(48) Proposal: Smooth grow penalty from unhappiness.

[CppMaster]

Currently, grow penalty happiness is flat for every threshold:

The consequence of that is the difference between 50% and 49% happiness is big, while there is no difference between 49% and 36%, which makes no sense and it feels artificial.

Proposal: Make the grow penalty from unhappiness linear:

Thanks to that every difference in happiness would result in the same difference in growth modifier (except 10% and below and 50% and above). The function feels more natural than artificial thresholds.
The function: Growth modifier (in %) = Happiness (in %) * 2.5 - 25, but should never be less than 0% and 100%, so clamp(growth_modifier, 0, 100)
On average the growth penalty would about the same as before, but it would smoothly decrease instead.
Link to calculations: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1jpm5R2CGyeqcMf--m6rxxLrtCwNwGpuVFcP-pAnONPE/edit?usp=sharing

 

[Recursive]

The growth penalty makes it harder for the city to keep growing and increasing Unhappiness even further. Doing it this way, while better for the player with optimal play (i.e. Avoid Growth), would be worse for players who are not so attentive to their Unhappiness total. Not saying that's a bad thing, but something to be aware of.

 

[Stalker0]

I already have to pay attention to happiness, I don't want every % point to be fret over in maximizing yields.

 

[CppMaster]

would be worse for players who are not so attentive to their Unhappiness total.

Why would that be harsh for them? If they don't pay attention to that, it will punish them similarly on average, which I included in calculation. Also if they won't fluctuate as much with growth penalty when going from 50% to 49% and vice versa.

 

[Recursive]

Why would that be harsh for them? If they don't pay attention to that, it will punish them similarly on average, which I included in calculation. Also if they won't fluctuate as much with growth penalty when going from 50% to 49% and vice versa.

A 2.5% penalty instead of a 25% penalty will not really change growth, thus they will grow and more unhappiness will be added, etc.

It's not a huge deal, just not the most friendly mechanic to newcomers. More focus will be required on Avoid Growth.

 

[CppMaster]

Oh, yeah, you're right. Especially when happiness is harder this VP version. However, I wouldn't say that avoiding growth is friendly mechanic and in the spirit of developing empire. It arificially doesn't make the city unhappy, just because it's needs can only increase when it gain a new citizen. It's one of the weirdest and unintuitive mechanics in the game. Too bad we haven't came up with anything better.

 

[Rekk]

Hence why we want a steep happiness increase right at the beginning. If you want to make it smooth, I would suggest polynomial or exponential growth from zero.

 

[axatin]

I sponsor this.

 

[josh4]

I play VP for many years, on and off, and happiness system was always an obscure mechanic for me in it's numbers. I could manage it, locking cities, etc. but I didn't understand what change from 53 to 78 % meant. It must be hella confusing to new players as well. There'a are basically two numbers that are needed right now: 50 and 35% as only they change anything. We could scrap happiness as numbers totally and just introduce a happy, sad, and angry emoji and call it a day and the system would be more clear. Let's make those other percentages matter, as tight now there's no difference if you're 50 or 100%. This also helps prioritising lux tarde, etc.

 

[Recursive]

Proposal Sponsors: axatin.

(Sponsors have indicated that they are able and willing to perform the code changes required for this proposal if the community votes Aye on it. Other coders are free to sponsor this as well. A proposal without a sponsor will not advance to the Voting Phase.)