Guide

Post-match interviews

After a TV match, and after quarter-finals, semis and finals anywhere, a reporter, pundit or presenter from the press pack puts a question to the player. The questions, their answers and what each answer does are all content. The core pack's are in StreamingAssets/core/data/media/interviews/, and a mod can add questions, add answers to other packs' questions, change or switch off either, and translate them.

Interviews are flavour, like stories and the press pack: an existing save picks up new or changed questions the next time it's opened. The example-interviews mod uses every feature on this page.

A question#

{
  "id": "acme.interview.derby-win",
  "text": "Local bragging rights are yours. How long have you waited to beat {opponent}?",
  "conditions": { "won": true, "rival": true, "crowd": ["home"] },
  "weight": 2,
  "cooldownDays": 90,
  "answers": [
    {
      "id": "humble",
      "tone": "humble",
      "text": "It’s just one win. {oppFirst} has had the better of me for years."
    },
    {
      "id": "cocky",
      "tone": "arrogant",
      "text": "Too long. And I’ll do it again next time.",
      "claim": "beat"
    },
    {
      "id": "joke",
      "tone": "humorous",
      "text": "Since the under-12s. Not that I’m counting.",
      "effects": { "followers": 80 }
    },
    {
      "id": "fiery",
      "tone": "fiery",
      "text": "Every day. Every single day.",
      "effects": { "rivalry": 0.3 }
    }
  ]
}

Answers#

A claim is settled when the result is in. If the player keeps it, the papers say so and the player gains followers. If they break it, they're left eating their words, and the reporter they said it to may bring it back up at a later interview. An event claim (winEvent, goDeep) made after the event is already over is settled at once, so give claim answers a condition like "stage": ["early", "late"] when the question can also come up after a final.

Tones#

Losses change the defaults: a cocky answer after a defeat costs morale and more image.

Each journalist has likes for the tones. A person without gracious, fiery or humorous in their likes treats gracious as they treat humble. They put fiery halfway between confident and arrogant, and humorous halfway between humble and confident.

Effects#

effects changes the tone's defaults, value by value:

Keep answers balanced against the defaults. No answer should be better on every count, and a big gain in one place should cost something in another. A player with a PR officer takes less of the negative effects.

Conditions#

A question's and an answer's conditions take everything a social post's conditions take, plus these, which only interviews know about:

The social conditions interviews use most are won, stage (early, late for quarters and semis, final), margin (whitewash, decider, close, comfortable), average, n180, checkout, upset, rival, tv, major, rank, winStreak, lossStreak, injured, image, load, hasSponsor and followers.

Questions and answers can also be tied to the event, as cards can: events (event template ids), tours (tour ids) and tags (event tags). Each is a list and holds when the match's event matches any of it:

{
  "id": "acme.interview.sea-window",
  "text": "The sea's right outside the window at {venue}. Does this series feel different?",
  "conditions": { "tours": ["acme.tour.coastal"] },
  "answers": [ … ]
}

Placeholders#

A question or answer is skipped when one of its placeholders has nothing to fill it. So a {sponsor} answer is only offered to a player with a sponsor, and a question needs at least two answers left to be asked. An unknown placeholder (a typo) drops the question or answer, with a warning on the Mods screen. "the {event}" is safe even for an event called "The Midwinter Crown".

How a question is picked#

1. Fit. A question is considered when all of these hold:
   • It's switched on.
   • Its conditions hold.
   • Its styles include the interviewer's style, or it has none.
   • Its text fills in.
   • At least two of its answers can be offered.
2. Freshness. A question that fits waits while anything else fits if any of these holds:
   • It was asked in the last eight interviews.
   • It's inside its cooldownDays.
   • It's a once question that has already been asked.

If everything that fits is waiting, the one asked longest ago is used (never a once question twice).

1. Weight. Each question's weight goes up by 60% for every condition other than won, so specific questions beat generic ones when they apply. It goes down a little each time the question has been asked in the career.
2. Answers. Up to five answers are offered:
   • Different tones come first; a tone appears twice only when there's room.
   • Among answers of the same kind, weight decides.
   • The answers are shown in tone order.

Before any of that, a journalist who remembers something the player said may throw it back at them instead (see the press pack#the-press-pack)). With no interview content installed at all, the game falls back on one plain question.

For variety over a long career, write several generic questions for wins and losses with short cooldowns, and plenty of specific ones for the moments you care about.

Adding to, changing and switching off other packs' questions#

To add answers to a question another pack owns, or to change one of its answers, use an answer file, without copying the question:

[
  {
    "id": "acme.answer.sponsor-plug",
    "question": ["core.interview.win-feel", "core.interview.title-won"],
    "tone": "gracious",
    "text": "Thanks to {sponsor}, as ever.",
    "conditions": { "hasSponsor": true }
  },
  {
    "id": "acme.answer.softer",
    "question": "core.interview.loss-too-good",
    "replaces": "cocky",
    "text": "Too good tonight, maybe. Next time’s another day."
  },
  {
    "id": "acme.answer.no-joke",
    "question": "core.interview.title-celebrate",
    "replaces": "humorous",
    "weight": 0
  }
]

• question is one question id or a list of them.
• Without replaces, the record is a new answer (its id is the answer's id). It needs a tone and text, and takes effects, claim, conditions and weight.
• With replaces, only the fields you give change on that answer. "weight": 0 switches it off. If the answer isn't there, the Mods screen lists the answers the question does have.

To replace a whole question, reuse its id in a question file. To change a few of its fields, or switch it off, use a patch in data/patches/:

[
  { "target": "interview:core.interview.win-tabloid", "patch": { "disabled": true } },
  { "target": "interview:core.interview.win-feel", "patch": { "cooldownDays": 30 } }
]

A patch replaces a list whole, so patch answers only when you mean to restate them all. The answer file above is the better way to change a single answer.

Translating#

Interview text is content, so it's translated with patches in locale/<lang>/patches/ (see Localisation). Answers are matched by id, so a translation only restates text:

[
  {
    "target": "interview:core.interview.win-feel",
    "patch": {
      "text": "Ein {score}-Sieg gegen {opponent}. Wie fühlt sich das an?",
      "answers": [{ "id": "humble", "text": "{opponent} ist ein Klassespieler." }]
    }
  },
  {
    "target": "interviewAnswer:acme.answer.sponsor-plug",
    "patch": { "text": "Danke an {sponsor}, wie immer." }
  }
]

Keep the placeholders. {event} and {round} stay in English, so phrase around them. Translated answers keep their tone, effects and claims.

Scripts#

A script can still add answers at beforeInterview with ctx.addChoice({ tone, text }). They take the tone's default effect, and tone can be any of the seven tones.

Checks#

The loader checks interview files like every other file, and the Mods screen shows each problem with its file, line and field.

Errors disable the mod:

• invalid JSON
• an unknown field
• a tone that doesn't exist
• an effect out of range
• fewer than two answers
• an answer id used twice in a question
• a new answer without a tone or text
• a new id outside your namespace

Warnings don't disable the mod, but they drop what's broken:

• an unknown placeholder: the question or answer is dropped
• an answer for a question that doesn't exist
• a replaces that matches no answer
• a question left with fewer than two answers that can be offered: it's never asked