Inspector: Dropdown Menu for Dialogue Entry

Announcements, support questions, and discussion for the Dialogue System.
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Loremu
Posts: 20
Joined: Wed Dec 29, 2021 11:06 am

Inspector: Dropdown Menu for Dialogue Entry

Post by Loremu »

Hi,

Summary of the concept I try to achieve:
In my game, there are multiple short stories that all follow the same structure. Part of the structure is that an NPC comments on the player's action at certain points. The structure looks like this:
Story -> NPC comment -> Player decides between 2-4 Options -> choice results in one of 3-8 outcomes -> NPC comments the outcome -> end.
Since there can be up to 9 comments per short story (depending on the number of options that varies from story to story), I want to have them in one conversation in the dialouge database and call them by dialogue entry (instead of having an own conversation for each comment. The comments are quite short: 1-3 entries.)

What I want to do:
I have a script that tracks which comment should be played next -> for example it checks the outcome of the player's decision and should play the respective comment (dialogue entry).
It receives the information from a ScriptableObject. I want to be able to assign the conversation and dialogue entry in the ScriptableObject's inspector.

My main question:
Is there a possibility to select dialoge entry via dropdown in the inspector? (Like the Attribute for picking a conversation [ConversationPopup] )

(I have considered using quests but they don't quite suit the concept. I have also considered dialogue database variables but this would require setting up conditions for the entries in the dialogue system itself when setting up a new short story. --> I want to avoid this if possible. I use ScriptableObjects to set up the short stories and I want to keep the process of setting them up "clean" and in one place: You create the comments in the dialogue system, then you go to the ScriptableObject, assign all the stuff and then you are done.)

Any help is appreaciated :)
Thanks in advance!
Best
Lorena
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Tony Li
Posts: 21959
Joined: Thu Jul 18, 2013 1:27 pm

Re: Inspector: Dropdown Menu for Dialogue Entry

Post by Tony Li »

Hi Lorena,

There isn't currently an attribute for that, although there's a DialogueEntryPicker editor class that you can use with a bit of editor scripting. I'll add a [DialogueEntryPopup] attribute in the next update. In the meantime, if you define your entry ID as an 'int', you can set the ID manually for now and then add the [DialogueEntryPopup] attribute to it as soon as it's available.
Loremu
Posts: 20
Joined: Wed Dec 29, 2021 11:06 am

Re: Inspector: Dropdown Menu for Dialogue Entry

Post by Loremu »

Hi,

thanks for your help. Nice to hear that this feature is planned. Until then I'll implement a solution based on your suggestion.

Do you already know when the next update will be? (Just so that I know how long our project will stick with the temporary solution.)

Thank you and have a nice day!
Best
Lorena
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Tony Li
Posts: 21959
Joined: Thu Jul 18, 2013 1:27 pm

Re: Inspector: Dropdown Menu for Dialogue Entry

Post by Tony Li »

Hi Lorena,

The target release date for version 2.2.35 is Monday, March 6.
Loremu
Posts: 20
Joined: Wed Dec 29, 2021 11:06 am

Re: Inspector: Dropdown Menu for Dialogue Entry

Post by Loremu »

Hi,

so soon! Nice! Thanks for your quick response and for developing and maintaining this great tool.

Best
Lorena
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