Alpha 8

[Kinsume]

So it seems in alpha 8 the corpse penalty towards mental breakdowns has been increased? My colonists were at like -24 mental threshold from observing 3 enemy corpses that had just been killed moments before. I can understand wanting to buff it up some to make things a bit more difficult/realistic, but when I'm being attacked by 30+ raiders and the penalty is that high how will I ever combat that? Since all of the enemies generally die in the same place, my guys can't even work towards cremating the bodies cause they go crazy before they get them burned.

[killerx243]

There should be a buff from adrenaline or like colony preservation for just after a battle.

[Dive]

Seems like so, I regret picking a mentally-sensitive colonist, because observing 3 corpses is almost enough for him to cross mental break threshold

[MelanisticAlbino]

This desperately needs to be changed. I constantly have to play with cheats like "No Mental Breakdowns" because after a raid of 20+ raiders, the colony is doomed because of breakdowns even though you fought of the attack.

1. Add a new more efficient method to dispose of corpses. Maybe tamed dogs that could eat them?

2. Decrease or remove the current mental penalties.

3. Something I haven't thought of because I've been working for 14 hours and need sleep.

Overall, I think system that govern mental-health should receive a small overhaul of changes.

[fraz]

If anything, I think mental breakdowns are less punishing in Alpha 8 because of the new "release" option for prisoners. It's now much more practical to just arrest anyone on the verge of a mental break, get them feeling a bit better, then release them back to the colony (instead of having to recruit them all over again). I think this is an excellent change; it never really made sense to me that you had to repeat the whole recruitment process for your own colonists. Just be sure to have beautiful/spacious/well lit private rooms for prisoners so they don't have a mental break while locked up.

[Cimanyd]

I think it's worth mentioning something I found out. The "psychotic rampage" and "dazed and wandering" mental breaks now end after a while, and the person gets a big "catharsis" morale boost for a while afterward.

Basically, this means you don't have to arrest dazed and wandering colonists, you can just ignore them and let them wander around for a while. (It won't really be useful for rampaging colonists or prisoners, unless you can wall them into a room or something, and I think you still have to arrest colonists trying to leave the colony if you want to keep them.)

[Vas]

1. Add a new more efficient method to dispose of corpses. Maybe tamed dogs that could eat them?

Yea, cause it would be so much better watching a dog rip guts out of a guy and leaving pieces of him everywhere as he bleeds out everywhere making a huge sloppy disgusting mess rather than you just sending a colonist out to put him in a black bag and bury him or burn him.  That'll really make people much more comfortable.  "Go on spot, go eat that dead guy."

[Veneke]

This desperately needs to be changed. I constantly have to play with cheats like "No Mental Breakdowns" because after a raid of 20+ raiders, the colony is doomed because of breakdowns even though you fought of the attack.

3. Something I haven't thought of because I've been working for 14 hours and need sleep.

Overall, I think system that govern mental-health should receive a small overhaul of changes.

I've been having the exact same issue, but late yesterday I found the best solution. I managed to recruit someone with the Bloodlust trait (no negative modifiers from dead bodies). So I've taken to stopping people from going into your killbox until the Bloodlust chick has hauled everybody out to the crematorium.

[Cimanyd]

The Psychopath trait would also work.

[Nasikabatrachus]

The Psychopath trait would also work.

I'm pretty sure that doesn't, or at least it didn't last time I checked.

To my mind, the simplest and most obvious fix would be to make skeletons less awful for pawns to look at than rotting corpses.

[Cimanyd]

The Psychopath trait would also work.

I'm pretty sure that doesn't, or at least it didn't last time I checked.

To my mind, the simplest and most obvious fix would be to make skeletons less awful for pawns to look at than rotting corpses.

It doesn't work on rotting corpses, but it does work on fresh ones, which is what this thread is about.

[RawCode]

Currently most of colonists shipped with major mental problems.

When you have to visit "bad places" due to your profession (or because you live in wildness and must fight to survive), no matter how many dead bodies lay around, you wont suffer any "negative mood" after some time.

Traffic incident with body parts scattered around - perform your duty and go next incident.
Suicide involving shotgun - perform your duty, drink coffee (without leaving scene(eating on scene is allowed as long as no seniors on scene and they never on scene)) and go next indecent.
Other traffic indecent, same routine, perform your duty and go next.

Following RimWorld logic, any criminologist should accumulate huge mood penalty and attack his colleagues in case of multiple nighttime incidents.

I want to believe that current system is some kind of placeholder and situation will change over time:

Currently all effects are directly addictive, that cause major logical issues with system.
Eating nutrient paste and sleeping on ground as bad as witnessing ally death.

Having good mood after entire colony is wiped by mad hares because of some flowers and nice meal is other bad side of the system.

[naxili]

If anything, I think mental breakdowns are less punishing in Alpha 8 because of the new "release" option for prisoners. It's now much more practical to just arrest anyone on the verge of a mental break, get them feeling a bit better, then release them back to the colony (instead of having to recruit them all over again).

Yoooooo

I had no idea this worked

[christhekiller]

I haven't noticed any mood buffs because of winning a battle? I've had colonists mentally break because they walked past a bunch of guys who were just trying to kill them. If anything you'd think most of them would start to develop a block against seeing corpses after awhile, especially with how often they see them.