Retain last subtitle text during conversation?

willoneill

This seems like a really common situation that probably has a simple solution, but I can't find it anywhere...!

What can I do if I want a speech subtitle (generated in a menu via Label > Dialogue line) to remain visible and on-screen as I start a conversation event (And open up another menu with a DialogList) and show that as well?

So, basically, I have an NPC that asks the PC a question, and the player chooses how the PC responds, but I don't want their question to disappear: I'd like it to remain on-screen as the player chooses the response.

Presently, the subtitle vanishes the moment that the conversation starts, because of course the first menu has an Appear Type of 'When Speech Plays' and the other has an Appear Type of 'During Conversation'

Any help is appreciated! Thanks!

ChrisIceBox

Use a separate Menu that contains a similarly-styled Subtitle Label, but set the Appear type to Manual.

Just before the last line of dialogue before the Conversation is spoken, use two Menu: Change state Actions to lock off your regular Subtitle Menu and turn on your new one.  The new Menu will continue to show the last-spoken line while the Conversation Menu is also open.

If you'd prefer to extract the last spoken line text through script for greater control, you can write a listener for the OnSpeechStart event.

willoneill

That works! Thanks, Chris. Of course, I also had to then reverse it right after that final line to get it back to its previous state.

I think I'll make it a little more efficient in my game by doing both of these things via an ActionList (One action instead of two...! Every little bit helps!) but if you're ever interested in making this a thing that happens by default via a tickbox in the settings somewhere, I think it might come in handy for many.