Let a character remember big events longer than small ones

A villager who recalls every nod you gave them for a year feels like a database, and one who forgets that you burned their barn after a week feels broken. Here is how to let small things fade, keep the big ones, and limit how much one person can recall at once.

Why this works

People forget in proportion to how little something mattered. A steady halving over time feels natural, big events stay above the line for long, and keeping the day instead of the age means a loaded game is still right.

When not to use it

Wrong when the player must be able to rely on a character knowing a promise or a clue. Fading would punish them unfairly; mark such facts as permanent or keep them as quest progress instead of memory.

In the full entry

• What to build, step by step
• Starting values and the reason for each
• 3 common mistakes and the fix
• A diagram of every state
• 31 lines of example code with 5 checks that pass
• How your AI shows you that it works

Say this to your AI

Use the Spielerando entry "Let a character remember big events longer than small ones" (read_entry npc-memory-fades-by-importance) in my game. Build it step by step, and show me how you checked that it works.

Or skip this and connect the MCP: your AI then finds all of this by itself.Connect the MCP