Quest Scripting Help Needed

[Feralkyn]

Also still looking for a way to make the custom follower make comments:

a. at certain locations DURING a quest (NOT by chance, but specifically scripted to do so, without scenes)

b. when a VANILLA quest is accepted/completed.

 

I don't want to edit the vanilla quests, but is there a way to trigger him to comment when they're accepted? Not a chance to, and not ON the quest stage, but specifically on accept.

 

Ex. If I want him to make a disparaging remark to the NPC, or warn the player not to do the quest. As an example, when the House of Horrors progresses to "get your reward" stage, I want him to comment that the Vigilant who attacked you was a coward/fool, and warn the player not to venture deeper, without being clicked on, and without editing the vanilla quest. Can I do this?

 

Now one problem with scenes: I've scripted a scene for the follower and another NPC on quest accept. I tried all sorts of things to get it to run, but then read that the follower's ai package needs to allow scene dialogue, and I cannot for the life of me find that option in the follower AI package.

 

Some info about the mod (finally), if anyone is interested, btw:

 

This mod is intended to allow the player to become the Court Wizard of Falkreath. After a short questline involving a new dungeon, you'd be awarded the old court wizard's house (since Falkreath has no court wizard, I've created a custom house), and the NPC questgiver will then be available as a fully-voiced custom follower. There's also a horse and a dog follower. A radiant quest will also be unlocked asking the player to clear out various rogue wizard dens to fulfill their duties as court wizard. I'm TRYING to add a second radiant quest, as I'll explain below. The horse is a custom dark black skin with a Thalmor saddle, and the house is a wizard-themed house with a wizard's tower containing custom wizard-styled crafting activators (ex. an 'arcane' forge, using the magicka pool models from within the College), a library and a small "museum" (read: armor display/storage area) originally built for Falkreath's citizens.


- The questline itself is fully completed, as is the dungeon, all quest dialogue, etc.

- The house is completely done, and compatible with Hearthfire Multiple Adoptions.

- The dog is done, as is the NPC, and the custom-textured horse/saddle; I'm working on the follower's Misc area dialogue, as well as trying to figure out non-random situational dialogue, as above.

- The first radiant quest (clear out wizard dens) is complete.

- The second radiant quest series MAY not be possible; I want it to fill aliases with items using vendoritemsoulgem OR vendoritemingredient keywords, then ask the player to retrieve them, which it does but I can't figure out how to make it register being placed into inventory. Optimally it'd have asked the player to, as Court Wizard, acquire an alchemy ingredient, potion, soul gem OR weapon enchanted with a certain enchant type, but for various reasons, I think weapons/potions won't actually work :(


The only fully non-complete thing is voice-acting.

The only things I have yet to actually figure OUT are the radiant items, the scene issue (the new issue), and non-random situational dialogue.

it has been a VERY long road, but I hope it'll soon be done :smile:

 

Edited November 21, 2015 by Feralkyn

[skinnytecboy]

Regarding dialogue; BigBizkit answered your question way back.

In a nutshell, you can place dialogue conditions on the lines in question such as GetStage mg08 05 for example. Read through the Deck 16 tutorial I posted earlier, it goes in depth about conditions.

 

Radiant quests.. I don't have a lot of experience with, but I know that there are plenty of tutorials out there.

[Feralkyn]

I'm not after random idle dialogue that -might- play, I'm looking specifically for dialogue that plays exactly when a quest is accepted, etc. So far as I can see the idles don't work that way. (I've been pointed toward the Story Manager instead, so I'll check that out!)

Edited November 22, 2015 by Feralkyn

[skinnytecboy]

Conditions are the key!

 

...and there's nothing wrong with Idles. One can use any npc dialogue to fire a script. ......

Edited November 23, 2015 by skinnytecboy

[Feralkyn]

Wait, as far as I knew, an NPC is randomly triggered to idle speak, right?

 

Having a condition such as "getstage -> quest -> acceptance stage" will only fire IF they happen to use an idle right then, and it doesn't select another idle, no? And the script will only fire if they use that idle? I'd prefer not to edit vanilla assets, so no using the quest text from accepting the vanilla quests in question! Please correct me if I'm mistaken. I thought that conditions were "only do if," not "definitely do if"?

[skinnytecboy]

They are "only do if" but the real trick is to have conditions on all your idles. You should take a peek at some other followers to see how they use conditions. Sofia is a good example as to is my Ben. (Btw, I added Bens source files as an optional download if you want to take a look).

 

As for making an npc actually say what you want them to, there are lots of different ways in which it could be said:

 

Idle

hello

Force greet

General topic

And scenes.

 

It all depends upon how you wish your npc to interact as to which method you'll choose.

 

Regarding whether or not an npc is likely to say a conditional idle

.. If you want to ensure that they say it, then simply put the line at the top with "random" unchecked.

 

The only downside that you'll need to overcome is how to shut them up and not repeat themselves if conditions are true.

[TheDarkPrince]

I don't want to go offtopic, but I would like to know what kind of mod you are creating! I'd love to follow the progress!

[Feralkyn]

"Say once" I'd think would work for that, so I'll give it a shot; toying with the story manager as well :smile: For some reason I've had real trouble getting force-greets to work, though, which is a shame. Followed a couple tutorials but my NPC just is apparently shy on that sort of thing, lol.

 

TheDarkPrince, I have a Spoiler on the first post of this page, but basically it's a mod with a quest, Follower, and house, as well as introducing a radiant quest (two if I can get the other one to work :| ). It's about becoming a court wizard, so it's a mage-oriented mod with a wizard's house, and the follower is a Thalmor who may or may not be a loyalist (it's left very unclear, but strongly hinted that he's in for his own reasons and really dislikes Ancano/Ondolemar etc.). I'm hoping to give the follower some real personality, likeable and useful, and I'm hoping the quest is a lot of fun. The house took a few weeks of work so that, too, I'm hoping people like!

 

Amusingly, the follower's got fireballs (he is a pyromaniac) at higher levels, and I want to keep this. I found out very early on in testing that this leads to a LOT of inter-follower aggro, so I had to figure out how to make him unable to actually harm other followers, to ignore friendly hits, and to leave combat on Yield (Bleedout) instead of attacking all over again x) It still won't be great to use him with a melee follower or dog, but it'll at least not kill the other follower. That was a fun snag xD

Edited November 24, 2015 by Feralkyn

[skinnytecboy]

Just so you know; "Say Once" is slightly broken. It will work on a play through, but if the player reloads the game it will reset itself. So its best to use more than one condition if you can to limit the chance of your npc repeating the comments before stages increase.

[Feralkyn]

Aha, good to know, thanks!

 

I have a lot of conditions on most misc/idles--location, quest stage, weather, and time resets on most so hopefully nothing becomes too repetitive. I had no idea the "say once" was broken; I'll be careful and use other methods to keep something long from being repeated then!