This is to the forum fyi.  Its a work in progress.  Any tips would be great.  Here is my draft for a fun/joke type of routine 1.  This is a simple program exchange.  If written correctly, then the chatbot will keep interacting with the user on other topics already included in the demo.  One of the most time consuming parts will to be sure the chatbot focuses on securing an answer to the questions even though some banter my occur, just as in a natural human conversation exchange we tend to go down rabbit trails at times.  I am trying to get the chatbot to persist and no exchange should conflict with pre-existing topic rules for communication exchange. 

The programs initiates the exchange.  1.  Lets play gold mine.  A. yes, no(its fun lets go), maybe other 2.  How far do you go into the mine?  B. distance, adjective, #, yes, no, maybe, other.  3.  Describe what you see as you have walked down the mine shaft.  C. yes, no, maybe other 4.  How many gold nuggets do you pick up?  D. adjective, #, yes, no, maybe, other.  5.  What do you think of the owner of the mine?  E.  adjective, yes, no, maybe, other.  6.  Thanks you gave some great answers.  F.  What is the meaning?  (needs to be able to answer at least some variations of what a person might ask with the same or similar words.  For example, What is the significance of my answers?,  What is your interpretation of my responses, etc etc.  7.  The interpretation is x.
G.  What is the meaning of the shaft length.  8.  The meaning is x H.  What is the meaning of the number of rocks?  9.  The meaning is x “i”.  What is the meaning of the mine owner?  10.  The meaning is x.

topic: ~MINEGAME (game mine imagination fun gold )
#  This topic is a sample of a simple topic, with good indentation style.
#  It is well commented with annotations for :abstract and :verify.

t: Lets play gold mine?
#! sure
a: (~yes) Ok great?
#! never
a: (~no) Come on you’ll like it.

t: You see a gold mine cave entrance how far inside do you walk?
^keep()
#! amount
a: (~5 feet) Ok interesting ?
#! far
a: (~30 feet) You are adventerous.

t: INITIATIVE () How many gold nuggets do you take.

t: How many do you pickup?
^keep()
#! I picked up many
a: ([many all]) Very interesting?

#! None
a: (~none) Zero?  Ok.

#! Picked up few
a: ([few “baker’s dozen”]) That’s worth a lot.

#! Owner of the gold mine
a: ([miner owner]) What do you think of the miner?

  #! bad
  b: (~bad) Really, why?

  #! good
  b: (~good) Nice.

t: MEANING () Each of the main nouns in the story has a meaning.
t: Want to know the interpretation?
#! sure
a: (~yes) cool.
#! not interested
a: (~no) Maybe next time.

t: Want to know the meaning of the distance you walked into the mine?
^keep()
#! sure
a: (~yes) It means x.
#! not interested
a: (~no) Its ok I need to go soon.

t: Want to know the meaning of the amount of gold nuggets you picked up?
^keep()
#! sure
a: (~yes) Its x.
#! not interested
a: (~no) Its ok I need to get back to work soon anyway.

t: Want to know the meaning of the owner?
^keep()
#! sure
a: (~yes) Its x.
#! not interested
a: (~no) Its ok I know you must be busy.

Normally, when we get this specific, you would just email me your rawdata topic file. In particular I can check for weird characters.  When you said you often didn’t get notepad’s simple quotes, that is a problem because earlier chatscript only handles the simple ascii ”  and ’  characters, not any of the curved word stuff. Current 3.4 CS may handle curved characters correctly.

By the way, since you want normal advancement of gambits, you don’t really want to use keep on each. It will work sort of, because the system will avoid repeats for 20 volleys, but if you get enough gambits the first can repeat. What you want is for gambits to normally erase themselves, but when you reach the last gambit of the topic, you might ^reset(TOPIC ~) to re-enable all of them again.