[LE] Dialogue with sleeping NPC - anybody made it work?

[Hoamaii]

Hey guys,

 

I've been trying to create a dialogue quest targeted to NPCs when they are sleeping - the idea being that the player wakes them up through dialogue.

 

For the dialogue line to only appear on sleeping NPCs, I've set conditions to when sleepState == 3.

 

Though the quest obviously works, my problem is that as soon as the player clicks on the sleeping NPC, the game makes it wake up, the player dialogue UI disappears and the NPC's dialogue never fires, as of course, that takes it out of SleepState 3.

 

Before I try other things which may complicate what was initially a very simple quest, I'd like to know if any of you guys has tried something similar and found simple ways to solve this?

 

Many thanks in advance :smile:

[Tasheni]

Create a sleep package that fires on conditions GetCurrentTime >=22 and GetCurrentTime<=7 or whatever time you want to sleep your npc and use the same conditions for the dialogue. NPCs will go to sleep again if dialogue has finished, so if you want to change that, you need a global variable on the package and a script for the dialogue that changes the value of the variable and evaluates the package stack.

[Hoamaii]

Hey Tasheni,

 

thanks for the suggestion - the NPCs I'm testing this with (followers) are running a custom sleep package which I created and because they're followers, I'd rather leave it flagged to run 'any time" - but yeah, checking their package with a global variable might help me better set conditions, hadn't thought of that thanks :)

 

I'm going to try and fiddle with 'Blocking' Topics too instead of 'Top Level' - and maybe raising their priority level, see if that leads me anywhere - I'm probably encountering some sort of interferences from the followerQuest here...

[Tasheni]

You could duplicate that sleeping package and set the conditions to it and put it above the other one without the time conditions.

I experienced that the dialogue from blocking topics is mostly cut off in game, so npc will say the first topic but none of the lines which are linked to it. That's pretty annoying and I changed all of my blocking topics to top level because of this. Maybe I did something wrong but I tried a lot of things to prevent this with no luck.

[Hoamaii]

I feel stupid :huh: I realized I had simply forgotten to uncheck the "MustExitToTalk" flag on my furniture!.. Guess that's what happens when you dig out old mod files you haven't touched for months!..

 

Now it works of course, I can activate the NPC and it'll say my quest dialogue as expected and remain in bed... but only after giving me some random "hellos" TopicInfo from the DialogueFollower quest Misc tab!.. I've reset all priorities to be higher than that quest or its topics, but I can't figure out how to get my dialogue to supercede these Misc follower lines...

 

Have you ever dealt with Misc dialogues, do you think a Blocking branch might work in this case? Haven't tried that yet on your advice and I find the Creation Kit's notes a bit confusing for my limited English (not my native language), it all seems as unpredictable as you experienced...

 

Thanks again for your help, Tasheni :)

[Tasheni]

I feel stupid

Happens to me every day :laugh:

Alright, there's another way you could try:

Put the dialogue from the blocking topic under misc dialogue. Put this on top of the misc dialogue lines. Set conditions with your global variable for the sleeping package and uncheck the goodbye box, so dialogue menu will stay visible, after the line is said. Game will fire the dialogue on top first, if conditions are met.

Put the next player dialogue under the dialogue branch as top level or try exclusive level with your global variable as condition.

Add conditions to your hellos that exclude the time your follower sleeps, so the hellos will be said only at daytime or if follower is not in furniture state (IsInFurnitureState = 0)

 

I'm on holidays and so maybe it takes some time for me to answer in case you need more support. Greetings, Tasheni

 

 

[Hoamaii]

Hey there Tasheni,

Gosh please, enjoy your holidays, do not worry about my fumbling attempts to force the CK to agree to my plans!... :laugh:

Turns out I don't need to use conditions related to my package for this to run (well, I have other conditions but the package doesn't seem to be an issue now that the NPC stays in bed while talking).

 

I'm still using the Player Dialogue branches rather than the Misc Infos atm, but blocking the branch does pretty much what you describe: my sleeping actor says the info as soon as I activate it (instead of its previous choice of some random follower hellos), but then the player dialogue menu displays and the actor fires its line a second time before (again :sad:) giving me the old follower hello...

 

Basically, the infos fires before the topic is displayed, then fires again after the topic, then the follower hello fires immediately after it all :mad: which makes it all look like the most idiotic conversation one could have in Skyrim!..

 

Conditions are met obviously 'cause it (just?) works in some sort of chaotic stupid way - what I can't get my head around is why my other dialogue lines work just fine when the NPC is standing, and this one forces some random follower line on me when the same actor is sleeping - he's not in a waiting state, I've checked.

 

What I did was block the branch, uncheck the "Goodbye" flag and raised all priorities to be higher than the DialogueFollowerQuest - with a tiny small victory: at least my dialogue fires before the follower hello now...

 

If I leave the Goodbye checked, the only difference I get is the topic never displays, the NPC says his Info line, then again (of course) his follower hello... :wallbash:

 

Guess I'll try you suggestion next, using the Misc infos - anything that would hopefully stop this random follower chatter!..

 

Have fun in your holidays - and many thanks again for lending me a sympathetic ear... ;)

 

 

PS. I'll be in holidays next week and I know I won't be able to help checking the Nexus even then... Isn't that some sort of "modders' addiction"?..

[Tasheni]

The way with the misc dialogue works for my followers, so I guess you will be successful.

 

Isn't that some sort of "modders' addiction"?..

Ha, ha, one could think. But I'm on the way to my destination, that takes two days before I will arrive and meanwhile I have delays with nothing to do, so why not look into nexus?

And in the evenings at sea I will have time to write and make new songs and play my bouzouki - that's no addiction, that's fun!

I wish you nice holidays. :dance:

[Hoamaii]

Bouzouki? Are you vacationing in Greece?.. I love the sound of that instrument...

 

Haven't progressed in my Dialogues yet as I'm now away from my main modding computer ( :blush:) - but "I'll be back" :pirate: - I'm not done fighting my way through the dialogue maze yet!..

 

Cheers, Tasheni!

[Tasheni]

It's an Irish Bouzouki and I'm staying at the east coast of Sardegna :teehee:

In fact I took some Skyrim stuff with me - want to write next dialogue for agerweb http://www.greensmilies.com/smile/smiley_emoticons_kolobok-hallo-kappe.gif

 

Enjoy your holidays!