Modding:Dialogue

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This page explains how the game stores dialogue text, its format, and how the game parses it. This is an advanced guide for mod developers.

Data

The dialogue text is stored in four sets of files.

Character-specific dialogue

Characters\Dialogue\*.xnb contains most of the dialogue for each character (one file per character). The format in this file is:

"<preface>[heart level]_[date]_[year][suffix]": "String"

...where:

• <preface> is an arbitrary key which identifies what it's for (like Introduction, Event, Season, etc).
• [heart level] is the minimum heart level the player must have reached with the NPC for this dialogue to appear.
• [date] is the numeric day of the month (like 28), or the three-character weekday (like Mon).
• [year] is 1 for year one, or 2 for any year after that.
• [suffix] is any string further identifying the dialogue (like inlaw_Abigail, for dialogue that only appears when you're married to Abigail).

If multiple dialogues are eligible, the game prioritises by the following:

1. marriage status;
2. preface;
3. suffix;
4. in-law status;
5. day of month;
6. year;
7. heart level;
8. day of week.

Strings from CS files

Data\Strings\StringsFromCSFiles.xnb contains many translation strings, including NPC dialogue defined in the code. That includes every bit of dialogue that's shared between multiple characters, and dialogue for some hardcoded events like marriage. The format in this file is:

"<key>": "dialogue string"

The key is generated based on the file that contained it before translations were added (in the form <file name>.<int id>), but doesn't have any particular meaning now.

Event files

Data\Events\*.xnb contains event scripts, including any dialogue in the event (see Modding:Event data).

Animation descriptions

Data\animationDescriptions.xnb contains short bits of dialogue to go with certain schedule points.

Algorithm

The game finds dialogue as follows:

1. Event dialogue is read from the appropriate event commands (see Modding:Event data).
2. Location-specific dialogue is read from StringsFromCSFiles <location>.cs.
3. Else character dialogue is read from the character-specific files.
4. If no dialogues were found, the game resorts to hardcoded dialogue from the StringsFromCSFiles files (specifically keys prefixed with NPC.cs NPC.cs).

Format

Dialogue text can contain tokens and commands which control the dialogue box, change the text (e.g. switch between gender-specific strings), inject values, etc. These are parsed by the Dialogue class.

Special tokens:

character	description
#	Separates two commands in a dialogue string.
{	TODO. Stands for "breakSpecialCharacter".
^	Gender switch character. The text before it is shown for male farmers, the text after it for female farmers. Example: Oh, good morning Mr. @!^Oh, good morning Ms. @!
*	TODO. Stands for "quickResponseDelineator".

Portrait commands

These commands determine which portrait will be shown in the dialogue box. Portrait commands go to the end of a line of dialogue:

"fall_Fri6": "When I was a little girl, my father abandoned us.$s#$b#I'm sorry to make things uncomfortable for you...$u#$e#Anyway... How's the farming life going?",

command	description
$neutral	Switch the speaking character to their neutral portrait.
$h	Switch the speaking character to their happy portrait.
$s	Switch the speaking character to their sad portrait.
$u	Switch the speaking character to their unique portrait.
$l	Switch the speaking character to their love portrait.
$a	Switch the speaking character to their angry portrait.
$<id>	Switch the speaking character to the portrait at the given index in their portraits file, beginning with 0. NOTE: $1 can't be used as the first dialogue command (see $1 below).

Dialogue commands

$q <?> <?>#<text>	Show a dialogue box containing the given question text.
$r <value A> <value B> <response ID>#<answer text>	Define a response option to a $q question dialogue. <answer text> is the text shown. <Value A> is used to group responses for future reference. <Value B> defines the change in friendship value, positive or negative, if this response is selected. <response ID> names the dialogue entry from the NPC's Content\Characters\Dialogue\*.xnb file that will be the NPC's reaction if this response is selected by the player.
$p <value>	Stands for "dialoguePrerequisite". <value> refers to the value of a response picked by the player to a preceding $r-question.
$e	Indicates pauses in dialogue, where the player will need to click for the next part to load in the dialogue box.
$b	Ends the current dialogue, closing the dialogue box and resuming player control. The dialogue following $b will require a new interaction with the NPC.
$k	TODO. Stands for "dialogueKill".
$c <probability>	Choose the given text with a <probability> between 0 and 1.
$d <bus|joja|cc>	dialogueDependingOnWorldState "Tue4": "$d <dependence>#|Dialogue when dependence value is true.|Dialogue in other situations.", The dependence can take one of three values: "bus": is the bus fixed?; "joja": is JoJa Mart in business?; "cc": has the Community Centre been completed?
$y	TODO. Stands for "dialogueQuickResponse"; works like $q, but within one and the same text line.
$1 <character name>1	TODO. When used as the first dialogue command, stands for "dialogueSingle". Likely a check for whether the player is dating the specified character.
%fork	TODO. Seems to have to do with questions and forks, however is used sparingly in game code. May be limited to forking events.
[# # #]	Gives the player a random item, from the pool of item IDs within the brackets.

Replacer commands

Replacer commands will be replaced with the relevant string.

@	Farmer's name. Example: Hi there @!
%adj	Random adjective. (Defined in StringsFromCSFiles.xnb)
%noun	Random noun. (Defined in StringsFromCSFiles.xnb)
%place	Random place name. (Defined in StringsFromCSFiles.xnb)
%spouse	The name of Farmer's spouse.
%name	TODO. Stands for "randomNameSpecialCharacter". Seems to return a random name?
%firstnameletter	TODO. Stands for "firstNameLettersSpecialCharacter". Possibly returns the first letter in the name of a specific NPC, such as in Welwick's fortune.
%time	Current time.
%band	TODO. Possibly the genre of Sam and Sebastian's band.
%book	Randomly assigned title to Elliott's book.
%rival	Rival's name (not used outside of unimplemented features). Possibly used as the name or personal pronoun of Leah's ex instead.
%pet	The name of Farmer's pet.
%farm	Farm name.
%favorite	TODO. Returns favorite thing? Unused?
%kid1	The name of Farmer's first child.
%kid2	The name of Farmer's second child.