Creating a speech system?

[Jimmy456]

Howdy! First post to the forum, but I have a bit of experience with MV. Not too much since I'm posting here though. I'm trying to create a speech system or social skill system for my game. Think of the dialogue options in Fallout, it's very similar to that, meaning if the player has a skill (Its actually an armor piece that has no visible effect and can be swapped out) such as "sympathy" they would have the option for sympathetic dialogue options. What I'm setting it as is if the armor is equipped, the player gets the dialogue option.

The problem I'm running into is that I want the player to have access to multiple dialogue options, or have multiple social skills equipped at once. If I do this however it makes it so NPC's don't respond since they don't know which event to prioritize (if the player has "sympathy", and another item such as "evil" equipped, both dialogue options won't show up. Instead the NPC will not respond). What am I doing wrong, and what would be a better way to do it?

 

[mlogan]

I've moved this thread to MV Support. Thank you.

 

[gstv87]

I don't believe this would require a plugin, however, adding and showing the lines as dialogue choices would have to be done manually.
it'd be half evented, half scripted, but the core logic should be doable through eventing.

basically, you do all the checks by eventing, and save all the lines to variables, and when it comes to showing the lines you call the same function as the interpreter and pass it those variables as parameters.
you can't pass down variables to the choice window through the GUI tool, so *that* part has to be coded manually.

 

[caethyril]

I think what I'd do here is set up all the choices in one block and enable/disable them with a plugin as needed. There are various options for plugins:

• Himeworks: Large Choices + Hidden Choice Conditions (script call)
• Yanfly: Message Core + Extended Message Pack 1 (plugin command)
• Aloe Guvner has an in-line "hide choices" plugin if that's more your style: link

The first two require some setup before your choices to determine which choices are visible, e.g. with Yanfly's plugins:

Spoiler

◆Plugin Command：ClearHiddenChoices
◆If：Harold is affected by Sleep
  ◆Plugin Command：HideChoice 1
  ◆Plugin Command：HideChoice 2
  ◆
：Else
  ◆Plugin Command：HideChoice 3
  ◆
：End
◆Show Choices：Greetings! I'm Harold!, Uh, hi. What is this place?, Zzzz... (Window, Right, #1, #2)
：When Greetings! I'm Harold! 
  ◆
：When Uh, hi. What is this place? 
  ◆
：When Zzzz... 
  ◆
：End

Large Choices/Ext Msg Pack merge consecutive choice commands into one block so you can have more than 6 choices per block (I imagine that'll be necessary at some point).

 

[CalebW]

Based on your question you want to show multiple branches within one choice if the player has the required items?

It would probably look like this :

If player has item A + item B + item C Set variable of "choices" to 1
If Variable "choices = 1"
Show Choices = Sympthany Dialouge Harsh Dialouge Cute Dialouge
Within these show choices
Sympthany dialouge:
Choice A / Choice B / Choice C

So basically set a variable that checks every item of the player you want equipped, then nest choices within choices. That way the character will always have access to those choices as long as the variable is set. If a new item is equiped or an item is lost make sure the variable gets changed.

Hope this helps.

 

[Frogboy]

Hey @Jimmy456,

I think the others did well in covering ideas that will help you with your particular problem. I'd like to throw out a different idea that maybe you want to try, though.

I made a plugin called Talent Core that would easily allow you to add personality traits to your characters as opposed to the more D&D-like skills. Instead of limiting the available options, you could give the player all of the relevant ones but success or failure would depend on how adept they are at the given social skill. If they are best at sensitivity then the sensitive option would have the greatest chance for success. If sensitivity isn't an option for this encounter then they're more out of their element and have to fall back on one of their lesser attributes.

You could also go the other direction and have the player build their personality up based on the choices they make which could effect the game in others ways.

Just an idea that I think would be cool.

Take care and good luck with your game.

 

[CalebW]

Hey @Jimmy456,

I think the others did well in covering ideas that will help you with your particular problem. I'd like to throw out a different idea that maybe you want to try, though.

I made a plugin called Talent Core that would easily allow you to add personality traits to your characters as opposed to the more D&D-like skills. Instead of limiting the available options, you could give the player all of the relevant ones but success or failure would depend on how adept they are at the given social skill. If they are best at sensitivity then the sensitive option would have the greatest chance for success. If sensitivity isn't an option for this encounter then they're more out of their element and have to fall back on one of their lesser attributes.

You could also go the other direction and have the player build their personality up based on the choices they make which could effect the game in others ways.

Just an idea that I think would be cool.

Take care and good luck with your game.

This is awesome.