*sigh* The duchess of my most successful and fun fort so far, the only fort I've managed to stick with for a decade, is about to go bonkers and there seems to be nothing I can do to stop it. The wiki suggests it was caused by her getting the "utterly traumatized by a lesser's room" thought. Now I had another noble get jealous, before but that one didn't go crazy over it and I was able to balance it with happy thoughts. This one doesn't GET any happy thoughts anymore. I can go back a season when she's still Very Unhappy but it is too late then too, the thought is already there. Even Runesmith (which I downloaded just to try and save her) can't prevent it.
I suppose it IS too late for her and I just have to watch her die.
Seeing as how she was one of the founders, my expedition leader, mayor for several years and broker from the beginning as well as a now-legendary blacksmith (no mood, just trained up bit by bit) that hurts since she's one of my favourites and losing her may mean shelving the fort. To help prevent this from happening again, I have some questions.
First off, does anyone actually choose a favourite dwarf as baron or just some random schlob for just this reason? I don't really want to "reward" Urist McUseless with a noble title and power, but at the same time I refuse to let founders, legendaries and soldiers live in some hole in the wall just because of some prissy twit with an entitlement complex. All my dwarves get a smoothed 5x5 bedroom with a gem window, special dwarves get real suites.
Second, just what triggers that massively bad, ultimately fatal thought? My duchess has the best rooms in each category, going by the order in which the Rooms view lists them. Is it triggered when anyone has a room of the same quality level (Grand, Decent, etc.) or when anyone has a room above a certain level? How does the noble learn about it: by being in or near the room, by socializing, or do they just know it via hivemind telepathy?
I'm tempted to turn off the jealousy-inducing token in the entity file. Mandates I can live with, even impossible ones (slade, toad teeth ...), but this is just depressing. Or I WILL elevate a random peasant next time and just not care if s/he goes insane.