines. Might I suggest for future drafts of dialogues you use some kind of state names (as that's how you'll be coding it later) e.g. start:E: I'm going to say something 1) PC can say this... GOTO angry 2) ... or this. GOTO happy angry: E: I AM ANGRY WITH YOU! ... happy: E: (He smiles.) I am happy. ... It makes it a lot easier to read with this kind of structure as it's clear which player options belong to what and wear exactly they lead. Link to comment
Lemernis Posted July 23, 2006 Share Posted July 23, 2006 Thanks, it should really help if I can see the above dialog tree coded. Sorry for the vague language, what I meant by 'conventions' was the standard code that simply has the PC and the NPC exhanging dialog. When I composed the above sample dialog on a Word Pad document, I used tabs to arrange each response so that it was much clearer to follow. Unfortunately when I pasted it, that formatting was lost. Maybe if I color code each node of the conversation it'll be easier to follow? I'll try to think of it more in terms of states, and attempt to write it out that way. *** Edit: I'm working on writing out each permutation of the conversation individually. It'll be obvious how it works that way. It's also be easier to see the states that way. Link to comment
Lemernis Posted July 24, 2006 Share Posted July 24, 2006 Here are the individual permutations of the conversation. I changed the numbering from the above to order them differently. (Also, there were some mistakes in the number order above.) Hopefully the text itself makes the 'state' self-evident as the dialog progresses. It's a work in progress. I can already see further modifications that need to be made, but this gets it started. *** Conversation 1 - PC friendly throughout, asks Eldarian to join Eldarian: Greetings, friend. I caution you to take great care in this dark wood. I sense that some sinister force afflicts it. Many farmers have mysteriously gone missing in the Umar Hills to the south, and it is rumored to be the fault of an ancient crone who resides here. Whether there be any truth to this tale I have little idea, but the matter bears investigation. PC: Is that why you are here? Eldarian: It is in part. Anywhere those who till the earth may require assistance it is my duty to aid them. I also seek to explore the nearby ruins for other more personal reasons. [continue] Eldarian: But forgive me, I have not introduced myself. I am Eldarian Jehzair. I serve the Great Mother, and attend to her faithful. It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance. PC: Well met Eldarian, my name is [charname]. I too seek to solve the riddle of the mysterious disappearances in the Umar Hills. I have been commisioned by the mayor of Imnesvale to remedy the problem. I have in my possession some documents that offer a few clues. You are welcome to read this journal and letter. Shall we join forces? Eldarian: *studies Merella's diary and Mazzy Fenton's letter* I would be delighted to combine our efforts to end these strange disappearances. By the will of my goddess, Chauntea, I possess skill in the healing arts, and other divine magics that may be use. I am also trained in the arts of exploration of subterranean ruins. PC: Then a welcome addition you shall be. Let us continue exploring. [end] Conversation 2 - PC friendly thoughout, explains no room in party, Eldarian does not join Eldarian: Greetings, friend. I caution you to take great care in this dark wood. I sense that some sinister force afflicts it. Many farmers have mysteriously gone missing in the Umar Hills to the south, and it is rumored to be the fault of an ancient crone who resides here. Whether there be any truth to this tale I have little idea, but the matter bears investigation. PC: Well met friend, my name is [charname]. I am here on the same mission. I fear that I have no room in the party for another companion, else I would ask you to join. I wish you good luck, however. Eldarian: I am Eldarian Jehzair, a humble servant of Chauntea. May the Great Mother bestow her blessings upon us both. Please let me know if your efforts meet with success. PC: 1) Aye, that I will. 2) If I have time to try to find you, I will certainly try. [end] Note: Further conversation may be initiated to have Eldarian join after completion of quest. Conversation 3 - PC friendly, avoids further conversation, Eldarian does not join Eldarian: Greetings, friend. I caution you to take great care in this dark wood. I sense that some sinister force afflicts it. Many farmers have mysteriously gone missing in the Umar Hills to the south, and it is rumored to be the fault of