u/AdorableOutcome3483

Hello! So I've been noticing lately how if I change certain small things that my overall experience in a chat improves.

So far, the things I've noticed are:

-In chat history, using a proper bullet point ("•") makes the AI better at making much better use of it.

-In the character card, move any setting or world building out of "character description" and into "scenario," again, AI seems to pull and apply info better this way. If the world building has a lot of little details-> imbedded lorebook.

-In the character card, add an imbedded lorebook for relationships. This can lower the token count a lot for cards who are very descriptive about that while still letting you keep those details. You can also add notable NPCs here for the AI to use more consistently.

-In character card, move any notable quirks that you think are important from "character description" to "post-char system prompt." As well as things you want emphasized from their POV (like if you want them to constantly daydream then tell it "char should daydream often about ___ with these daydreams described in vivid detail" or something)

-Update story arcs in the scenario so the AI doesn't keep trying to react to things as if you're still on the original scenario and just improves plot progression. Also use the post-char history to add foreshading you want or things you want NPCs to be doing for the plot.

-If you often give additional instruction like a OOC parentheses at the end of your posts, you can hide them from sight by using "<" and ">" on either side so it's not messy.

-For formatting:

•one asterisk on either side for (greyed out) italics and html tag: <i></i> for italics without the color change

•two asterisks for bold,

•three asterisks for bold-italics

~~•~~one # in front for a large header (bigger and bold), •two # in front for a medium header (and three # etc)

•one "`" on both sides for a code text format (smaller, thinner)

•three "_" with space top and bottom makes a dividing line all the way across

•html tag: <s></s> for strike

Basically markdown works for some things. Html works for everything.

-If you use the chat tree, change the color of your messages to make it easier to find them. You could use certain colors for certain story branches or basically a color coding system.

That's what I've got so far but I was hoping others could add things they've found too! Could you please share some tips or tricks too? :)

Anyone have advice to at least limit how often OR (deepseek) devolves into word salad? I feel like I'm using more tokens just trying to get a complete, coherent response than actually progressing a story.

I've tried checking recommended parameters and adjusting the context size. Neither change seemed to have much lasting effect...

So Cl**de retired their latest versions (sonn*t 4 and op*s 4) and Chub has yet to make a new selection available for the 4.6 versions nor given any indication if they plan to. I'm considering a different API and I'd like to hear opinions.

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I've heard people really like d**pseek but I don't want to go the OR route and I don't see a simple plug and go option in Chub. The other one I'm considering is Novel**. It seems fairly straightforward, the subscription isn't much more than I was paying before and I've also heard good things about it.

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I've used Mar* and Mistr*l before but switched to Cl**de because it kept track better and performed better with multiple characters or including NPC characters. I'm not super familiar with the other options listed in Chub