After reading multible threads on "OMG why new mental breaks!!!" on Steam I was pondering about how I see them. In fact it is one of the things where I am always using the console since half of the time it just feels like RNG trolling that makes someone go berserk or sad wander into a hungry puma when things are already quite bad, like recovering from a dangerous raid etc. On top of that it is more often than not one of the more unlikely pawns like the kind guy going on a killing spree and the bloodthirsty one hiding in his room.
What I would suggest is adding a probability table that makes certain mental breaks more likely than others depending on the traits a pawn has, which would aside from making the mental breaks more realistic also add another way of balancing traits.
How can this look ingame?
For example the psychopath, which is a usually rather beneficial trait, could have a higher probability for berserk break, since that pawn doesn't really care about people and decides its better to be without them.
Abrasive ones would be ideal for insulting sprees, which would also be nice as a small positive to the negative as in "Well at least he wont injure them"
The bloodthirsty ones on the other hand prefer the breaks with physical harm, like slaughter berserk etc since that makes them feel better.
The kind one on a mental break decides that that poor prisoner has to be free like everyone else, and the cannibal is digging up that corpse to see if that guy is still edible, just to throw it in the living room as protest because the others cheated him out of a meal.
The brawler likes to smash things up, the whimp likes to hide in his room.
So what effects would that have besides making mental breaks feel more realistic? More control over the kind of mental breaks you have to deal with. "Do I want that guy if he really tryes to kill everyone if he gets pissed?" "He is probably depressive but at least he will just wander off for a while but not hurt anyone" and so on.
What I would suggest is adding a probability table that makes certain mental breaks more likely than others depending on the traits a pawn has, which would aside from making the mental breaks more realistic also add another way of balancing traits.
How can this look ingame?
For example the psychopath, which is a usually rather beneficial trait, could have a higher probability for berserk break, since that pawn doesn't really care about people and decides its better to be without them.
Abrasive ones would be ideal for insulting sprees, which would also be nice as a small positive to the negative as in "Well at least he wont injure them"
The bloodthirsty ones on the other hand prefer the breaks with physical harm, like slaughter berserk etc since that makes them feel better.
The kind one on a mental break decides that that poor prisoner has to be free like everyone else, and the cannibal is digging up that corpse to see if that guy is still edible, just to throw it in the living room as protest because the others cheated him out of a meal.
The brawler likes to smash things up, the whimp likes to hide in his room.
So what effects would that have besides making mental breaks feel more realistic? More control over the kind of mental breaks you have to deal with. "Do I want that guy if he really tryes to kill everyone if he gets pissed?" "He is probably depressive but at least he will just wander off for a while but not hurt anyone" and so on.