Overview of how it works:
That being said, I have a really bad way of doing this for you (and I am even worse at explaining what I did)... So you can set up a system that will buy an item (the one that you want information on), place that item on a series of triggers (each specific to one shop item), have the trigger display the desired information (via wall text or character speech), and then sell the item back to the shop.
thanks, lbk
well, I have set up a shop already, created a way to view all items in the dungeon but the item has to be bought first. what I'd like to do is get the information before the item is bought.
this is what I have come up with so far, when the party clicks on an NPC, the above shows up. the player can click buy or sell the item and then can view it on the right. what I'd like to see is a description before buying, that will override the haggle feature. otherwise the party will lose a little money. now I can't target the windows identity, it has one ref only. I don't think it can be done, I was hoping there was a way. basically I reused the shop, removed all the stepping so the party stays on one tile only. the shop performs as it should by switching back and forth from buy to sell. it works with no problems. it is much like your setup. now the shop is not just a shop, any button with any feature can be added, things like:
Bribe
Map
Treasure
Quests
Posts
Wanted
Rumors
Hire
ETC
these action buttons can be brought up by clicking on npcs with each having their own abilities. the info window can also be brought up by anything, anywhere, anytime. this is my first attempt at the shop and I still don't know all its mechanics. picking away at it, experimenting on what I can do with the shop. being able to read the shop item would make it that much smoother. there is already a system in place.
I did most of what you explained lbk, you're thinking is logical. the shop was always a challenge for me, but I'm getting the hang of it. thanks for the explanation, I hope it helps others, too.
what has been done is all items can be identified by the mouse, around 480 items. I am sure in much the way GG did it with the view item.
what I could use help with is the shop design. it was just thrown together with things roughly placed.
It would be great to have someone help design it. I'm not good at that stuff, my graphics skills are slowly improving but my art work sucks.
lbk, if you'd like I can show you the shop, maybe you can find something I could do to improve it. everything works, it just looks like hell.
thanks