Counselor Class / Role

colonistPally · February 09, 2014, 12:51:45 AM

Can we please have a "counselor" class so he can try to talk everyone through their problems? You know, for those times where you can't possibly fix *everything.*

I know the game is supposed to be super tough and I respect that. I LIKE that. But at the same time I keep running into situations where they're upset about it being dirty, or upset about the body count, or tired of eating raw food and it's like.... you have food and shelter so can you try to come to grips with your issue instead of freaking out *every time*

?

If you had a counselor there would be a sort of "counseling room" where they would visit every day and you'd have a random chance to either temporarily (like for a set of days) "cure" them of whatever psychological thing was bugging them.

I know nobody wants to be in a dirty room, surrounded by blood and gore of a recent battle, have exploded fire squirrels everywhere because they keep blowing up on the fort... but they're alive and have food and a nice warm carpetted room to themself with a bed and plant and lamp. So........ why are they freaking out?! They need a counselor!

It'd work just like Warden but would be much more rare. They talk to the counselor every day and have a chance to proc a temporary reprieve of their issues.

I've lost a lot of colonists due to things a very short reprieve would have allowed me to remedy...

It can be a low chance maybe like 20% per day but something... Gives me a chance to actually fix the issue which I basically never have time to fix.

I don't have any problems with the game. Not dogging on the game. But this's my suggestion on having the game slightly more forgiving.

Karakoran · February 09, 2014, 01:16:26 AM

Perhaps there could even be dedicated issues like PTSD from repeated fighting when not trained for it or some other psychological issue. Eventually the issues would get more and more prominent and need a Counselor to deal with it. At that point, the person gets a 20% chance to enter the a state of recovery. Until that time, the issue gets worse and if you're very unlucky they may even snap. However once they did start recovering they would gradually be treated and the issue would eventually get entirely removed. Of course a dramatic event may occur to set them back into the issue.

To elaborate, issues are on a 1-10 scale. When they first start they are 'Active' (getting worse) and every day they will go up one on the scale. To use PTSD as an example, a particularly bad battle might start the scale. If it is noticed by the player they can force the character to get treatment at a low level and treat them early on when it is easier (40% say). After it reaches 3 on the scale though an event is given to the player saying so and the character will go to counseling on his own. At this stage, there will only be a 20% chance for success per visit.

Once that chance is reached the issue will become 'Inactive' (unchanging) and stay the same. At this point the issue will gradually decrease in scale by 1 with each visit. However, if that chance is not reached or is not treated then by scale-7 they will be 25% less productive in any job, by scale-8 they will be 75% less productive, and by scale-9 they will refuse to work and will need people to bring them food. By scale-10 whatever the issue is will reach culmination. A person with PTSD will snap and go berserk, a person with depression will attempt suicide, etc.

When an issue is inactive, though, it may still be reactivated if events allow. In PTSD, again for example, if the person is reintroduced to combat they MAY become active again and will gain 2 ranks on the scale. The issue will return to 'Active' as well. The likelihood of reactivation will depend on the scale's rank. Someone with 2 will be a lot less likely to reactivate than a person at 8.

colonistPally · February 09, 2014, 05:58:33 AM

Yep!! It's funny I keep playing "Colony 9" (it's what I name my colonies now I'm on 9) I keep joking about my guys having PTSD from all the hell they've been through.

65 days in and the entire area is coated in blood. I can't get the graveyards to work so the bodies are piled up offsite like how ants do it. It's where the new folks that are wandering spawn on accident.

It's a total nightmare gore scenario.

They *need* a counselor! It's far enough away so they don't get the debuff but if they do it's like -20 points deaths x 10 saw 20 dead bodies. Or something like that.

There's so much blood everywhere I can barely even keep the town cleaned up. The whole outside is just pure red everywhere. :/

Anyway yeah until I can figure out how to use the grave sites my characters need a counselor bad. And I don't know why Shaper (yes that's what the game named her) won't put clothes on, or why nobody has told her. :/ Put some clothes on! I think she lost it like a month ago in one of the battles we had.

People try to leave because they keep going nuts and I keep arresting them and bringing them back. This was fine until I glitched it out by switching a bed at the last second. So I lost my main guy, then I went to re-capture the original guy, the turrets shot him out of nowhere, I dragged him back to his cell he got up punched my guy. I had to shackle him, talk him back into joining and he finally did.

So.. yeah.

It could be up next to "Warden" or something. You could zone some ground for "Counseling" and you have to make it nice and pretty and soft and calm in there and they come in to talk once a day to try to get their bonus or reprieve...

