Guides Overview

These guides explain how to use the CIVIL-DIALOGUE-SYSTEM module to build interactive conversations in your project.

Start with an example scene

Before reading anything, open a working conversation:

BardTreeLtd/Dialogue/Examples/Create Example Scene

The wizard generates eight numbered tutorial scenes, each demonstrating one concept and each meant to be played rather than read. They are the fastest way in.

Scene	What it demonstrates
1 - Hello World	The minimum: one NPC, one line, one exit
2 - Branching Conversation	A hub-and-spoke merchant conversation
3 - Gated Options	Options gated on blackboard state — a guard who remembers you
4 - Tokens	{speaker.name}, {other.name}, {world.time}, {world.period}
5 - Multi Beat	Several beat groups on one node, text plus mood, auto-progression
6 - Cross Tree References	Call and Return nodes into a separate tree
7 - Timed Response	Auto-selecting an option on timeout
8 - NPC to NPC	A headless conversation with overhead text

Start with 1 - Hello World and work up. Each scene's chat tree is authored in markdown under DIALOGUE-SYSTEM/Examples/Dialogue Scripts/, so you can read the source alongside the running scene.

Where to start

Different users will want different entry points.

• If you are new to the module: read Introduction to the Dialogue System
• If you want to understand conversation content structure: read Chat Trees
• If you want to build your first player conversation: read Player Conversations
• If you are adding Dialogue to an existing CIVIL-AI-SYSTEM project: read CIVIL-AI-SYSTEM Integration and then the Dialogue Setup guide in the CIVIL-AI docs

What these guides cover

• setting a scene up and configuring the module
• the core data model and authoring concepts
• the flowchart and script authoring editors
• turning a character into a dialogue agent
• player-facing conversation flow
• agent-to-agent headless conversations
• blackboard state management and token interpolation
• camera, mood, and UI presentation
• conversation policies and input handling
• localisation and beat extensibility
• debugging tools
• integration with CIVIL-AI-SYSTEM

Recommended reading order

1. Introduction to the Dialogue System
2. Scene Setup
3. Chat Trees
4. Beats
5. Authoring Editors
6. Dialogue Agents
7. Player Conversations
8. Responses and Options
9. Blackboard
10. Token System
11. Camera System
12. UI and Theming
13. Module Settings
14. Debugging

Once you are building against the runtime rather than authoring content, the Services section documents the API each of these guides sits on top of.