UserManual-Unity bkp.qxd
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1. Figure 5 The Preset Choices check box next to the desired preset then click Create Character This creates the char acter At this point you can type in another name to create another preset character or you can press Done to close the window Pressing Done before pressing Create Character closes the window and does NOT create the preset character The last row of preset choices is all presets you can create and edit yourself as covered next Create Your Own Preset Your personal army of preset personalities If none of the existing presets works for you you can create up to four of your own You do this by selecting Create Your Own Preset from the TaiPE menu In the window that comes up you will be given four options from which to choose see Figure 6 these are the current user created presets or the defaults if you haven t creat ed any Double click on one of these to select it for editing Once selected the name of the preset will appear in the New Name if desired box and the sliders will become available To rename the preset type a new name in the box and click Change Preset Name To change the preset s stimulus response values click the toggle box next to a response type then move the slider left or right When you release the slider the preset s facets will be refigured to match the new response value TaiPE User Manual page 9 Double click one of the preset names2. case 2 NPCResponse lt replies something annoyed gt break case 3 NPCResponse lt tells player to get lost gt break case 4 NPCResponse lt ATTACKS gt break Figure 3 7 More complex use of AlReturnResult TaiPE User Manual page 20 3 5 Using AlPlayerHistory and AlPlayerHistoryNums So now the player and your NPC have met several times The player has been nothing but nasty the first five times he s been in the shop but now he tries being nice as a new tactic You can t just check using the kind response because even if the NPC s kind ness levels have dropped quite a bit she may still react inappropriately Or say the situation is more complicated the player was nasty twice nice once nasty again and now tries being the kindest soul in the world What s an NPC to do She should remember what s happened before not just in the way her personality has been affected but specifically remembering what kinds of stimuli responses were called for and how many times icheck AICI for certain patterns to influence further checks checking last 5 response checks for Tilla and this player returns true if 60 or more Iwere kind or intimidating anxiety checks bool mostKind myAlICIL AlPlayerHistory 5 TillaTransit pIName 60f kind also checking the actual number of matches returned out of the last 5 response checks although this isn t used in the response check
3. TIGER Al gt PERSONAL ENG ITY INE User Manual Unity specific version rev 1 04 October 2012 Copyright and TM 2012 Quantum Tiger Games LLC All rights reserved Table of Contents Introduction 1 0 Installation and Overview 1 1 System requirements 1 2 Initial setup for Unity 2 0 Using the Engine 2 1 Setting up and editing characters 2 2 Using the character personalities in a game 3 0 Examples 3 1 Remember to set the NPC and player names 3 2 Getting it all started using Init 3 3 Changing speed of change 3 4 Using AlReturnResult and AlNoResult 3 5 Using AlPlayerHistory and AlPlayerHistoryNums 4 0 Support and Credits 5 0 Citations WwW ow 11 15 15 15 16 17 21 23 24 TaiPE User Manual page i Introduction Welcome to the Tiger AI Personality Engine TaiPE Unity edition TaiPE provides a simple but complete add on to create and change non player personalities both before and during a game With such power your characters will react more realistically and will change their opinions of players depending on how they are treated You can cre ate different personalities for as many NPCs as you wish and each will develop inde pendently of all the others with potentially different reactions depending on interac tions with a player with other players and NPCs and even with world events Through a set of menus in the Unity editor you can easily create and edit character persona
4. just here to show how to do it int mostKindNum myAlCI AlPlayerHistoryNums 5 TillaTransit pIName kind bool mostintimidated myAICI AlPlayerHistory 5 TillaTransit pIName 60f intimidat ing anxiety int mostintimidatedNum myAlICI AlPlayerHistoryNums 5 TillaTransit pIName intimi dating anxiety if mostKind if the player has been mostly kind then this response will check kindness whichResponse myAlCl AlReturnResult NPCname pIName kind switch whichResponse case 0 NPCResponse lt replies something neutral gt break case 1 NPCResponse lt replies something neutral gt break case 2 NPCResponse lt replies something kind gt break case 3 NPCResponse lt replies something really kind gt break case 4 NPCResponse lt offers help to player gt break else if mostintimidated amp amp mostIntimidatedNum gt 3 lif not only checked for intimidation or anxiety but did this more than 3 times set NPC response similarly to that in Figure 3 7 Fina Figure 3 8 Using AlPlayerHistory and AlPlayerHistoryNums TaiPE User Manual page 21 That s where AIPlayerHistory and AI PlayerHistoryNums come in In Figure 3 8 we see an example of AIPlayerHistory being used to find out whether 60 of the last five inter actions requested a kind or intimidating check if so we then check the exact num ber of these using AIPlayerHistory
5. the database won t work properly unless you also copy the files and the database into your exe s directory And that s it File Edit Assets GameObject Component Terrain TaiPE Window Help Es Character Editor Cor Scene Game Choose Preset re s RGB 3 iad lt i Create Your Own Preset Gizmos About Quantum Tiger Games Textured Hierarchy Project lt Create gt z Q J dbp Sraste i Main Camera Y Editor G System Data System Data SQLite 5 TaiPE_Character_Setup gt GResources Y Standard Assets G Character Controllers gt E Light Flares gt Physic Materials Y Scripts gt Camera Scripts gt General Scripts O System Data L System Data SQLite O TaiPE_Lib utility Scripts gt Giskyboxes C System Data System Data SQLite gt Terrain Assets Figure 1 Unity editor screen including TaiPE menu and Project window TaiPE User Manual page 2 2 0 Using the Engine 2 1 Setting up and editing characters The various submenus of the TaiPE menu allow you to create and edit the base person alities for your NPCs This is all pregame stuff the characters will begin your game in whatever configuration you choose here 2 1 2 Background You can create personalities for as few or as many NPCs as you wish there is no require ment that every NPC in your game use the Personality Engine
