| abstract
| - Now we will create another conversation for Siegfried. This will be displayed when Geralt (the player) accepts Siegfried’s quest (the quest conversation that we created earlier) but has not completed it yet. Later, after killing the bandit leader, Geralt will have to inform Siegfried of his success. We will use this same conversation for this purpose. The nodes displayed in this conversation will depend on values of the flags. Let’s return to our conversation. We don’t need to create a new file. So that the quest conversation does not disturb our work, we can collapse the branch by clicking on a small ‘-‘ sign beneath the “Hello Geralt” node: To expand the branch simply click on the small ‘+’ sign beneath the “Hello Geralt" node: To add a standard conversation, select the new conversation node and right-click: Select Create Dialog Node from the menu: This creates the first empty node of a standard conversation: To create a cutscene conversation, i.e. one which will be employed in a film made using The Witcher’s engine, select Create Cutscene Node from the menu. A cutscene conversation doesn’t differ much from a standard one. The only difference is that standard and quest conversations can be placed in the same file, but a cutscene conversation cannot. It must be saved separately. It is not possible to add a standard or quest conversation to a cutscene conversation file. Keep that in mind. Let’s go back to our standard conversation. Since the node we added the first of the conversation, it was certainly uttered by Siegfried. Double-click on the empty node and write “Geralt, have you dealt with the bandit leader yet?” Then press ENTER: Now we must ensure that the conversation is displayed only if the orders_received flag has a value of 1 (true). Since quest conversations’ flag properties are only modifiable in the After Flags section, the values of those flags are set after choosing particular conversation nodes. Standard conversations’ flag properties, in contrast, also have both the After Flags section and a Required Flags section. In this other section, flag values are checked (and not set) before displaying a particular node – only when a particular flag has the required value is the node is displayed. Let’s add the orders_received flag to the Required Flags section so that the game will know to check it. To do this, click the right-hand column opposite the Add Flag attribute and select orders_received from the menu list: This adds the flag to the Required Flags section: In order for the conversation starting from the “Geralt, have you dealt with the bandit leader yet?" node to be displayed, the value of the orders_received flag must be 1. And so it is. We will add one more flag, though. It will have the value 1 (true) when Geralt (the player) kills the bandit leader and informs Siegfried of his success. To add the flag, click on the small yellow icon in the right-hand column opposite the Add Flag attribute in the Required Flags section: The Flags window will open: Right-click the field and select Create Name from the menu: In the Enter name window which opens, write results_reported: Click on OK. That way we already have three flags: Click the right-hand column opposite the Add Flags attribute in Required Flags section and select results_reported from the list: This gives two flags in the section: Set the value of the results_reported flag to 0 (false). To do this, click the right-hand column opposite the results_reported flag and write 0. Then hit ENTER: The standard conversation we are creating will only be displayed when the value of the orders_received flag is 1 (i.e. the player has already received a quest from Siegfried) and the value of the results_reported flag is 0 (i.e. the player has not reported back on killing the bandit leader). Let’s continue creating conversation nodes. Now we’ll add a reply for Geralt. Select the “Geralt, have you dealt with the bandit leader yet?” node then right-click: Select Create Dialog Reply from the menu: This adds an empty node for Geralt’s reply: Double-click the empty node and write “No, not yet”. Then hit ENTER: This node will be displayed only when Geralt has not killed the bandit leader yet. Click the right-hand column opposite the Add Flags attribute in the Required Flags section and select leader_killed from the list: This adds the flag to the Required Flags section: Change the value to 0 (false) so that this conversation node will only be displayed if the bandit leader has not been killed by Geralt. Click the right-hand column opposite the leader_killed flag and write 0. Then press ENTER: Now we’ll add a conversation node with a different response. Right-click on the "Geralt, have you dealt with the bandit leader yet?" node again: Select Create Dialog Reply from the menu Double-click on the empty node we have just added: Write “Yes, the bastard’s dead” . Then hit ENTER: This node will only be displayed after Geralt has killed the bandit leader. To do this, click the right-hand column opposite the Add Flags attribute in the Required Flags section and select leader_killed from the list: This adds flag leader_killed flag to the Required Flags section. Because its default value is 1 (true), we do not have to change anything: Now we’ll add a node for Siegfried’s response to Geralt’s success. Select the “Yes, the bastard’s dead” node and right-click: Select Create Dialog Entry from the menu: Now double-click on the empty node and write “Well done, Geralt! Here’s your 500 orens” . Then hit ENTER: This node can also serve as Siegfried’s report. To do this, set the value of the results_reported flag to 1 (true). Click the right-hand column opposite the Add Flags attribute in the After Flags section and select results_reported from the list: This adds the flag to the After Flags section. We don’t have to change its value because it is 1 (true), which is exactly what we want: Finally, we need to add a way of exiting the conversation with Siegfried. Select the “Geralt, have you dealt with the bandit leader yet?” node and right-click: Select Create Dialog Reply from the menu: Now double-click on the empty node and write “Farewell.” Then hit ENTER: That completes Siegfried’s second conversation. We will prepare a third conversation, however. This simple conversation will be displayed every time Geralt (the player) talks to Siegfried after killing the bandit leader and reporting back. Collapse the branch containing the second conversation by clicking on a small ‘-‘ sign located next to the “Geralt, have you dealt with the bandit leader yet? node: This will make the next conversation easier to create in the same file. To add a new conversation, select new conversation then right-click: Select Create Dialog Node from the menu: This adds a new, empty node for Siegfried’s reply: Double-click on the empty node and write “Well done, Geralt!”