Category:Editing Dialogue

The seven dialogue tabs in the Quest window all share similar functionality, described below. For functionality specific to a particular tab, see that tab's page:

• Topics Tab
• Conversation Tab
• Combat Tab
• Persuasion Tab
• Detection Tab
• Service Tab
• Misc Tab

The Topic List, on the left side of the tab, displays all topics currently assigned to this quest. To add or remove a topic, right click on the quest's topic list. Select "Add Topic" to bring up a list of ALL topics in the game. Either select an existing topic from the list, or right click to create a new topic. Hit OK to add the selected/new topic to the current quest.

Select a topic in the Topic List to view a list of all the infos attached to that topic for the current quest. (To see all infos attached to a topic for ALL quests, use the Filtered Dialogue window).

The info list in the top right displays the list of infos attached to the selected topic. Select an info to display its Responses in the Response List.

Whenever possible use the Quests window instead of the "Filtered Dialogue" window, the quest-window is better safeguarded against creating Unclean Dialogue that will conflict with other mods. If you edit existing quests or use the "Filtered-Dialogue" window, make sure you enlarge the FormID tab and have an eye on which line you're editing (You're not supposed to modify FormIDs that begin with "00" unless you want to create a fanfix-patch)

Editing the Info

Right click on the Info List for the editing menu:

• New: Inserts a new info above the selected info, and opens the Response window.

• Copy: Inserts a copy of the selected info below it. (Due to a bug in the CS only the first of the two lines will be marked as changed with a '*' until you save and reopen the mod, so it seems as if the new line was inserted above the original one, but a look at the FormIDs shows you that this isn't the case. This is the main cause of dialogue conflicts.

• Delete: Marks the selected info for deletion.

• Move to Quest: Brings up a list of quests. Select a quest to move the selected info(s) to that quest (the topic will be automatically added to the quest if it is not already there).

You can also move infos in the Info List by:

• Drag an info to a different topic in the Topic List. You will be asked whether you want to Move or Copy the info -- moving it transfers it to the new topic; copying it inserts a copy at the bottom of the topic's info list.

• The left and right arrow keys move the selected info up and down in the list. CTRL-left arrow moves the selected info to the top of the info stack; CTRL-right arrow moves it to the bottom of the info stack.

If you are adding an info to an existing topic, you may create conflicts without further cleaning of your mod. If you add an info to any existing topic through any means other than a custom quest, the CS will flag the previous info as having also been touched. This can cause conflicts and problems in game with other mods that modify the same topic. You can solve this by cleaning out the extra touched info from your mod later on using the "Details" editor at load time. (See also the tutorial about Unclean Dialogue.)

Data Fields:

• Add Topics: Topics in this list will be automatically added to the player's topic list when this info is spoken. Only topics on the Topic Tab can be placed in this list. Attention: Use this function only in new topics, it doesn't work reliable when you use it in existing topics (like GREETING) see also the Description of the bug in the Addtopic box.
• Result Script: This script is run when the Info is played.
• Conditions: The list of conditions for the selected Info. Note that the condition is run on the speaker; "Run on Target" will apply the condition to the speaker's target.

• Flags:
  • Info Refusal (Topics Tab only): If checked, use this info if a higher info on the stack qualified for an Info Refusal (instead of using an info from the default Info Refusal topic).
  • Goodbye: If in the dialogue menu, this is a "force-goodbye", which immediately exits the player from the dialogue menu. If in spoken conversation, this info immediately ends the conversation.
  • Say Once: If checked, this info will only be played once. The player will never hear it again.
  • Random: If checked, this info is marked as random. All random infos that appear sequentially in the NPC's list of possible Infos are put in a list. One is chosen at random to be spoken.
  • Random End: It is possible to have two sequences of random Infos end up adjacent to one another. An Info marked Random End will terminate the random set even if the next info is also marked Random.
  • Run For Rumors: Meaningful only for the default INFOGENERAL topic. If checked, run results when an INFOGENERAL is being spoken to the player as a Rumors topic. See Conversation Tab for more information.
  • Run Immediately: If checked, run results when conversation is generated, instead of when the info is spoken. This is sometimes important to get scripted conversations to work (see Solutions).

Conversation Tab only:

• Link To: Lists the next topic(s) in the conversation. Topics can link back to themselves.
• Link From: Lists the topics in the conversation structure that can link to this info. Infos without a Link From topic will never be included in a random conversation (except for infos in the default HELLO topic which begins random conversations).
• Next Speaker: This replaces multiple Response Texts in the info. The next speaker can be the Target, Self, or Either.

Topics Tab only:

• Choices (only on Topics Tab): Used to create a dialogue tree. Topics in the Choices list will replace the topic list after the NPC says the info.

Editing a Response

Each dialogue info can contain one or more Responses -- these are spoken one after the other, mainly as a way to break up a long speech into manageable chunks and also to allow for different emotions to be used.

Right-click on the Response List to add or delete a Response; double-click on a response to edit it.

• Response Text: Enter the dialogue that will be spoken by the NPC.
• Script Notes: Appears in the dialogue export to guide voice actors.
• Emotion Type: Select the emotion type. Emotions change the facial expression of the speaker.
• Emotion Value: 0-100. Determines the intensity of the emotional expression.
• Voice Filename: Displays the filename that will be generated for this response. Full path is listed in the file list.
• Voice file list: Displays the voice files that this response needs (based on the race\sex\faction conditions on the info), as well as the full path.
• Record: Click this to begin recording to a temp voice file.
• Preview: Click this to listen to your current temp voice file.
• Save: Click this to save your temp voice file to ALL filenames listed in the voice file list. This was intended strictly as a quick way to generate temporary files; for final voice files you'll want to create the files by hand. The game uses mp3 files with the settings 44khz / mono/ 64 Kbit/s for voices.