6. Preset Character options will become available see Figure 5 Click the Please enter a character name in the box then press Begin Preset Character Figure 4 Create a character using presets TaiPE User Manual page 8 Choose Preset ox TaiPE Create Character Using Presets Character Name The Preset Peasani suggestions Preset Choices Begin Preset Character Click a box next to a preset i choice then press Create Character Assassin Average Joe Oo Drunk Angry Drunk Sad Loner Distrustful deceitful Average in every way Unlikely Angry intimidating annoying Sad withdrawn guilt ridden Intimidating Plans well orderly to exist in the real world Generally impulsive and prone Generally impulsive and prone to delusion to delusion Fighter Itchy Trigger Finger Fighter Cool Hand Guard g Hippy Intimidating assertive Impulsive demanding ambitious Inventor Innovator Intellectual efficient imaginative Ambitious orderly Peasant Downtrodden Anxious orderly Unimaginative unambitious hard working Politician Middle Selfish quarrelsome but generally middle of the road condescending Thief Impulsive Deceitful imaginative Impulsive undependable Intimidating assertive Depend able efficient Not affectionate inventor Mad Scientist Intellectual efficient imaginative Very a
7. We have endeavored to make the creation process as simple as possible however giving you the option of using preset base personalities or tweaking as many as 37 different aspects of your characters personalities These aspects are the same stimuli responses you will be able to choose from your game code For instance you can adjust the initial intensity of an NPC s kindness that is his likelihood of responding to kindness with kindness or to perform a kind act using the character editor Note that you are not directly changing the underlying facets of the NPC s personality there is no kindness facet for instance but are affecting the underlying facets that go into making us more prone to kindness Because of this when you change kindness you affect the other stimuli response types that have similar facets as components Also note that the numerical values you see are for your guidance only the underlying personality facets are the core of the engine and are ultimately used along with our per sonality algorithms to choose change levels of response in the actual game situation 2 1 3 What are these stimulus response types Personality theory in general posits that there are certain base elements that go into cre ating a person s personality and that these factor in various ways into the sorts of deci Extraversion Neuroticism Warmth Anxiety Gregariousness Angry Hostility Assertiveness Depression Ac
8. You can then change the name if you like JOUUOUOUUUOOUOUD Figure 6 Double click a preset name to edit and then all its responses will be recalculated to match the new facets just as when using the Character Create Edit screen The preset s values are changed in the database live as you change them Note however that the preset s name is changed only if you click the Change Preset Name button See Figure 7 When you re done editing the sliders press Done to exit the screen or double click another preset to edit You can now use your new preset to create NPCs About Quantum Tiger Games Self explanatory really Clicking this on the TaiPE menu gives you more info about the Personality Engine and Quantum Tiger Games and shows Raina in her non SD glory To change a response click the box next to it to enable changes Then drag the slider to the value you want the character to have and release All related responses will be recalculated as well Repeat as you like JOOOOO0O000000 J Jooogooogoogooogoogoogp Figure 7 Change the name and adjust the sliders TaiPE User Manual page 10 2 2 Using the character personalities in a game Now that you have the base personalities for your NPCs it s time to make them game accessible Make sure the TaiPE_Lib dll has ben added to your Assets as per the instal lation instructions see Section 1 2 2 2 1 For each NPC Each NPC should use its own insta
9. 53 Figure 3 The New Guy with adjusted stimuli response values TaiPE User Manual page 7 character with default average values is created the moment you click Create Edit Character you do not have to click Done to create a character or save your changes If you re done with a character and wish to edit another simply type another name in the Character Name box and click Create Edit Character again You will then be given a set of sliders to adjust for that character And what do the other buttons on this screen do Reset Character The Reset button resets a character s slider values to those he she had when imported or created if new New characters will revert to all average values Delete Character Deletes the current character Note that this is not reversible Choose Preset Create a character using presets Clicking TaiPE gt Choose Preset allows you to create a character quickly without hav ing to adjust slider values There are 28 different presets some of which are subtypes of the same general personality First type a name for the character in the Character Name box see Figure 4 this is the same as in the Create Edit Character window Typing in a name will provide a sort of drop down list of existing characters you can double click on one of these to edit him or her or you can continue typing in the name of a new character Click Begin Preset Character when ready After this the
