After a long, long, LONG haitus, I've returned to Dwarf Fort... after fighting off a satisfying and suitably scary siege in 42.03, only to have it end in a rout, I've decided some mods are in order.
While looking through the syndrome page on the wiki, however, I noticed the following;
CE_MENT_ATT_CHANGE
CE_CHANGE_PERSONALITY
CE_SKILL_ROLL_ADJUST
Immediately, an idea struck. What if one were to make an "amnesia" effect - resetting all skills to 0 (PERC:0:PERC_ON:100 in CE_SKILL_ROLL_ADJUST argument) and wiping personality variances to 0 to make a mind-wiped, soulless dwarf? Such an effect, if successful, would be a threat worse than death; a soul-sucking monster or brain-melting interaction could ruin years of training and generally scare the hell out of you when it appears. Adding it as a custom evil weather option would also be suitably hideous (if that's possible).
However, I'm encountering a few problems: CE_SKILL_ROLL_ADJUST doesn't specify what skill, if any, it targets. That's the big one. Also, CE_CHANGE_PERSONALITY calls for FACET:facet token:modifier, but doesn't list what measurement units "modifier" works for - is it just 0-100?. And CE_MENT_ATT_CHANGE calls for Attribute:percentage:fixed boost(?), but doesn't specify whether the boost can be negative...
If the skill wipe alone is possible, I'll be thrilled to add another terror to the potential arsenal laid against me, but any help would be appreciated. I'm also curious how to make it a multi-stage syndrome, so that a dwarf will be put to sleep for a prolonged period afterwards to help indicate to the player what's happened (and then have them get better from that.)