dannyjackson Posted August 4, 2011 Share Posted August 4, 2011 (edited) I'm still trying to wrap my head around GECK's dialogue system. So far so good, I'm having a lot of fun modifying and fixing dialogues, but there's one part that puzzles me. If you open up GECK and search for the Quest VMS43, then go to Editor ID VMS43CampSearchLightPvtEdwardsTopic022, there's the Topic Text, but no Choices. Everything else is blank. The dialogue, however, flows perfectly in-game with the appropriate choices. What's up with that? A second puzzling feature is how come there's nothing in the Topic Text and Prompt. Example is in VMS43CampSearchLightPvtEdwardsTopic001. Topic text is just <Questions>. Is it a reference to a string of questions? Where can I find it if so? What happens if I don't add in any choices following something that the NPC says? Let's say I have a Choice A, which leads to NPC saying Monologue A. However, when NPC says Monologue A, it is not flagged as Goodbye. Will I still be able to say Choice A then? What happens after the NPC finishes his monologue? How do I rename a Topic ID? Currently I have a custom dialogue called <EMPTY> but I want to rename it. Oh yeah is it possible to circumvent the 100-word limit that the PC can say? Edited August 4, 2011 by dannyjackson Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glenstorm Posted August 4, 2011 Share Posted August 4, 2011 (edited) Regarding the choices which come up when a response has no explicit choices and is not tagged as a goodbye topic, I believe the choices shown will be the top-level topics for that given NPC. Top-level topics are usually the list of topics which you can ask them when you greet them. This excludes topics which are only said once. For example, in the case of Astor (the lead patrol sergeant patrolling searchlight) when you talk to him for the first time, he warns you about the radiation at searchlight. Then whenever you talk to him, its just regular meet and greet with a few topics. These are top-level topics (you can tag a topic as top level in the Topics Tab). I doubt you can circumvent the limit and squeeze in more words in the same line by default. I think Darnified UI extends the limit a bit but depending on that is not advised as people might not have it installed. EDIT: It seems like you might not know about the conversation editor. Click on the paragraph icon on the right hand side of the toolbar in GECK --> choose a quest in the quest filter. Makes it much easier to screw around with dialogue. Edited August 4, 2011 by Glenstorm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dannyjackson Posted August 4, 2011 Author Share Posted August 4, 2011 (edited) Thanks Glen. I'm still a bit confused. Can you help me take a look at VMS43CampSearchLightPvtEdwardsTopic003? Under Topic Text, it says <Questions>. Where can I edit the <Questions>? -edit- Hang on I just checked the Conversation Editor as you suggested. Hm. So, I can edit the <Questions> in there? It seems so, but I just want to make sure :) Also apart from the obtuse interface of the Quest editor, is there any other key difference between using it and the Conversation editor to edit dialogues? Edited August 4, 2011 by dannyjackson Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glenstorm Posted August 4, 2011 Share Posted August 4, 2011 Thanks Glen. I'm still a bit confused. Can you help me take a look at VMS43CampSearchLightPvtEdwardsTopic003? Under Topic Text, it says <Questions>. Where can I edit the <Questions>? -edit- Hang on I just checked the Conversation Editor as you suggested. Hm. So, I can edit the <Questions> in there? It seems so, but I just want to make sure :) Also apart from the obtuse interface of the Quest editor, is there any other key difference between using it and the Conversation editor to edit dialogues? I don't quite understand that myself. I'm sure there must be an explanation. Just need to look deeper. Maybe you could edit the prompts? The conversation editor basically lets you keep your sanity while creating huge quest mods. Other than that, not much really. It's about the same. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dannyjackson Posted August 4, 2011 Author Share Posted August 4, 2011 Alright I think I'm swinging it. Thanks a lot mac :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dannyjackson Posted August 5, 2011 Author Share Posted August 5, 2011 Hmm is it possible to extend the word limit with NVSE? I have a very rough workaround it (still 100-limit, but the NPC remains silent for one dialogue to let the PC continue his speech), but it'd be nicer to be able to write without having to constrict the vocabulary. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davidlallen Posted August 5, 2011 Share Posted August 5, 2011 There are two points here. (1) The PC or NPC can speak any number of words. Because of screen limits, each response can only be 100 characters. But you can have multiple responses in the same topic. (2) From the game design standpoint, do you really want long non-interactive monologues? Players find this very boring. Perhaps you can put the information into a note, or redesign the monologue so that the other speaker does *something* in between. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dannyjackson Posted August 5, 2011 Author Share Posted August 5, 2011 (edited) Oh well bummer. It's really too bad. I wasn't planning on having eulogies for dialogues, but was intending to have more consistent choices that don't wrest the suspension of disbelief away from the player. Of course, the target audience is for those who are more critical towards dialogues, which I guess is why it won't be most people's cups of tea. Yeah what you suggested is the workaround that I have in mind. Thanks :) Another question: for custom-made voiceless responses from NPCs, how do I determine the time it takes before the response clears out and moves on to the next one? Edited August 5, 2011 by dannyjackson Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davidlallen Posted August 5, 2011 Share Posted August 5, 2011 (edited) how do I determine the time it takes before the response clears out and moves on to the next one? There is no way to control that. When I see a wall of text like that, I read quickly and hit <space bar> to go to the next page. Edited August 5, 2011 by davidlallen Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dannyjackson Posted August 5, 2011 Author Share Posted August 5, 2011 So custom-made NPC responses last for a fixed amount of time before being cleared out? What about the fully voice-acted ones in the default game? How are they made to decide on when to be moved on? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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