an ancient crone who resides here. Whether there be any truth to this tale I have little idea, but the matter bears investigation. PC: Best of luck to you then, I must be on my way. [end] Conversation 4 - PC unfriendly, avoids further conversation, Eldarian does not join Eldarian: Greetings, friend. I caution you to take great care in this dark wood. I sense that some sinister force afflicts it. Many farmers have mysteriously gone missing in the Umar Hills to the south, and it is rumored to be the fault of an ancient crone who resides here. Whether there be any truth to this tale I have little idea, but the matter bears investigation. PC: 4) This is of no concern to me. Eldarian: In that case I will leave you to your affairs. [end] Conversation 5 - PC racist reaction, PC remains hostile throughout, presumably attacks Eldarian but stage is set for possible NPC interjections 1) Ho! A half-breed! Give me one reason that I should stay my hand from spilling your foul orc blood! Eldarian: *shakes head sadly* The coffers of the Cradle would be overflowing, had I a copper for every time I've heard such words uttered at me and my kind. It may surprise you, but I too loathe Orcishkind with every fibre of my being. PC: It does surprise me. I suppose now you are going to try to tell me that you kill orcs on sight? Eldarian: No, I never harm anyone or anything without provocation. But I revile the wanton death and destruction wrought by the orcish race. I am ashamed to have their contemptable blood coursing through my veins. In my own right, I can only serve as an exemplar of the good works my "half-breed" kind are capable of achieving. And in the power of an individual to chart his own course in life, whatever his lineage may be. PC: I'll not listen further. Prepare to descend into whatever stinking hellhole awaits your abominable kind in the next world. Eldarian: I see there is little chance of reasoning with an uncivilized lout such as yourself. But know that in the next life I will stand for eternity at the side of the blessed Earthmother in Elysium, and with honor. I fear death not in the slightest. PC: Meet your maker then. [end] Note: This conversation is for the PC who attacks, but Eldarian will remain neutral unless attacked. NPCs might interject here. Conversation 6 - PC racist reaction, hostile throughout; may be expanded with NPC interjections to try to persuade PC to have Eldarian join, or attack him, etc. Eldarian: Greetings, friend. I caution you to take great care in this dark wood. I sense that some sinister force afflicts it. Many farmers have mysteriously gone missing in the Umar Hills to the south, and it is rumored to be the fault of an ancient crone who resides here. Whether there be any truth to this tale I have little idea, but the matter bears investigation. PC: 1) Ho! A half-breed! Give me one reason that I should stay my hand from spilling your foul orc blood! Eldarian: *shakes head sadly* The coffers of the Cradle would be overflowing, had I a copper for every time I've heard such words uttered at me and my kind. It may surprise you, but I too loathe Orcishkind with every fibre of my being. PC: 1) It does surprise me. I suppose now you are going to try to tell me that you kill orcs on sight? Eldarian: No, I never harm anyone or anything without provocation. But I revile the wanton death and destruction wrought by the orcish race. I am ashamed to have their contemptable blood coursing through my veins. In my own right, I can only serve as an exemplar of the good works my "half-breed" kind are capable of achieving. And in the power of an individual to chart his own course in life, whatever his lineage may be. PC: 2) I'll not listen further. Prepare to descend into whatever stinking hellhole awaits your abominable kind in the next world. Eldarian: I see there is little chance of reasoning with an uncivilized lout such as yourself. But know that in the next life I will stand for eternity at the side of the blessed Earthmother in Elysium, and with honor. I fear death not in the slightest. PC: * looks confused* Hmm. Blast! My deity would disapprove of taking your miserable half-orc life then... I can only hope you meet the fate your kind deserves--which I cannot imagine is a "good" one... Eldarian: My soul already rests in the loving bosom of Chauntea. Murdering me only brings me closer to her. Do your best and have at me then. [end] Note: Eldarian remains neutral unless attacked. This conversation allows the PC to express his contempt but avoid killing him. Also sets stage for interjections by other party members. Once those are written PC may follow