Outcomes in the Game Plot
An AI segment ends with an outcome: Passed, Passed with help, Gave up, Out of turns (or Out of guesses), Off topic or Not available. There are three ways to make the rest of the game react to it.
1. The Exits
The simplest way: give each exit of the segment its actions, as you would give actions to an option (see Exits). For example, the Passed exit of the lighthouse keeper says the statement "Go on up, then." and gives the player the item "Lighthouse key"; its Out of turns exit says "Come back when you have thought about it." and exits the conversation.
When an outcome has no exit of its own, the segment takes another one: Passed with help takes Passed; Gave up, Out of turns and Off topic take Not available.
2. Conditions on the Outcome
Anywhere a condition can be used (a rule's preconditions, an option's conditions, a mission, a fact the character knows…), the condition builder has two AI templates:
| Condition | Holds when… |
|---|---|
| AI segment [Segment] of Conversation [Conversation] ended with [Outcome] | the player's last pass through that segment ended with that outcome. Also did not end with, has ended and has not ended. |
| AI segment [Segment] of Conversation [Conversation] ticked off [Result] | the segment ticked off that result for the player. Also did not tick off. See What the Player Achieved. |
The outcome recorded is the real outcome, even when the segment has no exit of its own for it. So you can, for example, take the same Passed exit for everyone but give a bonus only to those whose segment ended with Passed and not Passed with help.
did not end with also holds while the player has not finished the segment yet. Add has ended when that matters.
What the Player Achieved
Some patterns tick things off on the way. They are recorded with the outcome, and you can test them with ticked off:
| Pattern | Results |
|---|---|
| Gatekeeper, Teach me | each criterion the player showed |
| Witness | each clue the player learned |
| Presenter | each agenda item that was presented |
For example, a later rule can open the cellar only for players who learned the Witness's clue "the key was in the boat", whatever the outcome. A Guide and a Riddle keeper have no results.
3. A Trigger for Script Rules
Script rules can be triggered by the outcome with the event Conversation [Conversation] ends with AI outcome [Outcome].
It fires when the conversation ends through an AI exit with that outcome, i.e. the exit exits or completes the conversation. If the exit leads to another statement, the conversation does not end there, and the rule does not fire. The Studio warns you about it under the exit: "This exit leads to another statement, so these rules do not fire when this segment ends this way." The publish check warns you too.
To react to an outcome in that case, trigger the rule when the player exits or completes the conversation, with the condition AI segment … ended with ….
Player State Data
With respect to AI segments, the following player state information can be exploited:
- AI segment of conversation ended with / did not end with an outcome
- AI segment of conversation has ended / has not ended
- AI segment of conversation ticked off / did not tick off a result