Can we add Counseling?

[Mathenaut]

As more is assed to the mood/needs system, I get the sense of things becoming a bit.. I don't want to say convoluted, but definitely overly complex. I understand that balancing this sort of matrix can involve alot of spinning wheels, so I'd like to suggest a buffer of sort.

The current structure of the mood system seems to lean toward allowing players some agency in moderating and improving colonist mood. However, just as a consequence of how many factors there now are, it is possible to have a perfect storm of mood crashes that can drop someone's mood with very little to be said or done about it.

Proposal:
Have the Warden task include trying to 'talk down' colonists or prisoners that are close to a mental break (when someone is under that much stress, it's evident). The Warden will approach anyone within a certain range of their break threshold and apply the same 'talked with warden buff' that the prisoners get.

Alternative:
Have prisoners close to breaking prioritize an activity that will stabilize their mood. Like drinking or herbal meds.

Other alternative:
Give Doctors a 'sedate' option for broken colonists. They should be taken to a medical bed to recover instead of a prison.

[InertFurry]

This is definitely relevant even with the removal of the 'convinced by the warden' buff.  Heck, the social skill also implies that it's used for cheering colonists up but the only time that seems to be used is in conjunction with the "doctor" job and having a happy-go-lucky with 15 social and 2 medical skill is a time bomb for a peg-leg operation that removes the patient's brain.  Really happy patients though.  With longer-term diseases, the joy-deprivation definitely takes a serious hit to already unhappy (-5 Sick) colonists -5,10,15 and having people not inept at doctoring caring to them (if even high social means anything when they take the action "cheering up patient") means they stick that way and haul their sick ass up out of bed to strip naked in the tundra. (Daze always confuses me since that behavior only makes sense for seriously altered people (extreme break or drugs) or people suffering from hypothermia, yet it shows up as a low break.)

[SpaceDorf]

Take a hint from real life, built TVs in your hospitals

[InertFurry]

Okay, yeah, that tangential point is moot, but still if some guy is completely wrecked over the death of his wife, you'd think a close friend would be able to talk him through it.  Though, this whole train of thought goes hand-in-hand with bad things decaying over time.  I'll say after the loss of a family member when I was 5, before the crippling depression hit, it definitely was a real mood killer, but a month afterwards was definitely not the day of.  And a whole three leaves it a painful memory, not a persistent black cloud.

[Pax_Empyrean]

I support the idea of using the Social skill to stabilize colonists who are having mental breaks. If that fails, then we can resort to beating them senseless and putting them in prison.

[LordMunchkin]

This would give a job to nearly useless colonist who are only good at being social and can't haul/clean.

[giannikampa]

I agree on this suggestion, how to fit in the game? maybe the warden job is created for a low mood colonist and the warden goes to meet him and talk to him like for prisoners, mood boost is given by a chance  or tied to warden's skill and the compatibility of the two. The cons is they both are not doing anithing else meanwhile.
I can't find a way to give the player control whether allow/encourage the thing or the opposite though

[CannibarRechter]

You could have Wardening be the skill that allows automatic assignment, and you could also, if needed assign the job manually through prioritization, as with any other task.

[Havan_IronOak]

...
Proposal:
Have the Warden task include trying to 'talk down' colonists or prisoners that are close to a mental break (when someone is under that much stress, it's evident). The Warden will approach anyone within a certain range of their break threshold and apply the same 'talked with warden buff' that the prisoners get.

LOVE this suggestion

[LouisTBR]

The best way to go about counselling, in my opinion at least, is to attempt to reduce or even completely remove each debuff separately, and then replace them with good 'I had a chat with the counsellor' buffs.

So, for example:

'My wife just died. -25' becomes 'My wife just died, but the counsellor helped me through' -20. Then, eventally, it becomes: 'My wife just died, but the counsellor helped me to understand and come to terms with it...' +/- 0.

Like taming animals and recruiting prisoners, there should be a limit to how many times a counseller can attempt to raise someone's spirits in one go.

[Kegereneku]

idea for implementation :

- Have a "Go for counseling" within the medical tab (along surgery option).
- The colonist will go to either a medical bed or a comfy seat.
- Warden(or using social stats) will act as the counselor.

Result : the colonist have a +X moods bonus for a while.

[CannibarRechter]

I would implement it a bit more like arrest, where the counselor rushes to the pawn, and most of the time the pawn may accept the counseling, but occasionally react negatively. On the success area, they would be taken to the counselor's office (or something).