10. Nums in case there haven t been five interactions if there s only been one maybe we want the NPC to give the player the benefit of the doubt and be nice just one more time Note that because our checks for intimidation were more complex using both anxiety and intimidation response types see section 3 4 we want to see if the last five respons es were either of these AIPlayerHistory allows you to check any number of response types at the same time finding instances of any of the responses so in this case either intimidation or anxiety checks In the example we can then use this information to make a more commonsense choice as to the NPC s reactions Persistence of Memory In the near future Quantum Tiger Games will release an even more specific memory package for NPCs in which they will be able to remember actual events and the people attached to them rather than just reaction types We ll notify you when it s ready And you ll get a special upgrade deal if you already own the Personality Engine TaiPE User Manual page 22 4 0 Support and Credits 4 1 Support We re here to help Contact us at support quantumtigergames com with any issues We ll also post a FAQ on our website once we have enough questions to have a FAQ 4 2 Credits Design coding Jeffrey Georgeson Raina character created by Mark Foley Copyright and TM 2012 Quantum Tiger Games LLC TaiPE User Manual page 23 5 0 Citations
11. What References in a user manual Yes indeed because our game AI is based on research dealing with real humans and personality development The following are a few of the many works dealing with the Five Factor Model of personality Costa PT Jr and McCrae RR 1995 Domains and Facets Hierarchical Personality Assessment Using the Revised NEO Personality Inventory Journal of Personality Assessment vol 64 no 1 pp 21 50 DeYoung CG 2010 Toward a Theory of the Big Five Psychological Inquiry vol 21 no 1 pp 26 33 Goldberg L 1993 The structure of phenotypic personality traits American Psychologist vol 48 no 1 pp 26 34 John OP et al 2010 Paradigm Shift to the Integrative Big Five Trait Taxonomy History Measurement and Conceptual Issues in John et al ed Handbook of personality Theory and research 3d ed Guilford New York US edition McCrae RR amp Costa Jr PT 2010 The Five Factor Theory of Personality in John et al ed Handbook of personality Theory and research 3d ed Guilford New York US edition TaiPE User Manual page 24
12. anual page 5 cher eater Please enter a character name in the box then press Create Edit Character JOUOOOOOOO0O0O00 JOE JOE JOE UE DE DE DE JOE DE JEE IOE JSE JSE JOE DE E EE DE EE DE JS EE DERE character to have and release All related responses will be recalculated as well Repeat as you like Char Editor To change a response click the box next to it to enable changes Then drag the slider to the value you want the character to have and release All related responses will be recalculated as well Repeat as you like JOR TER DER JER TER JOR ODO oko J J YO J Q Q Figure 2 Create a detailed character top Enter a character name then middle character exists or bottom new character edit her or his details TaiPE User Manual page 6 ly low propensity for this and 100 the character reacts in this way very intensely see Figure 2 middle or bottom Zero kindness would indicate a very unkind person 100 would be someone who was almost saintly If the character already exists its current values from her his facets will be calculated Figure 2 middle a new character will start out with all 50s Figure 2 bottom NOTE These settings create a base personality applied initially to every interaction the character has with anyone and anything in the game world As the character interacts with other individuals her reactions tow
13. ard those indi viduals will vary depending on what those interactions have been in other words she may grow to despise a player who has been continually nasty to her yet love someone who has been nothing but kind and giving Additionally an NPC s base responses to strangers say will be affected by all of her inter actions with others and the world an NPC who has been treated badly by almost everyone will grow to be cynical and distrustful even if he started out a kind and genial soul To adjust the values click the toggle box next to a response type then move the slider up or down When you release the slider the character s facets will be refigured to match the new response value and then all his her responses will be recalculated to match the new facets For example changing The New Guy s Affectionate score from 50 to 70 also increases his Kindness to 57 but decreases his Anger tendency to become angry somewhat to 46 along with changing several other values slightly This is because the psychological factors underlying the Kindness response the facets were changed when you adjusted Kindness and thus every other response based on any of the same factors changed as well see Figure 3 When you are finished adjusting the values click the Done button This closes the edi tor window You can also click Done without ever entering a character name this clos es the window without creating or editing anything The chara
14. bove example the player is kind to the NPC and so she checks her response to kindness and changes slightly for the experience There are more complex ways to check and change the NPC s personality however In Figure 3 7 we see an example of an NPC being intimidated by a player In this case we decide to check not just one but two response types one for the NPC s intimidation response and one for her anxiety response Why Because her desire to be intimidating right back might be outweighed by her anxiety over the situation So in this case we check both evaluate them against each other and then figure out the NPC s response TaiPE User Manual page 19 so we re checking how the NPC responds to intimidation is she more anxious or intimidating right back using a more complex combination of responses int isAnxious myAlICl AlReturnResult NPCname pIName anxiety int isIntimidating myAICI AlReturnResult NPCname plName intimidating whichResponse isIntimidating isAnxious switch whichResponse case 4 NPCResponse lt calls for help gt break case 3 NPCResponse lt replies something frightened gt break case 2 NPCResponse lt replies something nervous gt break case 1 NPCResponse lt replies something neutral gt break case 0 NPCResponse lt replies something neutral gt break case 1 NPCResponse lt replies something neutral gt break
