Conversational suggestions - failing to appear/be recognized

Ok so within my game i’m implimenting a series of conversations which are integral to the story line. they’re fairly long and complicated in area’s so i’ve attempted to use Eric Eve’s Conversational Suggestions (within the Conversational Package) so that the player is in part directed in the case that they are stuck. Here is a short sample of my code:

[i][i]Part 1 - Setup and Topics

Include Conversation Package by Eric Eve.

The Personal Attendant is a familiar woman.

The Attendants name is a familiar thing.

Genetic Code is a familiar thing.

being disabled is a familiar thing.

your suspicions are a familiar thing.

the drug is a familiar thing.

Alan’s history is a familiar subject.

Alan’s disability is a familiar subject.

Part 2 - Scenario

The canteen is a room.

Alan is a man in the canteen. “Alan is, you notice, confined to a wheelchair. As his legs are unable to move he is accompanied day and night by his Personal Attendant, a young un-named female”.

The ask-suggestions are {drug}

Corin is a woman in the canteen. “Sat silently on the right side of Alan’s wheelchair, a young female appears attentive to his every need”.

Understand “teenager”,“man”, “disabled” and “Alan” as Alan.

Understand “attendant”,“woman”,“girl”,“quiet” and “Corin” as Corin.

The node of Alan is neutral-node.

the ask-suggestions are { self-suggestion, personal attendant, attendants name, disability, your suspicions }.

the tell-suggestions are { yourself }.

Part 3 - Coversation

Chapter 1 - Node Specific Responses

neutral-node is a convnode. neutral-node is an open convnode.
the ask-suggestions are {Alan’s history, Personal Attendant, Attendants name, being disabled, Genetic Code}.
the tell-suggestions are {your suspicions}.

Response of Alan when asked about Alan’s History:
say “‘So, what brought you here? I didn’t think Ishiguro County was responsible for physically disabled teenagers’ you exclaim ignorantly, missing entirely the dark look passing over the young man’s face.[paragraph break] A chuckle can be heard lacing his words. ‘Well, it’s certainly refreshing to meet someone who speaks their mind. You must be new.’ He breathes out lowly, a smile plastered between his lips as you notice, for the first time, the officially dressed attendant sat beside him.”.
[/i][/i]

Everything works whe i asked the questions that i have specified (such as ask alan about his history) but topic suggestions do not appear below the text, nor do they appear when i type in ‘topics’.

I have also tried to code this simply using the conversational suggestion extention file (outside of the package) but error messages come up in relation to this part of the code as it claims that i am trying to add a value to it and brackets cannot be used:

the ask-suggestions are { self-suggestion, personal attendant, attendants name, disability, your suspicions }.

Any help on this or suggestions would be greatly, greatly appreciated, thanks

Also, has anyone got any suggestions on how to customize it? so instead of saying “You could ask him about his history…” it could instead say in italics “you could discuss his past, how he became disabled…”. etc

I’ve never used convnodes, which are one of Eric’s more complex creations. But when I try ‘showme alan’ in your game, I see that Alan is in null-node, not neutral-node. That may be part of the problem. You may also need to specify “the ask-suggestions of neutral-node”, not just “the ask-suggestions”.

oh thanks! that works perfectly now! The trouble i appear to be having now is that i am trying to end the conversation scene with a change in mood, which generates this message when i attempt to approach that part of the conversation: -

P31 - Attempt to use a property of nothing

Most problems are detected when Inform translates the source text, but this is one of the exceptions, a “run-time problem” which emerges only during play.
The special value nothing is used to mean no object at all, and sometimes appears where an object might be expected if it was impossible to find a genuine object, or no genuine object was specified.

Nothing is not an object in its own right, and so it makes no sense to look at its properties.

Are there any suggestions on how i can use a mood change to end a scene? i know you can begin a scene with a mood change but im having a lot of trouble! thanks