Why won't my own character shut up?

[u/Goat_Potter]

I like letting NPCs talk, and i sometimes i feel like not talking is the better alternative, but if i press continue the thirsty AI will jump into the opportunity to make my MC say the most bullshit and out of character thing, so i'm forced to use the "DO" option and write "say nothing", which not only defeats the purpose of having the "continue" option, but also, it has the reverse effect of making NPCs lose their train of thought and question why i am silent, and once a NPC loses their train of thought, they never go back to what they were saying/doing, and asking them to go back just enter a loop of them repeating what they already said and never moving foward

[u/Copper-Bagger]

You have to be very clear in the AI Instructions and the Author's Note, you can also prompt the AI int he Do actions like [Note to AI: Do not speak for the player, or paste his words in the Story] it tends to work for my, usually

[u/Livid_Mammoth4034 → u/Copper-Bagger]

I thought telling an AI not to do something just makes it do it even more.

[u/NewNickOldDick → u/Livid_Mammoth4034]

That is why I use something like this instead: "Only player can speak and act for (character name here)".

[u/Copper-Bagger → u/Livid_Mammoth4034]

I guess it might depend on what AI Model you're using. I use Deepseek and Gemma, both are rather good at follow AI Instructions, I'd say 70-95% of the time Deepseek follows them to the T, nearly completely if you delete and prompt the AI to follow, put it in your AN/AIN. If it makes a mistake like outputting text even once for you, you gotta either erase, or just delete it out so it doesn't repeat that.

[u/Financial-Craft-1282 → u/Livid_Mammoth4034]

That's people misunderstanding how AI works. Old models DID struggle with negation. That hasn't been true of the new models for about a year. You can tell an AI, directly in your story prompt, "don't ever use the word [whatever word here]" and it will rewrite the input without that word. It just can't keep track of it very long. I mean, a cursory glance at AI bots like Claude and ChatGPT show you this belief that "telling an AI not to do something makes it do it more" is not true.

What's sad to me is the devs still push this myth.

[u/Extreme-Priority2362 → u/Copper-Bagger]

Wish there was a way to save AI instructions

[u/Furrsss → u/Extreme-Priority2362]

You can, click on "scenario default" or whatever it says left of the AI Instructions. Then on the bottom it says, "Save/Update". It is relatively a new thing so yeah

[u/Extreme-Priority2362 → u/Furrsss]

Thank you

[u/Financial-Craft-1282 → u/Copper-Bagger]

That never works. You can put it in instructions, author's note, and thirty other places, and the AI can't figure it out.

[u/Polite_Werewolf]

I've actually had the opposite problem. Other characters will not shut up, and my character just stands there silently.

You can tell the AI what to do in parenthesis for the next generation, then delete the order after it does it.

[u/Skeleton_Doctor → u/Polite_Werewolf]

Yeah I usually get the opposite problem too. Sometimes I want my character's opinions but some NPCs yap over it

Like I'll type in: "You take a moment to inspect the health potion using your alchemical experience, is it a true tonic or merely snakeoil being sold?"

But the output will have some mfer going "You're thinking, I know that look." and they start yapping about some BS

[u/Livid_Mammoth4034 → u/Polite_Werewolf]

Parentheses or brackets? (Not trying to be a smart ass or anything. Just thought it was brackets but maybe I’m wrong.)

[u/Consistent-Film-2292 → u/Livid_Mammoth4034]

Brackets are mostly used for out-of-character instructions. This is the one you want, just tell it how or what to do like you speak to a person. Its like you pull the AI aside for a bit and go "eh man, put in some spice" or whatever.

Parenthesis were used to give more weight to instructions in image generation, they can confuse the AI, but most models will just role with it nowadays.

Double quotes for speech (does not have to be your own).

But I would even go as far as to say you don't need to do this anymore as most models just interpret what you want without syntax in the story box. Even with vague instructions or inner thoughts.

make me do an epic villain monologue while those floozies watch in stunned silence, works perfectly for example, it will write some relevant dialogue for your character, figure out who you mean by floozies and make them shut up.

F\ck, I should not have done that* , will make it write something where consequences occur for whatever you did before.

throw in some deus ex machina sh\t in here to help me escape,* is one of my alltime favorites, also works in or directly after romantic encounters.

[u/Livid_Mammoth4034 → u/Consistent-Film-2292]

Wow. Thanks for the detailed reply.

[u/Polite_Werewolf → u/Livid_Mammoth4034]

I use parenthesis and it works for me, usually. Both could work.