Play different barks on idle versus on interact

[Matt_VoxPrima]

Hello!

Thanks for welcoming us on board!

We're using Dialogue System and Quest Machine for our new project, Dungeons of Atonement.



I'm testing various type of "bark" interactions with NPCs.

I want to make a NPC that "barks on idle", that part is simple.
But I want him to play different barks when the player interacts with him, now I don't know the correct way to do that.
I use SimStatus to alternate between barks.

Barks on Idle:
"Dum, dee dum..."
"Hmm-hmm, hmm-hmm..."
(he's just singing)

Barks on interact:
First time: "What a beautiful day, wouldn't you say?"
Second time: "Oh, the sweet solace of labour!"
Forever after: "Pom, pom-pom, pom...."

Basically, should it be structured like this:



Or like this?



Thank you so much!

Edit: I should mention I wish it all to be in one conversation, I'd prefer to have only one conversation graph per NPC.

[Tony Li]

Hi,

If you don't mind using two different conversations, it'll be a lot cleaner. (Note that you can use forward slashes ( / ) in conversation titles to group them into submenus.) Point the Bark On Idle component to one conversation and your Dialogue System Trigger (triggered on use/interact) to the other conversation.

For the bark on interact conversation, use a variable to keep track of which node it should bark. For example, say you have a Number variable named "Cellarer.Bark" whose initial value is 0. Then:

• Node 1 - Dialogue Text: "What a beautiful day, wouldn't you say?"
  Conditions: Variable["Cellarer.Bark"] == 0
  Script: Variable["Cellarer.Bark"] = 1
• Node 1 - Dialogue Text: "Oh, the sweet solace of labour!"
  Conditions: Variable["Cellarer.Bark"] == 1
  Script: Variable["Cellarer.Bark"] = 2
• Node 1 - Dialogue Text: "Pom, pom-pom, pom...."
  Conditions: Variable["Cellarer.Bark"] >= 2

If you absolutely must use a single conversation, you can link the <START> node to two nodes, see below.

Spoiler

1. The first node will contain all bark on idle text inside a RandomElement() Lua function:

• Dialogue Text: [lua(RandomElement("Dum, dee dum...|Hmm-hmm, hmm-hmm..."))]

Set the Bark On Idle component's Bark Order to First Valid.

2. The second node will contain all bark on interact text:

• Dialogue Text: [lua(RandomElement("What a beautiful day, wouldn't you say?|Oh, the sweet solace of labour!|Pom, pom-pom, pom...."))]

Tick the Dialogue System Trigger's Actions > Bark > Specify Bark Entry, and specify this node. However, if it must go in order, this node's text will need to be more complex. I can write that up, but I'll skip it unless you really need it.

[Matt_VoxPrima]

Oh okay!
Hmm okay I understand that any method other than creating a conversation for barks on idle and another conversation for barks on interact would be a bit over-complicated. There are no condition really to distinguish the two types of barks.

Is there a way to reorder the submenus, or set them to alphabetical order? It's getting a bit messy since I'm adding a graph for every NPCs.

[Tony Li]

> Is there a way to reorder the submenus, or set them to alphabetical order? It's getting a bit messy since I'm adding a graph for every NPCs.

Yes! To set conversations to alphabetical order, in the Dialogue Editor you can use Menu > Sort > By Title.

To reorder them manually, use Menu > Outline Mode. Then you can drag conversation titles up and down.

You can also use the filter bar next to the conversation title dropdown (just below the "Database | Actors |..." tabs) to filter the dropdown menu.

[Matt_VoxPrima]

Genius! This will be tremendously helpful. Thank you!

[Matt_VoxPrima]

- Is there a way to deactivate "Bark On Idle" while a bark on interact is playing? So that "What a beautiful day, wouldn't you say?" doesn't get interrupted by "Dum, dee dum..."

- I don't know why but the barks are "following" my player off screen.

[Tony Li]

Hi,

I'll assume you're using a Dialogue System Trigger to trigger barks on interact. To prevent idle barks while a bark on interact is playing:

1. On the Bark On Idle component, tick Bark On Enable.

2. On the Dialogue System Trigger select Add Action > OnExecute() UnityEvent. Configure the UnityEvent to disable the Bark On Idle component.

3. Add a Dialogue System Events component to the NPC. Configure the OnBarkEnd() UnityEvent to re-enable the Bark On Idle component.


To keep bark UIs positioned over the NPC's head, untick the bark UI's Keep In View checkbox.

[Matt_VoxPrima]

Works like a charm!! Thank you again!

[Tony Li]

Glad to help!