Difference between revisions of "Quest and Dialogue Tutorial"

Quests are everywhere in the game. Some are the "real" ones, full of dialogues, stages, objectives etc. - these are common quests, that Player accomplish while playing the game. Some quests however can be hidden to Player, and used only to run scripts to check something or set some events. They are also used for dialogues between Player and NPC, as well as between two or more NPCs or even monologues.  

There is only one requirement – you must be familiar with GECK environment. If you do or if you went through "My First Vault" tutorial, then we can start.

''He was my friend... Find him please...'' (Continue with PC choice, 3a-3e)

 

This is PC choice dialog and NPC response, also only for first dialog between Amanda and Player. It will be followed by PC choices from 3.1 to 3.5, according to different conditions. This topic should be said only once in the game.

 

This choice will show up in the dialog menu only if Player has a children perk, actually – the ChildAtHeart perk. I want it also to be a challenge topic, with average difficulty. In case of failure I will need a special topic, but we will take care of it later on.

 

The 3d choice will be available if Player already has a teddy bear for Amanda, before speaking with her for the first time.

*''Can you help me?''

We will talk about greetings and goodbyes later; for now lets simulate the dialog. After the greeting from Amanda, the dialog menu will open. This is first talk between Amanda and Player, so Player will have only one choice of a dialog, topic #2:

 

*''Hello young lady. What can I do for you?''

 

*''Could you find my teddy bear please?''

*''I lost him while I was escaping with my mother, in Springvale School.''

*''He was my friend... Find him please...''

 

After this modifications I click on the OK button. Editor asks if I want to create a new form – yes, this is what I want, so my answer is Yes.

*'''Start game enabled:''' Yes (I check the box)

*'''Script processing delay:''' Yes (default)

 

 

After filling in these field, click on the OK button in bottom right side of the Quest Window. This will save the quest data.

 

'''Priority''' of 55 is between Miscellaneous (50) and Main quest (60), so it should be enough to start in the game. Actually in this case it is not important what value of the priority I will put, because I am creating an autonomic, totally custom quest. However, to be sure it will show up in the game, I enter the priority of 55.

If a quest is '''Start game enabled''', then it is active right from the start of the game, new game or loaded savegame that don't contain data of my custom plugin. Active or Enabled means, that all conditions from scripts or conditions' fields, related to this quest, are processed by the game. So if there are many conditions or scripts that use many arithmetic functions in conditions, it is better to find some way and do not enable a quest from the game start, and leave this field blank and activate a quest with [[StartQuest]], [[SetStage]] or [[SetObjectiveDisplayed]] script functions.

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| 5||I have found strange teddy bear. I should keep it, maybe it would be useful in the future.

You can add to your quest something similar, it you wish. It is performed by right click on the list of objectives and choosing New. I set up quest index in the Index field and enter text in the Display Text field. Maybe index #0 is not necessary, but many vanilla quests have it, so I am using it too.

 

While creating a new quest remember to use indices x10, i.e. 10, 20, 30 etc. Why? Because later it may arise a problem, when it would be necessary to add some new quest objectives between the existing ones. Take a look at my list again – did you noticed, that there is no #40 between #30 and #50? Well, it was, but I moved it to index #5. And I was able to do it, because I started with index #10.

Minimum objective index is 0, which should be null, with no entries, and maximum is 255.

 

'''What is the order of objectives in my quest?''' I made an assumption, that there are three paths for Player to accomplish the quest.

{| {{table}}

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In first part player first finds a teddy bear, then meets Amanda. In second path Player first speak with Amanda, goes for a bear hunting, and then returns back to Amanda with her toy. At last, in third path Player speaks with Amanda and manages to convince her to forget about her toy in Springvale School, and Player gives her another teddy bear.

 

<blockquote><center>

Player is a very clever and extremely tricky creature.<br>

Be prepared for everything.

</center></blockquote>

 

Quest Targets are defined in the [[Quest Objectives Tab]]. You can add them to any objective, first by left clicking on an item of the objectives list, and then adding a Target Ref on the list below. You can choose any reference to the object in the world, but it must a persistent reference.

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Let's start with quest target for objective #10. It should be a map marker or a teleport door of the Springvale School, the main entrance, that link interior of the school with exterior. I have chosen a door reference.

I don't close the Quest Window, only move it aside, so I can see Cell View window and Render Window. In the Cell View I switch to '''Wasteland world space''' and search for something like the Springvale Elementary School. Got it - the cell ID is '''SpringvaleSchoolExterior'''. In Render Window I move to the main entrance to the school, so I can see the door. Double click on the door to see if it is a persistent reference – it should be, and if so, I close the Reference window. Now back to Quest Window and objective #10. Right click on '''Target Ref''' list and choose '''New''' to add a new quest target. I must change the target data, because it is pointing to some Abandoned Sewer cell. Below, in '''Quest Target Data''' I click on the '''Select Reference in Render Window''' button, move the mouse cursor on the door, so its color changes from red to white, and double click on the door. Quest Target is set, Target Ref may not change, but it only needs refreshing left click.

 

I do the same for objective #30, and as a target ref I use aBHAmandaFlowerREF, which was placed earlier in the MegatonClinic interior cell. I am not adding quest targets for any other objectives, especially not for #20, because in this quest stage Player must go into the Springvale School building and search for a teddy bear. I don't want to show on the map where this object is.

 

[[Quest Stages Tab|It is second tab]] in the Quest Window. You can find here the Log Entries for each Index and Result Scripts. There are also two very useful checkboxes: Complete Quest and Fail Quest. But let's start from the beginning.  