various different courses of action. It is possile to initiate further conversation, yet to be written. Conversation 7 - PC initial racist reaction, PC becomes impressed, asks Eldarian to join Eldarian: Greetings, friend. I caution you to take great care in this dark wood. I sense that some sinister force afflicts it. Many farmers have mysteriously gone missing in the Umar Hills to the south, and it is rumored to be the fault of an ancient crone who resides here. Whether there be any truth to this tale I have little idea, but the matter bears investigation. PC: Ho! A half-breed! Give me one reason that I should stay my hand from spilling your foul orc blood! Eldarian: *shakes head sadly* The coffers of the Cradle would be overflowing, had I a copper for every time I've heard such words uttered at me and my kind. It may surprise you, but I too loathe Orcishkind with every fibre of my being. PC: It does surprise me. I suppose now you are going to try to tell me that you kill orcs on sight? Eldarian: No, I never harm anyone or anything without provocation. But I revile the wanton death and destruction wrought by the orcish race. I am ashamed to have their contemptable blood coursing through my veins. In my own right, I can only serve as an exemplar of the good works my "half-breed" kind are capable of achieving. And in the power of an individual to chart his own course in life, whatever his lineage may be. PC: * looks slightly jarred, as if lost in thought for a brief moment* You seem sincere... I... I am interested in hearing more of what you have to say. Your reason for being here is to investigate the disappearances of the folk of the Umar Hills? Eldarian: It is in part. Anywhere those who till the earth may require assistance it is my duty to aid them. I also seek to explore the nearby ruins for other more personal reasons. [continue] Eldarian: But forgive me, I have not introduced myself. I am Eldarian Jehzair. I serve the Great Mother, and attend to her faithful. It is a... pleasure... *smiles wryly*... to make your acquaintance. PC: Well met Eldarian, my name is [charname]. I too seek to solve the riddle of the mysterious disappearances in the Umar Hills. I have been commisioned by the mayor of a village there to remedy the problem. I have in my possession some documents that offer a few clues. You are welcome to read this journal and letter. Shall we join forces? Eldarian: *studies Merella's diary and Mazzy Fenton's letter* I would be delighted to combine our efforts to end these strange disappearances. By the will of my goddess, Chauntea, I possess skill in the healing arts, and other divine magics that may be use. I am also trained in the arts of exploration of subterranean ruins. PC: Then a welcome addition you shall be. Let us continue exploring. [end] Link to comment
Grim Squeaker Posted July 24, 2006 Share Posted July 24, 2006 Okay, well that's an interesting way to represent it but I get what you mean. If you the tutorial you used was A Beginner's Guide to NPC creation with WeiDU then it should be fairly obvious how to code it, but I'll give you a hand anyway: BEGIN L#Eldar IF ~NumTimesTalkedTo(0)~ THEN BEGIN FirstMeeting SAY ~Greetings, friend. I caution you to take great care in this dark wood. I sense that some sinister force afflicts it. Many farmers have mysteriously gone missing in the Umar Hills to the south, and it is rumored to be the fault of an ancient crone who resides here. Whether there be any truth to this tale I have little idea, but the matter bears investigation.~ ++ ~Is that why you are here?~ GOTO whyyouarehere ++ ~Well met friend, my name is <CHARNAME>. I am here on the same mission. I fear that I have no room in the party for another companion, else I would ask you to join. I wish you good luck, however.~ GOTO partyisfull ++ ~Best of luck to you then, I must be on my way.~ EXIT ++ ~This is of no concern to me. ~ GOTO noconcern ++ ~Ho! A half-breed! Give me one reason that I should stay my hand from spilling your foul orc blood!~ GOTO halfbreed END IF ~~ THEN BEGIN whyareyouhere SAY ~It is in part. Anywhere those who till the earth may require assistance it is my duty to aid them. I also seek to explore the nearby ruins for other more personal reasons.~ IF ~~ THEN GOTO introduction END IF ~~ THEN BEGIN partyisfull SAY ~I am Eldarian Jehzair, a humble servant of Chauntea. May the Great Mother bestow her blessings upon us both. Please let me know if your efforts meet with success.~ ++ ~Aye, that I will.~ EXIT ++ ~If I have time to try to find you, I will certainly try.~ EXIT END IF ~~ THEN BEGIN noconcern SAY ~In that case I will leave you to your affairs.