How to return text based on a keyboard response?

Question

Just like in a text adventure, I want what the player types in to return a text response based on what the player types in. I know a signal would be used to accomplish this, but I still don't have a good grasp on custom signals. I am using the LineEdit and RichTextLabel nodes.

Additionally, would there be an easier or simpler way to organize the responses, instead of using several if statements?

Thanks!

Answer 1

I think a dictionary {} might be good for this.

I like signals, but I think a plain _process(delta) would be fine.

If I was you I would look through all the String class methods:
http://docs.godotengine.org/en/latest/classes/class_string.html

and I would look though the methods in TextLabel and every other text node you might want to use. Try to see what every node can really do ( and remember it can do everything that it is inheriting from too)

     extends TextEdit

# this is a dictionary
        var responses = {["hi", "who are you"] : "hi, I'm a dog", ["i like cats", "i don't like dogs"]: "I'm going to bite you."} 
        var foundResponse = true

        func _ready():

            set_process(true)
        func _process(delta):
            if Input.is_action_pressed("ui_right") == true:

            var inputText = get_text()
            inputText = inputText.to_lower() # make lowercase

           # look for a response in the keys of the dictionary
            for key in responses.keys():
                if inputText in key:
                    get_node("Label").set_text(responses[key])
                    foundResponse = true
                    return

            if foundResponse == false:
                get_node("Label").set_text("i don't understand")

            foundResponse = false

Comments

Thanks for the advice and link. Can you explain why you would use _process(delta) instead of a signal?

This is my code so far, which returns text from the LineEdit node onto the RichTextLabel, but the RichTextLabel isn't able to return a response relative to the player response.

extends LineEdit

signal return_text

var response = self.get_text()
var _node

func _text_response():
  response.connect("return_text", self, "_signal_response")

func _ready():
  _node = self.get_parent().get_node("RichTextLabel")

func _on_LineEdit_text_entered(text):
  if text.length() > 0:
    _node.add_text(">"+ text)
    _node.newline()
    self.clear()

func _on_text_response(responseIn):
   emit_signal("return_text")

Do you know why the signal isn't working?

---

info about signals:
# the built-in signals emit automatically (based on built-in triggers)
# but custom ones do not, so you need to add an emitter: emitsignal("yoursignalname")
# the problem you have is: you don't have anything to trigger your emitsignal()

_process(delta) vs signals
# signals from my understanding are basically free ( the engines checking things if you use them or not)
# signals only send you info when something happens
# _process(delta) allows you to check things constantly

http://docs.godotengine.org/en/latest/tutorials/step_by_step/scripting.html
http://docs.godotengine.org/en/latest/reference/gdscript.html#signals

extends LineEdit

signal return_text

var response = self.get_text()
var _node

# you can connect your signal in _ready() (so I delete _text_response())

func _ready():
    _node = self.get_parent().get_node("RichTextLabel")             

    # you might be better off using a built-in one like "text_entered"
    connect("text_entered", self, "_on_LineEdit_text_entered") 

func _on_LineEdit_text_entered(text):
    if text.length() > 0:
        _node.add_text(">" + text)
        _node.newline()
        self.clear()

    # Don't really understand whats going on with this part, but I don't think you need it.
    #func _on_text_response(responseIn):
    #   emit_signal("return_text")

Answer 2

You don't need signals for this.
If you want some response on keyboard input, you should be using built-in _input(event) processing loop.

func _ready():
    set_process_input(true)

func _input(event):
    if event.type == InputEvent.KEY
    # update label / process input

InputEvent

As for processing, I'd follow the other answer with dictionary approach