Guide

The social feed

The Media screen's social feed is what the internet says about the player: fans, superfans, grumpy trolls, stats accounts, the local paper, the darts club, the form guide, parody accounts, podcasts and fellow pros. All of it is content. The core pack's is in StreamingAssets/core/data/social/. A mod can add accounts and posts, replace them by id, or patch them.

Two content types make up the feed:

The named pundits and journalists from the press pack (see the press pack#the-press-pack)) still post too. Their lines are mediaLines in the social.* slots. After a match or a title, some of the posts go to them and the rest come from the social content.

Like story events and the press pack, the feed follows whatever packs are installed: an existing save picks up new or changed accounts and posts the next time it's opened.

Accounts#

{
  "id": "acme.account.chalk-talk",
  "handle": "@ChalkTalkDarts",
  "name": "Chalk Talk",
  "kind": "stats",
  "weight": 1,
  "voice": ["nerd"]
}

Posts#

{
  "id": "acme.post.ton-plus",
  "trigger": "matchWin",
  "kinds": ["stats"],
  "text": "{name} averaged {average} against {opponent}. Ton-plus.",
  "weight": 1,
  "conditions": { "average": { "min": 100 } }
}

Triggers#

The two retirement triggers also fill {age} {titles} {majors} {years} ("14 years") and {legacy} (the legacy tier, e.g. "Legend"); {titles} and {majors} are left out with none. See Retirement and legacy.

The living world's triggers are about another player (see The living world): {name} {first} {last} {nickname} {rank} {tour} are theirs, and nationality, rank, tier, form and followers are the conditions that know anything. Their posts go under that player on the feed. Keep them to fans, stats accounts, local papers and podcasts, and never put words in the player's mouth: the Real World Pack's players are real people.

Conditions#

Every condition is optional. A condition about something the trigger doesn't know (a match average on a quiet week) never holds, so a post with one won't appear there. Ranges are { "min": …, "max": … }, both inclusive, either optional.

Posts with more conditions are picked more often when they fit, so a specific post ("ton-plus average in a last-leg decider on TV") beats a generic one when it applies.

Placeholders#

A post is skipped when one of its placeholders has nothing to fill it, so {sponsor} posts only appear when the player has a sponsor and {n180} posts only after a match with a 180. An unknown placeholder (a typo) drops the post with a warning on the Mods screen.

Write posts so they read well for any player: use the name, not "he" or "she". A few tips from the core pack:

• {round} is lower case, so use it mid-sentence: "Out in the {round}".
• "the {event}" is safe even for an event called "The Midwinter Crown".
• {nickname} usually starts with "The", so it works as a subject ("{nickname} on the charge") rather than a greeting.

Variety#

The feed doesn't repeat a post (by id or by text) that appeared in the last 20 social posts, and accounts that posted lately are picked less often. More posts for a trigger means more variety; posts with conditions add flavour where they fit.

With no social content at all (a mod that strips it), the feed falls back to the press pack's pundits after matches and titles, and is otherwise quiet.

Extending and patching#

Add your own posts in a new file, with ids in your mod's namespace:

[
  {
    "id": "acme.post.derby-win",
    "trigger": ["matchWin", "rivalMatch"],
    "kinds": ["local", "club"],
    "text": "Derby day belongs to {first}! {score} against {opponent} 🍻",
    "conditions": { "won": true, "rival": true, "homeNation": true }
  }
]

Replace a core post or account by reusing its id, or change a few fields with a patch in data/patches/:

[
  { "target": "socialPost:core.social.loss-010", "patch": { "weight": 0 } },
  { "target": "socialAccount:core.account.oche-oracle", "patch": { "nationality": "NED" } },
  {
    "target": "socialPost:core.social.win-001",
    "patch": { "conditions": { "tv": true } }
  }
]

A patch merges into the record (null deletes a field), so conditions above adds tv to whatever conditions the post already has.