Help : Too Crowded

[djdeth]

When I am playing, a lot of times the city tells me that it is too crowded. Even if I build settlers and new cities it does not seem to help. How can I fix this ?

 

[Mischief]

After your cities have reached a certain number of citizens (dependant on difficulty level) all the citizens which exceed this number are going to be unhappy because it`s "too crowded".

These unhappy citizens will not go away, the only thing you can do is to try to balance the number of unhappy faces with happy ones by building "happiness buildings" (temple, theatres,...) or through ressources, religions, culture, etc.

 

[djdeth]

I have tried that, and sometimes I have just about all the possible buildings, and they are mad because it is crowded and sick because it is crowded.

 

[Mischief]

How large are your cities and in which era are you?

 

[Norton II]

I have tried that, and sometimes I have just about all the possible buildings, and they are mad because it is crowded and sick because it is crowded.

I think you might be a little confused. Building temples, hooking up luxes, etc., doesn't decrease unhappiness, it just increases happiness. It's only a problem when unhappiness exceeds happiness; in that case you get angry citizens who consume 2 food per turn but produce nothing (they're the red guys who show up just below the specialists). You should post a save so we can see what's happening.

 

[gettingfat]

A good whip solves everything.

 

[CaptainPuffy]

I usually just change which tiles are being worked to starve the city until it reaches a level where its happy, then I turn on avoid growth and shift my excess population to specialists.

 

[djdeth]

A good whip solves everything.

I have never picked slavery, not sure what happens exactly what I do. The description says that everyone gets mad.

 

[Sjaramei]

I have never picked slavery, not sure what happens exactly what I do. The description says that everyone gets mad.

Slavery lets you work your population to death for some quick hammers. It's useful in lots of situations. (lots of food and pitiful production is a nice combo for it)

(if they get mad just whip them again! )

 

[svv]

Ok first of all on the slavery. As soon as you research broze working, you can change your labor civic to slavery. Do so. After your city gets to enough size, you'll see an orange arrow on the bottom right of the city screen. Click that to immediately produce whatever you're building at the cost of some population (how many depends on how many hammers you needed to finish what you were building).

Some tips on slavery. First, if you are needing it to keep your population down because of unhappiness, try to use it only on "big ticket" items that need two or more population to churn out. The reason is, you get a plus one unhappiness every time you use the whip. So, try to kill off two or more people (and/or use the whip to build happiness improvements like temples).

Second, don't use the whip too often, because the unhappiness builds up. Wait 'till the unhappiness from the previous whip is gone before you whip again. I think that's 10 turns on normal, 30 on marthon.

Other ways to keep your population down are to do something with people other than farming so that you're not generating excess food. Make them specialists if you can, or have them working non-food producing tiles. At least untill you manage to find ways to increase happiness.

Usually the best way to increase happiness is to find resources that make your people happy. Get them by settling, conquest, or trading.

 

[DarkFyre99]

When I am playing, a lot of times the city tells me that it is too crowded. Even if I build settlers and new cities it does not seem to help. How can I fix this ?

The "it's too crowded" reason for unhappiness madis unhappiness generated by population. Even in a city with a population of 1 would be complaining that "it's too crowded."

There's nothing you can do to decrease this except by eliminating (through the whip, the draft, or starvation) your population. The only solution is increasing your happiness, so that your happiness )) is greater than your unhappiness mad.

 

[djdeth]

Other ways to keep your population down are to do something with people other than farming so that you're not generating excess food. Make them specialists if you can, or have them working non-food producing tiles. At least untill you manage to find ways to increase happiness.

Usually the best way to increase happiness is to find resources that make your people happy. Get them by settling, conquest, or trading.

These are stupid questions but how do I make them specialists? How do I pick what people are working on?




Thanks for all the tips so far guys!

 

[svv]

You change what they are working on in the city screen, by clicking on a square in the map (takes the guy off if he was on it, puts a guy on if nobody was on it).

You make them specialists over on the right of that screen by clicking the little plusses by the faces.

 

[cabert]

When I am playing, a lot of times the city tells me that it is too crowded. Even if I build settlers and new cities it does not seem to help. How can I fix this ?

The "it's too crowded" reason for unhappiness madis unhappiness generated by population. Even in a city with a population of 1 would be complaining that "it's too crowded."

There's nothing you can do to decrease this except by eliminating (through the whip, the draft, or starvation) your population. The only solution is increasing your happiness, so that your happiness )) is greater than your unhappiness mad.

darkfyre is right, don't focus on the unhappiness, focus on what you can do to improve happiness!
Check my signatures for this.

These are stupid questions but how do I make them specialists? How do I pick what people are working on?

I think you need to read the manual .

you need specific buildings (library for scientists, market for merchant, ...) or caste system to run specialists.
Just enter the city screen and click on the plus next to the type of specialist you want to run. If you don't have the buildings needed, you will have no + to click on.

 

[OctavianFlu]

Hey DjDeth -- Not to sound repetitive, but I would suggest the War Academy on this site:: http://www.civfanatics.com/civ4/strategy/ Its very useful. You will find how to whip, how to grow, ... all sorts of interesting things. The manual doesn't really explain gameplay too much in detail.

To answer your original question (again not to be repetitive), open the city screen of one of your "unhappy" cities. You will notice that there is a happy face (for happiness level), and a (+) for health. If you exceed your happiness level, then your going to get that. Try watch this level, and try not to exceed your happiness level for long periods of times.

You could link up happy resources like Ivory, Fur, Gold, 'n such in order to increase that number. You could also trade food for happy with AI, or as everyone likes to do at one point in their CIV IV career -- go WHIP HAPPY.

 

[utberguy]

What about appointing citizens into specialists? (when they are not angry)
Does that make the city less crowed?

 

[OTAKUjbski]

What about appointing citizens into specialists? (when they are not angry)
Does that make the city less crowed?

Nope. CivIV denizens just naturally hate life.

N population = +N (It's too crowded) -- even at a lowly population 1.

Once they're part of your population, it doesn't matter if they're miners, farmers, ranchers, specialists or just lazy citizens ... they still add that +1 just for being alive.

The only way to get rid of their associated is to kill them off. Though, the generally accepted strategy is to make more than and let them live.

 

[druidravi]

There is a single way to get rid of unhappiness instead of focusing on increasing happiness. Build a big theatre called the Globe theatre and your people forget every unhapiness. Maybe they should rename it to Civilization 4 on a laptop