Adding Basic Dialogue

0.8.1.11

Description

This guide's objective is to add a simple dialogue with the DE2 system.
We will add dialogue to a newly created NPC to demonstrate the basic usage of the Dialogue Editor 2 Tool.

Creating the NPC

To add dialogue, we're going to need an NPC capable of speech.
Let's implement one.

1. Creating the gameobject

Create a new gameobject and name it o_npc_tutorial.
Add o_npc_baker as its parent.
Add any of the s_npc_... sprite to it. (I'll add the s_npc_merc02 for this tutorial.)

2. Adding the Create Event

If we don't change anything, our new NPC will be a baker and have the baker's dialogues.
Not quite what we want, so let's change that by adding a Create Event to override the baker's :

o_npc_tutorial - Create Event
event_inherited()  
name = "Something Original" #(1)!
id_name = "tutorial"  #(2)!
occupation = "tutorial" #(3)!
subtype = "townee"  
ds_list_clear(myfloor_list)  
ds_list_add(myfloor_list, "S1", "S1", "S1", "S1")  
delta_array = ["S1", "S1", "S1", "S1"]  
myfloor = "S1"  
myfloor_counter = "S1"  
scr_set_hl()
time_period_night = do_animation  
ai_script = gml_Script_scr_enemy_choose_state
idle_state = 0
rumors = 0 #(4)!
chat = 1 #(5)!
dialog_id = de2_dialog_open("tutorial.de2") #(6)!
topic = "topic0" #(7)!
gold_k = irandom_range(100, 300) #(8)!

Obviously, this is the name for your NPC.
There are other ways to set it but this will do.
The unique identifier for this NPC.
I usually keep it the same as the occupation.
Not exactly sure where it's used yet.
The job of your NPC.
All NPC's have a job.
This can be baker, drunkard or anything you can imagine.

It's used to filter out dialogues of the same name.
For instance, there may be several greeting dialogues in the game, but only 1 for the occupation you specified, and so this is the one that will be used.
Whether this NPC is able to share rumors with the player or not.
Whether this NPC can chat with the player or not.
The .de2 dialogue file to open to find the dialogue's structure.
The topic to start the provided dialogue at.
This will make more sense in a moment.
The amount of gold the NPC should have on him.
Here, a random amount between 100 and 300.

3. Adding the Alarm 1 Event

The Alarm 1 Event is where we're going to load our dialogues into the game.
Obviously, we haven't created them yet, but bare with me, we're getting there.

o_npc_tutorial - Alarm 1 Event
event_inherited()  
scr_npc_list_add_dialog(questions_map, "tutorial_greeting", "map")  
scr_npc_list_add_dialog(questions_map, "tutorial_time", "map")  
scr_npc_list_add_dialog(questions_map, "tutorial_givetime", "map")  

Creating the Dialogue Structure

Now that we have an NPC set up, let's prepare our dialogue.

1. Create a new topic

Open DE2.exe.
Right click anywhere on the canvas to create a new topic.
You can rename it if you want to, but you will need to reflect that change in o_npc_tutorial Create Event.

2. Adding lines

Now you could just write dialogue by simply writing anything in the Text field, and that would work.
But that's simply not the best way to do things.

But why ?

Because if you want to reuse the same line somewhere else in your dialogue, or even in another dialogue, you will have to rewrite it entirely.
Instead, we usually put the dialogue line's ID in the Text field, and let Stoneshard find the appropriate text.

For now let's write down tutorial_greeting in the Text field.
We can leave the script field empty as we don't want to run any specific function for this.

3. Adding answers

Having an NPC say a line is fine and dandy, but wouldn't it be nice to have answers to leave, trade or say anything you may come up with ?
This can be achieved fairly easily :

Click the Add new button with a topic selected.
Specify the dialogue line ID for your answer (or type your answer here directly)
For our tutorial we will use tutorial_time.

