Speak Trigger
From Neverwinter Pedia
Contents |
The Scenario
As Frans paced back and forth (between Way Points 1 and 2), suddenly he saw someone (the player) came into his Tavern. He thought to himself, "An adventurous sort of a customer! Hey, may be he/she will be adventurous enough to help take care of my problem in the basement!"
If you are Frans, what would you do next?
Run/walk over to the player and be very nice to the player (hoping that the player will help you solve the problem in the basement), right?
To make this little scenario happen, we need to put down a Trigger on the floor to notify Frans that it's his cue to run/walk towards the player character (PC). You will soon find out that Frans isn't such a nice person afterall.
Placing a Trigger
Placing a trigger on the floor is no harder than creating a set of Way Points. Just like a set of Way Points is polygonal, a Speak Trigger is also polygonal in shape. Marking a trigger in NWN2 is easy. For example, if you want to make a rectangle, only four mouse clicks are required: one for each corner.
Remember that every mouse click you placed will automatically add a new corner to the imaginary polygon. So even though you may not "see" anything after you have placed the first and second mouse clicks, have faith that they are there. Because two points only make a straight line, not a polygon, the trigger cannot be shown. This means a Speak Trigger must contain at least 3 mouse clicks: a triangle. So, three (3) clicks generate a triangle, four (4) clicks will make a rectangle, five (5) clicks make a pentagon, and so on.
Okay, enough about the mechanics. To put down a Speak Trigger, look for Trigger in Section F: Blueprints, and choose Speak Trigger (as shown below).
Place the Speak Trigger using whatever polygonal shape you have chosen (a rectangle would works well).
Properties of a Speak Trigger
Check out the SpeakTrigger's «PROPERTY» Sheet. Under the Section Misc » Comments, you will find the following instruction:
When a PC enters this trigger, the NPC specified in the variables will attempt to speak with the PC. A conversation file may be specified, otherwise the NPC's default conversation will be used. A node may also be specified, in which case, use the script "gc_node" in the conversation conditionals to index the nodes. If Run is set to 1, the NPC will run toward the PC, otherwise the NPC will walk.
1. Use the convention: TG_(conversation) to name the "Speak Trigger". In our case, it should be named TG_frans_01 — where TG_ is the prefix (meaning Trigger) and frans_01 is the Tag for the conversation (which we will create in the next Tutorial).
2. We also need to fill in the correct Variables under the Scripts Section. The default set of variable is:
NPC_Tag = , Conversation = , Node = 0, Run = 0, TalkNow = 0, CutsceneBars = 0, OnceOnly = 0, MultiUse = 0, CombatCutsceneSetup = 0
Clicking on the ellipses [...] at the end of the Variables item will bring up the following dialog box. We will need to change the ValueString of NPC_Tag to c_frans, and the ValueString for Conversation to frans_01. Just click on Items #0 and #1 on the Left Panel, and change the ValueString on the Right Panel to the correct value.
[Note: The NPC will walk if "Run = 0", and the NPC will run if "Run = 1".]
Now, the correct Variables should read:
NPC_Tag = c_frans, Conversation = frans_01, Node = 0, Run = 0, TalkNow = 0, CutsceneBars = 0, OnceOnly = 0, MultiUse = 0, CombatCutsceneSetup = 0
Field Testing
Okay, you have setup a Speak Trigger for Frans. You can do a Field Testing to check out the effect of the "Speak Trigger" if you so desire.
- First, place a new Starting Point just before the Speak Trigger (this will make testing easier, so you don't have to "transition" from Fransk to the Tavern.
- Run the Module, and click "OK" when the "baske reminder" pops up – you don't have to bake the module again and again.
- When you "appear" in the game, you should see Frans pacing the floor.
- Take a few steps forward, once you stepped into the vicinity of the "Speak Trigger" zone (remember you will not see the Yellow Outline of the Rectangle in the game), Frans will run/walk towards you.
At this moment, Frans will not be able to start a conversation with you, because we have yet to create the conversation. However, we are going to fix that next.
Continue to » Basic Conversation