Line Fields

A line, a group, a line file and a pool file can all set these fields. See How Fields Combine for which value a part uses.

All Fields

Field	Type	Description
text	String	The English text. Only on a line. See Text & Placeholders.
weight	Number	How likely the part is, compared with the others in its slot. More than 0 and at most 100. The default is 1.
act	String	What the part does. See Acts.
asks	String	The part asks a question of this kind. See Questions and Pairs.
answers	String	The part answers a question of this kind.
about	String	For a question: the slot it asks about.
opens	Pair ID	The part opens a pair.
responds	Pair IDs	The part replies to these pairs.
stance	+, -, 0	For, against or neutral. See Stance and Form.
form	String	The kind of statement, such as quality, claim, musing or story.
thread	String	A label for what the part is about, such as weather.crops. See Threads.
sets	Object	State keys that the part writes. See State.
state	Object	State conditions that must be true. See State.
persp	Object	Who a person slot must be, from the speaker’s view. See Perspective.
introduces	Boolean	The part can name a person slot for the first time. The default is false.
subjects	IDs	Subject IDs or # tags. The part is only used for these subjects.
variants, variant	Strings	The part is only used for these subject variants.
registers	Strings	The part is only used in these registers. Write ! before a register to keep the part out of it.
valence	Strings	The part is only used for subjects with this valence: positive, negative or neutral.
provenance	Strings	The part is only used when the subject has at least one of these: witnessed, heard, shared.
stages	Strings	The part is only used by speakers at these life stages.
personalities	Strings	The part is only used by speakers with one of these MCA personalities.
marked	Boolean	The part uses the culture’s own phrasing. See Voices. The default is false.
simple	Boolean	A marked part that children can use. The default is false.
min_lines	Number	The conversation must have at least this many lines before the part. The default is 0.
requires	Strings	Requirements that must all be true.
content_tags	Strings	Tags for content filtering. Accepted. Townstead does not filter content yet.
Gate fields		context, relationship, personality_weights, relationship_weights, when, evaluation. See Gates. The gate weight multiplies weight.

Lists also take one value: "stages": "child" is the same as "stages": ["child"]. A bare ID in subjects, opens and responds means townstead:.

Acts

Act	Use
greet	A greeting. A line has at most one greeting part.
ask	A question. This is the default when the part has asks.
answer	An answer. This is the default when the part has answers.
inform	A statement of fact or news. This is the default for other parts.
assess	A judgement or opinion.
react	A reaction to what the other villager said.
farewell	A goodbye.
filler	A lead-in or bridge with little meaning, such as “Anyway.”
rhetorical	A question that needs no answer.

inform and assess are statements. After a statement, the state key form is the part’s form, or claim when it has none. Agreements can then check what they agree with. For example, “Exactly.” fits a claim, and “It really is.” fits a quality.

Questions and Pairs

Questions

A part with asks asks a question. The value is a free-form name for the kind of question, such as townstead:how or townstead:sit. Write the same string in answers on the parts that answer it.

• A question can only be in the last slot of a line.
• A question cannot be on the final line of a conversation.
• The other villager’s next line starts with an answer. Townstead takes it from every part whose answers matches, in any pool of the speaker’s voices.
• The subject cannot change while a question is open.
• A part with asks never opens a pair. The question takes the place of the pair.
• When nothing answers a question, Townstead reports it when data loads.

With about, a question asks about one slot:

• The question is not asked when that slot was already said in this topic.
• The question is not asked when the subject has no such slot. For example, “Where was this?” needs a {where} slot.

The questions that Townstead’s lines use: townstead:how, townstead:opinion, townstead:sit, townstead:last, townstead:hurt, townstead:when, townstead:where, townstead:who, townstead:watch, townstead:busy, townstead:more, townstead:minute, townstead:source, townstead:confirm, townstead:help, townstead:back, townstead:okay, townstead:side, townstead:taker, townstead:source_ruler, townstead:sword and townstead:would_do.

Pairs

A part with opens sets what the other villager owes. The other villager’s next line starts with a part that has this pair in responds. A required pair always gets a reply. An optional pair gets one by chance. See Pairs.

When a line has more than one part with opens, the last one counts.

A pool file often sets opens or responds for all its parts:

{ "schema": "townstead:dialogue_pool/v1", "act": "react", "responds": "joke" }

Stance and Form

Parts with a stance change the conversation:

• The state key stance is the stance of the last part that had one. match and oppose slots use it. See Stance.
• Two lines in a row with the same stance raise both villagers’ interest by 0.04. Opposite stances lower it by 0.05. Two clashes make the mood tense.
• On a thread, a villager keeps their stance for the rest of the subject. A villager who said + about weather.crops does not say - about it later.

form names the kind of statement. Townstead’s lines use story, general, quality and musing, and claim is the default. You can add your own forms, and check them with "state": {"form": "yourform"}.

Perspective

persp says who a person slot must be, from the speaker’s view:

Value	The person in the slot is
me	The speaker.
you	The listener.
they	Someone else.

{ "persp": { "who": "me" }, "lines": { "i_made_master": "I made master!" } }
{ "persp": { "who": "you" }, "lines": { "you_made_master": "You made master? Congratulations!" } }
{ "persp": { "who": "they" }, "lines": { "who_made_master": "{who} made master." } }

• A part with persp for a slot also counts as saying that slot.
• A part with persp can only be used after the slot was said, unless it has introduces: true. A question with persp is the other way round: it can only ask before the slot was said.
• A part that puts a person slot in its text without persp needs that person to be someone else (they). So “{who} got married.” is never said to the person who got married.
• {self} and {other} are always the speaker and the listener. They need no persp.

Put introduces: true on the pool or lines that first name the person, such as the claim in news: “I heard {who} got married.”

Speakers

Field	Match
stages	The speaker’s life stage: the stage it presents as, such as child, teen, adult or senior, or the ID of a custom life stage. Babies and toddlers count as child.
personalities	The speaker’s MCA personality, without mca:, such as friendly, gloomy or odd.

Older and newer MCA versions use different names for six personalities. To support both, list both names:

Older name	Newer name
crabby	grumpy
upbeat	peppy
playful	witty
introverted	shy
extroverted	confident
relaxed	lazy

For example: "personalities": ["crabby", "grumpy"].