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Gossip System

How NPC menus ("gossips") work in VMaNGOS: which tables are involved, how menus chain together, and where conditions and scripts hook in.

Requirements

A creature only shows gossip if:

  1. creature_template.npc_flags contains UNIT_NPC_FLAG_GOSSIP (0x1) - or the interacting player has a reason to talk to it (quest giver, vendor, trainer…), and
  2. a matching menu exists (see flow below), otherwise the core falls back to default vendor/quest/trainer windows.

NPC flag values are defined in src/game/Objects/UnitDefines.h (enum NPCFlags).

The Menu Flow

player interacts with creature
        │
        ▼
creature_template.gossip_menu_id ──► gossip_menu.entry  ──► npc_text (menu greeting text)
        │                                          │
        │                                          ▼
        └───────────────────────────► gossip_menu_option.menu_id
                                                 │  (filtered by condition_id,
                                                 │   npc_option_npcflag)
                                                 ▼
                                   action_menu_id      → open another menu (chain)
                                   action_script_id    → run gossip_scripts
                                   action_poi_id       → show map point of interest
  1. gossip_menu maps a menu id (from creature_template.gossip_menu_id) to one or more text ids from npc_text. Multiple rows = condition-dependent greetings: the core picks the text of the fitting row with the highest condition_id. Each row can carry its own condition_id and an optional script_id (a gossip_scripts run when the text is shown).
  2. gossip_menu_option holds the selectable options for a menu_id. Each option defines:
  3. option_icon / text (option_text or localized option_broadcast_text from broadcast_text),
  4. option_id - what kind of action the client offers (vendor, trainer, taxi…),
  5. npc_option_npcflag - option only shows when the NPC has this npc flag (e.g. vendor options need 0x4),
  6. one of the three actions: open another menu (action_menu_id), run a script (action_script_id), or show a point of interest (action_poi_id),
  7. an optional input box (box_text, box_money, box_coded) used e.g. for petition names,
  8. a condition_id gate per option.

Conditions

Both gossip_menu rows and gossip_menu_option rows support conditions. Failed conditions hide the row entirely - use this for faction-specific greetings, phase-dependent options, or quest-state-gated choices (CONDITION_QUESTTAKEN, …).

Scripts

action_script_id points into gossip_scripts, which uses the generic script command set: make the NPC talk (TALK), cast spells, teleport the player, start quests, terminate the gossip (TERMINATE_SCRIPT) and more.

Localization

Option and box texts can be localized via locales_gossip_menu_option; menu greetings via the locales_* machinery of npc_text.