Custom Skill Question

[Legacy_Ralthis]

               Hello,

I have a custom skill placed in my skills.2da file. I need to call this skill in a script and was planning on representing it by its name in an include file when I realized I had no idea how to find the strref of a skill. Would anyone be able to point me in the right direction or tell me what number I should start with?

Thanks!
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Calvinthesneak]

               Somewhere (probably skills.2da) Every skill will have a number, and probably a strref in a name column, that will go to dialog.tlk or if the row number is high enough into a custom tlk table to fetch the name.

2DA V2.0

    Label           Name      Description  Icon            Untrained  KeyAbility  ArmorCheckPenalty  AllclassesCanUse  Category  MaxCR  Constant                HostileSkill
0   AnimalEmpathy   269       344          isk_aniemp      0          CHA         0                  0                 ****      1      SKILL_ANIMAL_EMPATHY    1
1   Concentration   270       345          isk_concen      1          CON         0                  1                 ****      ****   SKILL_CONCENTRATION     0
2   DisableTrap     271       346          isk_distrap     0          INT         0                  1                 ****      ****   SKILL_DISABLE_TRAP      0
3   Discipline      343       347          isk_discipline  1          STR         0                  1                 ****      ****   SKILL_DISCIPLINE        0
4   Heal            273       349          isk_heal        1          WIS         0                  1                 ****      1      SKILL_HEAL              0
5   Hide            274       350          isk_hide        1          DEX         1                  1                 ****      ****   SKILL_HIDE              0
6   Listen          275       351          isk_listen      1          WIS         0                  1                 ****      ****   SKILL_LISTEN            0
7   Lore            276       352          isk_lore        1          INT         0                  1                 ****      ****   SKILL_LORE              0
8   MoveSilently    277       353          isk_movsilent   1          DEX         1                  1                 ****      ****   SKILL_MOVE_SILENTLY     0
9   OpenLock        278       354          isk_olock       0          DEX         0                  1                 ****      ****   SKILL_OPEN_LOCK         0
10  Parry           279       355          isk_parry       1          DEX         1                  1                 ****      1      SKILL_PARRY             0
11  Perform         280       356          isk_perform     1          CHA         0                  0                 ****      ****   SKILL_PERFORM           0
12  Persuade        281       357          isk_persuade    1          CHA         0                  1                 ****      ****   SKILL_PERSUADE          0
13  PickPocket      282       358          isk_pocket      0          DEX         1                  1                 ****      ****   SKILL_PICK_POCKET       1
14  Search          284       360          isk_search      1          INT         0                  1                 ****      ****   SKILL_SEARCH            0
15  SetTrap         285       361          isk_settrap     0          DEX         1                  1                 ****      ****   SKILL_SET_TRAP          0
16  Spellcraft      286       362          isk_spellcraft  0          INT         0                  1                 ****      ****   SKILL_SPELLCRAFT        0
17  Spot            287       364          isk_spot        1          WIS         0                  1                 ****      ****   SKILL_SPOT              0
18  Taunt           342       366          isk_taunt       1          CHA         0                  1                 ****      1      SKILL_TAUNT             1
19  UseMagicDevice  288       367          isk_magicdev    0          CHA         0                  0                 ****      ****   SKILL_USE_MAGIC_DEVICE  0
20  Appraise        2693      2694         ife_X1App       1          INT         0                  1                 ****      ****   SKILL_APPRAISE          0
21  Tumble          2695      2696         ife_X1Tum       0          DEX         1                  1                 ****      ****   SKILL_TUMBLE            0
22  CraftTrap       2697      2698         ife_X1CrTrap    1          INT         0                  1                 ****      ****   SKILL_CRAFT_TRAP        0
23  Bluff           8746      8757         isk_X2bluff     1          CHA         0                  1                 ****      ****   SKILL_BLUFF             0
24  Intimidate      8756      8786         isk_X2Inti      1          CHA         0                  1                 ****      ****   SKILL_INTIMIDATE        0
25  CraftArmor      8787      8788         isk_X2CArm      1          INT         0                  1                 ****      ****   SKILL_CRAFT_ARMOR       0
26  CraftWeapon     8789      8790         isk_X2CWeap     1          INT         0                  1                 ****      ****   SKILL_CRAFT_WEAPON      0
27  Ride            111889    111890       isk_x3_ride     1          DEX         0                  1                 ****      ****   SKILL_RIDE              0

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Calvinthesneak]

               Bleh it's messy sorry... but the 2nd and 3rd columns are Name and Description.