15. cating that no changes are to be made to the personality done by setting the toChange bool to false You may want to do this when you are simply checking on an NPC s reaction intensity but aren t in a situation where the personality would be changed such as checking whether an NPC would be the first to start a conversation checking gregariousness no real interaction with a player has yet occurred so there isn t a reason to change the NPC s reactions There also may be times when you don t know at the outset in what way the NPC s personality would be changed by an event say you check her impulsiveness to see whether she ll follow the player off the edge of a cliff It would depend on the outcome of this action whether she later thought of it as a negative or positive reinforcer of her impusiveness Which brings us to AINoResult string characterName string playerName string stimulus bool posChange true returns nothing So your NPC has jumped over a cliff and had an absolutely smashing time in the best sense of the word Her impulsiveness should be increased but you don t need any sort of value returned for a new response the response and event already happened That s when you use AINoResult This function changes the NPC s personality without returning a result The default taking the character name player name and stimulus changes the values in a positive way indicating a step towards more intenisty the
16. characterName string playerName string stimulus bool toChange true returns int AINoResult string characterName string playerName string stimulus bool posChange true returns nothing AlPlayerHistory int lastNum string characterName string playerName float percMatch params string responses returns bool AIPlayerHistoryNums int lastNum string characterName string playerName params string responses returns int These are described in detail below and again see the examples in Part 3 and the Unity scene example that came with the Engine TaiPE User Manual page 11 Init returns nothing This function initialises the AI module and must be called before you try to use it It doesn t return anything ChangeBaseChange float amount returns nothing This function changes the base rate at which the NPC s personality changes in relation to an individual player or event type The default is 5 0 This is a bit more quickly than people s personalities change in real life but to notice the changes in a game wherein the player may only speak to an NPC a few times this is the value chosen after testing various rates Remember that changing this rate for one NPC does not change it for any other so you can have characters whose personalities differ in terms of rate of change just like humans ChangeBkgerndChange float amount returns nothing This function changes the base rate at which an NPC s perso
17. cter s values are changed in the database live as you change them and a new Char Editor TaiPE Character Creator Editor Character Name The New Guyl To change a response click the box next to it to enable changes Then drag the slider to the value you want the character to have and release All related responses will be recalculated as well Repeat as you like Create Edit Character suggestions Stimuli Response Types affectionate 70 ambitious 50 anger 46 annoying 46 anxiety 50 assertiveness 50 condescension 50 conformity 47 deceitfulness 50 demanding 50 dependability 50 distrustful 50 wittiness 50 JOOOOOO e OOOO OOUOU efficiency 50 excitability 50 gregarious 54 guilt 50 happiness 55 helpfulness 50 humour 60 imaginative 50 impulsive 50 intellectual 50 intimidating 48 jealousy 50 Reset Character Done kind 57 moodiness 46 orderly 50 productive 50 quarrelsome 47 reluctance 50 sadness 47 selfishness 50 standoffish 46 sternness 50 stubborn 50 talkative
18. ecific NPC to be more kind intellectual and imaginative which will make that character more prone to wittiness and slightly less likely to anger as well due to the underlying facets You could also try the Professor preset which will give you a basically intellectual charac ter but not one who is necessarily kind or imaginative Characters created from a pre set can be fine tuned later using the character editor Following are detailed instructions for creating characters Who is that character to the side To the right of the various TaiPE screens is Raina super deformed version QTG s spokescharacter she hopes to be like Sonic or Mario one day hey aim high right She offers advice about using the Personality Engine for those times when you don t want to drag out the user manual Character Editor Create a character in detail If you click the Character Editor menu a window opens containing a text field for name entry and a set of sliders see Figure 2 top Typing in a name will provide a sort of drop down list of existing characters you can double click on one of these to edit him or her or you can continue typing in the name of a new character the drop down also helps prevent creating two characters with the same name Once you have typed double clicked on a name press the Create Edit Character button This will activate the sliders each set to a value between 0 the character has an extreme TaiPE User M
19. ent linstantiates copy of Al Client Interface AlClientInterface myAlICl alternatively could use AlClientInterface myAICI new AlClientinterface Iwhich would take care of instantiation all at once Use this for initialization void Start continue instantiation of Al interface myAlCl new AlClientinterface unless already done through alternate code above myA ICL Init Figure 3 2 Initializing a copy of the AlClientInterface for a character 1 make sure to include a using TaiPE_Lib statement above the class declaration 2 when declaring variables for use in the class instantiate a copy of AIClientInterface 3 in the Start function provided by Unity or some other function called when the script is first called continue the instantiation C requires not only declaring it in the vari ables but then setting it equal to a new AIClientInterface 4 also in the Start function call the Init function of the AIClientInterface to initialize the Engine for this character That s it Now you re ready to access the character s personality which you created using the character setup menus described previously see description in Section 2 1 3 3 Changing speed of change If you want to change the speed at which this character s personality changes not rec ommended until after you ve used the PE for a while to get a sense of how it works now would be the time to do it j
