Mechanics of Happy/Content Faces

[SebT27]

I've got interested in War Weariness: I was suffering from it a lot as a Republic, during a long-drawn-out war with the Incas.

So I read this thread, which has great details on how WW works. Looking at the SAV file (using Civ3 MultiTool) for the year just after I got what I wanted from the Incas and made peace, I saw that my WW level relative to the Incas was 137. Well into "Level 4 war-weariness" territory, which - according to that thread - should mean that, as a Republic, 100% of my people were unhappy. But somehow, the Empire was still running smoothly. I think this must have been due to 7 luxuries (now 8) and Marketplaces, as I hardly moved the Luxury slider above 20% or perhaps 30% for a few turns late in the war.

A few turns later, my WW level decayed to 116 - exactly as that WW thread I linked to predicts. This was now Level 3 WW, meaning (again, for my Republic) 75% of citizens unhappy. But everyone started breaking out the beer and fireworks for WLTKD! Well, a few cities were still a bit grumpy, but grumpy only in the sense of "no WLTKD".

I can only guess that my Happiness-fu is so staggeringly, overwhelmingly awesome that it can not only cancel out Level 3 WW (75% unhappiness), but make everybody happy. I am, of course, an awesome Despot (strictly, it's We Love the Despot Day, as I am Despot Stepan of the Serbs). If only at Chieftain level...

So I got interested in how Happy and Content works. I know all about the "Citizens born content" (4 for me at Chieftain), about Temples/Coliseums/Cathedrals and military police effects (previously - obviously MP no longer works for me now as a Republic). And I've long loved using Marketplaces mid/late-game when I have 3-4+ Luxuries hooked up (I hardly ever build Colis or Cathedrals).

But there's still quite a bit I don't understand, so I checked out this thread on Happiness. My questions:

1. I always thought that each Happy Face (e.g. from a Marketplace) initially "tries" to find a Content citizen and make them Happy; but then, if there are no Contents left, it looks for an Unhappy and makes them Content - at the same rate of 1 citizen turned Unhappy->Content per Happy Face. But the Civilopedia says different:

Over in that thread, justanick says that the "reduced efficiency" is 0.5 - so you'll need 2 Happy Faces to make one Unhappy citizen Content. Is that correct?

2. Here's a screenshot of my capital:

How does the Luxury slider work? Do those 6 Happy Faces at the bottom of the Commerce section act just like the ones from the Marketplace/Luxuries?
I'm guessing (but tell me if I'm wrong), that the actual base commerce for this city (capital, so no corruption which makes things simpler) must be 60, because 10% Luxury = 6. The Tax and Science totals (and the 182 per turn grand total) are obviously "distorted" by the many multiplies (Lib, Uni, Marketplace, Bank, possibly Copernicus or something).

3. I think that, in this city, I have (talking about Faces, not the end result on citizens):

4 Content faces (1 Temple + 3 Mausoleum [not visible on screenshot]; no other Content/Happy wonders operating)
26 Happy faces. (A good argument for connecting/"acquiring" Luxuries and building Marketplaces).

Which means that, if JustaNick is correct about 1 Happy Face making 0.5 Unhappies Content, the city's overall "stop Unhappy" power is:
(26/2) + 4 =17.
So no-one's Unhappy here, no surprise there. What is surprising is that all the citizens - all 12 of them - are not just Content, but Happy. Especially, when according to the SAV file, my whole empire is still suffering from Level 3 War Weariness!

Here's how I'm working it out, using H C and U for Happy/Content/U citizens

a) Base mood: because I get 4 "born content" citz at Chieftain, and there are 8 more citz in this city: 0H, 4C, 8U
b) War Weariness @75%. Out of 12, that makes 8U. But there are only 4Cs to be made U, so result is: 0H, 0C, 12U
c) Temple and Mauso make 4 Us into Cs: 0H, 4C, 8U
d) UniSuffrage finds at least 1 WarWeary Us, makes 1 into a C.* 0H, 5C, 7U
d) 14 Happy Faces make 7Us into Cs: 0H, 12C, 0U
e) I have 12 Happy Faces left out of 26. Makes 12Cs into Hs. 12H, 0C, 0U

* I didn't mention UniSuffrage before, as it doesn't make anyone Content unless there's someone Unhappy because of War Weariness.

