reuse of conversation topics not working (adv3Lite)

[jford]

Player walks into a room.

The other guy in the room initiates a conversation that consists of two topics. When those topics are used, their curiositySatisfied properties get set to nil by the library.

Player walks out of the room, then returns.

The other guy initiates the conversation again (which is what I want). But the topics’ curiositySatisfied properties are now true, so they are no longer available for use and the conversation never gets off the ground the second time around.

room

The room.

e

next room

The next room.

The agent is here.

“Let’s talk,” the other guy says.

(You could say begin talking)

begin talking

“Well, now, there is that,” you say.

(You could say continue talking)

continue talking

“But on the other hand,” you add.

Now leave and return, expecting to have the conversation again…

west

room

The room.

east

next room

The next room.

The agent is here.

“Let’s talk,” the other guy says.

There are no topics available in the ConvNode.

So, to fix this, I explicitly reset the curiositySatisfied props to nil, in the actorAfterTravel() method where the conversation is initiated. So far so good.

But once I have explicitly set curiositySatisfied to nil, the library won’t ever set it back to true.

That means I can never get past the first topic, because its curiositySatisfied property will never be true again.

“Let’s talk,” the other guy says.

(You could say begin talking)

begin talking

“Well, now, there is that,” you say.

(You could say begin talking)

The conversation is hung up on the “begin” topic, since it will never have a true value for curiositySatisfied.

Here’s the test-bed source…

[code]#charset “us-ascii”

#include <tads.h>
#include “advlite.h”

versionInfo: GameID
IFID = ‘445C38A3-AD1B-4729-957A-F584600DE5C1’
name = ‘test’
byline = ‘by Jerry Ford’
htmlByline = ‘by
Jerry Ford’
version = ‘1’
authorEmail = ‘Jerry Ford jerry.o.ford@gmail.com’
desc = ‘Testing reusing topics objects.’
htmlDesc = ‘Testing reusing topic objects.’

;

gameMain: GameMainDef
initialPlayerChar = me
paraBrksBtwnSubcontents = nil

;

me: Actor ‘me’ @room
“The main man.<.p>”
isHim = true

person = 2

actorAfterTravel(traveler, connector)
{
    if(connector == nextRoom)
    {
        firstTopic.curiositySatisfied = nil;
        otherGuy.initiateTopic(connector);
    }
}

;
room: Room ‘room’
“The room. <.p>”

east = nextRoom 

;
nextRoom: Room ‘next room’
“The next room. <.p>”

west = room

;

otherGuy: Actor ‘agent;;man person;him’ @nextRoom
desc = “<<otherGuy.theName>> stands in the middle of the room. <.p>”

;

• InitiateTopic @nextRoom
  “Let’s talk, the other guy says. <.p>
  <.convnodet talkTheTalk>”
  ;
• ConvNode ‘talkTheTalk’
  ;
  ++ NodeContinuationTopic
  “Keep talking, the other guy says.<.p>
  <.topics>”
  ;
  ++ NodeEndCheck
  canEndConversation(reason)
  {
  switch(reason)
  {
  case endConvBye:
  “No, don’t go, the other guy says.<.p> <.topics>”;
  return blockEndConv;
  case endConvLeave:
  “You can’t just walk away,the other guy says.<.p>
  <.topics>”;
  return blockEndConv;
  default:
  return nil;
  }
  }
  ;

++ firstTopic: SayTopic ‘begin talking’
“Well, now, there is that, you say. <.convstayt><.p>”
;
++ secondTopic: SayTopic ‘continue talking’
“But on the other hand, you add. <.p>”
isActive = firstTopic.curiositySatisfied
;[/code]

Full disclosure—I do have a workaround, a setTopicCuriosityProp(topic, value) function that I use to manage the curiositySatisfied property, but shouldn’t that property management task be the library’s responsibility?

Jerry

[Eric_Eve]

Have you tried overriding the timesToSuggest property on the TopicEntries in question? If timesToSuggest is nil, then the library should never set curiositySatisfied to true. Otherwise it will be set to true after the TopicEntry has been referenced timesToSuggest times. See the discussion in the Library Manual at https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/58348218/adv3Lite/docs/manual/suggest.htm.

[jford]

@Eric Eve

Have you tried overriding the timesToSuggest property

I have read the doc’s discussion of timesToSuggest. But I don’t want to code a finite number of times the conversation can be triggered.

The test bed example may have over simplified the situation.

In the game, the number of times the conversation needs to be valid is conditional whether the second topic gets displayed, which is in turn conditional on which ActorState is active for otherGuy (or in reality the actor object for whom otherGuy is a test-bed standin) at the time the conversation is engaged.

So I need to be able to set curiositySatisfied to nil manually if conditions allow a replay of the conversation but leave it as true otherwise.

I’m just hoping to avoid having to code a check for when the conversation is no longer viable, and then be sure I run that check and call my workaround function in all the locations in the code where it needs to be run. If the library would reset the property to true each time the topic gets displayed, then I can manage the resetting to nil as needed.

Jerry

[Eric_Eve]

@jford

So I need to be able to set curiositySatisfied to nil manually if conditions allow a replay of the conversation but leave it as true otherwise.

I’m just hoping to avoid having to code a check for when the conversation is no longer viable, and then be sure I run that check and call my workaround function in all the locations in the code where it needs to be run. If the library would reset the property to true each time the topic gets displayed, then I can manage the resetting to nil as needed.

In the library curiositySatisfied() is a method, not a property. If you want it to work as you suggest then simply override it to curiositySatisfied = nil on the TopicEntry in question and then override handleTopic on the TopicEntry in question to read:

handleTopic() { curiositySatisfied = true; inherited(); }