Dialogue?

[Callie]

I am currently workin on a scenario for Blades of Avernum, but whenever I look over the dialogue the first thing that comes to mind; bland.

 

It isn't horrible dialogue, its just bad compare to that of Spiderweb Software.

 

Any tips for good dialogue?

[Lazarus.]

The Lyceum\'s Designer\'s Forum has some good articles, I think a few of them are about dialog, and there are other good ones too. They're written for BoE, but they apply to BoA as well. (Except the coding and "Things that Don't Work" articles of course)

[Enraged Slith]

Think of each NPC as a real person. Everyone has something going on, everyone has a motive. Once you establish that, the writing comes easier.

[Callie]

OK, Thanks. I also realized that my sentences don't flow as well as they should. That could improve.

[Blake81]

All have troubles with the dialog,my problem is that I use remaked scripts what makes much easier to do them but much harder to configure them

[Ephesos]

Quote:

Originally written by Blake81:
All have troubles with the dialog,my problem is that I use remaked scripts what makes much easier to do them but much harder to configure them

Wait... how do you do that with dialog scripts? Are you just copying chunks of other people's dialog?

[Callie]

I doubt he would be stupid enough to copy other people's dialogue.

[Lazarus.]

If you are having problems with the actual scripting of dialog, then Niemand's Dialog Editor is a great tool. Sadly it can't solve problems with poor writing.

[aka Ravenwing]

Well, if you are having issues with, say, cheesy lines, just listen to how people talk in real life. Or you could take a look at the sorts of things other designers (including JV) are having the people say.

 

Something I've noticed is that many NPCs have sort of a one-track mind, so to speak. That is, they generally tend to talk about one thing that's forefront on their mind. There are exceptions, but for most smalltalk situations, this may be the way to go. It all kind of depends on what your scenario's about, though.

 

Whatever you do, just make sure you check the spelling, grammar, and sentence flow several times before the beta. *cringes from bad memories*

[Sudanna]

Yes, you don't want to firewalk with language on Spiderweb.

[Callie]

Quote:

Yes, you don't want to firewalk with language on Spiderweb.

Huh?

[Sudanna]

We're real sticklers for grammar and spelling. Or, at least The Doctor is.

[Dintiradan]

By Laz:

Quote:

If you are having problems with the actual scripting of dialog, then Niemand's Dialog Editor is a great tool. Sadly it can't solve problems with poor writing.

If you have a Windows machine, you can use my version of astring for extracting all strings from your scripts so as to run them through a word processor (find it on my site ).</shameless plug>

 

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There: met my quota for one post this week. Back to the Central Limit Theorem!

[nikki.]

Crimson Editor also has a built-in spell checker, which isn't perfect but should suffice.

 

As far as writing dialogue goes, I can't help. Either it comes to me, or it doesn't. It's not a science so much as an art, but at least read through it and make sure it sounds as if it might actually be spoken.

[Blake81]

No! i don't copy existing dialog,I only errase the words and replace them for others.I'm not good making scripts from zero.In fact im unable to make them from zero,because I don't know much of scripting,I barely can understand them.How I can say it?Hmm...I reusing or reclycling scripts.

[Nioca]

You can get a Dialogue Editor at Niemand\'s Site . It allows you to create and edit dialogue scripts without a bit of scripting involved.

[Blake81]

The dialoge scripts are my minor problem.The big ones are the npc scripts.In this moment I looking for a script that make than a npc that joined the party disapear and reapear in another place.Did you know how to make them or if you have one like it.

[Lazarus.]

You don't have to write a creature script to do that, just put the NPC in the party, then use erase_char(4) (or 5 depending on which slot it's in) then activate_hidden_group() for the NPC you want to appear in the other location.

[Blake81]

Thanks for the info,I'm now a step closer of finish my scenario,it must be ready in a week or two.

[Blake81]

I having some troubles with the outdoor script,I wonder if some of us have a script for a spell on the outdoor(like the stone circles in A3).

[Nioca]

Do you mean granting the party a spell outdoors? That requires a somewhat steady grasp on scripting to do. I suppose I could make it for you, but I'd need your current outdoor script.

 

It's pretty much the same as granting a spell indoors. Look at the spellbook in Roses of Reckoning to see what it basically consists of. Or, you could post the script here and I could add the state myself.

[Blake81]

Thanks you very much.I will send it to your E-mail.Thanks you again.

[Nioca]

Reply sent. As mentioned, you'll need to make a couple modifications, but other then that, it's ready to go.

[Callie]

I decided to test what little I have done on my scenario, strange things happened;

1.Said there was an error in the town script in line 0, but a line 0 doesn't exsist.