Much like you can add your own dialogue lines, Stoneshard has some useful lines you can freely use.
Here's a list of some of them :

Useful Dialogue Lines List

trade
back
leave
return
rent_room
work
chat
this_place
agree
advance
think
continue
dungeon_complete
bounty_complete

Additionally, some specific answers may require scripts to provide the expected result, like trading or closing the dialogue.
That's why we have the script field !

Here's a non exhaustive list of useful functions to call there :

Useful Scripts List

scr_close_dialog
scr_trade_open
your own functions !

Screenshot - Dialog Editor

If you've followed the guide to this point this is what you should be looking at in your Dialog Editor :

4. Adding a way to close the dialog

Once again hit the Add new button and write the following :

When this answer will be clicked, the script scr_close_dialog will be called.
You can probably guess what it does.

5. Adding another Topic

Right click anywhere on the canvas to add a new topic.
Once again you can rename it to anything, but this time no need to change anything in the o_npc_tutorial Create Event as this won't be our starting topic.

In the Text field, write tutorial_givetime.
Drag the node from the tutorial_time answer to our new topic.
Add a new answer by clicking the Add new button.
In the answer's Text field, write back.
Drag the node from the back answer to the first topic we created before.

Screenshot - New Topic

6. Saving

Now that we're happy with our dialogue, we can save our .de2 file.
Click the floppy disk on the top right or use the usual Ctrl+Alt+S shortcut to save.

Make sure to save your .de2 file in the dialogs folder inside your game installation directory.
There should already be plenty of other .de2 files there.

Also make sure to name your .de2 file the exact same way you wrote it in the o_npc_tutorial Create Event, otherwise the game won't find it.

Adding the Dialogue Lines

Okay. We're done with the set up. We have a working NPC and we also created our dialogue structure.
Now onto the dialogue lines themselves.

1. Listing dialogue line ID's

When we were creating our dialogue structure, we wrote placeholder dialogue id's.
Let's list them here for reference :

tutorial_greeting
tutorial_time
tutorial_givetime
leave
back

As mentionned previously, leave and back are built in Stoneshard, so we already know those will be replaced with the proper text when the game is run.
But the rest of our dialogues are custom and don't already exists.
Let's create those.

2. Registering dialogues in table_NPC_Lines

Working with tables in UMT can be difficult at times.
The table_NPC_Lines table is definitely one of if not the worst offenders in that regard.
It's over 3 millions characters long and it WILL lag the fuck out of your UMT.

When working with those, you can extract them with the GML to CSV Converter or you can do it by hand.
I recommend extracting it so you can figure out what each field does.
But I feel lazy so let's simply do it by hand this time :

, "tutorial_greeting;any;tutorial;any;any;any;This is a tutorial.;This is a tutorial.;This is a tutorial.;This is a tutorial.;This is a tutorial.;This is a tutorial.;This is a tutorial.;This is a tutorial.;This is a tutorial.;This is a tutorial.;This is a tutorial.;This is a tutorial.;This is a tutorial.;This is a tutorial.;", "tutorial_time;any;tutorial;any;any;any;Ask for the time.;Ask for the time.;Ask for the time.;Ask for the time.;Ask for the time.;Ask for the time.;Ask for the time.;Ask for the time.;Ask for the time.;Ask for the time.;Ask for the time.;Ask for the time.;Ask for the time.;Ask for the time.;", "tutorial_givetime;any;tutorial;any;any;any;Huh ? The time ? I have no idea.;Huh ? The time ? I have no idea.;Huh ? The time ? I have no idea.;Huh ? The time ? I have no idea.;Huh ? The time ? I have no idea.;Huh ? The time ? I have no idea.;Huh ? The time ? I have no idea.;Huh ? The time ? I have no idea.;Huh ? The time ? I have no idea.;Huh ? The time ? I have no idea.;Huh ? The time ? I have no idea.;Huh ? The time ? I have no idea.;Huh ? The time ? I have no idea.;Huh ? The time ? I have no idea.;"

Simply copy this block here :

Testing

Now it's time to test our dialogue.
Add our NPC to any room or spawn it by pressing F1 with the following script :

o_player - gml_Object_o_player_KeyPress_112
instance_create_depth(x, y, depth, o_npc_tutorial);