20. er from 0 to 4 indicating the intensity of the response TaiPE User Manual page 12 Extremely low could indicate a reaction opposite to that queried or just an absolutely neutral response e g a kindness intensity of 0 could mean the NPC just ignores the player or perhaps reacts negatively the actual reaction is that which suits the situation Or if another check indicates the NPC has a high anger intensity perhaps the NPC reacts very negatively to the player s kindness it s up to you how many checks you want to make for any given interaction Lows slightly negative response or relatively neutral 2s Average reacts as the average person would in this situation High reacts positively note that having a high positive reaction for one stimulus e g kindness may be very different from a high positive response to another e g anger 4 Extremely high intensely positive response Why only five possible intensities Because we had to choose between further shades of intensity and speedier response times from the engine Five seemed the best compro mise AlReturnResult can be used in different ways The default takes the character name player name and stimulus response type and changes the personality of the NPC in regard to both this player and to everything else in the world see also the discussion of the base change functions above Alternatively you can call the function with an added boolean indi
21. he Build Settings dialogue box setting for API Compatibility Level at the bottom under Optimization to NET 2 0 NOT the default NET 2 0 Subset The subset lacks the functionality necessary to read some of the dlls used after compiling Second place the following file in your Unity project s main folder dbPersonality db This is the personality database it is an encrypted SQLite 3 database There s no need to import it as an asset Third import the following as assets go to Assets gt Import New Asset or copy the files into the correct folder TaiPE_Lib dll This is the library containing functions dealing with the database and the AI These are discussed in Section 2 2 2 Import this dll into the same folder as any scripts using it You also need some way for your game to recognize a SQLite database and its encryp tion Import these dlls into every folder containing a script accessing the database e g import copies into the same folder as the TaiPE_Lib dll and into the Editor folder con taining your TaiPE_ Character Setup dll see below You will also need a copy in your Standard Assets folder We recommend System Data dll Some engines need this e g Unity System Data SQLite dll_ Phoenix Software s SQLite dll Note that you must use the larger version for the TaiPE to work it s the Interop Library version as opposed to the smaller Managed Only version Note that the Mono SQLite dll
22. ither anger or intimidation You can check for as many different responses as you wish at the same time although it will be checking whether ANY of the listed responses match Of course there will be times when there haven t been as many interactions as you re checking for say if the player has only spoken to this NPC twice and you re checking the previous 5 interactions The function then checks whether the percentage of the interac tions that have occurred is equal to or greater than the percentage you re looking for AIPlayerHistoryNums int lastNum string characterName string playerName params string responses returns int If you find it important to know whether a certain number of interactions of a certain type have taken place between a player and NPC you can use this function to find out It looks for up to the lastNum interactions and finds the number of these that match the character player and stimulus or stimuli requested Thus even if the previous func tion tells you that 100 of the previous 5 interactions have involved annoyance you may want to hold back on throwing the player out of the shop if there has really been only one interaction not five See Part 3 for examples of these functions in use and take a look at the sample Unity scene for a demonstration You can also visit qguantumtigergames com for another example the voters demo TaiPE User Manual page 14 3 0 Examples Of course just
23. lities and assign them to NPCs And through scripting you can access these personalities in game and have your NPCs react grow and change throughout the game s run giving every play through a different feel giving your players that much more incentive to return to your game and play it again wondering what would hap pen if they had treated those soldiers or shopkeepers or henchmen a little differently Also see the example Unity project using the Personality Engine Unity_TaiPE_Example the README that came with your download has detailed information Please feel free to contact us at Quantum Tiger Games with questions or even just to share your experiences using the Personality Engine at support quantumtigergames com Thank you Jeff Georgeson Quantum Tiger Games LLC TaiPE User Manual page ii 1 0 Installation and Overview 1 1 System requirements The Unity specific version of the Tiger AI Personality Engine character setup works in Unity 3 x there is also a Windows exe version available The disk space memory etc requirements are less than minimal The Personality Engine itself will work in any environment supporting C dlls and SQLite databases 1 2 Initial setup for Unity When using the Unity specific version of the Personality Engine there are a few steps required to get up and running First you will need to change the PlayerSettings Edit gt Project Settings gt Player or click Player Settings from t
