I have been having major problems with happiness in the October patch.
I am playing on Immortal as Russia (though I have also played with Aztecs and saw similar issues). First of all, it's been very difficult to maintain positive happiness in general even though I am doing very well:
1. I have a lot of luxuries (9-10)
2. I am the tech leader
3. My cities are producing a healthy amount of gold.
And yet I just hit -29 unhappiness.
Moreover, it happened in 2 turns. I was at positive 2. Next turn it dropped to -7. The next to -29.
Moreover I noticed that building descriptions will say something along the lines that this building reduces the X need and the numbers will show old need and new need. The change seems almost insignificant (for example 2 one hundredths of a point - example 2.68 downn to 2.66).
I just don't understand this, and it seems extremely hard to control. I seem to hit a point in the game where, even though I am doing very well and am on a winning path, the game becomes unplayable because my happiness just tanks. Moreover, it's extremely swingy. I don't get this. The dual factor of it being extremely difficult to keep the empire happy and the fact that the swings are huge and completely unpredictable makes the game almost unplayable at that point. It just feels arbitrary and uncontrollable.
Have other people noticed the same thing? I did not have this issue in the earlier versions of the game, where I had little trouble keeping my empire happy.
