(This could be a religious thread, but no it’s only a game )Happiness, as we all know is the key to everything, much more important than health (don’t flame me, I put another article on health [URL=”http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=190583″]here[/URL]).
This article identifies the factors that will lead a population to be happy, and also notes some of the unhappiness-causing elements.
As the player selects more difficult levels, cities become quickly unhappy (“We just enjoy life” bonus gets smaller at higher levels) even with small populations, so having a good knowledge of the happiness factors will help the player to create and manage a stronger empire.
[U]Here you can see the happiness bonus you start with at every level [/U]:
[LIST]
[*][B]SETTLER [/B] : _ 6
[*][B]CHIEFTAIN[/B]: 6
[*][B]WARLORD [/B] : 5
[*][B]NOBLE [/B] : _ _ 5
[*][B]PRINCE [/B]: _ _4
[*][B]MONARCH [/B] : 4
[*][B]EMPEROR [/B] : _3
[*][B]IMMORTAL [/B]: 3
[*][B]DEITY[/B]: _ _ _3
[/LIST]
Generally speaking, you will try to have more happiness than unhappiness. It doesn’t matter where the happiness and unhappiness comes from.
As long as you have more happiness than unhappiness, you have no angry faces.
If unhappiness is higher than happiness, you’ll have
[unhappiness – happiness] angry faces = citizens eating and costing but not working.
[I]Note that you can not have a “we love our leader day” if there is an angry face in a city. It’s not game changing, but it’s a loss and it’s avoidable.[/I]
[U]So, how do you get the happiness you need to grow?[/U]
In vanilla cIv, there are exactly 7 ways to get [B]more [/B]happiness (and a helluvah lot to have unhappiness).
[I]In warlords, you have 2 more ways to gain happiness : charismatic trait (“OH YEAH”), and vassals (yes, having vassals makes your people think they’re big and strong 🙂 )[/I]
[LIST]
[*] [B]resources [/B]
(Fur;Ivory;Gems;Gold;Silver;Dye;Incense;Silk;Spices;Sugar;Whale;Wines)
[*][B]buildings [/B]
(Palace, colosseum, theatre*, Broadcast Tower, temples, markets*, cathedrals*, forges*, barracks**)
[*][B]religion[/B]** (+1 isn’t much, + 7 is better)
[*][B]civics [/B]
(free religion, nationhood, environementalism, representation , Hereditary Rule)
[*][B]wonders [/B]
(globe theater in the biggest city will make a huge difference in one city ,
Notre dame a small one but everywhere,
Broadway/hollywood/rock’n’roll will provide a happy resource)
[*][B]commerce slider[/B]
[*][B]future techs[/B] : I won’t expand a lot on future techs. Every future tech gives you +1 happiness in every city. But who cares? The game is over at this point!
[/LIST]
* : depends on a resource
** : depends on a civic.
[U]where does unhappiness come from[/U] :
[LIST]
[*][B]population [/B]itself = “too crowded” :
1 unhappiness for each population point (yes the 1st pop thinks it’s already too crowded :crazyeye: )
[*]”[B]We fear for our safety[/B]” :
a big city (size 3 and more AFAIK) without garrison unit will have unhappiness. A warrior is enough to remove this.
[*][B]slavery [/B]penalty = “cruelty” :
1 unhappiness for each whip. The penalty goes away after 10 turns. If you whip more than once, the penalty only gets removed one at a time.
(example :in the first turn after revolt you whip a captured city for a theater and a granary, you get 2 unhappiness for 10 turns, then 1 unhappiness for 10 other turns)
[*][B]drafting [/B]penalty = “we won’t go”:
3 unhappiness for every draftee in a city. The penalty goes away after 10 turns.
[*][B]war weariness[/B]”what is war good for?” : the more you fight outside your borders, the more unhappiness you get. full information on this in krikkitone’s article : [URL=”http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=181512″] war weariness mechanics[/URL]
[*][B]”we yearn to return to our motherland”[/B] :
when you capture a city, the ancient culture of the previous owner gives you unhappiness. This is removed when your culture gets dominant (=more than the ex-owner’s) or when you kill the ex-owner.
[*][B]”we won’t fight our brothers in faith”[/B] :
when you attack a civ which shares the religion of this city, you get another share of unhappiness
[*][B]”We demand emancipation”[/B] :
[/LIST]If other empires run emancipation, and you don’t, you get unhappiness. This can be huge, when most of the others run emancipation.
WW, emancipation, brothers in faith, mother land penalties all are size dependant = a big population city will face a bigger penalty.
edit : after so much time, I’ll simply assume I have them all.
[U]Note that there are ways to reduce unhappiness.[/U]
For example police state reduces war weariness,
and emancipation removes unhappiness from lack of emancipation :yup:
Jails also reduce WW, mount rushmore (national wonder) also reduces WW.
Slavery : Whipping reduces population, and so reduces “too crowded”, WW, emancipation, “brothers in faith”, “mother land” unhappiness .
