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[Destroyer224]

After rushing to get all the materials needed for my favorite weaponsmith after he went into a Strange Mood, I go back to business as usual only to see "Urist Mcweaponsmith has gone berserk!" a minute later. I had no idea how long I had to scrape together the materials for his artifact, (He was using like 10 materials, including 2 aluminum bars and some clear glass) but assumed I had longer than I realized. So instead of yanking my glassmaker/gem cutter away from his latest batch of gem cutting, I let him take forever to finnish up, then go to sleep, then eat, then drink, THEN make some clear glass. If I had known my favorite smith was getting ready to go berserk and trash the workshop, I would have hurried him up.

This is where my idea comes in. I was thinking, below the usual "Peculiarly secretive..." or other messages for the various Strange Moods, why not have a sort of Insane-O-Meter. Something like 3-5 text entries for 'stages' of insanity during a Strange Mood. Something like:

Stage 1: -No Entry-
Stage 2: Talking to self
Stage 3: Visibly Pale
Stage 4: Wringing hands
Stage 5: Thrashing about

[Idiom]

I like detail, and this would be useful. Add some more phrases that may be used for the same phases for the sake of variety and you've got a vote.

[Untelligent]

I would indeed like something like this.

[Destroyer224]

A few others made up on the spot for variety:

Stage 1: -No Entry- [No visible signs of Insanity like as above, doesn't need to stay blank if someone can come up with something good]

Stage 2a: Talking to self [Re-written for completeness, could even go so far as to indicate he will go Stark Raving Mad]
Stage 3a: Visibly Pale
Stage 4a: Wringing Hands
Stage 5a: Thrashing about

Stage 2b: Pacing about [Could indicate he'll go Melancholy]
Stage 3b: Visibly Anxious
Stage 4b: Glazed-over/Blank-eyed stare
Stage 5b: Visions of spirits/Hallucinations

Stage 2c: Grumbling mildly [Could indicate he'll go Berserk]
Stage 3c: Visibly Irritated
Stage 4c: Self-Destructive Behavior
Stage 5c: Foaming at the mouth

Knowing what kind of Insane your dwarf will go might be going a bit too far though, but you could easily take these out of their categories and just throw them in however you want without them being indicators. Then again, knowing your Legendary Logger with +5 strength and toughness is about to go Berserk in the middle of your magma forge might be kind of fun (As in DF-style "Fun" ).

[Impaler[WrG]]

Excellent idea, I've often wondered how close a moody dwarf was to popping and it's logical for this to be visible especially considering they issue 'demands' for things.

[Overdose]

an excellent idea if i do say so myself, which i am, so i did.

although i'd like more generalization of the descriptions, or perhaps have the descriptions even be misleading sometimes.

Like having Olin look depressed, but him going berserk instead when the time comes

[Aldaris]

an excellent idea if i do say so myself, which i am, so i did.

although i'd like more generalization of the descriptions, or perhaps have the descriptions even be misleading sometimes.

Like having Olin look depressed, but him going berserk instead when the time comes

But only sometimes, so that most people will assume the game is playing straight, and those people WILL have to deal with the consequences.
I like.

[jaked122]

this should take little to no time to be coded in, and would deepen the game so I'm for it.

[Felblood]

Most funny dwarves talk to themselves. It's the ones that clam up that I tend to have trouble with.

It would be nice to have some kind of indicator that a given dwarf is particularly close to going over the edge.

It should still be possible for a dwarf to go nuts without warning, especially if he get's a particularly nasty shock, part of the fun is keeping all the dwarves as happy as possible, lest they destroy themselves.

Likewise, we don't want too much advance warning; we just need an indicator that a given funny dwarf is almost out of time, so the player can enjoy that down-to-the-wire feeling, even when he barely makes it.

Two stages of warning should be enough, and the actual text should be pretty random. Certain types of approaching insanity might favor certain symptoms etc., but for the most part we just need to communicate an unsettling change in behavior.

Even if the second stage symptoms are mostly the same as the first, the change will be enough to clue in most players that things have just gotten real.

If a borderline depressed dwarf suddenly starts acting really cheerful, or giving away his belongings, or just switches to any other sort of odd behavior, it's time to worry.

As an added bonus, sometimes the second stage will just have the same symptoms as the first, allowing for the game to screw the player automatically.

[Destroyer224]

What about the different stages having their 'time' set randomly when the dwarf gets a Strange mood. For example, the second stage takes a long time, giving the illusion of safety, but then suddenly in a matter of a minute the dwarf goes from stage two to stage four, then skips stage five entirely and goes berserk. I'm not implying a speed-up on the overall time it takes for him to go berserk, but a misleading dialogue that lulls the player into thinking he's still got time before Urist Mcsmith snaps a couple necks, when he really doesn't.

As Overdose suggested, there could also be a random chance that the dwarf will go from one line of insanity to another suddenly and unexpectedly. Say Urist Mcsmith goes through stages 1-4 of Melancholy, but then suddenly when it switches to stage 5, he's now about to go berserk.

[irmo]

What about the different stages having their 'time' set randomly when the dwarf gets a Strange mood. For example, the second stage takes a long time, giving the illusion of safety, but then suddenly in a matter of a minute the dwarf goes from stage two to stage four, then skips stage five entirely and goes berserk. I'm not implying a speed-up on the overall time it takes for him to go berserk, but a misleading dialogue that lulls the player into thinking he's still got time before Urist Mcsmith snaps a couple necks, when he really doesn't.

The point of this is to be useful.

Strange moods are already the game randomly threatening to screw you. What do we gain by making them more randomly screwful?

[Felblood]

Because losing is fun.

Some of us thrive under pressure, and we don't want things to get too predictable.

If symptoms don't show up until the dwarf is verging, and even non-moody dwarves start acting odd before they go nuts, this could be a very useful indicator, indeed.

Too useful...

Which is why it has to be nerfed.

[Deimos56]

Sounds like a great idea.
While we're at it, add this to adventurers. When things get too stressful, you start seeing things that aren't there. Or seeing the mayor as a large dragon.

Or that fire imp over there as a fluffy wambler...

[Destroyer224]

Because losing is fun.

Some of us thrive under pressure, and we don't want things to get too predictable.

If symptoms don't show up until the dwarf is verging, and even non-moody dwarves start acting odd before they go nuts, this could be a very useful indicator, indeed.

Too useful...

Which is why it has to be nerfed.

If symptoms only show up right before they snap, then you'd always know right before they're going to snap instead of just knowing your dwarf is getting progressively worse. No one said that we necessarily have to do it in 'stages' as I suggested, but I think it will just make it a little easier on the player that way to know that he's still got some time left... or so he thinks.

[irmo]

Which is why it has to be nerfed.

I think it's too early to tell, considering that the feature isn't in the game yet and was only proposed yesterday. :-)

If the progression indicator isn't reliable and is only there to trick you, then everyone will ignore it and we're back to not having an indicator. It's not a useful warning; it's not even an effective trick for new players, because as soon as Joe Newbie sees a strange mood, he'll go to the wiki and look it up, and one of the things it will say is "The text displayed in the dwarf's description may change over time. This isn't a reliable warning."

This, of course, is yet another reason we should all go and wipe out the wiki.