SceneTopic

Overview

The purpose of this extension is to allow the definition of ActorTopicEntries that are triggered when Scenes begin or end.

This extension is based on work by Donald Smith.

New Classes, Methods and Properties

In addition to a number of objects, properties and methods intended purely for internal use, this extension defines the following new classes, methods and properties:

• Classes: SceneTopic, SceneStartTopic, SceneEndTopic.
• Methods on SceneTopic: beforeResponse(), afterResponse().
• New Property on Scene: notifySingleActor.
• Otherwise Unused Property on Actor: notificationOrder

Usage

Include the scenetopic.t file after the library files but before your game source files. Your game must also contain the actor.t and scene.t modules.

SceneTopics can be used very much like other ActorTopicEntries. The main difference is that they are triggered by the start or end of a scene that takes place when the player character can talk to the actor for whom the SceneTopic is defined.

The SceneTopic class is not used directly. Instead use SceneStartTopic for a topic entry that is to be triggered by the start of a scene, and SceneEndTopic for one that is to be triggered by the end of the scene. In either case, the scene or scenes whose beginning or ending is to trigger the SceneTopic are defined on its matchObj property in the normal way, e.g.

 jane: Actor 'Jane;;;her' @hall;

+ janeState: ActorState
    isInitState = true
    specialDesc = "Jane is standing in the middle of the hall. "
;

++ SceneStartTopic @scene1
    "<q>So, the scene has started,</q> Jane remarks. "
;
 
++ SceneEndTopic [scene1, scene2]
    "<q>Well, that was quite a scene!</q> Jane declares. "
; 
 

Additional control over how a SceneTopic responds to the beginning or ending of a scene is provided by its beforeResponse() and afterResponse() methods, which can be used to define additional behaviour that is to occur before or after the response displayed by the SceneTopic. By default the beforeResponse() simply outputs a spacing paragraph break and the afterResponse() method does nothing.

Note that the same matching rules apply to SceneTopics as to other TopicEntries; that is, if an Actor has several SceneTopics that could match the start or end of a scene, only one will be triggered, namely the one that is considered the best match according to the same principles as any other TopicEntry. One slight complication, however, is that when a scene starts or ends there may be several Actors in scope (or rather, to whom the player character can talk). In that case, more than one of those Actors could have a SceneTopic that would be triggered by the beginning or ending of the Scene, but should all these Actors respond, or only one of them, and if so, which one? By default, only one Actor's SceneTopic is triggered, but this can be changed by overriding the Scene's notifySingleActor property to nil. In any case before any Actor's SceneTopic is triggered the relevant Actors are sorted in ascending order of their notificationOrder property. This means that if only one Actor's SceneTopic is used, it will be the one that has the lowest notificationOrder (out of those that have a matching SceneTopic), while if every relevant Actor with a matching SceneTopic is allowed to respond, they will respond in order of their notificationOrder property.

This covers most of what you need to know to use this extension. For additional information see the source code and comments in the scenetopic.t file.