. Then hit ENTER: Now we set the conversation to be displayed only when both the leader_killed and results_reported flags have a value of 1. To change the settings, click the right-hand column opposite the Add Flags attribute in the Required Flags section and select leader_killed from the list: This adds the leader_killed flag to the Required Flags section. We don’t have to change its value, since it is automatically set on 1 (True). Now add the other flag. Click the right-hand column opposite the Add Flags attribute in the Required Flags section again and select results_reported from the list: This adds the second flag to the section. Again, we do not have to change the value of the flag: Because of these flags, this conversation will now be displayed after Geralt has killed the bandit leader and reported back to Siegfried. Now we’ll add another conversation node, but we want Siegfried to keep talking. All the conversations so far have been carried out in turns – first one person spoke, then the second and so on. There is a way around this, however. Select the “Well done, Geralt!” node and right-click: Select Create Continue from the menu: This is how we add a node which is not displayed during a conversation. This will skip Geralt’s, i.e. the player’s, turn to speak: Select the new node and right-click. Now select Create Dialog Entry from the menu: This adds yet another node: The new node is Siegfried’s. Double-click on it and write “Keep it up! ”. Then hit ENTER: That’s it when it comes to creating conversations. Siegfried’s conversation is ready. It looks like this: All we have to do now is save the conversation. To do this, select Save As… from the File menu: This opens the standard Windows window used for saving files. Conversations must be saved in the Dialogues folder. Go to that folder, enter the name siegfried_conversation and click on Save. Remember that the name of the file cannot exceed 16 characters. Otherwise the D’jinni Editor will not see it. Make sure the file is saved in the .dlg format: If a different type of file is listed instead, it probably means that you’re trying to save the content in another open window by accident. Before saving a new spawn set, make sure that the new conversation window is active. If it is inactive, the title bar will be grey: A different color means that the window is active: An asterisk before the name in the title bar means that the file has not been saved since the last change was introduced. As when saving templates, instead of selecting Save as… from the File menu we can select Save new conversation. This will save the file directly in the module. Don’t do this now, however. We should also discuss the issue of deleting nodes, collapsing or expanding them, moving them, etc. As you can see, our conversation is displayed in the form of a tree. There are three main branches in this tree: Select any conversation node and right-click. Then choose Collapse All from the menu: This collapses all branches of the tree: Now select Expand All from the menu: This expands all branches of the tree again. Now, select the “No, not yet” node and right-click. Select Move Down from the menu: This will move the “No, not yet" node beneath the “Yes, the bastard’s dead” node: To return this node to its original location, select the “No, not yet” node and right-click. Then select Move Up from the menu. Now select any node and right-click. Then choose Insert File from the menu: This opens the standard Windows window used for loading files. This can be used to link an existing conversation to a particular node. Remember that all conversations are saved in the Data\Dialogues folder. The remaining relevant commands in the menu are Cut, Copy and Paste: These are used for cutting, copying and pasting nodes. The Paste as link command is used to create links for other conversation nodes. Finally, a few words about removing nodes. To remove a particular conversation node, select it and then right-click. Choose Remove Entry from the menu The selected conversation node will be deleted. Be careful when removing nodes, especially the main node of a branch, such as “Hello Geralt": The will result in the whole branch being deleted: To avoid removing the whole branch of a conversation by mistake, a Question window will appear: Clicking Yes will result in the branch being deleted. That’s it when it comes to the conversation menu. Now we just have to assign the new conversation to Siegfried. The conversation can be assigned to the Siegfried template, but this is not advisable in the case of NPCs. This is because there may be a different conversation assigned to an NPC in every phase of the plot. Instead, we’ll assign the conversation to Siegfried’s spawn set. First we have to open the file containing Siegfried’s spawn set. We’ll use the Resources Explorer. Select Utility Windows -> Resources Explorer from the View menu. A Resources Explorer window will open on the left side of the screen. The Resources Explorer is described in more detail in another chapter of this manual. We saved Siegfried’s spawn set in the Data\Templates\NPCSpawn folder under the name our_siegfried.npc. To open this file, expand the Templates branch by clicking on the small ‘+’ sign next to the name of the folder: Then expand the NPCSpawn branch by clicking on the small ‘+’ sign next to its name: Double-click on the our_siegfried.npc file: The our_siegfried.npc window containing Siegfried’s spawn set will open: I would like to remind you how to assign a conversation to a character’s spawn set. Double-click on the field under the Dialogs column: The Select window will open: A dialogue list is displayed in the window. To assign the conversation, first expand the dialogues branch by clicking on the small ‘+’ sign next to it: Then double-click on siegfried_conversation: This assigns the new conversation to Siegfried’s spawn set: Now we should save an updated version of the our_siegfried.npc file. If something has changed and hasn’t been saved, the file is marked by an asterisk appearing before the name of the our_siegfried.npc window: To save a file under the same name, i.e. our_siegfried.npc, select Save our_siegfried.npc from the File menu: If you can’t find the Save our_siegfried.npc command or a different file name is visible, this probably means that the our_siegfried.npc window is inactive. To activate it just click on the name of the our_siegfried.npc window and then select Save our_siegfried.npc from the File menu again. To conclude this sub-section, a few other conversation attributes will be described. Click on siegfried_conversation (if the conversation has not been saved yet, new conversation will be displayed instead of the name of the file): The following attributes will appear in the Properties window on the right side of the screen:
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