Colonist mood makes no sense to me

[Rei-No]

If you View the Screenshot, can you tell me why he is a break risk, this is A18 current.  Can any one tell me why its so low?  I've had a bunch of them break like this and it seems they are breaking just to break, because all the indicators seems like it should be very positive.
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1202084520
Thanks

[gipothegip]

That's because they need time for their mood to recover. If you keep them in similar conditions & happy, the bar will fill up to where the arrow is pointing.

I see the fill as an indication of overall stress, and the arrow as more of how things are going at the moment. For example, they're stressed, but things are going good so they'll destress if they stay away from stressful situations and in good conditions (keeping the arrow up, basically).

[The_MoSS]

Everything is fine, mood is going up to the white triangle marker, but it's "paused" by sleeping right now. It just takes some time for the mood to change.

[Limdood]

a colonist needs time to react to high or low moods.

If a pawn goes on a break and wanders until he's starving and joyless, his mood meter will drop to 0 during that break.  at the MOMENT the break ends, he will have a +40 mood from catharsis, but his mood will still be at 0.  As time passes, the mood will move to the new "target location" as indicated by the various bonuses and penalties.  Even before the mood reaches it's new target, the pawn is likely to eat, removing the "starving" mood penalty and likely giving him a fine meal and nice dining room mood...that will set the mood TARGET even higher, though it will still take time for the actual level of the mood to get there.

Mood movement is paused while sleeping.

Space, Beauty, and Comfort bars on a colonist also work the same.  So the comfort of a bed isn't really important unless the colonist will be awake in it (like when sick, or a hospital bed, though the quality still matters for rest effectiveness).  The space of a bedroom is of little to no importance for the colonists' space need, since it wont move while they're asleep, only when meditating or praying (though impressive bedrooms give a constant mood bonus, and space is one of the things calculated into impressiveness).

It's just one way of doing the moods, needs, and metrics.  It makes it so your current mood matters in how you react to new stimuli.  If you're super happy, then something super bad happening to you will take a little bit of time to sink in and really affect your mood.  The reverse is also true.  The benefits are seen when a pawn walks from one impressive room to another, but has to pass through a gruesomely ugly and dirty hallway (think infestation aftermath) and DOESN'T break...because even though the hallway is hideously ugly and filthy, mood (and space, and beauty) aren't instant.  On the flip side, it means that a person who has been in mental break range for ages, and finally has something good happen, might still mental break right as he's about to escape mental break mood range...again, because mood isn't instant.

[MisterVertigo]

Thank you for this response. I've been playing this game for years and I never fully understood how the mood meters worked. I always forget to ask though. This makes a lot of sense and you explained it very well!