Easiest way to tell a colonist to go relax if they are near a Mental Break?

[Thom Blair III]

I want so much to be able to tell the colonist to take a break without having to go in and change work settings. Is there any way to get the pawn to just go relax for a while?

[Rhythm]

Only thing I know of is recreational drugs, haha. You can order them to prioritize drinking a beer, smoking a joint, eating some ambrosia, etc, but cannot order them to play chess or any other created joy item. There may be a mod or two that makes this easier, but I haven't looked at mods yet for anything, myself.

[Thom Blair III]

Originally posted by LordRhythm:

There may be a mod or two that makes this easier, but I haven't looked at mods yet for anything, myself.

I've been searching through mods, but so far I can't find anything that's obviously what I'm looking for. There is Snap Out, but that's for after a mental break. I'm hoping to prevent them.

[Stormsong]

I keep all of my colonists on a medicinal routine I call "Stay Sane."

If their mood goes below 25% they are allowed to smoke one joint and have one drink every 3 days for as long as the low mood persists. I'm fairly good at keeping them out of such dire straits though, so it usually only takes one or two hits to keep them from stabbing Wendy in the face, and by then I've alleviated the issue.

[Salami Tsunami]

Originally posted by LordRhythm:

Only thing I know of is recreational drugs, haha. You can order them to prioritize drinking a beer, smoking a joint, eating some ambrosia, etc, but cannot order them to play chess or any other created joy item.

I think this is the unofficial mission statement of the VA Healthcare system.

[Dr@g0n]

typically have joy activities before sleep, the better the sleep the less all the stats should lower. imo, ive been told thats not how it works but i personally have saw a huge bump to when i change it to two hours mid-day, or morning and when i put it at night when all colonists are awake as well for those night owls as well to get some social interaction. the night owls are usually always lower in mood by the way, more proof joy at late times is best.

[Thom Blair III]

Originally posted by Stormsong the Fallen:

I keep all of my colonists on a medicinal routine I call "Stay Sane."

If their mood goes below 25% they are allowed to smoke one joint and have one drink every 3 days for as long as the low mood persists. I'm fairly good at keeping them out of such dire straits though, so it usually only takes one or two hits to keep them from stabbing Wendy in the face, and by then I've alleviated the issue.

Thank you! I didn't know this was possible. I'll definitely check this out.

[Thom Blair III]

Originally posted by Dr@g0n:

typically have joy activities before sleep, the better the sleep the less all the stats should lower. imo, ive been told thats not how it works but i personally have saw a huge bump to when i change it to two hours mid-day, or morning and when i put it at night when all colonists are awake as well for those night owls as well to get some social interaction. the night owls are usually always lower in mood by the way, more proof joy at late times is best.

Thank you. I didn't know you could schedule joy activities.

[Morkonan]

Originally posted by Thom Blair III:

..Thank you. I didn't know you could schedule joy activities.

Use that as you can, especially with pawns that have some reason they don't get Joy, like pawns who can't get Joy from interactions/social. They'll often go through bouts where they get close to Breakdown. So, break up their schedule with a mandatory Joy activity for awhile. Later, as you get more Joy items and better food, you can relax that or put them back on a regular schedule.

You can always force your pawn to eat, even if they're not hungry. So, if you have some Fine or Lavish meals and they don't already have a food buff, force them to eat one for the temp buff. For that matter, buy some Chocolate bits from a trader and keep them Forbidden so you have a nice food-buff ready for a pawn that's on the edge.

Smokeleaf is easy to get and only requires a Crafting Spot for you to make a joint. Keep a few in reserve.

[Thom Blair III]

Thank you all so much! Now that I've added joy activities and the recreational drug schedule, none of my people are having problems! Totally awesome! Thanks again!

[grapplehoeker]

Here's an example of my standard restrictions for pawns in their daily schedules.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1466512780
8 hours sleep
2 hours of anything + 1 hour recreation on waking
11 hours work
1 hour anything + 1 hour recreation before bed
The same schedule also applies to the night owls as you can see.

If at anytime a particular pawn is verging on a break due to some unfortunate emotional let down (death of a relative, friend or pet for example) then you can adjust their schedule to allow them more time to recover. You could for example increase their recreational time and also tweak their work task priorities so that they only work at tasks they have a burning passion for.

Also consider the areas of activity that they will frequent. Make sure these areas are likely to positively affect them emotionally and keep them out of areas that are likely to depress them. For example, keep their work/living areas clean and attractive and avoid having them work or travel through areas that are ugly and dirty (no unsightly corpses!).

Additionally, as mentioned above, you can set a regimen of social drug use, but be careful not to allow that to become an addiction. Be aware that this is not particularly applicable to those pawns with a chemical fascination trait!

Most importantly, the alerts are there for your benefit, so pay attention to them and monitor the pawns that are very likely to break. Be prepared to have another pawn act as a minder, so that they may act swiftly to arrest a pawn that breaks if that means that the pawn is a danger to themselves or others. The Slaughter break, Murderous Rage and Prison Break Facilitator break are episodes you really do not want and need to act fast to prevent when they occur.

[Malus]

I schedule two rec times. set for 2 hours each. 10 hour work day with one hour of freetime in the middle. 8 hours of sleep.
ALso Smoke leaf is the best I found for calming people down. set them to use at anything less thean 51% in both stats and allow them to carry one with them.

I almost never have issues unless someones wife dies or something.

Make sure you have plenty of JOY devices for them to use.

By the way you can schedule smoke joint as an operation. great for calming prisoners,

[Thom Blair III]

Originally posted by Mal:

ALso Smoke leaf is the best I found for calming people down. set them to use at anything less thean 51% in both stats and allow them to carry one with them. I almost never have issues unless someones wife dies or something.

By the way you can schedule smoke joint as an operation. great for calming prisoners,

Thank you! Those are great pieces of info I didn't know. I'll check those out. 👍