That fits with what you can see on the screenshot: 12 Happies. But - if my calcs are correct - this city is "on the edge" of losing WLTKD: the Happy Faces only just make all 12 citz Happies.

The bit I'm dubious about is (b). Before WW is applied, there are already 8/12 citz Unhappy here. WW now wants to make 8 "more" citz (75%) unhappy here. There are three plausible ways this "more" could work:

i. Hey, there are already 8 Unhappies anyway! Do nothing, leave the 4 Contents alone, just add to the Unhappies' worries. (An earlier version - CivII? - had the concept of a "really Unhappy" citizen; possibly); or
ii. But there are no Happies, and only 4 Contents. So, make 4 Cs into Unhappies and leave it at that; or
iii. There are 4 Contents and 8 Unhappys. Make 8 Unhappy anyway, so that 16 citz are Unhappy in this city - even though it only has 12 citz.

I've used (ii). (i) is a bit implausible, because if this was how it worked, "base Unhappiness" would likely be big enough under Republic-sized cities (and even bigger if you're playing at a higher level) for WW to have no further effect on actual Unhappiness. And (iii) seems wrong - more Unhappies than there are citz in the city.

I wish there was something which exposed these calculations. CivAssist II doesn't show them.

Conclusions
- Marketplaces + (multiple) Luxuries are amazing at making Content people Happy. But possibly slightly less awesome at making Unhappys Content.
- Twiddling the Luxury rate has the most effect on big, rich, central cities. Because the local effect on an outlying town with say only 6 total Commerce will be negligible. Depending on the rounding, you'd have to set Luxuries to 30 or 40% to even get 2 Happy Faces there. And even that's assuming that all 6 base Trade points make it into the city treasury uncorrupted.

 

[justanick]

I always thought that each Happy Face (e.g. from a Marketplace) initially "tries" to find a Content citizen and make them Happy; but then, if there are no Contents left, it looks for an Unhappy and makes them Content - at the same rate of 1 citizen turned Unhappy->Content per Happy Face.

Yes. And it takes 2 happy faces to turn an unhappy citizen into a happy one. So that is a two step process.

How does the Luxury slider work? Do those 6 Happy Faces at the bottom of the Commerce section act just like the ones from the Marketplace/Luxuries?

Yes. Happy faces from war happiness work that way, too.

I'm guessing (but tell me if I'm wrong), that the actual base commerce for this city (capital, so no corruption which makes things simpler) must be 60, because 10% Luxury = 6.

Apart from possible rounding issues that is correct.

Which means that, if JustaNick is correct about 1 Happy Face making 0.5 Unhappies Content,

That i did not state.

the city's overall "stop Unhappy" power is:
(26/2) + 4 =17.

You also need to account for the 4 citizens not born unhappy. 4 content faces increase the number of content citizens to 8. 8 happy faces turn them happy, so the 8 first citizens are happy and at size 8 26-8=14 happy faces have no (positive) effect at all. At size 8+14/2=15 you have 15 happy citizens. The 16th citizens would be unhappy.

What is surprising is that all the citizens - all 12 of them - are not just Content, but Happy. Especially, when according to the SAV file, my whole empire is still suffering from Level 3 War Weariness!

Well, as a republic that is 50% unhappyness, so those are 6 unhappy faces. Those turn content citizens into unhappy ones.

You start at 4 content and 8 unhappy citizens. 4 content faces and 6 unhappy faces turn it into 2 content and 10 unhappy citizens. 2 happy faces turn it into 2 happy and 10 unhappy citizens. 20 more of the 26 happy faces turn it into 12 happy citizens, leaving 4 happy faces unused.

b) War Weariness @75%.

There is no such thing.

O

Thread 'How does war weariness work?'

Aug 16, 2003

The study of war weariness goes on. I will thank Bamspeedy and DaveMcW (any other?) for their research, it really helped.

General:
We measure war weariness with wwp (war weariness point). Each civ have one wwp number against each of the other civs.

The different levels of war weariness:

Level   wwp
 -1:     -   0   wh (war happiness)
  0:   0 -  30   normal, no effect
  1:  31 -  60      
  2:  61 -  90
  3:  91 - 120
  4: 121 -

Effect of ww in war:

All government:
Level -1: 25% happy people

Republic:
Level 1: 25% unhappy people...

