Howdy folks!
I know it’s been a while since the Substack has been active, but it’s not for lack of site updates! I’m currently looking into posting our Dev Notes/Patch Notes directly via the site itself, but this update is pretty major, so I figured I’d share the patch notes here as well!
🎭 Major Features
Group Chat System
Turn Order Management: New sidebar section for configuring character turn order in group conversations.
Dynamic Character Management: Added "Add Character" button in the manage characters section for easy group expansion
Smart Reply Selection: New character picker button in the input bar for group chats when advanced turn order is disabled
Dedicated Group Chat Tab: Added a new tab in the left sidebar specifically for managing group conversations
Chat Summaries
Summary Management System: New sidebar section for creating, managing, and enabling chat summaries
Conversation Context: Keep track of long conversations with AI-generated summaries
Custom Summary Controls: Configure when and how summaries are generated for your chats
User Impersonation
Role-Playing Enhancement: New impersonation feature in chat input options menu
Persona Switching: Seamlessly switch between different user personas during conversations
Enhanced Character Interaction: More immersive roleplay experiences with dynamic persona changes
Chat Page
Return of Queue Cooldown Visibility: There is now an enforced 15-second cooldown between generation times. This was previously visible pre-April chat page update, but got missed in the noise. It has now returned in the form of a progress bar with a timer on it.
🔧 QOL
Terminology Updates
"Bookmarks" Instead of "Inventory": Updated terminology across the platform for better clarity and user understanding.
"AI Connections" Refinement: Across the site, we now use "AI Connections" instead of "LLM services" for consistent terminology.
Character Management
Shared Info Field: New "Shared Info" field in character forms for details visible only to other characters during group chats
Story Mode
Settings Popup Fields: Redesigned the settings pop-up in Story Mode to fix a longstanding bug with fields disappearing.
Home Page
Redesigned Blog Section: The blog section of the homepage has been redesigned.
Dynamic Character Count: We now have a dynamic character count in the first header you see on the site, and it’s animated!
By the numbers section: We now display our total count of users, characters, bot creators, and chat logs with animated counters!
🚧 Bugs
Chat Page
Fixed Stopping Generation: Stopping a generation early no longer loses the progress of the generation that was there
Character Statistics
Stats Page Reconstruction: Temporarily replaced Character Stats Page with "Under Construction" placeholder
Improved Analytics Coming: Preparing for a completely redesigned statistics view with more accurate and comprehensive data
Profile Page
Dead Link Fix: Editing a profile no longer takes you to a dead link.
What's Missing
I sadly did not have time to do "EVERYTHING" for both Summaries & Group Chats. So, we will be getting the following in the next patch:
Auto Multi Reply for Group Chats
I really wanted to get this out now, as I feel it's a major part of the experience, but I opted for a stable approach for now, which is just one character at a time replying, but alternating. You can fake multi-reply by just clicking the send button with nothing in your input area, this will just trigger the next character reply.
Auto Summaries & Custom Summary Model
I also really wanted to get summaries to be completely hands off, with the user being able to select a range of messages and an interval for summarization. I did not get that done. But, it is still planned and coming.
Custom Impersonation Prompt & Model
I straight up didn't even think about this until a QA tester asked about it, so while I didn't think on it at the time, it will be coming. I may also include the option to pick an alternate model for impersonation, as it seems that might be useful as well.
What's Next
Well, we're still bug fixing and optimizing performance across the application, and of course, I'll be working on what didn't make it into the patch this time. I think we will probably be spreading these patches out from 1 per week to 1 every two weeks. If we're ready at the one-week mark, we will of course release. However, I also want to give more time for features to be fully fleshed out before release. I probably should've delayed today's patch to finish up the above, but I know a lot of you were foaming at the mouth for this one. If you experience bugs, please report them.
Hope it works for you, and I hope you enjoy the new features.
See ya soon!