~ IF ~~ THEN EXIT END IF ~~ THEN BEGIN halfbreed SAY ~(He shakes his head sadly.) The coffers of the Cradle would be overflowing, had I a copper for every time I've heard such words uttered at me and my kind. It may surprise you, but I too loathe Orcishkind with every fibre of my being.~ ++ ~It does surprise me. I suppose now you are going to try to tell me that you kill orcs on sight?~ GOTO killorcsonsight END IF ~~ THEN BEGIN killorcsonsight SAY ~No, I never harm anyone or anything without provocation. But I revile the wanton death and destruction wrought by the orcish race. I am ashamed to have their contemptable blood coursing through my veins. In my own right, I can only serve as an exemplar of the good works my "half-breed" kind are capable of achieving. And in the power of an individual to chart his own course in life, whatever his lineage may be.~ ++ ~(Look slightly jarred, as if lost in thought for a brief moment.) You seem sincere... I... I am interested in hearing more of what you have to say. Your reason for being here is to investigate the disappearances of the folk of the Umar Hills?~ GOTO reasonforbeinghere ++ ~I'll not listen further. Prepare to descend into whatever stinking hellhole awaits your abominable kind in the next world. ~ GOTO notlistenfurther END IF ~~ THEN BEGIN reasonforbeinghere SAY ~It is in part. Anywhere those who till the earth may require assistance it is my duty to aid them. I also seek to explore the nearby ruins for other more personal reasons.~ IF ~~ THEN GOTO introduction END IF ~~ THEN BEGIN introduction SAY ~But forgive me, I have not introduced myself. I am Eldarian Jehzair. I serve the Great Mother, and attend to her faithful. It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance.~ ++ ~Well met Eldarian, my name is <CHARNAME>. I too seek to solve the riddle of the mysterious disappearances in the Umar Hills. I have been commisioned by the mayor of Imnesvale to remedy the problem. I have in my possession some documents that offer a few clues. You are welcome to read this journal and letter. Shall we join forces?~ GOTO joinforces END IF ~~ THEN BEGIN joinforces SAY ~(He studies Merella's diary and Mazzy Fenton's letter.) I would be delighted to combine our efforts to end these strange disappearances. By the will of my goddess, Chauntea, I possess skill in the healing arts, and other divine magics that may be use. I am also trained in the arts of exploration of subterranean ruins.~ ++ ~Then a welcome addition you shall be. Let us continue exploring.~ DO ~JoinParty()~ EXIT END I haven't coded the state 'notlistenfurther' (but you'll need to) as I'm finding it pretty difficult to figure out what exactly you intended to say. I mean in conversation 5 you can say ~I'll not listen further. Prepare to descend into whatever stinking hellhole awaits your abominable kind in the next world. ~, then Eldaran says something, and then you get the same PC option again. Is that really what you meant? Hopefully you'll get some idea of how to code your dialogues now. Some suggestions/warnings: 1) I'd strongly recommend not using your unusual style of writing up dialogues. In order to code what I did I had to follow the dialogues through to see where they were branching and where they differed from others ones, which essentially became an enormous game of 'spot the difference'. Dialogues don't have to be entirely disjoint like how you've written them up. The point of 'states' is that you dialogues branch as you'd think of them, so they can share the first however many blocks and then branch later (or rejoin the same state later on). Try and think of it like this: start / \ / \ Player option 1 Player option 2 / \ / \ E is happy E is sad / \ / \ / \ / \ Option 3 Option 4 Option 5 Option 6 The point is that you can share states between 'different dialogues'. In your 'conversation X format' you are repeating the 'start' for all your dialogues, when in fact it only needs to be one state that then branches out into other ones. In the code I've written for you above I don't have two seperate states for the [continue] parts of conversations 1 and 7, I use exactly the same one for both (because they do exactly the same thing). 2) You've written situations when the Player only has one option to say and that's a very bad habit to get into. The point of an RPG is you choose what happens. As it stands you get a choice at the start, but basically after that words are being forced into your mouth. 