Decision on Hotspot

markfrancombe

Hi, suddenly came across something I thought was going to be easy, now Im not sure or the best way.

Basically, I want a menu to open immediatly a hotspot is hovered over. (but not all hotspots)

The actual example is a door, where you can shoose to kinck, or go right in without knocking.

The hotspot is on the door. The way I did this was to think of it as "having a conversation with the door" So Hotspot label says CHOOSE? and when you click we go to a conversation. Knock or Enter. Knock shows animation and sound, and eventually you can go in.
Enter, quick dialogue line, then remove the hotspot, and enable a door thats possible to walk through (previously a static item).

But this doesn't "feel" quite right to me, firstly the additional CHOOSE step, I think Id rather just have the options pop up. KNOCK and ENTER.

What would be the best way here?

OH.. and another thing, how do I REMOVE a conversation menu when clicked. After my dialogue ("I think Ill go straight in") The menu comes back.. Im sure I knew this but cant find it right now!

SkyTree

Sorry can't help you...

markfrancombe

Er... Im asking how to solve a thing here, not asking for a game review. This aint no FPS shoot em up Im making... maybe knocking is wise in my game, maybe just walking through a door un announced is dangerous?
In this case, a long lost Nephew has arrived at his Auntys cabin in the woods, in an attempt to persuade her to give him some money that he knows she has squirreled away. The aunty, who lives alone, in the wilds of Norway, is not used to visitors, especially un-announced. She is, as one might expect, "prepared" for the worst. And anyway, if you travelled half the way round the world to visit an Aunty and beg some cash... I think you might knock first?

So.. pop up menu on hover over a hotspot... anyone? (but I don't want this to be default operation of a hotspot )

OldKnivesTale

Could you perhaps add 2 new use interactions actions for that hotspot? One that is kick and one that is knock? You may have to make icons for these though. If the input method was set to pop up the options while hovering over the hotspot then it should work as you said you wanted. 

markfrancombe

@OldKnivesTale Thanks, I thought about making custom cursors, but then Id have to make a new one everytime this kind of "decision" interaction needed to happen.

I think IM going to go for ONE new icon, a Question mark, that signifies that there is a decision to be made on this object, when you click it. That way ist the same as a USE or a TALK... Of course theres one extra click the player has to do...

How about my OTHER question, how to "get out of a conversation?" it keeps popping up !

OldKnivesTale

Maybe we should suggest to Chris to add the option to use text for hotspot choices instead of icons?

As for the conversation dissapearing... this happens automatically for me. Once I've clicked an option the conversation dissapears unless I link back to it again in the action list. Are you sure you're not doing that? Or maybe it's to do with the fact I use "override options" in the action list editor and link my conversations from their rather than using the conversation editor. 

ChrisIceBox

By conversation, do you mean AC's built-in Conversation system, or your own choice system created using the Menu system and Buttons?  If it's the former, provide screenshots showing how your Conversation's Dialogue options are triggered - i.e. are they overridden in an ActionList?  Otherwise, you can use the Menu: Change state Action to turn off or lock your Menu.

For unique behaviour like a Menu appearing when the mouse hovers over a single Hotspot, look into using custom events, which are very simple scripts that allow you to add behaviour to AC tasks like this very easily.  There is a tutorial about them here, and the OnHotspotSelect event is triggered whenever the mouse hovers over a Hotspot.  You can have a custom event run a Cutscene in your scene by using it to call the Cutscene's Interact function.

markfrancombe

OK @ChrisIceBox

Im using built in AC conversation. Now (slightly different than previously mentioned) Im accepting that I get an initial icon. My Decision icon. So first issue.
Heres my door...

Heres my action.

and heres the result.

Note how Im getting BOTH my decision icon (the ?) AND the CHOOSE txt from the action... I want just the icon. (EDIT Solved this but simply added a SPACE to the Label field... botch job, but works)

THEN when user clicks I use this (pretending the door is a character)

which takes me to this conversation...

If we then click Enter? (the easiest of the 2 options) We get to... some experiments..

Im trying to play some speech (currenlty just textm but will add sound file later) and then remove all traces of the hotspot... from now on, the door will be open, and there should be no need to do this again... The difference, game play wise, is what happens inside... either the old Aunty will be frightened at your sudden walking in, or she will shout come in Vicar! (you are not the Vicar, but...)

So here, Im getting the speech text, but instead of the conversation dissapearing, it comes back... I was expecting to only need Disable Hotspot... that didnt work, so I tried Visibility of the hotpsot... then I tried doing a crosfade, which has that "return to gameplay" option... (Plus I might use a camera here to show the player knocking... if they cose the other option... thefore Ill need a fade back to gameplay camera anyway...

See...?

ChrisIceBox

So that we can discount any changes you've made to the Conversation menu being the culprit, temporarily switch your Menu Manager to Demo_MenuManager, and try again.

Note that Actions 2 and 3 in your Dialog Option list both have After running settings of Stop, which means 3, and 4 will never get run.  It's recommended that you use the Override options? option in the original Dialogue: Start conversation Action, working in the ActionList Editor, so that you can define what happens all within the same list.

markfrancombe

Thanks for the reply @ChrisIceBox

EDIT I fixed the main problem, it was, as you spotted the STOPS...

There is a new issue however...

I want to go to a 3rd person view during the decision. So as you see below, I do a Camera Crossfade to a specially positioned camera over the door.

It does this crossfade, however, hops right back to the Gameplay Cam (a FPS camera parented to player as per the instructions for a first person camera)

I want it to pause on that wide shot while the user makes their choice, and then in those choices.. do stuff... might be just cutting back to FPS and the player walks through the door

So why does it not stay on the wide shot, you can see below how I intend to switch back AFTER the user has clicked... NOTE the error I have now corrected, the STOP on the Dialogue Play.

ChrisIceBox

Check that you have Run Conversation in first-person? unchecked in your Settings Manager.

markfrancombe

BINGO! thanks!