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[Hotty gremlin]

I've been thinking for a while that an actual therapist position would be both nice to have for game play reasons and kind of sweet to watch play out.

It would be a position appointed similar to a manager. The therapist would like access to writing material, storage for their written notes, a table, and seating for the therapist and the client.

Possible features for the therapist:

* Prescribed time off work or time off duty for mentally unwell dwarves.

* Informing the player of problems held by enough clients as to be significant:
- the absence of religious spaces
- the absence of satisfactory eating spaces or tableware
- the lack of material goods or dietary variety

* A treatment plan, from therapist to client, in the medical tab:
- Describing what particular work a dwarf really wants to do, in terms of neglected labor, social skills or military
- Suggested course of action for such unmet needs

* Facilitation of written communication between clients, messengers, and loved ones offsite
- This is for dwarves that miss their family and are pining for contact.

* More generalized therapeutic sessions in which clients can vent about their trauma, loss, petty grudges and annoyances.

* A slight and chronic toll on an overworked therapist, with the ability to zone out a larger area and to designate multiple therapists and offices the same way you would a hospital.
- Zoned as a "practice"
- Offices within the zone are treated as the working areas for the therapist
- spaces outside of that in the zone are treated as a waiting room.
- If it's not too much fluff, a receptionist can be designated to seat clients, prompt the therapists in the practice to work, and to train soft social skills for the receptionist for later promotion to a quasi-noble such as broker, manager, therapist


In terms of prescribed time off work, this would happen with the input of the player. It would be similar in presentation to a petition and would inform the player of the dwarf in treatment and the proposed time off. Dwarves granted this time feel relief, and both the therapist and client are irritated if this time is not granted off.

[Nordlicht]

It sounds great, but I don't think that it would fit in the 1400 Timeline cut-off.

For the Information thing, that could be done by the Mayor - Dwarves go venting there now anyways.
Free days and Holidays could be petitioned by guilds when the Fortress got big enough.

For everything else there is Gutter cruor

[theothersteve7]

They could bring back the old "philosopher" noble position.

Though this is already a bit like what the mayor does.

[jipehog]

Not sure about a dedicated therapist but I like the extra indicators.

A good notification system that helps manage the citizen needs is staple of modern management games. With the new alert system I suspect we might see more of it in DF. But there is always the issue of presentation, some implantations just overwhelm players with useless info for them, so it can get complicated. Maybe adding this info in some therapist/mayor/whatever report could be nice.

Btw is there any known plans for the title menu traffic light happiness indicator? Maybe it could offer extra info like the wealth popup or clicking on it would bring more detailed report.

[Hotty gremlin]

It sounds great, but I don't think that it would fit in the 1400 Timeline cut-off.

I honestly think dwarves are extraordinarily mentally ill to the point of them pioneering the mental health industry 200 years early.

I did Wikipedia it because I was also curious, and apparently there was some ancestral form of psychotherapy being practiced in 8th-9th century Persia/Africa Asia area. This is likely the same time period that Europeans would boil each other in a big cauldron under suspicion of witchcraft, which is something we already kind of have in the form of the hammerer.

[Hotty gremlin]

Also the only other name for the profession I can think of would be "mediator", but that's also just the name of a social skill. An ombudsman would be moreso someone that deals with civilian complaints towards authority. "Emotional punching bag" might break immersion, or at the very least render the mayoral position redundant.

[Lightman]

I think this is an idea worth exploring.

In a purely historical context, it probably wouldn't be the sole task of any profession, though temple workers would probably be the most focused on it. As per the current system, a mayor (or ruler) should be one source. I would add medical workers to that, like the Chief Medical Dwarf.

For a dedicated/primary profession, I think philosopher or a temple worker (e.g. priest) makes sense. The temple worker might be called a "healer". There could even be a location, such as the real-life "sleep temples" of ancient civilizations.

It should also matter if you assign a dwarf that is a bad fit for the job. That could manifest itself in bad results and even bad/vague advice and reports for the player.

[Hotty gremlin]

It should also matter if you assign a dwarf that is a bad fit for the job. That could manifest itself in bad results and even bad/vague advice and reports for the player.

This is one big part of why I like having an elected official do this kind of work instead of an abstract menu. Like, maybe the doofus peasant #5 from the latest migrant wave is actually good at bookkeeping and consoling people, maybe the dwarf that had to retire from labor after goblin-assisted leg removal can find a desk job, etc

[MrGlasses]

Something like this? https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2907835983