Dialogue Package

The Dialogue Package is used to get NPCs to engage in a specific conversation with the player or another NPC.

Package Specific Data

Target: The target is the actor to engage in dialogue with.
- Activate Distance: Determines how close to the target does the actor needs to be before initiating dialogue. The standard distance is 150, as defined in the iActivatePickLength game setting.
- Select Reference: Press this button to select a target reference in the render window. Valid references will turn the reticle white.
- Cell: The cell the target actor reference is placed in.
- Ref: The target actor reference.

Dialogue Type:
- Conversation: Normal conversation between two NPCs; if the target is the player, the NPC will force-greet the player.
- Say To: The NPC will say a single line of spoken dialogue to the target (NPC or player) without engaging in a conversation (NPC) or going into the dialogue menu (player)

Do Not Control Target Movement: The target of the package will continue to perform the actions of their current package while they are in dialogue with the actor (e.g. they can continue to wander around the room while speaking). If this is NOT checked:
- If the package has a Trigger Location, the target will walk towards that location when the dialogue package starts.
- If the package has no Trigger Location, the target will stand still and wait for the actor to reach the activation distance.
No HeadTracking: Speaker and target will not be forced to look at each other by the package but will use normal headtracking behavior.

Start/Wait Location: If checked, the actor moves to the location when the package starts. See behavior below.
- Radius: The actor will wander within that radius while waiting.

Trigger Location: If specified, this is where the target must be to trigger the actor to begin moving towards the target to initiate dialogue. If not specified, the actor will begin moving towards the target after reaching the Wait Location (if any). See behavior below.
- Radius: When the target gets this close to the trigger reference, the actor will begin moving toward the target to initiate dialogue.

FOV: Only used if the target is the player -- this specifies the dialogue Menu zoom. The value is the angle, in degrees, of the Field Of View. The default value for widescreen is 75. Smaller values will zoom in further. Larger values should not be used.
Topic: If selected, this is the initial topic of the conversation between two NPCs (exactly the same as the topic parameter of StartConversation), or the topic used in a Say To dialogue package.

Must Complete: Dialogue package will not reevaluate until actor has engaged in dialogue with the target. This flag can cause the actor to become stuck on the package and is not recommended.
Must reach location: Once Dialogue package has started, actor must reach the Location before the package can reevaluate.
Continue During Combat: Invalid.
See Packages for other flag descriptions.

When the package starts: The actor will move to the Start/Wait Location (if any) when the package begins. Once the actor reaches the location:

If a Trigger Location is specified and the Start/Wait Location has a radius, the actor will stay at the Wait Location until the target enters the Trigger Location, at which point the actor will begin moving towards the target. When the actor reaches the Activate Distance, it will engage in conversation with the target (or dialogue, if the target is the player).
If a Trigger Location is specified and the Start/Wait Location does not have a radius (0), the actor will stay at the Wait Location until the target reaches the Activate Distance, it will engage in conversation with the target (or dialogue, if the target is the player).
If no Trigger Location is specified, the actor will immediately begin moving towards the target. When the actor reaches the Activate Distance, it will engage in dialogue with the target.

When using a Trigger location.

Use an XMarker Heading as the Start/Wait location with a zero radius to have the actor wait at the Start/Wait location facing the direction desired until the target enters the activate distance.
Use an XMarker as the Start/Wait location with a zero radius to have the actor wait at the Start/Wait location facing a random direction until the target enters the activate distance.
Use an XMarker as the Start/Wait location with a radius to have the actor wander within the radius until the target enters the Trigger Location radius.

The Fallout: New Vegas GECK exhibits a critical bug when handling Dialogue Packages. Although it is possible to create a working Dialogue Package which uses a Trigger Location, the data will only remain intact when the ESP file is initially saved. Any further modifications to the ESP file, including modifications made to records other than the Dialogue Package, will remove the Trigger Location field entirely.

This bug doesn't seem to be present in the final GECK release, or GECK Extender fixes it.