Perk based dialogue and scripts - more questions!

[ChancellorKremlin]

Okay, so I'm once again grappling with the GECK, and failing miserably. What I want to do is relatively simple, I want to create a Perk that allows me to have some dedicated dialogue with characters such as Cass, Veronica, and some others which I may chose at a later time.

 

Though this dialogue, I want to be able to begin scripts (much like a SexoutSex line will begin the "sex" script) and so forth.

 

So my first question is:

 

1) How do I create a perk with dialogue, and how do I target it at certain NPC's?

 

2) Can I just copy/paste similar scripts into the "end" box of the dialogue in the hopes it wills et off the script or will I actually have to write it elsewhere?

 

For the record, I've opened GECK and I'm in ActorByData, Perk, New, but nowhere do I see where I can add a dialogue option to the newly created perk, and I can't say I understand too well how the conditions work.

 

Any help in this would be much appreciated.

 

CK

[prideslayer]

You create the perk first, then add dialog in the normal place (greeting, etc) in a new quest. In your dialog topic, you use the conditions to check for the perk.

 

The end/begin script box is fine. Make sure you use getself and other references where appropriate. IIRC in dialog scripts, the implicit reference is the speaking NPC, so a straight "CIOS somespell" will cast somespell on the speaking NPC. If it needs to be cast on someone else instead, you need to do "ref.CIOS somespell".

[ChancellorKremlin]

You create the perk first' date=' then add dialog in the normal place (greeting, etc) in a new quest. In your dialog topic, you use the conditions to check for the perk.

 

The end/begin script box is fine. Make sure you use getself and other references where appropriate. IIRC in dialog scripts, the implicit reference is the speaking NPC, so a straight "CIOS somespell" will cast somespell on the speaking NPC. If it needs to be cast on someone else instead, you need to do "ref.CIOS somespell".

[/quote']

 

Godamn it, I just can't get this thing to work. Thanks for your help Prideslayer, your help was invaluable, but I am afraid I'm stuck again.

 

I've created the perk (Level 1, Ranks 3, ticked Playable, conditions S GetIsSex Female == 1) and also the quest.

 

In the quest window, under topics, I have the prompt (which I ask) and the response, which *should* be by Cass. Av/Perk is selected with my relevant perk, say once and goodbye are tagged, speaker NPC is RoseOfSharonCassidy, and condition is S GetIsID RoseOfSharonCassidy == 1.

 

Tried that, got no new options with Cass. So I then went into her dialogue tree in VDialogueCass, topics, and under "greetings" I've added into certain of her greets (look who rolled in, why you leaning in all of a sudden, etc) in the choices bit, the ID of my dialogue topic for my quest.

 

But whenever I talk to her, the option just isn't there. I don't know what I am doing wrong. Any further help would be greatly appreciated.

[prideslayer]

You need to use her ref.. it's RoseOfSharonCassidyREF. RoseOfSharonCassidy is the base actor and doesn't actually exist. Try that first.

[ChancellorKremlin]

Thanks pride, but I don't follow. I directly copied the condition from one of her own dialogue options, and whenever I click on it and try and change the Function Parameters under Condition Item, I only have the choice of RoseOfSharonCassidy, not anything ending in REF.

[prideslayer]

Oh.. hmm. Not all of them end in ref, but I thought hers did. Will think about this some more.

[ChancellorKremlin]

I could attach the ESP I'm working on in the hopes maybe you'll spot something I didn't?

[prideslayer]

Sure, myself or someone else can look. I won't have time for a few hours yet.

[DoctaSax]

You need to use her ref.. it's RoseOfSharonCassidyREF. RoseOfSharonCassidy is the base actor and doesn't actually exist. Try that first.

 

You don't need to do that in dialog conditions. Only in scripts, really.

 

Maybe something or other overwrites the greetings you edited. A bit like the addtopic bug but with choices instead of addtopic. Greetings are finnicky like that. Is it really necessary to have your topic attached to an existing greeting? You could add the topic in a short start-up quest script instead?

[ChancellorKremlin]

Sure' date=' myself or someone else can look. I won't have time for a few hours yet.

