topics not highlighted in conversation (not updating)

Munty · Post by **Munty** » Mon Sep 15, 2008 1:08 pm

I'm back for help again! I've pretty much got my head round scripting by the looks of it which makes it incredibly annoying that now my topics are disappearing in game...

I'm working on an ESP with loads of new dialogue and I'm trying to write it so each new option is introduced naturally in conversation but today I'm having problems and they're not being highlighted in the dialogue (shown as a blue link) so the player can never obtain that discussion topic. There are also two topics which are highlighted the second time they are mentioned in a response but not the first. One quest important guy won't even respond to a console forced discussion topic. The Mod seems clean and everything looks like it should work, what's happening?!

immortal_pigs · Post by **immortal_pigs** » Mon Sep 15, 2008 1:13 pm

I think I've had similar problems before. They were always due to having frigged up the order in which the topics were made, or because of incorrect filters.

You should check to see that the newest responses are always on top, and that your filters have been correctly set. Also, keywords must appear in a piece of common dialogue.

I'm near to 100% positive your problem is due to incorrect filters.

VulcaN · Post by **VulcaN** » Mon Nov 16, 2009 4:10 am

I know old thread and necromancy and stuff but I got a related question so I'm just gonna ask it here.

You should check to see that the newest responses are always on top, and that your filters have been correctly set. Also, keywords must appear in a piece of common dialogue.

So saying this should every new part you add to a topic be on top? I know I have had a few problems with topics not being added and am curoius if that affected anything.

Bloodthirsty Crustacean · Mon Nov 16, 2009 9:18 am

If your filters and everything are set correctly, then the likely culprit is that you're using a small generic phrase like "small task" or something.

If you use such a topic, and there's a pre-existing topic which 'includes' that topic (e.g. "a small task", "small task for me"), and the longer phrase is in your dialogue ("Hey, %PCName, I have a small task you could do") then the game's engine will hyperlink that to the longer topic and ignore the fact that the smaller topic is inside it, even if for the NPC in question the longer topic is not valid.

Myzel · Post by **Myzel** » Mon Nov 16, 2009 9:49 am

Moved to Help! forum.

Why · Post by **Why** » Mon Nov 16, 2009 3:09 pm

I've stumbled upon a similar issue while writing my showcase. During my quest, you are given the task of buying slaves for a noble. He brings up the topic "slaves" in dialog, you get a journal entry, all goes well and is linked the way it is supposed to be. However, when you tell the NPC goodbye and then talk to him again, "slaves" isn't linked in my custom greeting, but still shows up in the list of available topics. Moreover, if you click the topic "slaves" he speaks exactly the dialog I intended him to have, including another reference to "slaves" which actually is linked. What am I doing wrong? I checked my filters, and as far as I know there's no problem there. All I can think of is another topic interfering with my custom dialog, but the only one that could do that is "slave" which is a Beth topic, just as "slaves" is. Both are very small topics filtered for two different NPCs in the vanilla game though, so I'm a bit at a loss.

Bloodthirsty Crustacean · Mon Nov 16, 2009 8:05 pm

Moved out of the TR specific Help and Walthroughs forum.

And Why, it will be what I'm talking about. That's what causes that issue.

e.g. "slaves" is hyperlinked when he says whatever, but then when he says "Argonian slaves" even if you're expecting it to hyperlink slaves, the game reads the topic "Argonian slaves", perhaps introduced by another mod.

That's why it's best to avoid these generic topics when questing/dialogueing.

Why · Post by **Why** » Mon Nov 16, 2009 9:06 pm

Thanks BC. While I thought that would be highly unlikely, I didn't take into account the mods I was running (I was playtesting with my main character because I thought, why not) and it was indeed the "my slave" topic added by Town of Tel Uvirith that interfered. Guess that shows I should be more careful (and test with a character that is actually clean).

One question though, iirc TR does allow the use of vanilla topics for quests, so would it be okay if I kept the topic "slaves"? If not, no problem, and I'll go rewording it so it is a bit less generic. I'd rather keep it though as, as it currently is, it makes sense in the quest.

Also, if you feel this needs to be moved to my showcase thread, go ahead. I just posted this here because it was an active thread about exactly my problem.

Bloodthirsty Crustacean · Mon Nov 16, 2009 11:42 pm

No, it's fine.

Using vanilla 'generic topics' is fine, because you're not creating new problems. e.g. using "slave" is alright, because it's a Beth topic, and so any problems won't be our fault. It might be wiser to use a more specific topic like "Ah'seej" or something, if there's a quest involving a named slave, otherwise you might be victim to the kind of problem you describe. Creating a new topic like "my slave" however is a terrible idea, because it's so generic, and so likely to be part of a sentence, thus Town of Tel uvirith causing problems. Something like "that slave in the corner" is less of a problem, because it would only cause loss of hyperlink if someone had also written that exact sentence but expected "slave" to be highlighted, which is a far less likely scenario than someone saying "my slave" and expecting "slave" to be hyperlinked, as you did.

Here at TR, we like problems to be minimal, so unique topics or Beth generics are good strategy.

Pluto · Post by **Pluto** » Thu Nov 19, 2009 4:28 am

You should always use AddTopic in the Results box when adding new Topics to dialog.
Not only does this guarantee that the topic gets highlighted, you can also use generic terms and not have them been ridden over by other topics.

So, if you use AddTopic "task for me" when the words are first spoken by an NPC the topic will guarantee to get added, even if "a small task for me" is also a different topic being used elsewhere.

But, like mentioned above, unique topics are best. (but still use AddTopic)

Faalen · Post by **Faalen** » Thu Nov 19, 2009 8:07 am

AddTopic will add it to the dialogue options, yes, but the text still will not hyperlink. Anything that doesn't pop up conspicuously at the top of the list of choices will go unnoticed by the player. Don't rely on AddTopic for new topic introduction. It's a good tool when you want to give an NPC other than the one you're speaking with a related but as yet unspoken topic, but it's a bad idea to introduce topics within a conversation with it or in a place where a text hyperlink would suffice. Feel free to use addTopic as a safety net, but it should not be your default new topic strategy.

Pluto · Post by **Pluto** » Thu Nov 19, 2009 2:23 pm

I agree it's not necessary all the time and I've never used it as my default way to add topics, but I don't see how it could ever hurt to use it. Someone I trust from the LGNPC team highly recommends using it. As long as you know how to properly filter your Topics.
I've written hundreds of lines of dialog and never had a problem with using them alongside many mods.

But, this is why testing is so important. To ensure everything works with/without AddTopic.

Bloodthirsty Crustacean · Thu Nov 19, 2009 6:01 pm

Just to clarify for anyone reading this who becomes confused, AddTopic does not solve the hyperlink problem.

What it does is adds the topic to the list down the right-hand side (assuming the dialogue entries are filtered right), so in the event of no hyperlink, which would also result in no topic in the right-hand list, the player can go and find it there (but they have to be expecting this or they won't notice, and it feels wrong - so don't rely on it).

But yeah, it doesn't hurt; please test, etc.