Top-level control for the Director, and how beats are selected for performance.

• §1. Active versus inactive
• §2. The live subject list
• §3. Access as an Inform list
• §4. Dialogue intervening
• §5. Active dialogue

§1. Active versus inactive. The most important question about the director: is it currently running in active or inactive mode?

Global director_is_active = false;
Global director_is_paused_for_command = false;
Global line_performance_count = 0;

[ DirectorActivate;
    director_is_active = true;
    line_performance_count = 0;
];
[ DirectorDeactivate;
    director_is_active = false;
];

§2. The live subject list. This is stored as a null-terminated array, capped at DIALOGUE_MAX_LIVE_SUBJECTS items.

Constant DIALOGUE_MAX_LIVE_SUBJECTS = 19;
Array DialogueTopicPool --> (DIALOGUE_MAX_LIVE_SUBJECTS+1);

[ DirectorEmptyLiveSubjectList;
    DialogueTopicPool-->0 = 0;
];

[ DirectorAddLiveSubjectList obj i o2;
    for (i=0:i<DIALOGUE_MAX_LIVE_SUBJECTS:i++) {
        o2 = DialogueTopicPool-->i;
        if (o2 == obj) return;
        if (o2 == 0) break;
    }
    for (i=DIALOGUE_MAX_LIVE_SUBJECTS-1:i>0:i--) DialogueTopicPool-->i = DialogueTopicPool-->(i-1);
    DialogueTopicPool-->0 = obj;
    DialogueTopicPool-->DIALOGUE_MAX_LIVE_SUBJECTS = 0;
];

[ DirectorRemoveLiveSubjectList obj i j;
    for (i=0:i<=DIALOGUE_MAX_LIVE_SUBJECTS:i++) {
        if (DialogueTopicPool-->i == 0) return;
        if (DialogueTopicPool-->i == obj)
            for (j=i:j<DIALOGUE_MAX_LIVE_SUBJECTS:j++)
                DialogueTopicPool-->j = DialogueTopicPool-->(j+1);
    }
    DialogueTopicPool-->DIALOGUE_MAX_LIVE_SUBJECTS = 0;
];

§3. Access as an Inform list. This copies our null-terminated array into, or out of, an Inform list. The reason we don't keep it in an Inform list all the time is that we get very slightly faster access by not doing so, and we don't need the main virtue of Inform lists, that is, their flexible size.

[ DirectorLiveSubjectList list len i;
    if (WeakKindOfPV(list) ~= LIST_OF_TY) return 0;
    len = 0;
    while (DialogueTopicPool-->len) len++;
    LIST_OF_TY_SetLength(list, len);
    for (i=0: i<len: i++)
        LIST_OF_TY_PutItem(list, i+1, DialogueTopicPool-->i);
    return list;
];

[ DirectorAlterLiveSubjectList list len i;
    if (WeakKindOfPV(list) ~= LIST_OF_TY) return 0;
    len = PVField(list, LIST_LENGTH_F);
    if (len > DIALOGUE_MAX_LIVE_SUBJECTS) len = DIALOGUE_MAX_LIVE_SUBJECTS;
    for (i=0: i<len: i++)
        DialogueTopicPool-->i = PVField(list, LIST_ITEM_BASE+i);
    DialogueTopicPool-->len = 0;
    DialogueTopicPool-->DIALOGUE_MAX_LIVE_SUBJECTS = 0;
];

§4. Dialogue intervening. DirectorIntervenes(subj, speaker) tries to find a beat of dialogue we can perform which is relevant to the subject subj, and returns true if it did in fact perform something, or false if not (in which case it printed nothing). If speaker is not nothing, then prefer beats in which that person is the first to speak. (Note that speaker will often be the player.)

[ DirectorIntervenes obj speaker fn db;
    if (speaker ~= nothing) {
        for (db=1: db<=NO_DIALOGUE_BEATS: db++)
            if (DirectorBeatFirstSpeaker(db) == speaker)
                if ((DirectorBeatAccessible(db, player)) &&
                    (DirectorBeatAvailable(db)) &&
                    (DirectorBeatAbout(db, obj))) {
                    DirectorPerformBeat(db);
                    rtrue;
                }
        for (db=1: db<=NO_DIALOGUE_BEATS: db++)
            if (DirectorBeatFirstSpeaker(db) ~= speaker)
                if ((DirectorBeatAccessible(db, player)) &&
                    (DirectorBeatAvailable(db)) &&
                    (DirectorBeatAbout(db, obj))) {
                    DirectorPerformBeat(db);
                    rtrue;
                }
    } else {
        for (db=1: db<=NO_DIALOGUE_BEATS: db++)
            if ((DirectorBeatAccessible(db, player)) &&
                (DirectorBeatAvailable(db)) &&
                (DirectorBeatAbout(db, obj))) {
                DirectorPerformBeat(db);
                rtrue;
            }
    }
    rfalse;
];

§5. Active dialogue. In active mode only, the Director sometimes initiates conversation itself, and this is the rule doing that. In passive mode the rule does nothing. In stories with a lot of dialogue, this will run quite slowly: on the other hand, it only has to run once in every turn, so that may not matter.

Note that the rule always succeeds, even in the case when the Director finds nothing to perform.

[ DIALOGUE_DIRECTION_R db spontaneous_one chosen_one;
    if ((director_is_active) && (director_is_paused_for_command == false)) {
        if ((director_sp == 0) && (line_performance_count == 0)) {
            for (db=1: db<=NO_DIALOGUE_BEATS: db++)
                if ((DirectorBeatAccessible(db, player)) &&
                    (DirectorBeatAvailable(db))) {
                    if ((DirectorBeatRelevant(db)) &&
                        ((GProperty(DIALOGUE_BEAT_TY, db, voluntary) == false) ||
                        (DirectorBeatFirstSpeaker(db) ~= player))) {
                        chosen_one = db;
                        break;
                    }
                    if ((spontaneous_one == 0) &&
                        (GProperty(DIALOGUE_BEAT_TY, db, spontaneous)))
                        spontaneous_one = db;
                }
            if ((chosen_one == 0) && (spontaneous_one)) {
                if (debug_dialogue >= 2) print "-- Active director selects spontaneous beat^";
                chosen_one = spontaneous_one;
                DirectorEmptyLiveSubjectList();
            } else if (chosen_one) {
                if (debug_dialogue >= 2) print "-- Active director selects relevant beat^";
            }
            if (chosen_one) DirectorPerformBeat(chosen_one);
            else if (debug_dialogue >= 2) print "-- Active director cannot find a beat^";
        } else {
            if (debug_dialogue >= 2) print "-- Director is active but too much else is going on^";
        }
    }
    line_performance_count = 0;
    rfalse;
];