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Jurry-rigged dialogue system. Need advice on abusing warps.


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#1 TheManHimself

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Posted 02 April 2021 - 01:17 PM

I've been trying to design a dialogue system that relies on warps to create multiple options for things you can ask an npc. Basically the system works like this: you walk over to an npc who has a warp marker in front of him on the overworld->warp to first-person view of the NPC and the surrounding environment located on a separate dmap. The dialogue dmap is set up so that it warps to a map with an establishing shot of the npc which, after a short delay, is set to warp the player to a cloned map with the same scene but with a dialogue overlay and an introduction text string: there is a cloned instance of this screen for every dialogue choice. There are 4 topic icons within a small enclosed area, and the idea is that you guide link to one of those icons with the topic you want to ask about, and it then warps you to a map with the relevant string. The bottom option is an exit, which warps to yet another map screen with a farewell string, and the PC is sent back to the overworld dmap after a timed warp is triggered upon completion of the string.
 
 
It's a little unwieldy, and takes a ton of time to create assets for and set up properly, but if I can get it to work (if it is indeed possible) I think it can be a really unique system.
 
Preamble aside. I've run into a problem when the first screen with multiple warps appears. The PC is stuck within the tile with the warp pad. The collision is set up so that you should be able to move freely. I turned on my debug cheat to walk through walls, and i am still stuck in place. what causes this behavior? is there any way to work around this, or is it an unavoidable part of the system. If there is an alternative method for doing this, I'm open to suggestions. I'm coming back to ZQ after a 16 year hiatus and I'm not totally familiar with the various scripting and mechanical changes that have happened in half a lifetime; maybe there is some sort of simpler option to perform this complex action.  If worst comes to worse, I can strip away the multiple choices and end up with a very elaborate screen with a single string of dialogue (big oof)

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#2 Jamian

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Posted 02 April 2021 - 01:39 PM

Honestly, while what you describe is theoretically possible without scripts, it will be overly complicated to set up, and will look janky.

 

I would advise to either look into a scripted solution (you'll either need to write a script, or ask someone to write it for you), or to use Tango. I haven't used Tango so can't say much about it, but from what I've seen it may be able to do what you want without needing to learn scripting.


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#3 TheManHimself

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Posted 02 April 2021 - 01:48 PM

Honestly, while what you describe is theoretically possible without scripts, it will be overly complicated to set up, and will look janky.

 

I would advise to either look into a scripted solution (you'll either need to write a script, or ask someone to write it for you), or to use Tango. I haven't used Tango so can't say much about it, but from what I've seen it may be able to do what you want without needing to learn scripting.

All of the strings have been written, timed warps set to execute at the correct time, characters animated (the skeleton sways in the wind and waves his arm during certain strings!) all of the overlays and tiles set up, maps drawn, working on some new scaled tiles and a more comprehensive set of shadows to create a better sense of depth. (I need to rescale some trees to x2 for foreground perspective), and other than the aforementioned "stuck in the warp tile problem"

TL;DR: I think it will work out. It fits the aesthetic of the classic tileset, It really won't be janky. pic in link is a 90% finished prototype just missing scaled trees/shadows.


Edited by TheManHimself, 02 April 2021 - 01:56 PM.

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#4 Jamian

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Posted 02 April 2021 - 03:00 PM

That screen looks really good, and I didn't mean it would look janky graphically, I was talking about the concept of moving the player to a conversation option instead of using a dialogue tree like you'd normally see in most games nowadays, which kinds of shows "ZC seams" imo. If you actually prefer this, that's fine, but scripting would still make this easier for you to set up. If all of these conversation screens in the quest are already created, then I guess in that case it'll be easier to fix that warp problem.


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#5 TheManHimself

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Posted 02 April 2021 - 04:04 PM

That screen looks really good, and I didn't mean it would look janky graphically, I was talking about the concept of moving the player to a conversation option instead of using a dialogue tree like you'd normally see in most games nowadays, which kinds of shows "ZC seams" imo. If you actually prefer this, that's fine, but scripting would still make this easier for you to set up. If all of these conversation screens in the quest are already created, then I guess in that case it'll be easier to fix that warp problem.

 

I understand what you mean. my original plan for this involved setting a screen flag to make Link to be invisible, and have some directional arrow graphics mocked up to superimpose over the topic selection box. basically just tap a direction to ask about 'x' topic instead of walking him around a little box. I'll have to do some searching to see if there are any scripts out there that could make the system work better, since with this system you have to hold in a direction until the pc (visible or invisible) moves onto the correct icon. My best-case solution would involve just tapping in the direction to make the selection.

 

Massive massive oooof. i didn't realize you had to press control to move after a string. hence the stuck in place problem.


Edited by TheManHimself, 02 April 2021 - 11:49 PM.

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#6 TheRock

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Posted 02 April 2021 - 11:55 PM

I made a test warp system, not sure why yours isn't working. Looking at the second screen shot, I am not sure what all the warp returns on doing there.

https://www.mediafir...System.qst/file


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#7 TheManHimself

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Posted 03 April 2021 - 02:39 AM

Everything is working now. I was only using a single stair warp combo set to teleport to A. Made identical tiles with the combo set to stairs B, C, and D and everything is now working as designed. So my problems were a combination of forgetting the combo values and my absolute failure of setting the "message more" string value to the wrong coordinates making it impossible to see/forgetting that you have to press continue to end a string in-game.


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