7/20/99

"Taurus- you will never find true happiness - what you gonna do, cry about it? The stars predict tomorrow you'll wake up, do a bunch of stuff, and then go back to sleep." -Weird Al Yankovic Today's update, as promised, is an exciting show of the differences between our old dialogue template and our new one. Once we got the dialogue editor from Bioware, we had to tailor our Word dialogue template to fit the input fields of the editor. We started off with a version of the template we used for Fallout 2, but quickly realized that even though it was closer to the final version of what we needed, it didn't have enough fields. That's when we evolved it into another version that was *nearly* the final version, With a few further modifications, it became what you're about to see. The first version, as you'll see if/when you download it, is pretty free-form, though it still has some structure. The final version, rigid tables - which we call "nodes" - and all, is actually easier to use - it forces us to adhere to a form, true, but it also makes it much easier to know where a given reference is coming from or going to in the document. Let me interpret the final version for you: The first number, in the large capitals, is the Node Number. This is our reference point in assigning where other nodes links. The text after it is descriptive text of what's in the node, so we can look at the title without having to read through the entire node to see what the basic gist of it is. The bold text in the top center box of the node is the text of the NPC to whom the Nameless One is speaking. Listed below it in the center nodes are the Nameless One's responses. To the left of these are the "pre-conditional" boxes. These are the conditions that must be met in order for the Nameless One to be able to select a certain node of dialogue. If there are no preconditionals, the node is open to anyone. The box on the far left is the English version of the scripting language that's in the left-center box - that way we know what the command in the scripting section is supposed to do. The boxes to the right of the conversation options are "post-conditionals". This means that they're the actions taken when the player chooses a given line of dialogue. Again, the box on the left of the scripting command is the English version of the command, and the one on the right is the actual command. The box to the right of that is the "Goto" box; this tells us what Node Number to link to for that line of dialogue. Remember the update regarding Flag States I did a while back? That's where this knowledge comes in handy. They're called "Global flags", and they are read like this: Global("Receipt", "GLOBAL", X) Global tells the engine it's calling a variable. "Receipt" is the name of the flag it's referencing. "GLOBAL" tells it how much of the game it references. We can also do it by map number; "AR1700", for example, would indicate that this variable should only be stored in memory as long as the player is on that map, and it will be destroyed and forgotten forever once the player leaves that map. X is the state of the flag. When you see GlobalLT("Receipt", "GLOBAL", X) know that LT means "less than" - this indicates that the given response is true for ANY instance where Receipt is less than the indicated number. Hm. That's enough blathering from me. Take a look at the attached document - it's in HTML, so you should be able to read it. This is what we deal with all day. Incidentally, I apologize for digging up such a boring example - I didn't want to give away any REAL quest hints, and the guard survived the transition from first draft to second draft with minimal change. Honest. Next week: One of our newest designers, Scott Warner, will be taking the reins to impart some knowledge or advice on one topic or another. If nothing else, he can tell you about Webmastering for the band Underworld. - Colin

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