Documentation

• Chapter: Introduction and Overview
• Chapter: The basics of using convnodes.
• Section: Defining a New Convnode
• Section: NPCs and Convnodes
• Section: The Current Interlocutor and the Current Node
• Section: Changing Nodes in Mid-Conversation.
• Chapter: Defining Conversation Responses for Conversation Nodes
• Section: Ordinary Conversation Responses:
• Section: Default Responses:
• Section: Using Instead and After Rules as alternatives to Response Rules.
• Chapter: Setting Up an Open Node
• Chapter: Setting Up a Closed Node
• Section: Overview - The Basic Minimum
• Section: Node-Introduction Rules
• Section: Node-Continuation Rules
• Section: Node-Termination Rules
• Chapter: NPC-Initiated Conversation
• Example: * Sarah's Jealous Suspicions - Putting convnodes through their paces.

Chapter: Introduction and Overview

Many ask/tell conversations in works of Interactive Fiction can end up a bit like querying a database: we ASK BOB ABOUT THIS and TELL SUE ABOUT THAT, but there may not be much sense of the conversation progressing, and the NPC we're talking with can seem a purely passive conversationalist, only ever responding to the player's conversational commands as if he or she were little more than a talking encyclopaedia.

Conversation nodes provide a way of giving more structure to a conversation. They even allow allow us to have an NPC ask a question and insist upon receiving a reply. Alternatively they might model a fleeting point in the conversation at which the player could meaningfully respond with YES or NO, say, but could equally well decide to move on to another topic, e.g.:

    >ask sarah about mary
    "Do you know Mary," you ask.

    "Yes, I know her well," she replies, "Nice girl, don't you think?"

    >yes
    "Absolutely," you agree.

    Sarah nods her approval.

Which could just as well have been:

    >ask sarah about mary
    "Do you know Mary," you ask.

    "Yes, I know her well," she replies, "Nice girl, don't you think?"

    >tell sarah about tom
    ...

In the second case Sarah's question is ignored as effectively rhetorical, which it could not be if, for example, Sarah had just asked, "Are you seeing another woman?", and won't let go till she gets an answer!

The first kind of node, in which Sarah just asks "Nice girl, don't you think?", is an open node. The player could reply yes or no here, but doesn't have to, and is free to move straight on to another topic. The other kind of node, in which the NPC insists on an answer before the conversation can move on, is a closed node. We'll say more about open and closed nodes below.