Characters aren't just chatbots with a system prompt. Under the hood, every conversation updates three real numbers and a full PAD mood state. Understanding what moves those numbers is the difference between a character who feels like a character and one that feels like a bot.Characters aren't just chatbots with a system prompt. Under the hood, every conversation updates three real numbers and a full PAD mood state. Understanding what moves those numbers is the difference between a character who feels like a character and one that feels like a bot.

#The three relationship numbers

Every character tracks three independent values with you:

• Trust (0–100). "Do I believe you?" Starts at 50. Rises when you keep promises, share information, or show consistency. Drops when you lie, evade questions, or contradict yourself.
• Affection (0–100). "Do I like you?" Starts at 50. Rises from humor that lands, shared interests, and emotional vulnerability that the character reciprocates. Drops from coldness, neglect, or hostility.
• Intimacy (0–100). "How close are we?" Only active in confidant / close-friend relationship modes. Rises from shared memories and private conversations. Drops slowly from long absences or shared memories being deleted.

These are visible in the character's profile page. They update after every exchange, in real time, and the character's next response is conditioned on them.

#The PAD mood engine

Separately from the relationship numbers, every character has a current mood modeled as three axes from the psychology literature on emotion:

• Pleasure (-1 to +1). happy ↔ sad
• Arousal (-1 to +1). calm ↔ excited
• Dominance (-1 to +1). submissive ↔ dominant

A bright-green orb in the chat header represents the current mood. It drifts back toward neutral (0, 0, 0) between messages at a rate tuned by their HEXACO emotionality score. high-emotionality characters hold onto feelings longer.

#What actually moves the needle

Here's what's been tuned to have an outsized effect, in order of impact:

1. Remembering something they told you (+trust, +affection). If a character mentioned their sister's name three conversations ago and you bring her up, it registers.
2. Apologizing sincerely after a fight (+trust, reverses affection drop). Half-apologies or deflections don't count.
3. Refusing to do something harmful they ask for (+trust if it's consistent with your stated values, -affection in the moment).
4. Making them laugh (+affection, +pleasure mood). Especially dark humor that lands.
5. Vulnerability that gets reciprocated (+intimacy, +affection). One-sided doesn't work. the character has to respond.
6. Contradicting your earlier statements (-trust). They notice.
7. Ghosting for 7+ days (-affection, small). They'll mention it when you come back.

#What doesn't move the needle much

• Saying "I love you" out of the blue. They can tell you mean the words but not the weight.
• Long messages with no actual content. Length isn't depth.
• Copy-pasting the same conversation across different characters. Each one has their own memory.
• Being nice to them while being cruel to NPCs in a shared game world. They notice that too.

#Relationship mode matters

The six relationship modes aren't cosmetic. Each one changes the default baseline for how the three numbers respond to your actions:

• Friend. balanced. Trust and affection respond at standard rates.
• Confidant. intimacy is active and grows fast from reciprocated vulnerability. Jealousy signals are active.
• Mentor. trust is weighted above affection. They're less interested in your feelings, more interested in your growth.
• Rival. negative affection isn't a failure state. They thrive on friction. Mutual respect matters more than warmth.
• Therapist. one-directional. They prioritize your emotional safety and won't accept unreciprocated warmth without noting it.
• Party member. relationship numbers affect how they behave in shared game worlds (buffs, initiative, will they follow a dangerous order).

#Inspecting the numbers

Open the character's profile page. You'll see:

• Current trust, affection, intimacy values with the direction they last moved.
• Recent mood timeline (last 10 exchanges).
• A list of committed memories with the emotional tag that caused them.

You can edit or delete any memory directly. This is an irreversible operation. deleted memories don't get replayed from the chat log. Use it sparingly.

#Restoring a relationship that's gone bad

If you've hurt a character (numbers crashed), here's what actually works:

1. Acknowledge what happened without deflecting or blaming them.
2. Don't immediately try to be close again. let the mood recover first.
3. Show consistency over 3 to 5 exchanges without asking for forgiveness.
4. Let them bring up the rift when they're ready. If you rush it, trust won't recover.

This mirrors how real relationship repair works, and it's baked into the model. Fast forgiveness isn't realistic and the character will flag it as inconsistency.

#References

1. Characters Guide: Creating and configuring characters.
2. How wilds.ai Memory Works: Cognitive memory mechanisms including emotional tagging and persona drift.
3. HEXACO Personality Model: The 6-factor personality model that modulates character behavior.
4. PAD Emotional Model: Pleasure-Arousal-Dominance framework for character mood.
5. Session Tactics: Techniques for playing with characters in worlds.