[B][U][SIZE=”5″]example [/SIZE][/U][/B]:
[IMG]http://forums.civfanatics.com/uploads/74263/Civ4ScreenShot0000.JPG[/IMG]
here you see
[LIST]
[*]a size 6 city : 6 unhappiness “too crowded”
[*]a captured city (was german, now aztec) : 2 unhappiness “we yearn to join our motherland”
[*]a hinduist city, when in a war against a hinduist civ: 1 unhappiness from “we won’t fight our brothers and sisters in Faith”
[*]This city has been whipped twice (temple and theater) : 2 unhappiness “we cannot forget your cruel oppression”
[*]war weariness : 4 unhappiness “war.. what is it good for? nothing”
[/LIST]
making a total of 15 unhappiness
[LIST]
[*]1 happiness from the building (temple) : “some buildings are making us happy”
[*]12 happiness from resources (including forge, market, theater doubling effect on ressources like gold, ivory and dye) : “we enjoy our luxurious resources”
[*]1 happiness from hinduism being in the city while our state is hinduist : “in our religion we trust”
[*]4 happiness from the culture slider (20% with a theater) : “we appreciate our entertainement”
[*]1 happiness from the building (temple) : “some buildings are making us happy” [Bug?]
[*]4 happiness because it’s monarch level : “we just enjoy life”
[/LIST]
for a total of 23 happiness
= room to expand to size 14, or to stay at war while growing.
[B]early game:[/B]
You don’t have access to civics, you have limited access to resources and buildings = low happiness potential.
What to do?
– live with it
– search the best way to improve it.
Obviously a very low happiness cap is making life difficult, but with slavery you can live with it.
I often do (cap at 5 is usual), but it’s a choice. Under 4 you can do so few moves it’s not funny anymore, since with the whip, you’ll have a cap at 3 for 10 turns without WW!
3 things are to considered in this order, IMHO:
– the map
– your traits/starting techs
– your victory goal (if you start with this one, be prepared to suffer!).
The map will show you what happiness resources you can have.
Your traits will give you an advantage on certain buildings or on civic swaps.
If you’re industrious and the map has gold, silver and gems, don’t go for religion! you need metal casting for forges, and connected mines.
You really should tech to mining (if you don’t have it already), then BW then MC, while building settler and workers to connect those ressources.
+6 happiness is a lot. With this on hand, you don’t need monarchy right now and you don’t need to switch to a state religion.
Same thing, if you have ivory and fur, teching to currency is huge.
If you don’t a religion is better + priesthood for temple + open borders for other religions.
OTH if you have calendar resources everywhere, calendar becomes a priority, so don’t spend time building stonehenge.
You see the point.
[U]More in chapter 1 below on what tech are needed for each resource/associated building.[/U]
What the thing about victory condition?
If you aim for cultural, you need the religions. open your borders to let them in and tech to priesthood for the temples. If you manage to found a religion on the path, good for you. If you don’t, it doesn’t matter really. + you’ll run a high culture slider in a not too distant future. Tech towards drama!
If you aim for conquest, you don’t need big cities, and you will be able to take a resourceful city somewhere. Look harder on the map : there is gold somewhere probably.
If you aim for diplo (it’s a bit early but who knows), you may be able to trade some resources for others or for money or even for free. Take it into account.
Domination/space really need loads of happiness, usually. Cannot say more.
[B]mid game[/B]
Here it’s basically giving up something for something else.
Religion spreading / temple building costs hammers.
Unit building costs hammers.
Culture sliding costs beakers or gold (though gaining land is a side benefit).
You need something to trade if you want a resource = giving up another resource.
You can use HR while building up an army, then the slider while warring.
Or you can have 5 big cities, and keep the others low on pop if you run representation (hello pyramids).
Or you can trade for resources.
Or you can turn builder and have all those bonus buildings everywhere.
Or you can be in between :eek:.
I value Notre Dame a lot, and conquering it (you won’t build it, will you?) is high on my priorities. Same thing for ressources I miss, obviously.
[B]late game[/B]
If you did well up to that point, you should have little happiness problems in peace time.
My usual way is to go to war for “short” periods, in which i crank up the culture slider. You can live with 40% culture, believe me.
Other tactics include mount rushmore, jails, police state to reduce WW.
I favour the culture slider because i go for domination mostly. And 20/30/40 % culture for a few turns is always welcome when you need land.
