Npc Dialogue

NPC dialogue

The voice can be perfect and the NPC still sounds like a chatbot. What fixes it is in the prompt: who they are, how they really talk, where they are, and hard rules about the shape of a spoken line.

The prompt (what examples/gta-v/mod/Dialogue.cs sends)

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system:  RULES (shared by everyone; the game's tone and the shape of a line)
         You are <Name>. <persona>
         Lines you've actually said (situation|line): <30 random lines from their own list, fresh every call>
         Examples of how you talk: <8 written examples, optional>
         Right now: <scene facts>
history: the last exchanges with this NPC (per NPC, so each one remembers you)
user:    what the player said

• The sample of real lines is what makes them sound like themselves. A fresh random 30 each call stops them repeating catchphrases. Use lines you have the rights to: written by you in the character's style (examples/gta-v/sample-lines/franklin.txt), or the game's own lines kept locally if the user extracts them for a private build (NpcVoice/lines/<Voice>.txt, never committed).
• Scene facts are short and concrete: "Grove Street, Davis, 9pm, foggy. Franklin is holding a pistol and is wanted by the police (2 stars)." NPCs react to the gun, the weather, the car; that's what makes it feel like the game and not a chat window.
• Personas are a few lines each: who they are, how they talk (slang, catchphrases, what they swear like), who they love and hate. File format (NpcVoice/characters/<Key>.txt):

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  name: Lamar Davis
  voice: LamarDavis                 folder in voices/ (default: the file name)
  models: ...                       other model names that are this character
  slurs: no                         yes only if the source character uses them (see Content)
  ---
  Franklin's loud, cocky best friend ... calls Franklin "busta", says "homie", "dog" ...
  

  _npc.txt is the persona for everyone without a file.

Rules that shape a spoken line (keep these in any game)

• Only the words said out loud: no narration, asterisks, quotes, name prefix, emoji.
• Short: usually one or two sentences, 5-25 words; cap it (45 words) and cut at the last full sentence.
• At most one delivery tag, at the very start ([angry], [laughing], [whispering]...): the voice model acts it, and the game can pick a mood voice folder from it.
• React to what was said and to the scene; don't echo the player, don't end every line with a question.
• Stay in character; never mention being an AI or a game.
• Do what you're told. If the player tells them to do something physical, they do it and say what their character would say while doing it. With actions on, ask the action picker first whether it's an order; if it is, write the line again knowing "you're right now" (skill npc-actions).

The tone rules are per game. GTA V's are M-rated: foul-mouthed, hostile, roasting the player back harder. A cozy farming game wants the opposite. Write them for the game, in the game's register.

Clean the output (never trust it raw)

Dialogue.Clean drops refusals (an empty reply, so an NPC never reads out a safety lecture), strips quotes, *actions* and a Name: or [Name] prefix wherever the model put it, applies the content rules, and cuts to 45 words at the last full sentence.

Content

• Racial slurs are replaced by default, from everyone. slurs: yes in a persona allows them only for a character who uses them in the source material, the way they do; every persona in this repo has it off.
• Insults about race (including "ape"/"monkey" jabs) and anti-gay slurs are blocked for everyone.
• Swearing follows the game's tone; profanity isn't a problem in an M-rated game.

Speed

• Use a fast model and turn reasoning off: Cerebras qwen-3.8-27b answers in ~0.3 s (DisableReasoning = true). Reasoning models add 1-5 s, and the player hears every millisecond.
• MaxTokens = 160, Temperature = 0.9.
• Run the action picker in parallel with the LLM, not after it.
• Log the LLM's time per exchange; it occasionally spikes to 5-8 s. If that matters, fire a second request after ~2 s and take whichever answers first.

Test without the game

npcvoice-check talk <Character> "<what the player says>" (GTA example) builds exactly the prompt the mod sends and runs the LLM and the action picker; npcvoice-check talk runs a set of exchanges for several characters. Read ten replies per character before tuning anything.