Adjusting XML files to 'fix' Happiness.

[falloutboy14]

One new factor in the game that I'm not happy with, is impact that impact that your total population has on expansion. Oftentimes in games, I'll have a settler ready to go, & a location selected, but wait to build it because my happiness is so low, that I can't afford to build a new city. The impact of this is that quite late into games, there are still unsettled areas, as every civ is unable/unwilling to expand due to the happiness hit. And as you begin to conquer other civilizations, you're forced to raze the city, since you can't take the happiness hit.
Why I feel this is necessary: Read if interested

Spoiler :

The main issue at hand is that every population of every city counts as a -1 for happiness. So as your cities grow over time, they continually cost more and more happiness. In previous civ's we experienced some unhappiness due to city size, but not as dramatic as we have in civ 5.
As of now, most cities can access 12 happiness. This means that even with a coliseum, theater. & stadium, cities of more then 11 will inevitably tap into the civ's total happiness(luxuries, wonders, other minor bonuses). This makes having cities of a size of 20 near impossible without either a very small number of cities, or several cities of size 5, with all 3 happiness buildings.
Another concern I have, is early in the game, there is very little access to happiness. If a Civ starts without a luxury good in their city radius(Is that possible?), a Civ could find themselves unable to expand. It's possible there's a happiness requirement before an AI civ will build a new settler/settle a new city. If so, it's possible that Civ's could get caught for a significant part of the early game without expanding. Especially if an AI Civ's tech preferences take it away from construction.

Which begs the question, how do we change this?
The fix I present is to edit the XML files. The file you're looking for is:
Program Files (x86) > Steam > Steamapps > common > Sid Meier's Civilization V > assets > gameplay > xml > buildings > Civ5buildings

Once you get into that file, you're basically free to edit any building. For happiness, what you're looking for is a line similar to this.

<Happiness>2</Happiness>

This means this building gives 2 happiness. You can change the number if you like, so coliseums can give 6 instead of 4 happiness. You can also add that line to other buildings so, for example, monuments, temples, & opera houses give culture & happiness.

If you do this, I'd suggest adjusting Notre Dame & the Eiffel Tower, so they still have importance. I'm going with 8 & 12 respectively.

Any adjustments made can take affect on in-progress games. Buildings already built DO NOT get changed. All the monuments I build had happiness listed as a bonus when I hovered over them with my mouse, however upon loading my game, there was no change from happiness. However, temples I built after saving provided happiness, and coliseums provided +6 happiness.

Other options for more balance/realism with Happiness. Though at this time I don't know how to enact.

Spoiler :

Another option, which perhaps others with more experience can manage, would be to create/adjust buildings to use luxury resources as a strategic resource. Then create happiness buildings similar to factories, which require a luxury resource to build. For example, instead of a monastery requiring an incense/wine in the nearby terrain, simply require that one be available in general. You'd then be able to build one monastery per incense/wine. Luxuries would no longer give +5 happiness, but instead allow you to build multiple happiness buildings.

A second option, and doing this is beyond my ability, the most direct method is to adjust the unhappiness due to population total penalty, sort of give each civ India's trait. I played a game as India, and was able to expand with a limited impact from happiness. Providing every civ with this ability, and giving India either an enhanced, or different ability, could improve the game.

P.S. I have no clue how this will affect online games. I imagine other players will get a notice you're using adjusted game-files, which people don't like. So if you enjoy playing online, you might want to keep a separate save file (copy and paste it somewhere you can find it). This is a good idea in general, in case a change you make does something you didn't intend, and don't know how to fix it. 30 seconds of foresight is better then 4 hours of re-downloading the game.

P.P.S If this goes in the modding section, I apologize, wasn't quite sure where to post, and more people tend to post here.

 

[PTM]

P.S. I have no clue how this will affect online games. I imagine other players will get a notice you're using adjusted game-files, which people don't like. So if you enjoy playing online, you might want to keep a separate save file (copy and paste it somewhere you can find it). This is a good idea in general, in case a change you make does something you didn't intend, and don't know how to fix it. 30 seconds of foresight is better then 4 hours of re-downloading the game.

P.P.S If this goes in the modding section, I apologize, wasn't quite sure where to post, and more people tend to post here.

Never handle modifications to the game in the way you are describing. Anyone wanting to adjust any aspect of the game files should make a mod to do it.