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[Uthimienure]

Is what happened to Thikut something many of you have seen?
He seemed to have a good life (for a dwarf).
He arrived at my 12-year fortress about a year ago, along with his wife.

Maybe this is the key phrase in his thoughts: "... is put off by family." (light blue text in 1st picture)

I've tried to capture enough relevant data in the pic to help any psychologists out there give a diagnosis.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Is this a case of the game's broken stress system, or is there a logical explanation that I can't see?

[PatrikLundell]

As far as I know the two reasons for insanity are stress and failed moods. Unfulfilled needs presumably lead to stress only indirectly, in the form of bad memories that keep being remembered, but that would drive the stress up (or down, as the number goes negative as the stress increases). Being put off by family tends to be a trait that makes getting the bugger to form a family difficult, and would presumably mean family events that ought to bring joy does not (getting another brat, for instance), although I don't believe I've heard of such events being turned into a negative.

[Uthimienure]

Yes, that was my understanding also.

In his case, his stress was listed as 0 by therapist, and now it's even better at -130 (therapist uses negative stress numbers for less stress). As can be seen, he had very little to complain about other than remember seeing a dead cyclops. He had a few children and a wife, so being put off by family might have been causing him some cognitive dissonance, but to drive him crazy? Inconceivable!

I'm almost positive he didn't have a failed mood because I keep track of them. The message log didn't show any when I searched it. I've micromanaged happiness in this fort more than ever before, to the point where it's un-fun.

In any case, I wouldn't have posted this at all, but it seems to be a really weird case.

[PatrikLundell]

I didn't really expect my comment to further the investigation, but thought I should at least state what I think the conditions are, which we seem to agree on, so this seems to be something out of the ordinary.

[Uthimienure]

Well... there really doesn't need to be an explanation for any of this, no problem.

Playing on, I was curious and looked up Thikut to see how he was doing. He was listed as missing so I knew he must be dead.
I found his corpse before any dwarf saw it and noticed that his "c.s.silk shoe" was tasked, so I forbid all his other possessions and watched.
Along came his newborn (now 2 months old) who grabbed the shoe and crawled on by.
Curious, I followed the baby, who says "Da..." and is "incredibly brave in the face of looming danger" and has "next to no empathy".

Can you guess what he did with the shoe?



He crawled to his Da's room and put it in the cabinet.  How touching and sad.
The poor blighter is too young to know that Da will never bounce him on his knee again.

[UselessMcMiner]

This is important to note, but I've seen female dwarves that hate family get bad thoughts when they become mothers. I don't know if this is the same for male dwarves though.

[Eric Blank]

Check the gamelog.txt in the games folder (where the .exe is), search for his name. Somewhere in there should be the announcement that he went melancholy, and probably also what he was doing ("cancelled x: too insane")

It would definitively rule out strange moods if it cancelled something other than "strange mood" but from the info above, it looks to immediately rule out any other option. It even says he got a good thought from becoming a parent, so I doubt it's related to the family value.

[Uthimienure]

Thanks Eric. I copied Thikut's last lines and they show I missed when his mood happened, my bad.
I was probably distracted by the CTD's that happened around that time.

`c pm Thikut 19+' Rimtarikal, Animal Caretaker cancels Make pig iron bars: Needs FLUX stones.
`c pm Thikut 19+' Rimtarikal, Animal Caretaker cancels Smelt native copper Ore: Taken by mood.
`c pm Thikut 19+' Rimtarikal, Animal Caretaker withdraws from society...
`c pm Thikut 19+' Rimtarikal has claimed a Magma Glass Furnace.
`c pm Thikut 19+' Rimtarikal, Animal Caretaker: I saw a dwarf recite The Scorching Desert and Worries at The Tool of Spirits.  I am not filled with delight.
`c pm Thikut 19+' Rimtarikal, Animal Caretaker: Children.  How blissful!
`c pm Thikut 19+' Rimtarikal, Animal Caretaker: I have become a parent.  Such adoration I feel!
`c pm Thikut 19+' Rimtarikal, Animal Caretaker cancels Strange Mood: Went insane.
`c pm Thikut 19+' Rimtarikal, Animal Caretaker is stricken by melancholy!
`c pm Thikut 19+' Rimtarikal, Animal Caretaker: I'm sleepy.  It's irritating.
`c pm Thikut 19+' Rimtarikal, Animal Caretaker: I have become a parent.  Such adoration I feel!
`c pm Thikut 19+' Rimtarikal, Animal Caretaker: I'm thirsty.  It's irritating.
`c pm Thikut 19+' Rimtarikal, Animal Caretaker: I want to see my friends.  I'm not lonely.
`c pm Thikut 19+' Rimtarikal, Animal Caretaker: I'm hungry.  It's irritating.
`c pm Thikut 19+' Rimtarikal, Animal Caretaker: I'm dehydrated.  I'm really starting to panic.
`c pm Thikut 19+' Rimtarikal, Animal Caretaker: I'm starving.  I'm really starting to panic.
`c pm Thikut 19+' Rimtarikal, Animal Caretaker: I'm dehydrated.  I'm really starting to panic.
`c pm Thikut 19+' Rimtarikal, Animal Caretaker has been found dead, dehydrated.
`KC-Ineth 19' Nitigcatten, Animal Caretaker: `c pm Thikut 19+' Castlehealers is really dead.  I am almost overcome by grief. (his sister)
`KC-Ineth 19' Nitigcatten, Animal Caretaker: I can't believe `c pm Thikut 19+' Castlehealers is dead.  Most shocking!
`*cv Stinthad 19+' RŒsensiknug, Herbalist: `c pm Thikut 19+' Castlehealers is really dead.  I am almost overcome by grief. (his wife)
`*cv Stinthad 19+' RŒsensiknug, Herbalist: `c pm Thikut 19+' Castlehealers is dead?  Most shocking!

Looks like maybe a game CTD happened after he claimed the magma glass furnace, because there is no mention of anything mood related after that and he was at the tavern, then the baby was born, then he went insane.  Seems like the CTD messed things up here.

Mystery solved by Eric Blank! 

[Quietust]

Code: [Select]

`c pm Thikut 19+' Rimtarikal, Animal Caretaker cancels Smelt native copper Ore: Taken by mood.
`c pm Thikut 19+' Rimtarikal, Animal Caretaker withdraws from society...
`c pm Thikut 19+' Rimtarikal has claimed a Magma Glass Furnace.
`c pm Thikut 19+' Rimtarikal, Animal Caretaker cancels Strange Mood: Went insane.
`c pm Thikut 19+' Rimtarikal, Animal Caretaker is stricken by melancholy!

Looks like maybe a game CTD happened after he claimed the magma glass furnace, because there is no mention of anything mood related after that and he was at the tavern, then the baby was born, then he went insane.  Seems like the CTD messed things up here.

Mystery solved by Eric Blank! 

During a "successful" strange mood, there will only ever be 4 announcements: the mood beginning (possibly preceded by a job cancellation), the workshop being claimed, the mysterious construction beginning, and finally the artifact being produced. Because your dwarf wasn't able to gather all of the necessary materials, the 3rd message never happened, so after about 42 days the mood failed and your dwarf went insane.

Normally the game pauses and auto-centers during strange mood events, so unless you changed the Announcement settings I'm not sure how you could've missed them.