Happiness of citizens, how does it work?

[Homie]

I thought I knew how it worked but obviously I don't. I have some examples.

A town,
Population l happiness Improvements l Lux l Difficulty
6 Temple 2 Emperor
10 Temple, cathedral 2 Emperor
9 Temple, cathedral 2 Emperor

These examples are from the same game at the same time. I have the Hanging Gardens on the same continent as these cities.

Now by my count, the first town should have 2 happy citizens, 3 content and 1 uhappy. this is how I reason:
2 lux = 2 happy
1 default content + hanging gardens makes 1 more content and the temple 1 as well, that is 3 + 2 for the lux which leaves 1 for unhappy. BUT this town has 3 unhappy, 2 happy and only 1 content, how come???

The second city has 2 happy, 4 content and 4 unhappy. but by my count it should have 2 happy, 6 content (3 for Cathedral) and 2 unhappy.

The third city has 2 happy, 4 content and 3 unhappy. but by my count it should have 2 happy, 6 content (3 for Cathedral) and 1 unhappy.

anybody knows why it is like this, my government is democracy by the way.

 

[Homie]

I am in democracy and in war, so I figured that was it. But then I used an earlier save where my government was Monarchy. Now my cities where like I figured they would be in my first post. I was first appeased, but then discovered that in the 2 largest cities I had 2 pikemen generating 2 content faces, and in my town I had one pikeman.

So after re-counting my first town should in Monarchy have 2 happy, 4 content (Because of the pikeman) and none unhappy. But it has 2 hapy, 3 content and 1 unhappy.

The second city has 2 happy, 6 content and 2 unhappy. but by my count it should have 2 happy, 8 content (2 for the pikemen) and none unhappy.

The third city has 2 happy, 6 content and 1 unhappy. but by my count it should have 2 happy, 7 content (It cant have more than 7 content because the city is only size 9) and of course none unhappy because there are no one left. By my count the city should be size 11 before an unhappy citizen appeared when you have temple, cathedral, hanging gardens on the continent, 2 pikemen, 2 lux and are in Monarchy.

Does anybody understand the system?

 

[Ronald]

This question can't be answered without more details:

Did you rush any improvement less than 20 turns ago?
Are these cities all connected to al luxuries?
If they are on different continents/ islands, is there a harbour?
Did you draft citizens?
Do you have a wonder (like sisitine chapel which is only increasing happiness on one continent?
Did you capture one of these cities from another civ?
Did you add a foreign worker to this city?
Did you abandon a unhappy city next to one of yours?

Without any (and probably some more) of the above influences, the formulas you mentioned above should work right.

Ronald

 

[Catt]

Unless I'm mistaken, luxuries turn content citizens into happy citizens (not unhappy to happy, but unhappy to content if there are no content citizens). All the other factors turn unhappy into content.

Taking your last example: 9 citizens, 2 garrisoned units, HG on the continent, temple, cathedral, Emperor level, and 2 luxuries:

On Emperor, 1 citizen is born content - the rest unhappy. So:

0 - 1 - 8 (happy - content - unhappy)

Two garrisoned units (military police effects):

0 - 3 - 6

Hanging Gardens:

0 - 4 - 5

Temple:

0 - 5 - 4

Cathedral:

0 - 8 - 1

Two luxuries:

2 - 6 - 1

All this also presumes that your luxury slider is set to 0% (or low enough that no mood changes are affected in this city) and that no other mood effects have been felt (drafting / pop-rushing / etc.). The same analysis holds true for the previous examples you cited.

 

[Homie]

Thanks a lot Catt, now I get it