24. mbitious but chaotic Peasant Unionist Anxious orderly Ambitious demanding efficient Politician Right Selfish quarrelsome Higher conformity than others Thief Catburglar Deceitful imaginative Orderly productive demanding Assertive dutiful orderly King Arrogant Assertive efficient Arrogant demanding ambitious Personal Assistant Productive orderly efficient dependable Not impulsive Priest Dependable level headed Not prone to depression Wizard Normal Intellectual imaginative Witty unselfish calm Happy affectionate imaginative gregarious Non conformist King Wise Assertive efficient Dependable not stand offish forthcoming Politician Left Selfish quarrelsome intellectual imaginative Professor Intellectual witty Not really a conformist Talkative gt gt Salaryman mSeducer mShopkeeper Snob Conformist productive orderly Ambitious assertive affectionate Orderly ambitious efficient Unkind selfish Somewhat Not impulsive imaginative gregarious dependable truthful deceitful Wizard Mad Intellectual imaginative Ambitious intimidating condescending efficient gMy First Preset A preset you create gMy Second Preset This Is Me Not no More Four A preset you create A preset you create A preset you create Create Character Done
25. n players playing your game The full references can be found at the back of this manual for those interested TaiPE User Manual page 4 Also as in real life having high tendencies toward a certain reaction does not mean the character will react in the same exact way each and every time our algorithms take this into account and return a reaction intensity from which you can make your own judg ment as to what the NPC says or does 2 1 4 TaiPE menu See again Figure 1 Pretty self explanatory From here you choose Character Editor to create or edit an existing character using the full set of possible stimuli response types gives you access to the 37 different stimuli response types Use this to fine tune a character Choose Preset shows you a list of preset personality types allowing you to quickly make a type of character without having to adjust anything Note that you can how ever later edit these characters using the full set of stimuli response types if you wish Create Your Own Preset find yourself making a lot of similar characters but none of our presets quite fits This lets you create up to four of your own presets About Quantum Tiger Games gives us the opportunity to talk about ourselves 2 1 5 Creating editing characters the TaiPE submenus There are two ways to create a character fine tuning a character in detail or using a pre set to make a quick general type For example you could tailor a sp
26. nality changes in relation to EVERYTHING i e if one player is particularly nice to the NPC this rate determines the amount the NPC is more kindly disposed to everyone in the world as a result The default for this rate is 0 1 which again is higher than the rate for humans in the real world but is desirable for noticing the changes in game Changing this rate by even a fraction has a large effect raising it as high as 1 would create a wildly changing person ality Again changing this rate for one NPC does not change it for any other SetPlayerName string playerName returns nothing In order to recalculate the NPC s personality the module must know to which player the interaction refers therefore every player must be recognized by the database before any interactions occur This is done by simply passing the player s name to the module through the SetPlayerName function This is done once before any interactions with this NPC can occur ideally when the player chooses a name at the beginning of the game or when the game initializes if players don t choose names Note that because every instance of the AIClientInterface uses the same database you only need to set the player s name once AlReturnResult string characterName string playerName string stimulus bool toChange true returns int This is one of the primary functions for the Personlaity Engine it takes a stimulus response type e g kind and returns an integ
27. nce of the AlClientInterface module It also must know how to use the TaiPE Lib dll For example in C you would 1 place a using TaiPE_Lib statement before the class definition in your code 2 declare a variable of type AIClientInterface e g AIClientInterface myAICI 3 instantiate a copy of the module e g myAICI new AIClientInterface Please see the example Unity code in part 3 Note that all NPCs use the same database so there are not multiple copies of this In fact you don t need to create any connections to the database at all in your code this is done by the AI module 2 2 2 Naming the NPC Also you should set a variable equal to the NPC s name matching a character whose personality you created when creating characters using the TaiPE menus The NPC s name will be needed every time you query the database on his her behalf Note that this connection is all you need to associate personalities with NPCs For example if you ve created a personality for Edgar the Excellent in the database then in scripts accessing Edgar s personality you ll need a string variable set to Edgar the Excellent 2 2 3 What you can do The TaiPE lib dll contains the following user accessible functions Init returns nothing ChangeBaseChange float amount returns nothing ChangeBkgerndChange float amount returns nothing SetPlayerName string playerName returns nothing AlReturnResult string
28. next time the stimulus is checked What if our NPC had had a smashing time in the worst possible sense of the word You could then change her impulsiveness to be less likely to rule her thoughts by calling AINoResult with an additional boolean value posChange set to false TaiPE User Manual page 13 AlPlayerHistory int lastNum string characterName string playerName float percMatch params string responses returns bool Over time your NPCs will develop a history with a player and while this is approximat ed by the player specific personality changes for each NPC sometimes it makes more sense to know more specifically whether a certain interaction has occurred several times Does this player always cause the NPC to check how angry he is but now is being play ful Has the player been acting like a jerk for the last several encounters but this time is trying to be kind Without knowing better the NPC will just check his kindness response and may be far nicer than the situation warrants You can however check any number of previous interactions and adjust any responses accordingly by using the AIPlayerHistory function By providing the number of previ ous interactions you wish to check the character name and player name the least per centage of these that should match to return true and the type s of stimuli you are searching for you can find out if say 75 of the last five interactions involved anger or if 50 involved e