[B][U]1) resources :[/U][/B]
there are 12 happiness resources
For each resource, you need either to
– have it on a tile included in you cultural borders, have the right improvement built and have the tile connected to your cities
– trade for it
[I]Fur : camp improvement, requires hunting tech
Ivory : camp improvement, requires hunting tech
Gems : mine improvement, requires mining tech
Gold : mine improvement,requires mining tech
Silver : mine improvement,requires mining tech
Dye : plantation improvement, requires Calendar tech
Incense : plantation improvement, requires Calendar tech
Silk : plantation improvement, requires Calendar tech
Spices : plantation improvement, requires Calendar tech
Sugar : plantation improvement, requires Calendar tech
Whale : Whaling Boat, requires optics tech
Wines: winery improvement, requires monarchy tech
with Broadway (hit musical),
rock’n’roll (hit single) ,
hollywood (hit movie) you can have 3 more resources
Those wonder resources don’t require tile improvement of course, but require the wonder. They can be traded.[/I]
Here you can see
2 hunting happiness resource, both doubled by markets (currency tech)
3 mining happiness resources, all doubled by forges (metal casting tech)
5 calendar resources, one doubled by theaters (drama tech), one doubled by markets (currency tech), one doubled by cathedrals (music tech)
1 monarchy resouce
1 optics resource, doubled by markets (currency)
3 late wonder resources (linked to Electricity, Mass Media, Radio techs), all doubled by broadcasting tower (Mass Media)
That’s a grand total of 15 ressources, 11 of which can be doubled, one can be multiplied by 8 (incense with cathedrals, see next chapter) =
[B]33 potential happiness from resources[/B].
[B][U]Beware [/U][/B]:
plastics obsoletes fur
industrialism obsoletes ivory
Combustion obsoletes whales
[B]2) buildings [/B]
– colosseum (construction tech): 1 happiness + 1 happiness for every 20% culture from the slider (see slider effect),
– theatre (drama tech): +1 happiness for every 10% culture, + 1 for dyes,
– Broadcast Tower (mass media tech): +1 happiness for every 10% culture rate, +1 happiness from hit movies, hit single, or hit musical,
– temples (priesthood tech): +1 happiness (you can gain +1 one happiness from every temple, regardless of state religion = potential of 7 happiness)
– markets (currency tech): +1 happiness from furs, ivory, silk, & whales,
– cathedrals (music tech): +2 happy face if state religion, +1 happy face from incense [I](for every cathedral so it’s potentially +7 from incense), [/I]
– forges (metal casting tech): +1 happy face from gems, gold, & silver,
– barracks (nationalism tech for civic choice): +2 happy faces if running nationhood
The slider is specific, see further. No counting on culture slider, that’s a grand total of [B]30 potential building happiness points, 18 of those have already been counted [/B]in the resource chapter.
So it’s another possible +12.
[I]Hey we’re already at 45! Why do you have a happiness cap at 5 :crazyeye: ?[/I]
[B][U]3) religion[/U][/B]
If you have a state religion, all cities that have this religion will gain +1 happiness.
If you run free religion civic (requires Liberalism tech), every religion in a city will give 1 happiness
( so potentially +7 happiness)
[I]That’s 53! Is this guy mad?[/I]
[B][U]4) civics [/U][/B]
– free religion is adressed in chapter 3 (every religion gives +1 happiness),
– nationhood is adressed in chapter 2 (barracks give +2 happiness),
– environmentalism (+1 happy face from jungles & forests)
– representation (+2 happy faces in the 5 largest cities : [I]”We love this great city of ours!” [/I])
– Hereditary Rule (+1 happiness for every unit in a city : [I]”we are impressed by the military presence”[/I])
[B]Hey where is the limit? With HR, there is no limit![/B]
[I]Now, there is no limit! :confused: [/I]
[B][U]5) wonders [/U][/B]
globe theater (requires drama + theatre in 6 cities, map size dependant) in a city will make a huge difference in this city : no unhappiness (national wonder).
Notre dame (music tech) gives a small benefit but everywhere : +1 happiness in every city,
Broadway/hollywood/rock’n’roll will provide a happy resource, this is already adressed in chapter 1.
[B]That’s one city immune to unhappiness, and 1 more happiness for every city.[/B]
[I]phew! there was already no limit, and now one city doesn’t even care[pimp] [/I]
[B][U]6) commerce slider[/U][/B]
[U](To use this, you need the drama tech)[/U]
For every 10% culture, you gain 1 happiness.
+1 more with a theatre
+1 more with a broadcast tower
+1/2 more with a colosseum (you need 20% culture for 1 happiness with the colloseum).
+1 permanent happiness from colosseum is already adressed in chapter 2
So, with a theatre, a colosseum and a broadcast tower what do you gain at every culture level:
0% : 0 (really? yes!)
10% : +3 (1 from slider, 1 from theatre, 1 from broadcast tower)
20 % : +7 (2 slider, 2 theatre, 2 broadcast tower, 1 from colosseum)
30 % : +10 (3/3/3/1)
40 % : +14 (4/4/4/2)
50% : +17 (5/5/5/2)
60% : +21 (6/6/6/3)
70% : +24 (7/7/7/3)
80% : +28 (8/8/8/4)
90% : +31 (9/9/9/4)
100%: +35 (10/10/10/5)
[B]Here we see there is a potential of +35 happiness from the slider.[/B]
[I]What do you want with 35 happiness when there was no limit ?:hmm:[/I]
That’s it for a start.
Any constructive criticism is welcome.
To do list :
– show the text for each source of happiness (including civics like environementalism)
[url=http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=189559]Discuss this article on the forum[/url]