3) On a similar note you have some very long PC options, including some with unnecessary action text e.g. ~* looks slightly jarred, as if lost in thought for a brief moment* You seem sincere... I... I am interested in hearing more of what you have to say. Your reason for being here is to investigate the disappearances of the folk of the Umar Hills?~ That wound make sense were the PC an NPC, who you didn't have control of and you were watching his/her actions. You have: * looks slightly jarred, as if lost in thought for a brief moment*. The point is you are the PC, so you know whether you're lost in thought for a brief moment. Similarly you'd say '(Look slightly stunned)' as opposed '(Looks slightly stunned)', because the PC's options are what you choose to do, not what you observe. Finally on that note, it's traditional to do action text in brackets rather than in asterisks. Jason's Action Text and abuses thereof thread talks about the 'best' way to use action text. As you can see from my code above, I've tried to adapt your action text to fit that style. Feel free to keep or ignore my corrections. Okay, that's about everything. Just don't feel put off by initial mistakes. We all went through this at some stage, so we know exactly what it feels like being thrown in at the deep end with coding. Good luck! Link to comment
berelinde Posted July 24, 2006 Share Posted July 24, 2006 I don't know if anyone has mentioned this, but you might want to heed the WeiDU tutorial's advice about writing coded dialog. I am specifically referring to the part that goes "the best way to learn code is to read code." By doing this, you will learn how to code state checks and other variables. Use WeiDU to extract the dialog files to .d format, open them with notepad, and read dialog the dialog and banters of other mod NPCs. I have yet to figure out all the ins and outs of this myself, but I will help you if I can. I've been taking a crash course in it lately myself, so I doubt I am very far advanced. At this point, I'm still learning to follow conversations, sometimes across multiple dialog files. Best of luck to you. Link to comment
Grim Squeaker Posted July 24, 2006 Share Posted July 24, 2006 I don't know if anyone has mentioned this, but you might want to heed the WeiDU tutorial's advice about writing coded dialog. I am specifically referring to the part that goes "the best way to learn code is to read code." By doing this, you will learn how to code state checks and other variables. Use WeiDU to extract the dialog files to .d format, open them with notepad, and read dialog the dialog and banters of other mod NPCs. I have yet to figure out all the ins and outs of this myself, but I will help you if I can. I've been taking a crash course in it lately myself, so I doubt I am very far advanced. At this point, I'm still learning to follow conversations, sometimes across multiple dialog files. Best of luck to you. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Quite true. The NPC tutorial gives you a nice start to coding simple dialogues. PPG's One Day NPCs also have pretty recent and clear code (though I say nothing for the quality of Alassa's writing). Link to comment
Lemernis Posted July 24, 2006 Share Posted July 24, 2006 Thanks for the assistance! I appreciate it tremendously FWIW my only previous experience writing dialog for a game is with NWN, which is rather straightforward, and doesn't require any coding ability. I can see that it's going to take a shift in my thinking, and may take a bit of effort to wrap my brain around this differerent approach. Anyway thanks again, and I will keep at it! (Note: Apologies for the redundant lines above, I was a bit hasty in posting before I had time to proofread carefully. I wanted to get something posted before I left for work. But it's better that take a stab at finishing it anyway, that's how I'm to learn.) In terms of creative process, I just let it flow. And then I revise. A lot. I usually pare down substantially with each draft, and the content often evolves. Here I was just getting started at creating a feel for the character. Appreciate the constructive criticism on the dialog. Link to comment
berelinde Posted July 25, 2006 Share Posted July 25, 2006 Darn it! If you guys keep it up, I'm going to be forced to start working on my own NPC cleric, and then woe betide anyone who might know anything about coding. I would surely mess it up, and be forever asking "What did I do wrong?" Seriously, though, all day today, I've been running through the possibilities, any time I've had a moment with nothing better to do with my brain. I guess I'd better go find something better to do with my brain. Link to comment
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.