Categories and priorities¶
Categories answer "What are we asking about?" Priorities answer "Which moment matters most?" They solve different authoring problems.
Keep related responses together¶
Use a category for a recognizable kind of request:
| Category | A possible request |
|---|---|
Guard/Greeting |
The player speaks to the guard |
Companion/Hint |
The player asks for advice |
Market/Power |
Someone checks the power situation |
Shrine |
The player interacts with the shrine |
Put the same category in the Rule and in Run Story Director. You can type it or select an existing name from the dropdown.
Slashes make names readable; they do not create nested searches. A request for Guard does not automatically search Guard/Greeting.
Understand empty categories¶
An empty category has two different meanings:
| Where it is empty | Meaning |
|---|---|
| On a Rule | The Rule is global and can participate in any category request |
| On Run Story Director | The request considers all active Rules |
A named request considers Rules with that exact category and global Rules. A global emergency can therefore interrupt a local greeting if its conditions and priority make it the winner.
Use global Rules sparingly. A broad global Rule can unexpectedly compete in many different interactions.
Choose an importance level¶
| Priority | A useful starting point |
|---|---|
| Flavor | Ambient remarks and background variation |
| Normal | Most interactions and contextual responses |
| Important | A first meeting, relationship change or significant quest moment |
| Critical | An emergency or a moment that must take precedence when it is eligible |
Priority is checked before score. A matching Important Rule can beat a much more specific Normal Rule. It still needs passing required conditions and a positive score.
If everything is Important, that priority no longer tells you much. Start at Normal and raise it when you can explain why this moment must interrupt another.
Rename a category carefully¶
Open Window > Game Creator > Story Engine > Categories to inspect usages and rename or merge a category across Rules, Director instructions and history conditions.
Review the affected content before applying. Open scenes remain unsaved and support Undo. Closed assets are saved immediately, with backups in the project's StoryEngineBackups folder.
Category names also identify history in saved games. Renaming content does not update saves already made by players. For a released game, plan that change with whoever maintains your save system. See Saving and spawned characters.