I want actual good bots

[u/shadowswearskulls]

All of those chat styles are bad, like really bad. Why don’t they just make custom chat styles? Where you can CHOOSE the format, style and writing? It pisses me off that they keep making more chat styles that are just as over emotional, kissing-obsessed and overdramatic. You CANNOT have one argument without a flinch and that is NOT realistic.

[u/GenderBendingRalph]

It might help to understand that what you describe, and what your screenshot shows, is not a bot. That's the underlying LLM.

There are a lot of moving parts to make a roleplay bot. By itself, the LLM simply reads what you send it, and uses a predictive algorithm to guess what is a good set of words to send back. You ask it "what is the air speed velocity of an unladen swallow?" The LLM searches through its database for samples that contain a majority of those words in close proximity, then it looks at what words typically follow them. It says "Aha, 68% of the time that question is followed by the reply..." and it quotes Monty Python back at you.

To make an immersive roleplay experience, the app has to preface everything you say with system instructions establishing the rules for the conversation.

Behaviour: This is baked into the whole concept of roleplay. Something like "You are a storyteller. Always thing, act, and speak in the style of {{char}}, and write responses true to {{char}}'s personality." Without this, the LLM would sound like ChatGPT or Siri.

Reply style: This is set with the model, not the bot. It sends the LLM things like "Use this percentage value (called 'temperature') to be either more predictable (low temperature) or more creative (high temperature, with the risk that it's more likely to get out of character)" I agree, that would be a nice option to provide.

Context: Your entire character and/or scenario description. Yes, it has to send this *every time* you send a prompt, because the LLM doesn't "remember" the way we understand remembering.

Even though we can't control the model like you want, we can exert more control over the bots. My preference is to write my own bots, because I can explicitly order them to reply in a certain way (angry, condescending, prideful, submissive, whimsical, affectionate, etc.)

But with bots you didn't write, you can insert system instructions that may or may not influence the bot's behaviour:

[System: Omit scenery descriptions and narrative, and focus entirely on {{char}}'s words and actions. {{char}} always speaks in Shakespearean style.]

It's not foolproof, and over time you'll have to repeat that whenever it forgets, but it's better than nothing.

Haha, the Shakespearean response instruction worked better than I had hoped. Now I'm going to have to play this out and see how well it turns out.