Dialog Settings Block

One of the root level blocks in MGS Natlang.

settings for dialog {}
//or
settings dialog {}

These are a means of defining dialog parameters ahead of time so the dialogs themselves can be very lean.

Inside the block body are dialog settings target blocks in any order. For example:

settings for dialog {
  default {}
  entity Bob {}
  label PLAYER {}
}

Behavior

Dialog settings are applied to dialogs in order as the parser encounters them; a dialog settings block partway down the file will affect only the dialogs afterward, and none before.

• New settings will override old settings.
  • E.g. if you assign the player the alignment TOP_RIGHT and then BOTTOM_RIGHT back-to-back, dialogs will use BOTTOM_RIGHT.
• Entity settings will override global settings.
  • E.g. if you assign alignment BOTTOM_LEFT to the global defaults, and BOTTOM_RIGHT to the player entity, dialogs involving the player entity will use BOTTOM_RIGHT.
• Dialog label settings will override entity settings.
• Properties given in a dialog's body will override any other settings, however.

Dialog Settings are Local!

Settings only apply to scripts within the same file! (They are not global.) They can only apply to multiple files with the use of include!().