2.A bow suddenly went into a character's inventory upon entering the scenario, even though I never said anywhere to give the party a bow.

3. I can't get out of the first town.

 

I'm using BBEdit for the scripting on a Mac.

[Nioca]

It would help us if you posted the entire town script. That way, we could see what was going wrong.

[Lazarus.]

1. Errors with missing breaks can often return strange line number errors, that's a possibility. It's also possible you have a typo in your script's very first line of code.

 

2. As for the bow-- you must have a reward_give() or char_give_item() call somewhere in there, probably in the init_state. There really isn't any other way an item can just be stuck into one's inventory.

 

3. If you alter a town's boundaries so that they are too close the the edge, it can make it impossible to leave town. Check that your town boundaries are at least 1 or 2 spaces from the edge.

[Callie]

I've only been creating the towns themselves, and this is the only town script I have so far. Really it isn't anywhere near done, but the computer still reads it:

begintownscript;

 

variables;

 

body;

 

beginstate INIT_STATE;

set_name(6,"Wallis");

set_name(8,"Rok");

set_name(9,"Ronald");

set_name(12,"Christian");

set_name(16,"Reeksamo");

set_name(17,"Sarg");

set_name(19,"Ringo");

set_name(20,"Kayla");

set_name(22,"Derek");

set_name(26,"Isssa");

set_name(27,"Kina-Bok");

set_name(34,"Orion");

set_name(35,"Harrow");

set_name(39,"Julie");

set_name(41,"Captain");

set_name(47,"Dahlia");

set_name(53,"Karl");

set_name(54,"Mack");

set_name(55,"Dorisss");

set_name(69,"Henry");

set_name(72,"Janis");

set_name(73,"Parth");

set_name(76,"Mark");

set_name(83,"Ari");

 

set_crime_tolerance(2);

 

Thats a beginning, and I haven't found any spelling errors. I compared it to the scripts in other scenarios and it doesn't look like there is anything wrong.

 

Also, I haven't put a script anywhere to give the party a reward, due to the fact that I've barely started.

[Kelandon]

You need a "break" at the end of your INIT_STATE. You also need a START_STATE and an EXIT_STATE for BoA even to read your script.

 

The easiest way to make a functioning script is to copy a short script from an existing scenario (say, t20Small Cave from VoDT) and delete everything inside the states without deleting the states themselves.

[Blake81]

Sometime odd things happent with the dialoge scripts.I haved a trouble with one that say ``improper code system´´.I only changed the writting type and the bug is gone.Very unusual problem.

[Ephesos]

Quote:

Originally written by Blake81:
Sometime odd things happent with the dialoge scripts.I haved a trouble with one that say ``improper code system´´.I only changed the writting type and the bug is gone.Very unusual problem.

Wait... you mean you changed the font type? The whole script should probably be one font, and it definitely has to be in plain text (.txt) format... unless I've misunderstood what you mean.

[Blake81]

All the script was written in Times New Roman and the game don't supported it,I only changed to Arial Black and ``poof´´ the bug is gone.

[Dintiradan]

That's the problem. When someone says 'Plain Text Format', that means that the file doesn't contain any information about how to display the text; it just contains the text itself. What OS do you have? If you run Windows, a simple test is to try open your script with Notepad. If you see lots of weird characters, your file isn't in Plain Text Format. To be safe, write your scripts with one of the text editors listed here .

 

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The following two statements are usually both true:

There's not enough documentation.

There's too much documentation.

- Larry Wall

[Callie]

It's best to stick with Courier New.

[Niemand]

No, as Dintridan said, it's best to use a file format that doesn't contain font information. Notepad is an easy way to do that on Windows, on Mac OS, TextEdit is good, but you have to set the default new document type to 'Plain text', I think the starting default is 'Rich text', which you don't want.

 

One way that you can check a file (at least on a Mac, since it works with Internet Explorer, I'm guessing it'll work on a PC) is to save your file and give it a .txt extension, then open it using a webbrowser. If you see a bunch of junk like:

Code:

 {\fonttbl\f0\fnil\fcharset77 GillSans;}{\colortbl;\red255\green255\blue255;} 

at the beginning that you don't see in your text editor, then it isn't in plain text format and it may not work with BoA.

[The Almighty Doer of Stuff]

Gah! Too much mucking about looking for unnecessarily snarky comments about death to describe the subject of what's best to use for BoA scripts! Now my post is five minutes after Niemand's. Whatever.

[Callie]

So why do you bother to look at the BoA Editor forum?

[The Almighty Doer of Stuff]

Not death to BoA or BoA scripts. I meant death to the discussion of how to best format BoA scripts.