SuggestedTellTopic

Howdy fine folks.

I am hoping someone can point me in the right direction – I’ve searched this base and other doc, but am a bit stumped for now.

Here’s the scenario.

An NPC arrives and greets the PC, asking him a question.

At this point, I would like the SuggestedTellTopics to take over and offer some advice on what to tell the NPC.

I’ve tried using .suggestTopics(true) for the NPC (and the <.topics> method) but T3 replies with “You were not currently talking to anyone.”

I can type ‘>Talk to NPC’ and all is well, but I don’t want the PC to have do that.

Any advice?

Thanks,
– Mike

So yeah… I went about it a different way and solved it.

First, thanks to Eric Eve for posting All Hope Abandon source code into the archive.

I ended up scratching the SuggestedTellTopic code in favor of SpecialTopic (that gave me more freedom on the type of response the PC could use).

When the NPC shows up, I now perform .initiateConversation(actorState, ‘name’). The ‘name’ ConvNode then takes it from there.

I’m sure I’ll need to tweak it a bit, but the prototype is working like a charm.

Thanks again, Eric!

– Mike

If haven’t already, you should read the “Entering and navigating a tree” section of:

tads.org/t3doc/doc/techman/t3conv.htm

it explains how NPCs can initiate a conversation.

For the whole context, take a look at “Creating Dynamic Characters” (in “Part II”) at:

tads.org/t3doc/doc/techman/toc.htm