problem with new topic

[Miamian]

Hello all,

 

I've started to create new quest mod and I've got a problem on the very beginning...

I've made new topic "quest" and made one of the dialogues like this "I've a little quest for you".

And now the problem is that in game this "quest" word is not blue so I can't click on it.

I've checked all conditions, and they seemed to be OK, also when I click "Update hyperlinks" in CS it become "@quest#".

 

Maybe someone had similar problem and know how to fix it?

I really want to make this mod :)

[Miamian]

Strange thing... when I make a dialogue like this "I've got a little [quest] for you", everything is OK, but when I remove the brackets It once again become un-clickable...

and I don't know why...

[GrunTella]

It is possible that the string "quest" is treated specially by the program. Not sure, but certainly a lot of odd exceptions exist in the Morrowind code. In any case the use of "quest" as a topic is very bad as it also exists in at least 8 unrelated topics. Do Text Search in CS for " quest " (please note the spaces) to see the results. Try to be more specific, such as "a little quest", or maybe "a little job", or "a little test".

 

Good luck with your mod :yes:

[abot]

It is a well-known quirk/limit of the Morrowind dialog engine

if e.g. "running an errand" dialog topic is triggered questing in game before e.g. "errand" topic, "errand" topic will not only be no more automatically made blue/highlighted/clickable when encountered in dialog text, it often will not even be available in the topics list.

 

Perfect solution would be using unique topics NOT containing any word used by other topics, but that's nearly impossible especially in a very modded setup.

 

The best compromise solution is to introduce both topics by script, e.g.

AddTopic "running an errand"

AddTopic "errand"

 

no perfect solution, but usually this is how it is done:

1. (working better but more complicated) in dialog result from each introduction of one topic e. g. wherever your first use of "running an errand" or "errand" in dialog text add the 2 lines in dialog text result

OR

2. (simpler, but you risk triggering topics before intended) adding topics from a global autostarting script e.g.

begin modderprefixScriptName

 

stopscript modderprefixScriptName

AddTopic "running an errand"

AddTopic "errand"

 

end

 

My suggestion is, whenever possible, to reuse default vanilla topics, paying attention when you copy a dialog line to NOT modify the original INFO line but the NEW line (the one on top, highlighted with blue background in construction set)

 

[EDIT]typos

Edited December 1, 2017 by abot

[GrunTella]

Thank you on your explanation Abot,

 

I had always assumed a multiple word topic was less problematic than a single word one. I must look again at my mods before I submit them.