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I am having some problems understanding exactly how the narrative events diagram works. I have put in the release of documents to the player but they are not appearing unless I go into the simulation and send them manually. I assume that the process should be more automated and I wonder whether you can give me any guidance as to what I might be doing wrong.

Can you also clarify the difference between the different events e.g. the difference between NPA and Staff events and when should critical events be used?

Many thanks for any help you can give

Best wishes

Pauline
University of Plymouth

The actual sending of resources to the Player doesn't happen automatically. The reason for this is the level of discretion required to determine whether or not a player has successfully completed a task to allow them to continue.

The NED and release documents provides an more automated (rather than automatic) way for a supervisor to send a bundle of documents, instead of having to send each document individually (and simulation groups allow this to be done to a group of simulations).

We describe critical events as "major plot expositions" that set up a task or reveal new information to the player. Typically these may involve a number of different non-player characters supplying information to the player.

Non-Player Character (NPC) events are typically a reaction of a fictional character to a task that a player has performed. So if the player has to write to their client, the client (an NPC) may respond with more information.

Staff activities on the other hand are almost entirely non-fictional. This level allows you to model where staff have to do things such as assess a piece of work. That piece of work may have been sent by the Player to an NPC (e.g. the client). The task of assessing the work (the Staff task) is entirely subsumed by the NPC task.

Many thanks, Michael.

That does help - I thought I was missing some intermediate step.

Many thanks for your help again

Pauline

I was reading your FAQ and see that "It (SIMPLE) will generate automatic replies (where needed)" - can you tell me how this is done? If the NED allows only automated replies I wonder how the automatic replies can be achieved.

Many thanks for your help - again!

Pauline

What it is meant to mean is:

Providing a "reply" resource exists, SIMPLE will automatically substitute simulation specific information in to the reply where this information appears. The decision to actually "send" any resource in reply is one that has to be made by a real person.

I admit that answer in the FAQ is a little unclear, and I'll have a look at that section again.

M