Couple of Miscellaneous Questions

[Mackerel_Sky]

Hi there,

Just ran into a bit of small trouble implementing some test quests.

1.
I'm trying to implement a sort of 'narrator' in a conversation to describe certain player actions or observations that I'm not planning on implementing in game. This works in dialogue without another actor but I can't seem to do it in the middle of conversations with actors. I've tried setting the actor in the relevant node to None but I think it defaults back to the original conversation actor.

2.
I noticed that player answers/choices have their orders jumbled up when returning to a choice. Is there any way to lock the order in which the answers are displayed?

Intended order:


2nd time these choices are linked:


I'd actually like for the player name to be removed from this choice as well, though I think answering 1. will answer this.

I'm sure the fixes to these are relatively simple but couldn't find anything from a quick search. Hopefully it's not too much trouble.

Thanks!

[Tony Li]

Hi,

1. I'm trying to implement a sort of 'narrator' in a conversation to describe certain player actions or observations that I'm not planning on implementing in game. This works in dialogue without another actor but I can't seem to do it in the middle of conversations with actors. I've tried setting the actor in the relevant node to None but I think it defaults back to the original conversation actor.

Create a Narrator actor. Assign those narrator lines to the Narrator actor.

2. I noticed that player answers/choices have their orders jumbled up when returning to a choice. Is there any way to lock the order in which the answers are displayed?

Inspect the node from which those player choices link. You can reorder the links in the inspector's "Links To:" section using the up/down arrow buttons. The buttons should always appear in the order shown in the "Links To:" section.

[Mackerel_Sky]

Hey Tony,

Create a Narrator actor. Assign those narrator lines to the Narrator actor.

Thanks for the tip - should have thought of this earlier. I created a new Narrator actor with a blank name, hopefully that won't have any issues.

Inspect the node from which those player choices link. You can reorder the links in the inspector's "Links To:" section using the up/down arrow buttons. The buttons should always appear in the order shown in the "Links To:" section.

This worked as well. Thanks for the quick reply as always. Do you know a way to get rid of the player name in the choices?

[Tony Li]

Do you know a way to get rid of the player name in the choices?

Try removing the Standard UI Menu Panel's Portrait Name or PC Name GameObject (naming varies across UI prefabs).

[Mackerel_Sky]

Hey Tony,

Sorry for the late reply as I have been hammered with work.

I don't think removing the portrait name would work because I still want the NPC names to show up, I just don't want the player's name. Changing the player's name to be blank made the Dialogue System freak out in certain situations so I don't think that's the fix I'm looking for.

I tried ticking the 'Use Display Name' box with a null display name but it still shows the default Player name. I tried a different display name on an NPC but also returned the NPC's normal name. Changing it in the Script editor of the node throws this error:

Code: Select all

Dialogue System: Lua code 'Actor["Rie"].Display_Name = "Rie"' threw exception 'Cannot assign to a null value. Are you trying to assign to a nonexistent table element?.'

The script code that was generated was

Code: Select all

Actor["Rie"].Display_Name = "Rie"

The original actor looks like this:


I noted that the same error popped up if I tried to change the exact name as well.

[Tony Li]

Hi,

I tried ticking the 'Use Display Name' box with a null display name but it still shows the default Player name.

I'll make sure that's handled properly in 2.2.16.

If you're using the VN template prefab on DS 2.2.15 (current version as of this post) or earlier, please use the updated animator controller in this post.

A dialogue UI consists of subtitle panel(s) and menu panel(s). Typically there are 1-3 subtitle panels and 1 menu panel.

Each subtitle panel has a Portrait Name, although in some configs all subtitle panels can point to the same Portrait Name GameObject. If one of the subtitle panels is only used for the player's subtitle text, you can delete its Portrait Name GameObject. If it's shared among all subtitle panels, don't delete it; instead, just unassign it from the subtitle panel's Portrait Name field.

Each menu panel can also have a PC Name, which is like the portrait name but is shown when the menu is visible. You probably want to delete the PC Name if is exists in your menu panel.

If that info doesn't help, can you please send me a reproduction project or reproduction scene with the assets that I'd need to play it (e.g., dialogue database assigned to Dialogue Manager, etc.)?

[Mackerel_Sky]

Hey Tony,

I use a variant of the JPRG template (just moved the image and name locations). The template only has one name panel so if I unassign it, it just shows the previous actor's name.

How far away is 2.2.16? I'm not in any particular rush and don't want to waste any more of your time so I'm happy to download the fix to the display name when it's ready. Will it also fix that Lua error for changing name and display name in the code? That one is a little bit more important because I want to start a lot of NPC names off with ???? and then change them once they have been introduced. Also, these actor fields should get saved and reset on a new game like the rest of the dialogue system variables, right? For example it wouldn't be correct if an actor got interested and had their name set to Jim, and I start a new game and they were still Jim instead of being ???? again.

Thanks!

[Tony Li]

Try setting the Display Name to a single blank character.

To change Display Names in the middle of a conversation, use the Lua function provided in the "Discover Name Example" package on the Extras page.

Display Names get saved in saved games and reset when you start a new game.

[Mackerel_Sky]

Hey Tony,

Thanks for clarifying.

I downloaded the package and registered the Change Actor Name Lua stuff to my DialogueSystem game object. It looks like it is running correctly but as the display names aren't being shown even with the actors having Use Display Names ticked. I can see in the package example scene that display names are being shown correctly however so there must be something wrong with my set up of dialogue system. Do you know if that was the fix you were including with 2.2.16 or do you need me to upload an example project? Is there a setting somewhere I am missing?

Thanks.

[Tony Li]

I don't think any changes in 2.2.16 will affect this.

Would you please remind me what name, if any should appear at each stage in the conversation? For example:

• Showing NPC subtitle text: Show NPC's Display Name in the UI's single name Text element.
• Show response menu: Show Player's Display Name in the UI's single name Text element.
• Showing player's subtitle text: Show Player's Display Name in the UI's single name Text element.