29. other conversation or badly thus making it less desirable to start conversations in the future especially with this player We would write something like the code in Figure 3 5 adjusting in a positive direction the default or a negative one The default action for any personality check requiring a result is to adjust the NPC s per sonality at the same time as this seems the more likely pattern Thus a player being TaiPE User Manual page 17 private bool StartConversation determine whether NPC wishes to start the conversation or wait for the player to Istart Use the Al to determine by checking against NPC s gregariousness pass NPC name player name tendency to check and whether to change personality based on this check in this case we don t just getting a result int startConversation myAlICl AlReturnResult NPCname pIName gregarious false Ithis returns a value between 0 and 4 0 being low in this tendency 4 being very high Iwe don t need a separate response for every return value so if startConversation gt 2 Iwill definitely start conversation return true else if startConversation lt 2 Iwill definitely not return false else lin between in this case decided randomly System Random random new System Random int randomNumber random Next 0 100 if randomNumber gt 50 return true else return false Figure 3 4 Getting a
30. ready been keyed into the various facets using our own extensive research and applying this to game type situations Thus the developer merely has to query whether a stimulus will elicit a strong reaction and the Engine will take care of not only finding that answer but figuring out how much if at all having that interaction affects the personality of the NPC in future interactions either with the same player or with other players or NPCs or even world events Thus just as in real life the very act of interacting with others has an effect on how a character deals with the future and on how similar stimuli are dealt with Ultimately of course the extent to which you consult the Personality Engine is up to you if you want a certain NPC to follow a very prescribed set of actions that s fine it does not interfere with the Engine s functioning to do this although it won t be able to develop that NPC s personality obviously If an NPC has to give out a piece of important information the Engine will not forbid it how could it what you might do however is have the NPC s phras ing be different depending on how she feels about this player Even subtle dif ferences like this can make the gameplay even more interesting than it already is can add a bit of mystery and intrigue and depth especially depth to the world and the characters and people in it and ultimately lead to a more satis fying experience for the presumably huma
31. result without changing the NPC personality private void AfterConversation bool thingsWentWell after the conversation we decide to adjust the NPC s gregariousness based on Iwhether there was a positive outcome or a negative one pass NPC name player name tendency to check and whether to change personality in a positive direction or a negative one if thingsWentWell AINoResult NPCName pIName gregarious note that the default is for positive change else AINoResult NPCName pIName gregarious false Figure 3 5 Changing the personality without returning a result TaiPE User Manual page 18 player has been kind whichResponse myAlCl AlReturnResult NPCname pIName kind switch whichResponse case 0 NPCResponse lt replies something neutral gt break case 1 NPCResponse lt replies something neutral gt break case 2 NPCResponse lt replies something kind gt break case 3 NPCResponse lt replies something really kind gt break case 4 NPCResponse lt offers help to player gt break Figure 3 6 Changing the personality and returning a result intimidating to an NPC will immediately change the NPC s personality there s no need to wait until later to evaluate things This is even simpler than the previous AJReturnResult example call AIReturnResult without the final parameter see Figure 3 6 In the a
32. teraction the attitude the NPC has toward specific individuals rather than change the overall personality The default is 5 Note that whole number changes in this value will have a very significant effect 2 call the ChangeBkgrndChange function of myAICI to change the rate of change for every interaction the NPC has This is like changing the rate an overall personality changes In the real world such changes usually take years the default rate for game play is 0 1 which is still faster than real world changes but necessary for most game play situations 3 4 Using AlReturnResult and AlNoResult Sometimes you will want to get a result from the NPC s personality but not have the mere fact of getting a result alter that personality In the example in Figure 3 4 we are checking whether an NPC will start a conversation with a player who has just entered the NPC s shop We don t want to change the NPC s personality maybe we d change it after the encounter though if for instance things go well and reinforce the NPC s desire to start conversations so we check using AIReturnResult but with the final parame ter toChange set to false To change the values later without needing another result we could use AINoResult For example assume that after the conversation we want to change the personality depending on whether we ve evaluated things to have gone well and thus reinforcing a stimulus in this case the desire to start an
33. the cut and dry enumeration of function calls doesn t really demonstrate the possibilities the range of character responses and development when using the Personality Engine Following are a few examples of using the engine in a Unity envi ronment Note that the examples assume you are using C See also the Unity sample demo included with the TaiPE 3 1 Remember to set the NPC and player names As mentioned before it s a good idea to set a string variable to the name of the NPC whose personality you are accessing as this name will be necessary every time you query the database However you can change an NPC s personality from any script anywhere as long as you use his her name in the function call Also the Engine must know which player or thing is interacting with the NPC in order to return values that make sense Setting the player name can be done when the player registers his or her name with the game or at any other point before actually calling a function that requires it the example in Figure 3 1 does it in a script that runs when the First Person Controller is started Note that the player name is set in the database for access by all instances of the AIClientInterface so you only need to set it once unlike the Speed of Change functions listed in Section 3 3 which change values only for that instance and thus that NPC Note in the example that you can also set up non player players with which to inter act Here
