AI Segments

An AI segment is a part of a chat conversation where an AI character talks freely with the player. In the conversation it takes the place of a statement: other statements can lead to it, and its exits lead on, like the options of a statement. So a conversation can mix written lines and free talk, e.g. a written introduction, then an AI segment, then a written reward scene.

Adding an AI Segment

AI segments can be added only to conversations whose Display is Chat.

• In the Flow tab, use the AI segment button of the toolbar, or
• in the List tab, use New AI segment next to the button that adds a statement,

and choose its pattern. The new segment appears with a robot icon and with the exits of its pattern already in place. Wire it in as you would a statement: make an option of an earlier statement say it, or start the conversation with it.

Click the segment in the Flow tab (or open it in the List tab) to edit it. The rest of this page goes through its fields from top to bottom.

Opening Line

The statement's message becomes the opening line: what the character says first, before the player can type. You write it; it is not generated, so it appears at once and is the same for everyone. The character knows it has already said it, so make it a real start of the conversation, e.g. "Halt! Nobody climbs to the lamp unless they know why it matters. So tell me, traveller: why does this tower need a light?"

For a Riddle keeper the opening line is the riddle.

Pattern and Character

What the Player Must Do

The patterns that judge the player have a Concept and Criteria:

• Concept: what the conversation is about, e.g. photosynthesis or why ships need the lighthouse.
• Criteria: each criterion is something the player must show in their own words, e.g. the player shows that plants need light to make their food. Mark it Required, or leave it optional. The evaluator only accepts a quote of the player's message as proof, so repeating what the character said does not count.

Write criteria as observable statements, one idea each. "Names light as what the plant needs" is easier to judge, and to judge the same way twice, than "understands photosynthesis". Use the quick check to see how strict a criterion is.

Guidance Instructions

How the character talks and guides the player in this conversation, e.g. "Speak warmly and slowly. Lead the player to the old well first, then to the chapel; give directions as riddles, never as a map." It is told to the character only, never shown to the player (at most 1000 characters). Who the character is and its usual voice are set in its AI profile.

What Is the Character's General Knowledge Here

The facts the character knows in this conversation. A character has no knowledge of its own: what it knows belongs to each conversation. So the same librarian can know about the school's history in one conversation, and about the missing book in another.

Add a fact, one or two sentences each, e.g. "The mill was built in 1820 by the Kostas family."

A fact can be known always, or only when a condition holds on the player or the game world. Use Add a condition under the fact, and build it with the condition builder: blocks are alternatives, the conditions in a block must all hold. For example, the character learns that "the key is under the third stone" only once the player has found the map. The condition is checked again on every message, so a fact becomes known in the middle of a conversation as soon as it holds. A condition that is unfinished, or points at something that was deleted, makes the fact unknown.

Show what it would know opens a preview of which facts and attitudes apply in a given situation.

In the Guide and Presenter patterns, the knowledge is what the character talks about; it says it does not know anything else.

What the Character Knows about the Player & the World

Optional. Things about the player and the world that the character may refer to, always told to it as a sentence with names. Each one is either:

• something the player did, a condition built with the condition builder, told while it is true, e.g. has completed the mission "Light"; or
• a value, a count, an amount, a time or a short text picked with the state value picker, told with its value while the player has one, e.g. number of times the player completed the mission "Light".

The character can then say "You fixed the lamp already, didn't you?". The evaluator never sees these facts, so they never help a player pass.

When the AI Cannot Answer

Lines the character says in this conversation without any model: when the player keeps leaving the subject, when a reply had to be withheld, when there is no network, no key or AI is paused, and when the player passed but the character's own closing line doubted it. Leave a line empty to use the character's default response, shown greyed in the field.

Exits

The exits are how the segment ends. The engine fires them; the player never picks one. Each exit is an option of the statement, so you give it actions as usual. Its main action must be NPC says statement (the conversation goes on), exit conversation or complete conversation.

Out of turns, Off topic and Not available are mandatory in every pattern, so a segment can never get stuck. Some patterns make others mandatory too (e.g. a Guide always ends with Passed). The optional ones are added with the + exit buttons under the exits.

In the Flow tab the exits are drawn in their own colours, so you can see at a glance which outcome leads where.

Advanced

Under Advanced:

Suggested Replies

Switch on Offer suggested replies to show chips the player can tap instead of typing. Switching them on starts from the pattern's own settings (Use the pattern's settings brings them back).

Chips the character writes are checked before they are shown: one that would give away a hidden fact is dropped.