• Oystein
• Replies: 92
• Forum: Civ3 Strategy Articles

3 wars giving you 25% each is possible. Also one war giving you 100% but a police station reducing it by 25% percentage points to 75% is possible. UniSuffrage can reduce those unhappy faces by one more.

Conclusions

The most important one is that any happy citizen above the amount of unhappy citizens is essentially wasted. WLTKD has a minor effect, paying for it with spending on the luxury slider is not worth it.

 

[tjs282]

These calculations are all very well, but if I read @SebT27's wall o'text correctly, he(?) has now made peace with the Inca. So even though his Civ's WW-counter is still high from that war (albeit now ticking down), the WW unhappiness effects go away entirely.

 

[SebT27]

Yes. And it takes 2 happy faces to turn an unhappy citizen into a happy one. So that is a two step process.

That i did not state.

Ah, after a more careful reading of your comment I get you: you're right. 1 Happy Face can make a Content Happy, or an Unhappy Content. 2 Happy Faces can make an Unhappy->Content->Happy. Civilopedia's text about "reduced efficiency" is misleading. It works just as I previously thought: one face per "mood move". But Unhappy-Happy is 2 "mood moves". And a Content face can't make a Content Happy.

There is no such thing [as 75% Republican WW from Level 3]

Again, my misreading! WW level effects go 25%, 50%, 50%, 100%. I skim-read it and assumed it was a strict sequence.

Thanks! And Merry Christmas!

 

[SebT27]

These calculations are all very well, but if I read @SebT27's wall o'text correctly, he(?) has now made peace with the Inca. So even though his Civ's WW-counter is still high from that war (albeit now ticking down), the WW unhappiness effects go away entirely.

Have to rein in that "wall-o-text" tendency I have (I'm he, BTW).

From Oystein's first post in that WW thread, I understand that your WW score relative to another civ - here, the Incas - doesn't decay to 0 immediately on a peace declaration. Instead it decays at roughly ( 1/20 of remaining score) per year. This prevents an exploit, whereby you'd declare peace (bye-bye WW!), and just redeclare war on the next turn. Your citz remember, and can't be tricked that easily.

But that's a good question you pose: the WW score remains, but after peace, do the effects (e.g. 50% or 100% Unhappies) still persist? I'm not sure, even after re-reading some of that thread.

 

[justanick]

But that's a good question you pose: the WW score remains, but after peace, do the effects (e.g. 50% or 100% Unhappies) still persist?

During peace WW is suspended. Only in war you can have war weariness.

 

[tjs282]

@SebT27 yeah, I wasn't raising a question there. No war means no additional unhappiness from WW.

You can easily test this for yourself. Drop your Lux-slider temporarily to zero, find a town with unhappy citz, and right-click on one of them to find out why they're unhappy. When you're at peace, no-one will be complaining "All we are saying, is give peace a chance" (= default message, set in the script.txt file, which indicates WW-unhappiness)

 

[SebT27]

This is great, thanks! Said how I thought it works, and you've both put me right on bits I'd got wrong.

So in fact I don't have any WW in my game right now; and my "Happiness-fu" is excessive - wasted, as justanick said. Given no WW (only underlying, well let's call it "potential WW which would come out if I declared on the Incas again"), the formula is very simple, close to what I previously thought.

A Market with 8 luxuries, assuming no other improvements or Wonders, gives 20 Happy Faces, which means 10 citz can be turned from Unhappy to Happy. At Chieftain where I am, that means a Mkt can "happify" a size-14 city all the way to WLTKD. And WLTKD is just a nice-to-have (I like it because of its effect on Corruption). So I can turn my Happiness slider down to 0. Happy days! Markets are great.

 

[justanick]

A Market with 8 luxuries, assuming no other improvements or Wonders, gives 20 Happy Faces, which means 10 citz can be turned from Unhappy to Happy. At Chieftain where I am, that means a Mkt can "happify" a size-14 city all the way to WLTKD.

No. Happy faces do only turn unhappy citizens content if no content citizen exists.

So the first 4 happy faces are used to turn the 4 citizens born content to happy. Further 16 happy faces are used to turn 8 unhappy citizens happy. So that is only 12 happy citizens, number 13 is unhappy.