You are using the OpenRouter option, yes? You don't have to use it technically.
If you have a good enough GPU for your computer, at minimum 8GB, you can download one of a few different models depending on your GPU's VRAM capacity; 8gb, 12gb(?), 16gb, 24gb(?), and 32gb for the model. I don't remember specifics, but there is some choice. You may run the model locally on your computer. This will let you use your GPU to generate the tokens instead of paying for it through a third party.
I think that's all to it.
thanks but thing is that I dont have a good GPU because I got a pre built pc and planed to upgrade it before the prices decided to visit the roof. I bought the game when it was still using the old free AI used. The game never said I need to download it and I think we should not be expected to pay for playing the game.
Now I am stuck between dishing out for a better GPU or paying for AI. While I understand that the game seeks to be as good as possible by choosng reliable AI, the developer should take into account the fact that a playerbase might not wish to pay. One of the things this game pulled me in with is its capability of running on most devices due to low requirements. But now this is gone because you either need enough VRAM or to pay to play (literaly).
I personaly sunk many hours into the game and now I am forced to abandon it because it requires me to spend money I dont have.
Ah, you mean back when the Dev was letting everyone play on their server? Yeah, the free AI token tends to draw in a high retention rate. Turns out talking to AI NPC is a bit popular and the player base got bigger. A bit too big. To the point where it wasn't sustainable to keep running it for so many people. What that means is likely it's too expensive to continuously pay for everyone. OpenRouter was the option for those who still wanted to play, but couldn't afford the cost of a new GPU. Personally, I run local on my puny 6GB GPU, and barely get by with 20 - 40 second wait times. But I've considered OpenRouter several times.
While the extra cost sucks, it's not that much if you find the right models, preferably with high Roleplay Rankings. Last I checked OpenRouter, this DeepSeek model was what everyone was using at the time. Based off a Dev response about half a year ago, you could sink $10 to cover 7,000 turns of dialog. $20 or $25 would probably cover you for 15,000 turns. You'd probably go a whole year with that. But I think this version looks even cheaper. $0.0677 cents is a crazy good deal, even when the deal ends, $0.1234 is still good and it's better at roleplay then it's older version. You'd probably get 28,000 dialog turns with $10 and then 14,000 after the deal ends.
But if you're really down bad and refuse to spend anymore money, then you could go to KoboldAI Lite and try remaking an NPC from the game to talk to there. I'm sure someone on the unoffical Discord server can direct you to find the dialog image, personality tags, and character descriptions for you to make a character card of the NPC.
thing is, in america 25$ does not seem like much but here it is quite a sum. Around 4 times as much. And we make 4 times less because we actually have everything in the country 4 times cheaper. (not gonna touch the outside of the country cost tho...). Seems i can toss the game out and and the playerbase is bound to shrink... Who knows maybe dev will find some good free AI. I will try to do some used stuff hunting...
Bit sad for me because I struggle with a mental illness that makes me struggle in day to day life (Damaged brain, struggle with human to human contact because i can do nasty things without noticing it. With a human you cannot just reload a save file.) and the game helped unload some of that burden.
