6 replies to this topic

[Sillara]

I am playing around with my NPC, trying to figure out if his scripts work before releasing him into beta. The mod compiles fine, and he joins my party just fine. The trouble is that he stops walking. I select a spot, and my party starts walking toward it. Then suddenly, inexplicably, my NPC's glowing green mark showing where he ought to end up, vanishes. He stops dead in his tracks, and that makes it incredibly difficult to play with him! We have not been anywhere NEAR the Underdark, so it is not due to a drow avatar or anything. I cannot figure out what is causing the problem. I read once there was something similar caused by a variable name being too long somewhere, but I am pretty sure all my variable names are under 30 characters. Is that the maximum? Any help is greatly appreciated!!!

Sillara

[Stone Wolf]

That sounds like the infamous stutter bug, where the NPC keeps trying to say something but can't figure out what to say. Something in the NPCs script might be telling the NPC to start a dialog, but there isn't a dialog with valid triggers to start. One way to test this is to create a top level dialog (just one line and exit is fine) with no conditions. If that dialog pops up, then you've figured out the problem. Well, in general terms at least. You're still stuck finding out where the problem is.

The first thing I'd do is try and figure out if the NPC should (or could) have any dialog under those conditions. Could any timers have expired? If not, then you've probably got a problem where the script is calling for a dialog at the wrong time.

[Kismet]

If you're having trouble finding out where the problem is, then add some debugging code to each block of the script (DisplayStringHead(Myself,~ScriptName: Block #~), replacing, of course, the # with a different number for each script block.) When you see the same block number being displayed over and over again you'll know which script block is giving you trouble and can fix it from there.

[Sillara]

Thanks, Stone Wolf, Kismet! I found it. It was my poorly-coded script for randomized flirts that was causing the problem. I have not yet fixed the code, but I have commented it out for the time being. Tsujatha can move again!

Sillara

[Diana]

I have a question about the syntax for use in a script:

DisplayStringHead(Myself,~ScriptName: Block #~),

Wouldn't I have to replace ~Scriptname with the name of the script file or creature that is running it? Also, Iim assuming that it would be

DisplayStringHead(Myself,~ScriptName: Block 1~) etc and then Block 2 and so forth for each block I want to check. Also, do we need the tildes?

Sorry if this question has been asked over and over again but I'm a novice at this.
Thanks.

[Kismet]

The stuff between the tildes is the text that will appear over the .cre that's running the script, so you can make it whatever makes sense to you.

[Diana]

Thanks - got it now. The confusion came cause I didn't recall seeing tildes in any of the .baf files I looked at.