Micro-Management, Happiness and Emperor level

[Rambuchan]

I've been reading Monarch to Emperor: the Great Leap by Ision, as I'm finding that each Monarch game is just a foregone conclusion these days and I'm on the verge of cranking up to Emperor. So I'm checking in with Ision's article to see how my gameplay scratches up and I'm doing nearly all the things suggested as a matter of course now. It just seems intuitive, albeit with my own personal preferences

What I am confused with however is the micro-management issue, especially with regard to happiness. It's a small but significant something I've noticed and still get a little perplexed about it. It concerns rioting cities and the amount of unhappy faces.

Why is it a city can remain in a state of order when it shows one unhappy face yet at other times one unhappy face is enough to tip the balance and the city riots? This can be under the same govt, say Monarchy, as I've noticed it in the ancient age recently. You can also have loads of unhappy faces in massive cities under a warring demo. and the city carries on producing. It's really annoying not knowing the difference because it can be the difference between a city staying in order to produce a desperately needed military unit or going into disorder and having to fight without it.

I realise there are a lot of factors contributing to the process such as the amount and variety of luxuries, effect of happiness improvements, WW, MP, the amount of happy faces vs unhappy and so on. Is there some write up somewhere on this which explains why one unhappy face on its own can bring disorder and at others it matters not? Can anyone shed light on this please?

 

[soriyya]

When it comes to unhappiness and riots in cities, what matters is not the absolute number of unhappy citizens in one city, but the ratio of unhappy to happy citizens. If you have more unhappy than happy citizens in a city, it will riot. Note also that you have one turn to "fix it", as in if a city grew this turn to a size where one citizen too many became unhappy, if you don't do anything about it this turn but instead hit End Turn, the city will riot then. As far as I know, there are no other effects that matter when it comes to cities rioting.

soriyya

 

[WackenOpenAir]

To evaluate happiness, count as follows:

content citizen = 0
happy citizen = +1
unhappy citizen = -1

Now add all your citizens together. If the result is negative, there will be a riot. So just make sure there are never more unhappy citizens than happy citizens.


You have content faces and happy faces. Content faces make unhappy citizens content, happy faces make content citizens happy or unhappy citizens content if there are no content citizens to make happy.
So they both are equally good unless all your citizens are content already, then contect faces will not help you anymore.
luxuries and the luxury slider produce happy faces.
military police produces content faces.
Happiness buildings like temples i am actually not sure about because i never build them

In addition, if you have NO unhappy citizens, at least half your citizens are happy and your city is at least size 6, then you will have a we love the king day. This is something i never pay any effords for though, if it happens it's just a bonus.


When the requirements for a riot are met after city growth, your city won't riot immeadiately. You have 1 turn to solve the problems, if you do not solve it, the city will riot next turn.
When however a luxury resource is lost causing the balance to turn unhappy(ending deals), your city will riot immeadiately.

 

[Aardvark]

You can increase the number of happy people or decrease the number of unhappy people by:
1. Luxury Slider
2. Luxuries attached to your city by road
3. Military Police (MP)
4. Buildings (Temple, Cathedral)
5. Some Wonders

I generally use a warrior early, but some players use the slider rather than MPs. Everyone connects luxuries as soon as possible.

 

[Rambuchan]

Thanks guys. It was mainly the ratio of happy people to unhappy that was the news I needed to hear. Much obliged

 

[tao]

Let me just add my 2 cents:

1. install a mood badge mod, it is a great help in spotting problems in the F1 screen;
2. IMHO WLTKD is something to strive for, because it increases production, which allows you to build markets for preventing even larger cities from riots or/and courts which increase commerce;
3. another source of (temporary) happiness is reverse war weariness occuring when war is declared on you.