Hi,
if I remember correctly, this is a common feature of the classic LucasArts - and more recently of the excellent Wadjet Eye games.
- When entering a conversation, you can access your inventory as usual (including the ability to display the names as you hover over the items).
- Clicking on an item triggers a special "conversation" action script.
- It could trigger the same action script as the Combine option for the item and the NPC's hotspot.
- Even better: there could be a special option in the Inventory settings: "Conversations" with the ability to create an action list for each NPC in the game.
Luckily, AC is brilliant enough to give plenty of workarounds to create similar results. But if these features aren't specific to my game, it could be an interesting tool for others too.
Thanks!
Comments
As a Conversation isn't arbitrarily "linked" to any one NPC (it could be just a user prompt, or an option when faced with multiple characters at once), having a per-NPC interaction would add confusion and narrower options, IMO. I believe a better way to handle conversation-time interactions would be to use a Global Variable (e.g. PopUp) to record the NPC currently being spoken to. When an item is clicked, an ActionList checks for this variables value, and reacts accordingly.
As I've explained in another recent post, AC treats conversations and regular gameplay as separate states, so I'm going to have to investigate the possibility of even being able to have inventory interactions run at this time. I can't give a guarantee or promise, but I shall be looking into it.