34. tivity Self Consciousness Excitement Seeking Impulsiveness Positive Emotions Vulnerability Agreeableness Trust Straightforwardness Dutifulness Altruism Achievement Striving Compliance Self Discipline Modesty Deliberation Tender Mindedness Table 1 The Five Categories and Their Facets categories in bold TaiPE User Manual page 3 deceitfulness condescension quarrelsome helpfulness selfishness affectionate dependability efficiency moodiness assertiveness humour intellectual demanding productive ambitious orderly kind annoying wittiness intimidating excitability gregarious imaginative talkative Table 2 Possible Stimuli Response Types to be queried by the developer sions and actions we make in our lives In the Five Factor Model a well respected the ory see for instance Goldberg 1993 Costa amp McCrae 1995 John et al 2010 McCrae amp Costa 2010 DeYoung 2010 these elements are the 30 personality facets listed in Table 1 which are grouped into five overall categories hence the Five in the name of the model Rather than having the developer try to check the individual personality facets and fig ure out how these might apply to various everyday stimuli such as another person being nice to you or response types like whether an NPC will go up to a stranger and be nice without provocation the Personality Engine provides 37 possible stimuli responses see Table 2 that have al
35. ust after initializing the Engine still within the Start function Not that this is required The speed at which different facets change in real people s lives is already factored into our Engine and so continually tinkering with the overall speed of change will make the NPC more unrealistic and possibility quite wacky TaiPE User Manual page 16 Iuse the following function to change the rate of change per interaction with each player this represents the attitude the NPC has toward specific individuals rather than the overall Ichange i e towards Mike the First Player but not towards everyone and everything generally note that the default is 5f float someAmount 5f myAICI ChangeBaseChange someAmount Iuse the following function to change the rate of change for every interaction the NPC has Ithis is like changing the rate an overall personality changes In the real world such changes usually take years the default rate for gameplay is 0 1f which is still faster than real world changes but necessary for most gameplay situations float someOtherAmount 0 1f myAICI ChangeBkgrndChange someOtherAmount Figure 3 3 Altering the speed at which a character s personality changes To do this see Figure 3 3 1 call the ChangeBaseChange function of your instance of the AIClientInterface in the example we ve called it myAICT with a float representing the new value This will change per in
36. we ve created a way to have the NPC react to world events by creating a world events player You would do something similar for interactions with other NPCs making them players and thus setting their names as well 3 2 Getting it all started using Init To use the engine you have to create an instance of it for a character and then initialize it This is easy to do in a script you attach to a character do the following and see the boldface items in Figure 3 2 set the player name here in a script attached to the First Person Controller can also be attached to anything that is accessed BEFORE any interactions with NPCs such as the terrain even string playerName JJ Player myAICI SetPlayerName playerName Ilalso because we ve decided world events not having to do with a specific Iplayer can affect an NPC personality we ll set the world as a player normally this would be done outside of an individual FPC out for demonstration purposes it s here string worldEvents world_events myAICI SetPlayerName worldEvents Figure 3 1 Setting player names TaiPE User Manual page 15 using UnityEngine using System Collections using TaiPE_Lib public class NPCClientSide MonoBehaviour Author Jeffrey Georgeson build 13 April 2012 Copyright Quantum Tiger Games LLC 2012 Iwho is the NPC we re dealing with in this script string NPCName Edgar the Excell
37. won t work as it doesn t read the encrypted database properly TaiPE User Manual page 1 In order for the TaiPE option to show up in the Unity menu bar you need to create an Editor folder You can do this by clicking Create in the Project window then select ing Folder Name the new folder Editor The Editor folder should be in the outermost set of Folders as shown in Figure 1 Then import the following asset into the Editor folder TaiPE_Character_Setup dll This is the library creating the character setup menus that appear in Unity Remember to place a copy of the System Data dlls in the same folder You will also need a Resources folder set up in the same way as the Editor folder Into this folder import Contents of TaiPE_images zip The images used by the editor menus After importing these click on Unity s menu bar and the TaiPE menu should appear with four submenus Character Editor Choose Preset Create Your Own Preset and About Quantum Tiger Games These will be discussed further in Section 2 1 Setting Up and Editing Characters One final note After your build your game you will need to manually copy the database dbPersonality db and three of the dlls TaiPE Library dll System Data dll and System Data SQLite dll into the same folder as your exe for some reason Unity does not include these in its build Even though the dlls may be in the Managed folder of the _Data folder accompanying your exe
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