3 replies to this topic

[Drathen]

So after toying around with dialog and NPCs a little, I was curious how BGII pulls off the "commoner" types (NPCs who just say little tidbits if YOU walk up and speak to them).

So I dug into the area files, and found absolutely no dialog references in a ton of NPCs who do in fact say things.

I'm wondering, how do you get an NPC to use its dialog when the PC walks up and speaks to them, rather than them activating dialogue via script?

[weimer]

The DLG resource field in the CRE file tells the game what DLG file to use when you (the PC) initiates a dialogue with that CRE.

Take, for example, MTOWN1.CRE (Peasant) which at offset 0x2cc (the dialogue resource field) has "mtown1".dlg. If you look at mtown1.dlg you'll see things like:

IF WEIGHT #2 /* Triggers after states #: 3 even though they appear after this state */
~RandomNum(6,2)~ THEN BEGIN 1 // from:
 SAY #13756 /* ~Don't be goin' into the slums, now, I warn ye.  If ye look like ye can rub more'n two coppers together, ye'll be jumped in no time!~ */
 IF ~~ THEN EXIT
END

Does that answer your question?

[Drathen]

No, not really.

How do you get an NPC to initiate dialogue only when the PC walks right up them and talks to them, rather than starting dialogue from a distance, or walking up to the PC to start dialogue?

I might be missing some really simple scripting function.

[weimer]

Oh, I see what you are saying. This should work:

IF
Range([PC],10)
Global("Talk","LOCALS",0)
THEN
RESPONSE #100
SetGlobal("Talk","LOCALS",1)
StartDialogueNoSet([PC])
END