Writing Dialogue for ToEE part 1

Ok, firstly what do we need? Well, some templates will be handy! So I have made a couple. Download them here.

These can both be opened in Notepad. But we have other things to download first. For starters you will need Phalzyr's 'Proto-Ed'. It can be found here

This is useful for viewing dlg files and essential for adding any new characters you want to use the dialogue files. Well, not essential, you can do both these things in ToEE World Builder as well. But it is a very different tool. Download that too! The latest version is at the last location, or try the thread that accompanies it: here

Once you are comfortable using these tools, you will instictively recognise when one is preferable to the other for certain tasks. One more thing to 'download', and thats a thread from the great man Phalzyr himself, where he lists many of the things that can be found in dialogue and script files: find the thread here.

This tutorial will build on that thread and explain step-by-step how to incorporate the things found in it and the pitfalls that may be encountered.

Now, lets have a quick look at the template files. Notice that the names, 00275DEMO.dlg and py00275DEMO.py are (from the perspective we are concerned with) IDENTICAL. Both are '00275DEMO'. Thats our first lesson, ALWAYS name them the same! Don't think an identical number is enough, I learnt that the hard way when I had a couple of files called 00291tennant.dlg and py00291tenant.py. That one little typo cost me MANY hours of headaches!!!

What do they mean? Well, the .dlg file contains all the dialogue, and the .py file (short for .python) contains the scripts that control things like dialogue :-) It also controls other things which we will examine when the time comes. For now, there is only one script in our template, so lets pop it open. Open it in Notepad (you could also use Notepad++ or another text editor, Agetian also recommends something, try here. For now I will assume you are using Notepad because everyone has it - using other's will simply make all this easier).

You will see the following:

from toee import *

def san_dialog( attachee, triggerer ):
_____________triggerer.begin_dialog( attachee, 1 )
_____________attachee.turn_towards(triggerer)
_____________return SKIP_DEFAULT

If you have Proto-Ed, start this too. Open the game's protos.tab (if this is the first time you have ever done it, it is found in Atari/Temple of Elemental Evil/Data/Rules). You can fiddle with this all you like, just DON'T HIT SAVE!!! When you are confortable changing things and saving, make SURE you back it up. This is probably the most fundamental file in the game (well this and temple.dll. And the .dat files ;-))

In the protos.tab, go DOWN to the 14000's - behold, the prototypes of the NPCs! Now go ACROSS to col 277. Here onwards are the script file references for each character. The dialogue script pointer is in the that first col, 277 (its marked 'san_dialog'). You'll notice that this phrase is the same as in the py00275DEMO.py file we just opened.

What does it mean? It means that for whichever NPC whose prototype we assign that value 00275 for (in that column 277) it will go to THAT file 'py00275' to look for the dialogue script. It will ALSO automatically use the asscoiated dialogue file '00275'.

So... when you want to use these template files, you will: save them in the appropriate folders, put 00275 0 0 0 0 in the san_dialog column of the character whom you want to use this dialogue, and THATS IT! Not too hard, is it? Still with us? (Ignore those zeros, they are for parameters not used in dialogue stuff).

Lets reconsider the issue of why 2 files. Again, the dialogue goes in the dlg file. The .py file contains the script that controls how the game accesses that dialogue file. It can be written in such a way that the dialogue starts in different places for different circumstances. Also, the .py file (again) can control other things. Have a look at the names of the other columns in the protos.tab: san_dying, San_enter_combat, san_resurrect etc. What these mean is that when an NPC goes into combat, or dies, or is resurrected, the game goes to its prototype (recorded in protos.tab) and checks to see if there is a specific file to go to: if so, it goes to that file and executes the script in it.

So, when you click on an NPC to talk to them, the game goes to that NPC's prototype, goes along to column 277, and finds what script to execute. Lets imagine it has found '00275'. It will go to file py00275.py and execute the san_dialog script. Lets have a second look at that:

def san_dialog( attachee, triggerer ):
_____________triggerer.begin_dialog( attachee, 1 )
_____________attachee.turn_towards(triggerer)
_____________return SKIP_DEFAULT

This is as straightforward as a script gets in the game, but probably looks like gibberish. Lets look carefully at each element (note that this is a 'how to write dialogues for ToEE' tutorial, not a 'how to be a Python scripting expert' tutorial. Its to tell you how to do stuff, not an explanation of the mechanics of Python - Python experts might be aghast by all this, but I am keeping it simple!)

Firstly, the parameters: attachee and triggerer.

Attachee in this case is the NPC. Think of it as whoever the script is attached to. Simple.

Triggerer is whoever has done something to trigger the script. In this case (and in many others) it is the player. You have clicked on the NPC, triggering this script as the game decides how the NPC should react.

So, the first line: triggerer.begin_dialog( attachee, 1 ). This tells the triggerer (the player) to go into dialogue mode: the little window comes up, the screen centres on the speaking character etc. Importantly, it tells the triggerer (the player) to go into dialogue mode with the NPC (the attachee, the 'owner' of the script) and most importantly TO START AT LINE 1. Obviously, more complicated scripts can have the dialogue start at other lines depending on the circumstances.

The next line: attachee.turn_towards(triggerer) Simple enough: it turns the NPC (the attachee) to face the player (triggerer). Always try to include this in your script, the game doesn't have it consistently and it is a bit disconcerting to have people facing the back wall when they talk to u. Another one of those things that drags you out of the game-playing moment.

Final line: return. That tells the game the script is finished, carry on, and skip the default bit (to see a default in action, click on one of the pirates wandering around Nulb).

Soooo... lets recap. Click on NPC in game, game goes to the file associated with that NPC's prototype, and executes the script there, telling it (in this case) to turn the NPC toward the PC and start dialogue from the first line in the dialogue file.

Lets leave it there. Next time, we actually get to write some dialogue! To go straight there, click [THIS].