Dialogue hubs: several ways into one scene

Not every scene is a straight line. A tavern has a barkeep, a bard and a stranger in the corner, and the player decides who to talk to first. Scopes in the Route Planner can now have several named starts, and a scope with two or more starts becomes a hub: the player picks which dialogue to begin and comes back to the hub when it ends.

What's new

• More than one start. Click + Start next to New dialogue to add a start to a scope. Give each start a name, like Talk to the barkeep, so the map says what each way in is.
• Hubs. With two or more starts, the scope works like a hub, and a Hub · N starts badge shows next to + Start. One level up, the scope's card gets a Hub badge. A dialogue with no link out shows a Back to hub marker instead of looking unfinished, because the player returns to the hub when it ends.
• Starts on the map and in the inspector. Drag from a start's port on the map to a dialogue to link it. Select a start to rename it, see where it leads or delete it. A scope always keeps at least one start.
• Checks from every start. The route check now walks the routes from every start. In a hub the player can visit dialogues in any order, so a requirement that depends on that order shows as a warning. If the stranger only opens up after the bard has sung, the check reminds you that the player might talk to the stranger first. In a hub, each issue names the start it was found from, like From Talk to the bard.

Try it

Open a scope's route map in LoreHub, click + Start and drag from the new start to a dialogue. New to the Route Planner? Begin with Planning Branching Dialogue with the Route Planner. Tell us how hubs work for your story on Discord or Reddit.