So, Ive never gotten $WHILE to work in the editor or engine, but I have gotten it to work in the conversation feature (talk.bin).
As it's been a while, I should try again.

I have noticed that in the latest version of the editor, that $WHILE is not listed as a possibility in the script editor.
I'll let you know...I'm gessing that I just wrote a bad script before, with lots of variations that were also bad.

Now, I will use a good script.