They contain strrefs that refer to the actual text in dialog.tlk (they can also point to a custom tlk table if one is associated with a module).

Not sure why you wouldn't call the skill by number  in the scripts though, unless you're sending feedback to your player.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Ralthis]

               I'm trying to use an include file to represent the skill so that I can use it in a script. I figured that custom skills were like custom feats where you can call the feat by the number in the first column and represent them by a new name, like

const int FEAT_CUSTOM = 1094;

for example. Am I going about it the wrong way? It's the first time I've made a custom skill, so I'm still learning, '>.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Khuzadrepa]

               No, I think what you are doing is fine. So you could call your skill:
const int SKILL_CUSTOM = 28; (if it's on line 28 right after Ride, which I would recommend)

Doing this helps prevent you from using "magic numbers"; so that if you need to change that number in the future, you only have to do it in one place rather than littered throughout your scripts.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Ralthis]

               Oh, ok. I was worried that if I did that, it would refer to the feat at line 28. Thanks Kuzadrepa!
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Ralthis]

               I tried to use the number in the first column as the name for my skill, but it defaulted to the Feat, '>. Which column should I use: the Name column or Description column?
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Khuzadrepa]

               I'm sorry, I guess I'm not entirely following what you are doing. Where are you trying to name your skill?
What I described above is called a constant. It's only useful in programming (ie scripting.)
If you want the name of the skill to appear in game, you have to reference an entry in the .tlk file (also referred to as strref which is short for string reference.) What is the name of the new skill you want to use? Where do you want the name to appear? The number under the Name column of the skills.2da is the one that shows the name of the skill in game.
Give some more detail about what you want to do, and I'll try to help guide you from there. '>
               
               

               

                     Modifié par Khuzadrepa, 18 juin 2011 - 02:59 .
                     
                  

            

[Legacy_Ralthis]

               Here's the line from my skills.2da:
         
28    SpeakLanguage    16777233   16777255  isk_persuade     1           INT          0               1                  ****       ****    SKILL_SPEAK_LANGUAGE     0

I've already edited my tlk file so that the name and description appear for the players. What I'm trying to do is check the ranks that a PC has in this skill using a script. I figured it was easier to save the skill as a const int, but when I used number 28 it thought I was referencing feat.2da and not skills.2da. In a script, should I use the number 16777233 or 16777255 in my script?

Thanks for the help Khuzadrepa!
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Calvinthesneak]

               Neither, you can't use the STRREF, you'd have to use the skill value, what scripting function are you using to try and reference your skill?
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Calvinthesneak]

               As an aside this function is probably what you want to use.....

http://www.nwnlexico...tskillrank.html


So you wind up with something like:

// This script would be placed in a conversation
// where the player challenges the Master Bard to
// a performance duel.

void main()
{
// Initialize Objects
object oPlayer = GetPCSpeaker();
// Determine skill checks
int iPPerCheck = d20(1) + GetSkillRank(28, oPlayer);
int iMPerCheck = d20(1) + GetSkillRank(28, OBJECT_SELF);
// Compare the two skill checks
if (iPPerCheck > iMPerCheck)
{
// Player wins perform duel
// Place reward code here
}
else
{
//Player looses perform duel
//Place failure code here
}
}

If you have doubts it's pulling the right values, simply use a SendMessage to help yourself debug the code.
               
               

               

                     Modifié par Calvinthesneak, 18 juin 2011 - 03:15 .
                     
                  

            

[Legacy_Ralthis]

               Ahh, thanks Calvin! That looks about right. I'll give it a shot and see how it goes.

UPDATE: It works like a charm! Thanks again!
               
               

               

                     Modifié par Ralthis, 18 juin 2011 - 06:49 .
                     
                  

            

[Legacy_Khuzadrepa]

               I really like your example, Calvin!

And then in your include file, you can declare the constant like this:
const int SKILL_SPEAK_LANGUAGE = 28;

and then replace those 28s in the code with SKILL_SPEAK_LANGUAGE, which is more descriptive and also advantageous for the reason I noted before.
               
               

               

                     Modifié par Khuzadrepa, 18 juin 2011 - 11:59 .
                     
                  

            

[Legacy_Calvinthesneak]

               lol it's just the code from the lexicon.  I didn't even edit it properly, just was a brief example for him.  And yeah, assigning a constant to the value is a good idea too.

I spose I did too much of this in the past.