Pixel Crushers Forum

Hello!

Thanks for welcoming us on board!

We're using Dialogue System and Quest Machine for our new project, Dungeons of Atonement.



I'm testing various type of "bark" interactions with NPCs.

I want to make a NPC that "barks on idle", that part is simple.
But I want him to play different barks when the player interacts with him, now I don't know the correct way to do that.
I use SimStatus to alternate between barks.

Barks on Idle:
"Dum, dee dum..."
"Hmm-hmm, hmm-hmm..."
(he's just singing)

Barks on interact:
First time: "What a beautiful day, wouldn't you say?"
Second time: "Oh, the sweet solace of labour!"
Forever after: "Pom, pom-pom, pom...."

Basically, should it be structured like this:



Or like this?



Thank you so much!

Edit: I should mention I wish it all to be in one conversation, I'd prefer to have only one conversation graph per NPC.

Hi,

If you don't mind using two different conversations, it'll be a lot cleaner. (Note that you can use forward slashes ( / ) in conversation titles to group them into submenus.) Point the Bark On Idle component to one conversation and your Dialogue System Trigger (triggered on use/interact) to the other conversation.

For the bark on interact conversation, use a variable to keep track of which node it should bark. For example, say you have a Number variable named "Cellarer.Bark" whose initial value is 0. Then:

• Node 1 - Dialogue Text: "What a beautiful day, wouldn't you say?"
  Conditions: Variable["Cellarer.Bark"] == 0
  Script: Variable["Cellarer.Bark"] = 1
• Node 1 - Dialogue Text: "Oh, the sweet solace of labour!"
  Conditions: Variable["Cellarer.Bark"] == 1
  Script: Variable["Cellarer.Bark"] = 2
• Node 1 - Dialogue Text: "Pom, pom-pom, pom...."
  Conditions: Variable["Cellarer.Bark"] >= 2

If you absolutely must use a single conversation, you can link the <START> node to two nodes, see below.

Spoiler

1. The first node will contain all bark on idle text inside a RandomElement() Lua function:

• Dialogue Text: [lua(RandomElement("Dum, dee dum...|Hmm-hmm, hmm-hmm..."))]

Set the Bark On Idle component's Bark Order to First Valid.

2. The second node will contain all bark on interact text:

• Dialogue Text: [lua(RandomElement("What a beautiful day, wouldn't you say?|Oh, the sweet solace of labour!|Pom, pom-pom, pom...."))]

Tick the Dialogue System Trigger's Actions > Bark > Specify Bark Entry, and specify this node. However, if it must go in order, this node's text will need to be more complex. I can write that up, but I'll skip it unless you really need it.

Oh okay!
Hmm okay I understand that any method other than creating a conversation for barks on idle and another conversation for barks on interact would be a bit over-complicated. There are no condition really to distinguish the two types of barks.

Is there a way to reorder the submenus, or set them to alphabetical order? It's getting a bit messy since I'm adding a graph for every NPCs.

> Is there a way to reorder the submenus, or set them to alphabetical order? It's getting a bit messy since I'm adding a graph for every NPCs.

Yes! To set conversations to alphabetical order, in the Dialogue Editor you can use Menu > Sort > By Title.

To reorder them manually, use Menu > Outline Mode. Then you can drag conversation titles up and down.

You can also use the filter bar next to the conversation title dropdown (just below the "Database | Actors |..." tabs) to filter the dropdown menu.

Genius! This will be tremendously helpful. Thank you!

- Is there a way to deactivate "Bark On Idle" while a bark on interact is playing? So that "What a beautiful day, wouldn't you say?" doesn't get interrupted by "Dum, dee dum..."

- I don't know why but the barks are "following" my player off screen.

Hi,

I'll assume you're using a Dialogue System Trigger to trigger barks on interact. To prevent idle barks while a bark on interact is playing:

1. On the Bark On Idle component, tick Bark On Enable.

2. On the Dialogue System Trigger select Add Action > OnExecute() UnityEvent. Configure the UnityEvent to disable the Bark On Idle component.

3. Add a Dialogue System Events component to the NPC. Configure the OnBarkEnd() UnityEvent to re-enable the Bark On Idle component.


To keep bark UIs positioned over the NPC's head, untick the bark UI's Keep In View checkbox.

Works like a charm!! Thank you again!

Glad to help!