Jones-250 · February 09, 2014, 11:36:34 AM

The role is somewhat medical, but requires more social than the usual doctoring tasks. How come that I have not come to think of this? Quite genious.

colonistPally · February 09, 2014, 12:17:09 PM

Quote from: Jones-250 on February 09, 2014, 11:36:34 AM
The role is somewhat medical, but requires more social than the usual doctoring tasks. How come that I have not come to think of this? Quite genious.

Hehe, thanks. Maybe based on what you're suggesting. Whenever someone has unusually high social and medical they just become a counselor?

Karakoran · February 09, 2014, 12:19:21 PM

It could just fall under the doctoring tasks so as not to overcrowd the jobs sections.

colonistPally · February 09, 2014, 12:21:55 PM

Yes so maybe if your doctoring is turned on, but you have a good social, counseling would kick in...

Untrustedlife · February 10, 2014, 12:25:33 AM

If this is implemented, you should be required to build therapy tables.

Vagabond · February 10, 2014, 11:21:57 AM

Hey,

Quote from: Untrustedlife on February 10, 2014, 12:25:33 AM
If this is implemented, you should be required to build therapy tables.

Don't forget the couch! "Okay now Vas, take this pill and lay down please." *Vas lays down* "Now, can you tell me about your mother?"

Cheers,
Michael

colonistPally · February 10, 2014, 11:36:50 AM

:O Okay you guys! I can see an influx of counselor characters named Sigmund and then getting flamed on the forum saying how much is wrong with Freudism by the Jung followers. Hehehehe. Something about why is it in all the Freud colonies it seems like sex and/or mommy is always the root of all of their problems.

Doh!

Yes a couch would be super, super cool. And maybe some soothing music and some calming medicines.

Make a souped up nice calm room, zone it as "counselor" and if you have a "medicine" character, it'd just work itself out on a daily basis.

Karakoran · February 11, 2014, 01:07:30 AM

How about therapy normally occurs at a relatively slow rate, but adding a couch and a therapist's chair gives you doubles the speed, and having medication (expensive/imported from ships) for the specific mental illness (+ the couch) would increase it to 3x the normal rate.

OobleckTheGreen · February 11, 2014, 01:14:41 AM

This is a really great idea! I think it also ties in nicely to another suggestion that settler traits could have an effect on settler reactions to events. I think it would add some significant strategic value to the game if settler reactions to death were variable and that a counselor with medical & social skills could be employed to assist them with their issues. Some reactions I can think of might be:

- Settler is not overly affected by death
- Settler is extremely averse to seeing death at all and quickly goes off the deep end unless managed by the counselor or jail. Player should be very careful to keep them out of sight of bodies & combat.
- Settler appears to be unaffected by death but later goes psycho and murders a colonist.
- Settler's reaction to death starts at nearly nothing but grows over time, eventually leading to the settler leaving the colony because they "can't take it any more."

Some reactions might be guessed simply by reading the settler stats, while others wouldn't be noticeable unless the player was watching settler reactions to events.

colonistPally · February 11, 2014, 02:07:26 AM

Thanks for the kind words. This also jogs my memory to a semi-ulterior motive where it's like an early warning system. If it's absolutely 100% inevitable, the counselor will warn you MUCH MUCH earlier in advance than let's say, someone who's simply hungry and upset about it vs a complete and total psychological break.

Sort of like what people're asking for right now in real life, a sort of early warning system. Something that without false positives that will catch the legitimately dangerous with planned intentions and motives, and leave the normal folks alone who may simply be tired, hungry, hurting, and just had a bad day at work and want to go to bed.

The counselor could tell you like, "he needs to sleep this off" or "we need to escort this guy out." Likewise maybe the counselor could even give people "a day off" where the counselor can uncheck all of the guy's or gal's work checkboxes, and check a special hidden one that allowed them a vacation day or send them directly to bed (or an infirmary if we could have one.)

Of course then we'd need to discuss what vacation consists of. Right now if they're close to a mental break I "unjob" them temporarily but then they just wander until they're ready for bed. It only works if the area's clean, and no bodies, and if they have food and if it's not cramped. *usually* that saves them. Maybe we could craft a "holodeck" or a "VR room" or something, maybe both? Or simply a casino... but there's no currency and nobody gets paid, whiiiiiiich is a whole other issue.

Of course you can buy and sell people as slaves. I just RP that they're free once I buy them, and never ever sell them. Free room and board so it doesn't bug me that much, but also people aren't exactly free to leave but that's usually only because they want to leave because of a misunderstanding that I can fix.

This game sure brings up a lot of ethical and moral questions.