[/quote']

 

OK then, I'll put it up, I'm in no hurry and making no progress.

 

You don't need to do that in dialog conditions. Only in scripts' date=' really.[/quote']

 

That explains it.

 

Maybe something or other overwrites the greetings you edited. A bit like the addtopic bug but with choices instead of addtopic. Greetings are finnicky like that. Is it really necessary to have your topic attached to an existing greeting? You could add the topic in a short start-up quest script instead?

 

The reason I tried attaching it was because it wouldn't fire from its own accord. In any case, I've uploaded the file I'm working on, its called SexoutD. The perk is called SexoutW, and the dialogue is called SexoutDCassGreeting.

 

All I'm trying to do the option to say "Test" and get her to say "reply" in conversation. So far it's not worked, and I've tried linking it with her own greeting, in topics such as "Why you leaning in all of a sudden", "What's up" and "Well, look who just rolled in..." but no success. I also apologise for the vague and obscure nature of the plugin, but I kind of want to keep things wrapped up.

 

Any help here would be greatly appreciated, as I have major work to do on the plugin, and this is just the groundwork. I can't afford to be floundering right now.

 

PS: Master files are FNV, Sexout, SCR, Slavery and Legion.

 

Thanks.

[prideslayer]

Will take a quick peek now. No promises though, short on time for a few hours still. Just out of curiosity, does it actually need legion and slavery as masters?

[prideslayer]

First thing, if you want this to be a top level topic, your greeting needs to use the actual GREETING topic.

 

Right-click in the topics for the quest, add topic, find and select GREETING, and add it there.

[DoctaSax]

Your quest isn't enabled, it seems. So, that oughta be changed - either by checking "start game enabled" or performing a startquest elsewhere.

 

Then you still need the topic to be added to the list of topics. So either create a custom greeting & link to the topic in choices, or do as I suggested earlier & perform an addtopic in a little start-up script attached to your quest.

[prideslayer]

Your quest isn't enabled' date=' it seems. So, that oughta be changed - either by checking "start game enabled" or performing a startquest elsewhere.

[/quote']

 

Didn't even think to check that.. derp!

 

Then you still need the topic to be added to the list of topics. So either create a custom greeting & link to the topic in choices, or do as I suggested earlier & perform an addtopic in a little start-up script attached to your quest.

 

This is easiest and most cleanly done as I outlined. Just add the GREETING topic to the quest, and then add topics to that as desired. Addtopic in a script works but that's more for adding new topics to an existing dialog coming from a quest that isn't your own, or adding greeting topics that need more complex conditions (though this is really never the case -- you can always check a quest var in the dialog conditions, and your script can always conditionally set or clear that var).

 

Unless you're trying to modify an existing vanilla topic with more choices, there's no need to 'muck with' the choices in a vanilla quest or use addtopic.

[DoctaSax]

Well, yeah, avoiding unnecessary conflict is the main thing. Whether through custom greeting, or addtopicking through script - that's a matter of who you want to initiate the conversation, really.

[prideslayer]

If you want the dialog to be initiated some way other than greeting, you can always use StartConversation in a script. There's really (almost) no need for AddTopic; none of the other sexout mods use it to my knowledge either, even tryouts, which is rather dialog heavy.

[DoctaSax]

StartConversation also makes the NPC start the conversation. Sometimes you want the PC to set things off with a new line in the dialog window. In which case, some form of addtopic has to be performed first, no?

[prideslayer]

The PC can't start dialog. The first line is always spoken by the NPC, because the PC is always given a choice of what they want to say -- so the only way to give them the choice is to have the NPC speak something to them first, to cause the menu to open up.

 

Addtopic just adds a topic to the menu -- you still need to get that menu to display.

 

This silly bit of engine screwiness is why all the voiced NPCs start off talking, even if you 'initiate' it like via the companion wheel, the NPC starts the conversation with "whats up" or whatever greeting line.

 

Back on topic for a minute.. I can't get the greeting topic to show up either. I remember something about this having to do with vanilla greeting topics having (sometimes) higher priority or something like that, but can't remember exactly. Might have to add the topic in to the choices in vdialoguecass afterall (I deleted them all in the local esp to test just greeting).

