Variations

In some cases, you may have a dialogue that can be repeated multiple times. To make things more interesting, you can use variations ( ) to show a different message every time the dialogue is executed.

-- simple lines

( shuffle cycle
    - Hi!
    - Hello!
    - Hey!
)

What are you doing here?

(
   -
     I thought you were travelling!
     Far abroad.
   -
     I thought you were dead!
     I know! How dark is that?.
)

There are a few different behaviours available for variations (sequence, once, cycle, shuffle):

cycle(default): This option returns each item and, when reaching the end, starts again from the beginning.

sequence: It will return each item once, and then it will stick to the last one.

For example, in the following block, the first time will return Once, the second time Twice and every other call after that will return I lost count....

( sequence
   - Once
   - Twice
   - I lost count...
)

once: Return each item in sequence only once. Using the previous example, after I lost count... is shown, the next dialogue calls will not return any of those lines anymore, skipping straight to the next line in the dialogue.

shuffle: Randomize variations. Any of the previous options can be used in combination with shuffle. (shuffle, shuffle sequence, shuffle once, shuffle cycle).

The following example will show each item following a random sequence. Once all items are shown, the sequence will be randomised again, and it will return the items in a different order.

( shuffle cycle
   - Executor?
   - Your command?
   - What would you ask of me?
   - I hunger for battle...
)

As opposed to shuffle sequence, shuffle cycle and shuffle once, the standalone shuffle option will work as regular randomization with no guarantee all items will be visited.

Variations can be nested and may contain other elements, like options and diverts:

npc: How is the day today?
( shuffle once
   -
     npc2: Rainny
     npc: do you like rainny days?
        * yes
        * no
   -
     npc2: Sunny
     -> sunny days rambling
   -
    ( shuffle
     - not to bad
     - good
    )
)

== sunny days rambling
something something