g35011

Hello, I'm wondering if it's possible to pause my turn-based active combat when my third-party dialogue engine (Pixel Crushers Dialogue Engine which has ORK integration) is active. Currently, I have a setup that triggers a conversation when a player's turn begins, but the combat UI remains visible and the player can still participate in the battle. I came across a post from three years ago here that suggests custom nodes as the only solution. I'm wondering if this is still the case. Ideally, I would like the dialogue to determine whether to continue or end the player's turn as Pixel Crushers allows me to trigger machine components I'm hoping it's possible.

gamingislove

Where is the dialogue triggered?
E.g. if it's in a turn start schematic of a combatant, if the node waits for the dialogue to finish it should also halt the battle.

g35011

Currently, I'm triggering the conversation during the turn start schematic of the combatant using the "Start Dialogue" node from Pixel Crushers. However, it doesn't appear to wait for the conversation to finish. Pixel Crushers has a few other nodes available, but aside from 'Start Conversation' and 'Check Conversation Active', they don't seem to be useful.

gamingislove

Checked the nodes, I think the Check Conversation Active node can be used for that.
So, after starting the conversation, use a small loop within the schematic:
- Wait node (e.g. 0 seconds for next frame or 0.1 seconds, etc.)
- Check Conversation Active node, if it's active, loop back to the Wait node

g35011

Thankyou! I have tested it and found that it mostly works. However, I noticed that the Schematic runs three times, presumably for each ally combatant in battle.

Is there a way to execute it only once? Currently, I have a "StartConversation" Schematic in the "Turn Start Schematics" under the Combatant General Settings.

Since the player can assume the role of any combatant, I cannot assign it to a specific one. I was wondering if there is a fix for this?

gamingislove

Well, turn start schematics run for each combatant they're set up for, e.g. if you added it only for player combatants, all player combatants (in battle) will use it.

You can e.g. do some checks in the schematic before doing the dialogue stuff - e.g. using a Check Status node to check if the combatant is the Group Leader. Or set some variable to mark the thing as already happened to prevent it from occuring again.

g35011

Thank you! I was able to make it work after some effort. However, I am encountering a problem with ending the player's turn using schematics. My goal is to create a "quiz" feature where the player's turn ends if they choose the wrong dialogue option. Specifically, I want the following outcomes:
- If the player selects the correct dialogue option, their turn continues, and they can select an action.
- If the player selects the wrong dialogue option, their turn is skipped, the enemy attacks, and the player is presented with another question.
While this works perfectly for the first turn, if the player chooses the "wrong" option and I try to skip their turn, the enemy attacks, and it appears like the "Turn Start" schematic starts to run repeatedly, causing the dialogue to activate immediately after it is disabled.

I am using Dialogue Engine to run an automachine that ends the players turn. I have tried several methods, including:
- Using the "End Turn" node with turn-based combat.
- Using the "Use Battle Action" and having them do nothing.
- Changing the battle type to phase and using "End Phase" and "End Turn".

Turn Start Schematic:


Current End Turn Schematic:

gamingislove

Should this be just done for all player combatants together or for each combatant individually?
If for the whole group (1 quiz), you should probably use the battle turn start schematic (set up in the turn based battle system) instead.

Also, instead of ending the turn, try using a status effect that uses Block All Actions for a turn (end after battle turn end).

g35011

Thankyou! Got it working perfectly.