[jaam]

Try with anybody BUT Cass! She is definitvly special.

Ask astymma

[prideslayer]

ahh.. probably some kind of package on her or something then interfering with normal quest dialog stuff. It might be that she'll work ok after you pick her up as a companion, I'm not sure. Don't have any saves with her quest stuff done.

[DoctaSax]

The PC can't start dialog.

 

Yeah' date=' what I meant is: addtopic is good for having the pc start a particular conversation path once the dialog window's already open. Not actually starting the conversation.

 

Back on topic for a minute.. I can't get the greeting topic to show up either. I remember something about this having to do with vanilla greeting topics having (sometimes) higher priority or something like that, but can't remember exactly. Might have to add the topic in to the choices in vdialoguecass afterall (I deleted them all in the local esp to test just greeting).

 

Well, the quest has a priority of 0 atm, so that'll never fire up.

Increasing it to 60 or so will change that, but if another mod comes along with another greeting at a higher priority, it'll override. And Cass is a popular npc to mod for. And there might be some trouble with the companion wheel & smallertalk's way of handling that. A script-addtopic avoids such compatibility issues.

 

Then again, Krem might be trying to pick up on specific vanilla greets like "why're you leaning in all of a sudden" & stuff like that. So that leaves us with

a) editing vanilla greetings' choices, risking conflicts

copying those greets to a higher priority quest & adding the extra topic in choices there.

c) script-addtopicking + the necessary conditions to make sure it's only there when you want it to

d) not sure, but maybe adding "greeting" to the "link from" box of a topic + setting conditions on the topic. Never seen "link from" used in the topics tab, so no guarantees, but since it exists there's a chance it might actually work.

e) ?

[jaam]

No. Even as a companion she is "different"

Or rather her initial GREETING is a closed set.

That led to SmallerTalk having the companion wheel initiate dialog when closed.

[prideslayer]

The PC can't start dialog.

 

Yeah' date=' what I meant is: addtopic is good for having the pc start a particular conversation path once the dialog window's already open. Not actually starting the conversation.

[/quote']

 

Ah. I don't see any advantage to that over just having the topic in place, with an appropriate condition check of a quest var/stage/whatever. Just makes it more confusing to other people when looking at it in the GECK.

 

Well, the quest has a priority of 0 atm, so that'll never fire up.

Increasing it to 60 or so will change that, but if another mod comes along with another greeting at a higher priority, it'll override. And Cass is a popular npc to mod for. And there might be some trouble with the companion wheel & smallertalk's way of handling that. A script-addtopic avoids such compatibility issues.

 

I had already set the quest active, then tried setting greeting 'top level' and bumped priority to 100, tried either and both. Didn't help.

 

d) not sure, but maybe adding "greeting" to the "link from" box of a topic + setting conditions on the topic. Never seen "link from" used in the topics tab, so no guarantees, but since it exists there's a chance it might actually work.

 

Tried it, no dice. Something else is going on with Cass, as Jaam pointed out.

 

I stipped the esp down to its bare bones leaving just the quest and the (unused) perk, removed scr, slavery, and legion as masters, made a new topic and 'linked from' greeting. Cleaned it up in fnvedit, still no dice.

 

Smallertalks companion wheel might be the only way to get it going here, but that also won't work until she's a companion, which I can't test myself right now.

[prideslayer]

Geck finds nothing special about cass. I'm betting it's a bug in the vanilla ESM. There are, literally, thousands according to fnvedit. I'm going to take a look through for those that impact her and see if any could be responsible.

 

Smallertalk has special handling for Cass that applies to nobody else as well.

[DoctaSax]

Ah. I don't see any advantage to that over just having the topic in place' date=' with an appropriate condition check of a quest var/stage/whatever. Just makes it more confusing to other people when looking at it in the GECK. [/quote']

 

Ah, shucks, you're right - if top-level is checked at least. Didn't have that in Oblivion, which is why addtopicking's still in my head as something necessary to do.