Is is possible to have an xmlquestnpc act as a vendor while he is not performing his quest related duties?

I've tried attaching an xmlquest.npc file to a vendor with the [xmledit on a vendor, then [getatt on the vendor to access the xmldialog, but although it allows me to specify a configfile, it never seems to use it to bring in my quest dialog.

Alternately, is it possible to add a parameter to an xmlquestnpc so that it becomes a particular type vendor?

yes, you can do this.

If you want to load an existing .npc file onto anything, you can use the

[loadnpc npcfile

command.

You can also spawn them like

banker/ATTACH/xmldialog,npcfile

Or you can do it the way that you tried.
When you specified the ConfigFile, you probably didnt then set the LoadConfig property to true to cause it to actually load the file specified in the configfile property.

Thanks Arte, I'll give those a try!

Your attach method did in fact work, but now I have an additional question:

I found the TalkingBaseVendor.cs and was wondering if there is any advantage gained by creating a talking vendor from this base over attaching the xmldialog to the npc?

Would the result be the same, or is there an advantage one way or the other?

the only difference is that the talkingbasevendor can make use of overhead effects, and the Talk context menu option, and can also serve as a quest npc for GIVE type quest objectives, just like xmlquestnpcs.

The dialog capabilities are identical.

Thanks Arte, that makes it really clear! I'm contantly amazed at the depth of the XML system!