Maybe I just don't know how to use an LLM?

Just earlier this year, I created a bot, a persona, and played out a whole story. The story was long, the memory was pretty good, and the characters spoke to each other and helped move the story along.

Did I just get lucky? I see many posts saying the chat options have changed so maybe that's it? I just started using this app late last year and up until about two months ago I saw no issues.

I restarted the same bot but it's so different now. Well, it's exactly like everyone on this subreddit is saying. Did it really change *that much* just in the past few months? Maybe I just don't know how to utilize an LLM for this setting and I just got lucky? Are there any sites or guides that can help me with this?