In Oblivion the Log Entries was used to make Player's journal updates, when Player made some progress in the quests. In Fallout 3 there is no journal, only quest objectives with some information about current quest status and quest targets. It means, that you can put in Log Entry whatever you, it will not be displayed to Player in the game. In general:

First fill in the list of Indexes by right clicking in the list and choosing New. Index numbers are the same as in Quest Objectives: 0, 5, 10, 20, 30, 50, 200 and on the end I add 210 as a final quest stage, so I also check in the Complete Quest checkbox. For each of stages, except #0, I right click on the list of Log Entries and add an EMPTY text.  

For each quest stage I want to display a message about objectives to Player. To show current objective I can use [[SetObjectiveDisplayed]] script function, and [[SetObjectiveCompleted]] to show that previous objective is completed.  I can do it with by adding them to the Result Script of each stage – this is full list:

{| {{table}}

| 20||SetObjectiveCompleted aBHQuest 10 1<br>

| 30||SetObjectiveCompleted aBHQuest 20 1

|  ||SetObjectiveDisplayed aBHQuest 30 1

| 200||SetObjectiveCompleted aBHQuest 200 1

|  ||SetStage aBHQuest 210

Remember to compile each result script by clicking on the '''Compile Result''' button, just after adding it to the stage.

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When the object is taken by the player and the quest stage is smaller than 5, we set up stage #5. We want to set this stage only once, that is why we check if the quest stage if less than 5.  

Notice that I am using "less or equal" comparison. It is better then only "equal" and sometimes it allows to avoid some mistakes. In the IF block first processed code is this:

{| {{table}}

{| {{table}}

   if getStage aBHMainQuest == 10

       setStage aBHMainQuest 20

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* '''Topic Text''' – this is what PC says, this a text displayed as a choice for Player in dialog menu, but only if the Prompt field is empty. If there is a text in the Prompt field, then it will be used instead of Topic Text.

Let's start. If you wish, you can take a look at the top of this page to see the dialog design.

 

Every dialogue starts with a NPC greeting, so we must add it in our quest.

In the quest window go to the Topics tab, right click on the list to the left of the window and choose Add Topic option. The Select Topic window will open, with a list of all topics that were not used in selected quest. Search for the GREETING topic, left click on it and approve the selection by clicking on the OK button (or double-left click on the topic).

Now we have a GREETING in our quest, however we cannot leave it as is, we must add our unique text of the greeting. In game there are already many GREETING topics, but each of them use different texts, different Info entries. We only borrow the GREETING topic ID, which is the special one, used by NPC to greet Player.

Right click on the Info list and New, and the New Response window will open. In Response Text we enter the following text:

If you wish, in '''Script Notes''' and '''Edit''' fields you can add some notes. In '''Idle Animations''' you can set up some animations for a Speaker (NPC is speaking the greeting); Player is a Listener, so in this case we cannot use any animations. These fields refer only to NPC. In '''Audio settings''' it is possible to choose an '''Emotion Type''' for the response, as well as an '''Emotion Value'''; the greater value, the more emotions are on the Speaker. '''Voice filenames''' are generated automatically and we will handle them later.  

Close the New Response window. In the Quest window, in upper right corner there some useful options:

''Do you have a teddy bear for me?''

This text can be repeated many times, while doing the quest Player can always speak with Amanda, so I do not tick the Say Once checkbox.

Later we will came back to this topic and add some conditions and links, but now let's fill the list with other topics.

 

In my scenario, after the greeting there is a choice for Player, topic aBHTopicWelcome with the following text:

To add this topic, right click on the list to the left of the window and choose Add Topic option. The Select Topic window will open, with a list of all already existing topics. There is no aBHTopicWelcome, so we must add it – the steps are simple and we do as usual: right click on the list in the Select Topic window and New; enter '''aBHTopicWelcome''' as a topic ID.

 

As '''Response Text''' add the following:

This is what Amanda will say, after she greets Player and when Player clicks on Hello young lady. What can I do for you? dialog choice in dialog menu. Easy, isn't it? Right click once again on an empty line in Response Texts list and add another entry:

* ''I lost it in Springvale School while I was escaping with my mother.''

'''Topic ID:''' aBHTopicHaveTeadyBear<br>

'''Topic ID:''' aBHTopicHaveTeadyBear<br>

There are two different Prompts for aBHTopicHaveTeadyBear topic, because there are also two different ways for Player to do the quest: finding the teddy bear and then speaking with Amanda or speaking with Amanda first, and finding the quest item.

 

 

Let's go back to the point and link some topics. In my quest the dialogue is simple, so there will not be too many links. Click on the GREETING topic and Can I ask you a question? Info text. For this I have planned only one Player's choice, that is topic aBHTopicWelcome. Right click in the Choices field and add this topic.

Add each of this topics in Choices field of aBHTopicWelcome topic.

Now go back to the GREETING and click on the second response with "Do you have a teddy bear for me?" Info text. This time there is a list full of possibilities. The Choices field should contain the following topics:

First we must add another special topic: SpeechChallengeFailure. You already know what it is for, don't you? This is only a response topic, it should have no Prompts. The response is the following:

It should be linked from aBHTopicAgreeWithChallenge topic, so add it in the Link From field. Now, in game, if Player succeed with a speech challenge, the response will be taken from aBHTopicAgreeWithChallenge. In case of failure, there will be displayed SpeechChallengeFailure response.

The first condition is very simple and very common – the dialogue can take place only between Player and Amanda. Right click on an empty line of the Conditions and add New entry. You will get the Condition Item window with some fields to be filled in:

- quest stage index must be greaten than or equal to 10 (AND)<br>