Is this a good way to stramline dialogue?

Help and Feedback Code Review
#1

so i have some basic dialogue logic, which can be seen in the screenshot below:

it works, and is a solid method for making npcs and in-game interactions, but i want to set it up so that it is streamlined. i don’t want an excessively long script, nor do i want one million script that just handle dialogue. i’m trying to streamline development so that i can save myself a headache a couple weeks down the line.
(ignore the red lines, that’s just grammarly trying to interfere.)

image
image1045×635 72.9 KB

i’ve thought about using a more object-oriented approach, and i need to sharpen up my skills. i am not the best with custom classes and all of that jazz. so i want to know, is this an efficient method for streamlining dialogue?

-- dialogue creation module

local dialogueManager = {}
dialogueManager.__index = dialogueManager

function dialogueManager.new()
	local self = setmetatable({}, dialogueManager)
	self.dialogueData = {}
	return self
end

function dialogueManager:registerNPC(npcName, dialogueData)
	self.dialogueData[npcName] = dialogueData
end

function dialogueManager:startDialogue(npcName, startingNode)
	local npcData = self.dialogueData[npcName]
	if npcData then
		self:createDialogue(npcData, startingNode)
	else
		warn("NPC not registered:", npcName)
	end
end

function dialogueManager:createDialogue(npcData, currentNode)
	-- implement interaction logic here
end

return dialogueManager
#2

You may wish to watch this video:

I also recommend watching his other videos, good content!

4 Likes
#3

just curious after stumbling over this response and watching this video as a relatively new scripter, i have almost zero knowledge into metatables or creating classes so this reply is not really related to the original post at all lol, however; correct me if im wrong, i understand using this method/modulescript when referencing existing instances like in the video thumbnail, but surely in this scenario shown in the original post, using the method/module script wouldnt be helpful as all their variables are waiting for a possibly not yet loaded GuiObject to load? the video and explanation was still very insightful for someone not yet experienced enough to be comfortable calling themself decent at scripting, so thanks for the knowledge i’ll keep in mind for the future lol :+1:

if my explanation was too wordy: tl;dr is that the method/modulescript seemingly assumes the instances already exist (uses FindFirstChild), but surely in this case it would be better to use WaitForChild to yield until the GuiObject/s load right?

3 Likes
#4

What you say is true; it does assume that the objects exist at the time of call. However, the function can easily be adapted to wait for the children to appear. I created my own library for this called Waiter, which you can view on GitHub.

It’s rather complicated, especially for a new scripter so let me know if you need help deciphering it.

Note: technically I’m not using :WaitForChild() but rather employ a loop to check every frame of the object exists until it reaches the wait duration limit.

2 Likes