I know that the limit for buttons in a message box is nine, but does that mean you can have nine buttons or only eight, because the button -1 (not choosing) counts as the last? Was it 10 buttons, with only 9 actually available to use, or was it 9 with only 8 available to use? I remember hitting that limit in one of my scripts a long time ago, but I can't remember which one it was.

The 9 buttons are the buttons 0-8, so there are 9 usable. Which is of course not enough. Not much we can do about it though.

I suppose I should believe you, Melian, since you have as good a grasp of the limits of script functions as anyone around, but I cannot shake the idea that I have disproved this 'limit'. There is an absolute limit in the number of characters allowed in the message following the choice function (128 for Morrowind only and 256 with expansions - I seem to recall). This may make appear that no more than nine choices are possible if that buffer is exceeded. I suspect if the choices are short strings more than nine choices may be possible. Certainly that number can be exceeded in scripts so I do not see why it should be an issue in dialog results except for the reason I mentioned.

However, if I am mistaken, there is still the method of nested choices and also the terrifying prospect of scripted dialog to allow for more than nine choices.

@Stuporstar: I have received your message, but it is too late for me to respond properly. I will write tomorrow.

Huh? Are we talking about dialogue choices (in which case the limit is 20 actually displayed in one result, no known limit on possibilities other than the resultbox char limit) - or messageboxes (definitely 9 buttons, I just checked again - it won't compile with 10)?

For reference, my test script was:

begin mel_testmessagebox "?" "1" "2" "3" "4" "5" "6" "7" "8" "9" "10"end

and the error was:

(The first of the "10" would be the non-clickable message I guess.)

I'm using MW/TESCS version 1.6.1820

If there is a way of having more buttons (especially if it works with an xMessageFix) I'd really, really love to know about it (for my teleport mod)...!

BTW, I got a charming error a few times with too many and too large messageboxes:

Hello

You guys obviously know much more about this stuff than I do, but I have to agree with Cyran0 that, for scripts anyway, the practical way to get around the button limit is to use "nested" choices, [e.g., the last choice is "More Choices"] as done with various Teleport Ring scripts, for example.

That's how I got MadMax's Ultimate Galleon to "fasttravel" to more than 32 different places. However, the limit I ran into when making THAT script was the total script length.

Just my two cents/euros/yen

DARoot

Yes, you can make the last one "more" or whatever (you can do that in dialogue choices as well if you need to) - but for my teleport mod for example you can easily end up with 10 pages of choices if you like to keep a lot of teleport marks or don't clean up the list regularly (you can have unlimited teleport marks with that, so you do tend to end up with a lot of possible choices). So it would be nice to have more on one page, especially when you have to give up 3 buttons already (back, next and cancel) for some menus.

Sorry, Stuporstar.

When I posted earlier, I was under the impression that you were looking for some assistance to accomplish something in-game, right now.
(Shoulda known better, since your name is well-known on these forums). Just wanted to help.

But, if this is one of those Theoretical/Game Design/"How can we make the game engine do this" type discussions, then I gotta shut up and bow out, since I know nothing about that stuff.

Again, apologies for sticking my long nose somewhere where it (probably) doesn't belong.

Happy Gaming!

DARoot

Sorry if I sounded like I was telling you to leave - I certainly didn't mean it like that! I was just trying to say that when I'm in-game and I'm thinking "now where was that mark... I think it was halfway down page 5... no, make that page 7..." ...I really wish I could have a decent size menu!!

Thanks, I decided to test it myself while I was waiting for replies, and it is indeed as you say Melian (and you should know better than anyone ). More than 9 choices and the script won't compile. So I moved one of my options off the list and added a "more" button. At least I only have two tiers of messages, and not more for my purposes.

One thing though, in the last choice for "more" I did this:

If ( button == 8 )	set controlvar to 2	ReturnEndif

The next controlvar being the next menu. Now, I put the return in there to make the script wait 1 frame before popping the second one up, because I read in MWSFD that having multiple messageboxes with buttons will cause the game to CTD, and I wanted to do what I could to prevent that from happening. Was this necessary?

I really wish there was a better way to do this though. Using a second menu for only two extra choices, or having to use 7 or more chained menus is a real pain in the butt.

I for one wish we could have had an engine that supported graphical menus. I remember building a script for a Dwemer puzzle box that the player could click the combination to open, and thinking "if only I could make this a graphical puzzle, it would be even better!" The only way I could think of to do this is to drop a giant puzzlebox in front of the player with different sets of meshes, each an activator, and use a combination of mesh animation and scripting to make the pieces move as the player activates them. But...that would be so much trouble to implement. Just making all of that work in unison smoothly...the very idea gives me a massive headache.

I also wanted a graphical menu to make a functional Dwemer telescope that would rotate through the constellations. The idea of using a book to display the images in this instance makes me wince, so I never implemented it.

The only other way I could think of to do this would be to move the player into an interior cell with a close-up night sky mesh surrounding them. Possibly use MGE to create tunnel vision, to simulate a telescope (if this is possible) and temporarily disable the player's ability to walk, just allow them to rotate in place, possibly by over-encumbering them with an invisible item that they can't drop. This is all just theoretical though. I haven't been working on my Dwemer Observatory mod in a while.

You could have an image mesh of Vvardenfell with tiny "button" meshes located across the map and selecting one of these would teleport you to that location. This could be a way to get around the awkward method people are using. I'm not sure if it would be possible to place all the necessary meshes at the player's location, though. If not, you'd need to send the player to a room with the map already set up which is, in my opinion, still more elegant than the current method of multiple menus.

This method could conceivably be used to create "graphical menus" for other things as well.

So you could essentially build a TARDIS. That's kind of a nifty idea actually. I don't think a blue police box would fit in with Morrowind, but if you got the chameleon circuit working, it could appear as an ashlander's tent or something. And yes, I am a huge nerd.

Lady E made a Tardis console IIRC :hehe:

I remember reading a thread a while ago where someone was requesting a blue policebox for his mod, because he wanted to build a TARDIS. I wonder if he ever found one, and whatever happened to that mod.

What ever happened to Lady E's downloads for that matter? You can find lovely pictures to them on her website, but no downloads. It's a shame. I'm glad a managed to grab what I did when I could.

You could expand the number by doing the choices through a dialogue box instead of script, created by an invisible creature spawned nearby (I suggest creature so it won't have any generic dialogue). Unfortunately, this is much more work than it would have been if they just gave us real menu scripting capability.

...And it doesn't accept an xMessageFix, and lags more... If we're wishlisting, I'd like a more efficient dialogue system too

@ Stuporstar:
There's still the huge model collections http://www.fileplanet.com/search.aspx?searchtype=2&q=LadyE - most of LadyE's model resources are included I think. And apparently Midgetalien has uploaded some individual ones to PES. Not sure if the Tardis console is included but I think I've still got it somewhere.

I was going to edit in that it's not a good solution for your tele stuff, but was never satisfied with the wording. Then I got called away for a bit. (stupid real life...)

I guess we shouldn't complain too much, since they did give us the CS. Much more of a modding tool than most games come with.


I suppose your best option is something like the Tardis console room idea mentioned, and have objects there correspond to lists of teleports. You could have one object for teleporting to player homes, one for quests, one for guilds...