ZDoom Strife Dialog Format
The ZDoom Strife Dialog Format is a variant of the Universal Strife Dialog Format. It is not a proper USDF dialect since it changes the semantic of the actor field from an integer into a string corresponding to the actor class name, resulting in a type mismatch in a strict parser. This deviation from the standard was deemed necessary to avoid forcing modders to use the ConversationID property on all actors, which would also require redefining any standard actor without this property.
Contents
Changes from USDF
- Namespace: This must be set to "ZDoom" to switch from USDF to ZSDF.
- Actor: Now uses a class name instead of a mobj ID.
- Drop: Now uses a class name instead of a mobj ID.
- Item: Now uses a class name instead of a mobj ID.
- GiveItem: Now uses a class name instead of a mobj ID.
New Fields
Conversation
- ID: Allows you to still use a ConversationID.
- Class: Override the default conversation menu class for this conversation.
Page
- Goodbye: Specify a unique replacement for the default randomised Strife "Thanks, bye!" end-conversation option.
- Userstring: Not used by default, but can be used to pass page-specific data to be interpreted by a custom conversation menu class.
Choice
- SpecialName: Allows the scripter to specify a special to call by name, instead of by number.
Require
A Choice block with a Require block will only become visible once the player has at least a specific amount of a specific inventory item.
- Item: The class name of the inventory item.
- Amount: The amount of that item needed for the choice to appear.
Exclude
A Choice block with an Exclude block will only become visible once the player has less than a specific amount of a specific inventory item.
- Item: The class name of the inventory item.
- Amount: The amount of that item needed for the choice to be removed from the conversation.
Examples
This script will let you trade your shotgun for a chaingun.
namespace = "ZDoom";
conversation
{
actor = "ChaingunGuy"; // Not a number!
page
{
name = "Chaingun Guy";
dialog = "I have a cool chaingun! I want a shotgun though...";
choice
{
text = "Deal!";
giveitem = "Chaingun";
nextpage = 2;
nomessage = "No shotgun, no chaingun!";
cost
{
item = "Shotgun";
amount = 1;
}
}
}
page
{
name = "Chaingun Guy";
dialog = "I love this!";
}
}
