Dialogue Boxes Trigger Intermittently (and more!)

Hey gang,

I'm creating a hybrid twin-stick shooter/RPG and am running into a problem with my dialogue box system.

<img src="https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/15273408/DialogueMode.png" border="0" />

I have a global variable called "Dialogue Mode" that, when set to "1" it sets the dialogue GUI elements to visible, freezes control, and enables the activation of the "Dialogue Triggers"...

<img src="https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/15273408/DialogueTriggers.png" border="0" />

...individual sprite objects that when overlapping with the Player, call a specific "Dialogue Step" to be displayed in the GUI.

The thing is...the Dialogue Triggers don't always fire! It doesn't seem to matter if I move the character into them quickly, abruptly or smoothly - they don't trigger consistently. Also, as you'll see in the .capx, DialogueTrigger 3 and 4 don't work at all, yet have the same functionality as Triggers 1 and 2.

Banging my head against the wall - help!

Download .capx file here: dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/15273408/DialogueTroubles.capx

It all seems to work for me. Why do you have System | Every Tick ?

Also if you put your bullets on a new layer below the Player but above the ground. It'll make the bullets look like they are coming from the player's weapon and not just the center of the player.

Edit:

Never mind, I see the issue now. I will take a closer look after dinner.

Thanks for taking a look, Tekniko!

I put in the Every Tick to try and stabilize the response from the triggers. I figured if I had the game checking for the overlap every tick it might not miss it, as it sometimes seems to do.

Good call on the bullet placement! Will the collisions still work even though the bullets and enemies are on different layers?

And yeah - the dialogue box issue seems random, doesn't it? Try the other dialogue trigger on the north-end of the level near the tunnel. I've never been able to get that one to fire.

I believe this is your problem. You accidentally use DialogueTrigger2 three times :)

<img src="http://s22.postimg.org/enot5monl/Support0035.png" border="0" />

Will the collisions still work even though the bullets and enemies are on different layers?

Yes, collisions are across all layers.

I must admit, you have a nice piece of work here. Very well put together. Good use of Groups and comments. There are some obvious bugs here and there, as well as some redundant code. But, over-all, great work so far.

Ahh, that would do it! Next time I'll work with my columns spread a little wider open so I can, ya know, actually read them. Thank you!!

Any idea on the inconsistent triggering of the first 2 dialogue triggers?

Thank you so much for your kind words! This is my 3rd iteration of this type of game, and I have a good feeling about it this time :)

I'm also experiencing a bug when a new dialogue trigger is activated, the previous line of dialogue appears for a split-second before the new one takes its place. Not life-threatening, just...clunky. Can you see an area in the program where my "order of operations" isn't correct and could be causing this?