A Stupid Question

kadvel

Okay, I've used the search function and Google to no avail, so I must humbly ask the masters. This is my first full-attempt on making a mission using the Foundry tool, and thus far, I haven't really had any real problems with the great tutorials and walk-throughs found here on the forums and on YouTube. I just have a question: Is it possible to make an NPC that is not part of the story to have a dialogue tree? If I'm not making sense, please let me know. I can flesh out the details. I would really appreciate any insight to this matter. Thanks!

adverbero

Select your desired NPC, and scroll down a little way

Theres a check box, and next to it is text that says "Has default prompt" , click that and then you can enter in dialogue for the NPC, and theres a button at the bottom to access the advanced dialogue editor

When the player is in the map, they will have an interact named "Talk to (name of NPC)"

Alternatively you can also place dialogue pop ups on the Map directly, and you can use Invisible or hidden objects with a trigger to have the dialogue visible only when you want it to be visible



Hope this helps

nikkojt

adverbero wrote: »

Select your desired NPC, and scroll down a little way

Theres a check box, and next to it is text that says "Has default prompt" , click that and then you can enter in dialogue for the NPC, and theres a button at the bottom to access the advanced dialogue editor

When the player is in the map, they will have an interact named "Talk to (name of NPC)"

Alternatively you can also place dialogue pop ups on the Map directly, and you can use Invisible or hidden objects with a trigger to have the dialogue visible only when you want it to be visible



Hope this helps

So THAT's what that does. Man. And here's me using reach markers for everything. Brb fixing ALL THE THINGS

kirksplat

You can also do a lot of cool tricks with the branching dialogue default text in connection with triggers, like having an npc have different reactions or options depending on what the player does.

drogyn1701

adverbero wrote: »

Select your desired NPC, and scroll down a little way

Theres a check box, and next to it is text that says "Has default prompt" , click that and then you can enter in dialogue for the NPC, and theres a button at the bottom to access the advanced dialogue editor

When the player is in the map, they will have an interact named "Talk to (name of NPC)"

Alternatively you can also place dialogue pop ups on the Map directly, and you can use Invisible or hidden objects with a trigger to have the dialogue visible only when you want it to be visible



Hope this helps

Should note that the "has default prompt" dialogue will repeat. You can talk to that NPC an infinite number of times and have the same conversation. Sometimes that's no big deal.

But if you want to make sure the player has that dialogue only once, use Adverbero's second technique.

novapolaris

You can also use a technique that I'm using in some of my missions.

Use the "default prompt" on an NPC (or object, you can do that) that's not part of the main story flow. Switch to the "states" tab, and set their "visible to invisible" conditions as "dialogue prompt reached". Set dialogue prompt to end point of their dialogue (you may need to add in an extra section of dialogue to prevent cutoff as they disappear).

You can then set a duplicate to the exact same position and angle set to replace them under the same conditions. Go to the "states" tab of the duplicate, and set their "invisible to visible" conditions to the same as the original; "dialogue prompt reached", set to the end point of the original NPC or object's dialogue.

lincolninspace

The only downside is you cannot change the interact text for default dialog. Hmm roundtable guys that is a bug that affects every author....

kadvel

Without a doubt, you guys are miracle workers. Just tried it out and it worked perfectly! Thanks bunches!

adverbero

kadvel wrote: »

Without a doubt, you guys are miracle workers. Just tried it out and it worked perfectly! Thanks bunches!

Good luck with your mission

adallena

I have a question. Actually two. I'm new to the foundry and am working on my first mission.

First question: I want the have a "good guy" answer and "bad guy" answer in my dialog trees but is that an acceptable route? Cuz I mean I know I can't say super mean things. eh here's an example

A Caitian asks if you have something for him. You can say "no, I'm sorry" and he'll shrug and go on. Or you can say. something like "Nobody would want to send you something." And he gets all hurt. maybe even calls security.

The reason I want this is to create more combat and also giving people more choices. I've played some missions where i just wanted to say something smart back.

It would also tie in to the ending and the sequel you know story changes if you were a good guy or smart butt.

Second question: Is it a bad idea to put my mission in a different timeline? I've seen some missions in the mirror-vers and i think one put in the animated series. Mine would be in the new AU and yes i do explain things.

I'm just afraid of outright hate because of this...

I could re-work it to fit the prime time but would have to scrap my protag...

markhawkman

Enh, go for it. Dialog choices are almost always fun.

prierin

adallena wrote: »

I have a question. Actually two. I'm new to the foundry and am working on my first mission.

First question: I want the have a "good guy" answer and "bad guy" answer in my dialog trees but is that an acceptable route? Cuz I mean I know I can't say super mean things. eh here's an example

A Caitian asks if you have something for him. You can say "no, I'm sorry" and he'll shrug and go on. Or you can say. something like "Nobody would want to send you something." And he gets all hurt. maybe even calls security.

The reason I want this is to create more combat and also giving people more choices. I've played some missions where i just wanted to say something smart back.

It would also tie in to the ending and the sequel you know story changes if you were a good guy or smart butt.

Second question: Is it a bad idea to put my mission in a different timeline? I've seen some missions in the mirror-vers and i think one put in the animated series. Mine would be in the new AU and yes i do explain things.

I'm just afraid of outright hate because of this...

I could re-work it to fit the prime time but would have to scrap my protag...

Branching dialogue is always fun and adds more player interaction with the story. Don’t worry about saying something mean – as long as it passes the profanity filters and isn’t racist or insulting against /real/ people you should be fine.

The profanity filter is tricky. I was working on Red Eclipse when I encountered an issue where my character said something and it tripped the filter. However, it wasn’t profane, was spelled and used correctly, and yet still tripped the alert because the end of one word and the beginning of the second word made a “bad” word… alternatively, I wanted a bridge officer to use the expression “those TRIBBLE!” and tripped the alert. So I wrote it as “those TRIBBLE!” and it passed just fine…

Additionally, one thing with branching dialogue trees I have found INCREDIBLY helpful is using the drag arrows. Let’s say you have an NPC contact that, upon speaking to him, offers you three or four different choices, each branching towards a different direction. However, you don’t want to set up four different dialogue triggers for an event at the end… what you can do is direct ALL of the dialogue branches towards a single point and use that as a trigger. How? The arrow that automatically shoots down from one dialogue box to the other. You can left-click and drag it to a completely separate dialogue box, even if it’s in a different branch of the dialogue.

As an example, I have a dialogue tree where the NPC asks you riddles, each giving three possible answers. If you guess the correct one, you move forward to the next set of questions. If you guess the wrong one, it loops back to the initial dialogue and you have to start over. I did this by grabbing the arrow next to the “wrong” answer and dragging it back to the first dialogue box in the tree.

Just experiment and play…. Granted, I am no foundry expert but these are little tricks I’ve picked up along the way.

Last but not least, be wary of using pop-up dialogue if you intend to use a dialogue trigger later on. I have found that it’s very hit and miss. Using a dialogue tree is usually a much safer route.

Good luck!