Making an application in Visual Basic to handle Dialogue in Morrowind? -
i want make program catered, specific purpose, aid me in making large set of quest mods videogame elder scrolls iii: morrowind. i’m attempting through either excel or visual basic, , here i’ve provided little summary of how dialogue works in game’s normal creation program , want create outside of , improve on.
how morrowind dialogue works?
for of may familiar game, you’ll remember talking npc’s bring set of text, , text dialogue. there different “topics” if npc has dialogue set for, player can see topic , click on it, bringing new wall of text, , how dialogue works in entire game on player’s end. in creating morrowind mod, way dialogue works in “construction set” (the program used create , edit game) database contains every entry of text, , these entries have conditions set them limit npcs can given entry of dialogue. instance, topic “latest rumors”, have lots of entries in lots of different npcs having it. topic condition of sorts potentially dozens of entries attached it, , conditions set specific entries can applied. conditions can include checking see if npc in given city, if in-game time night or day, if player @ numbered stage/index of given quest line , much, more. system makes quests possible , game dynamic.
what want create:
i beginning rather large mod project includes many entries of dialogue, many new , old topics, , many quest , quest stages. list reasons here problem construction set has many limitations in terms of organization make difficult make large mod’s dialogue in. better off design, set topics for, , edit of dialogue entries outside of construction set program , implement them when i’m confident writing , quests finished.
essentially if complicated write quests , dialogue in microsoft word, optimistically i'd more dynamic , helpful me, writer, , able use real variables store , set journal/quest indexes, filter dialogue quest or npc, , edit dialogue , quests without getting lost in normal game’s thousands of lines of other dialogue.
*i can't post more 2 links here, posted on reddit , there have gallery showing how construction set works , have made in visual studio far:
so, intention make program in visual studio using visual basic or python leaves me program lets me write, organize, , set text dialogue , filter based on conditions.
this requires creating database file program in visual studio , being able create variables in runtime, program. because want user of program able add new dialogue topics, new journal/quests, , of these things have conditions values associated them.
any help, advice, , direction appreciated. relearning visual studio (i took 2 courses in it) , unfortunately new excel , databases in general.
you correct in database of kind needed. however, approach several different ways depending upon comfort level, money, portability requirements, etc...
one way use xml store data. has advantage of being extremely portable , transformable. since program 1 person directly accessing data @ given time, might best bet.
another option use ms access if have office. gives workable, albeit basic, relational database. better choice if have 2 or 3 people possibly working in it.
a third option full dbms. mysql free , install local machine, or remote server. installed remote server give option of allowing many people connect , modify data transactionally. however, overkill if 1 or 2 person system.
circling around xml... best bet. simple , integrates .net applications. can imported/transformed data-store later once finished (or multiple times progress). interfacing xml via .net allows work database within code, if design data layer front, migrate full database later if project expands drastically. biggest downside xml isn't relational in way regular dbms is, , not inherently transactional. not have atomic updates, if have several people modifying things @ once lose data if overwritten.
you could around extent writing more advanced data layer interface xml files, if 1 person making changes locally, , data file is, say, uploaded remote datastore later, thing keep in mind coordinating when , can modify file. logistics stuff @ point.
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