Dialogue Trees and the Story elements

hatetank2 · May 2013

I wrote all of the text for all NPC's first. I have five NPC's with text and when I go to the story board to insert a Dialogue step, I can't use what I've written. How do I link pre-written dialogue trees to a story element?

wuhsin · May 2013

There's not really a way to do this without rewriting everything in a story objective dialogue tree. However, if the NPC were made to give out an item required to progress through the story, or a dialogue prompt was required to open a door or something, you might could make it work. However, you won't be able to get the objective to show up to speak to the NPC. A solution for this is putting a Reach Point objective where the point is at the NPC, and the objective is renamed "Speak to X" or something similar.

hatetank2 · May 2013

Ugh. Then why make that a viable option to start? Guess I better get to work! Thanks for the info.

morbic · May 2013

You can do some copy/paste, but yeah, need to at least get placeholder NPCs placed even if they aren't in the correct locations or the correct type/look before you start doing dialogue. Then you can use the pull-down menu story-side for the dialogue objective (or whichever objective you are using) to replace the original target if needed.

shadoewrayth · May 2013

The Foundry is like that old car you bought way back when... it doesn't operate quite 'perfectly' in a lot of ways, but once you figure out that you need to put it in neutral, have someone push it, THEN try to turn the ignition... or that the heater only works if you have the radio on, etc...

Once you figure out the quirks, it runs pretty smoothly... just be prepared for a lot of 'interesting' quirks...lol

hatetank2 · May 2013

It's quite intuitive. I haven't had to use the tutorials yet. I'm just learning that what they can do in the game isn't necessarily what I can do in the Foundry. Not a big deal, just would have been nice to know from the onset!

shadoewrayth · May 2013

Yeah... it gets more complicated the more you do... I mean, everyone can throw together a simple, "Go here, kill this, get chest" mission... but those aren't memorable really... things that are memorable: Interesting dialogue, great atmosphere, a particularly challenging fight (not deadly, but required a trick of some sort, or it had a great script to it)... these things require knowing the in-depth details of the Foundry (and sometimes glitches)... and then watching as further glitches happen, and having to correct them lol...

I am making a zombie quest, but my zombies are acting... odd... I have zoomed in, and set their patrol points to dead center of the streets, and made sure that they stay way away from buildings (to avoid getting them stuck on every possible hangup they can find)... this didn't work, they still left the path and wandered into the areas where they could get hung up... so, I had to add invisible walls to 'guide them'...

Also, when using one of the premade street type maps, the doors on the buildings cannot be used for transitions... however you can ADD doors/gates/portals... so, I chose a portcullis and gate... I put gate in, tested, moved it, tested (perfect location - good), added portcullis, tested, "Where the heck did the portcullis end up??", checked the Y coord - set to 0 based on terrain, same as the gate... so where is it?? Tested again, found it was underground, wth?? So, I move it, tested, it was above ground... synced up with gate again, still below ground... checked height on gate, checked height on portcullis, made the Y = a lil below the height of the gate... tested, works...

THIS IS NOT INTUITIVE!!! LOL... Intuitive is, "place gate, place 'door' type and good"... not screw around with coordinates because the blasted thing is all underground when it SAYS it is in the exact same space (what I wanted) as the gate...

Btw, same thing with doors on those maps, I have had them half in the ground, had them stuck to the wall 10 feet above ground, or just not even appear... because the game treats these elements differently... same with portals... have had them stuck in the ground, or the ceiling...

I designed a room for a boss fight, used the dual tier crypt/dungeon room (cannot remember which right now)... at first, I just placed some simple sarcophagi, tested it, looked cool, but thought the atmosphere could be better, so I placed royal crypt sarcophagi along the edges instead, a fountain of blood in the middle, some rubble along the edges and a line of braziers down each side... then on the upper area, placed two of the LARGE sarcophagi... tested it and found the entire bottom area was hovering in mid air above me as if they were all on the upper level's height... checked the numbers, and all were exactly what they SHOULD have been, but the editor translated it badly, so I had to mess with the Y's again...

This is the sort of stuff I mean... the foundry is a quirky little beast, fun to play with, but you will find new issues every time you mess with it I think...lol

Dialogue Trees and the Story elements

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