New Version - June 12th (6-12)

[Bhawb]

What beliefs did you choose for your religion? Constant WLTKD + theocratic rule + 3 religious buildings could potentially gain tons of happiness

To clarify, I took a look at happiness with no WLTKD, no GA, no WW or any other factors that would artificially increase/decrease happiness except for multiple puppets (unhappiness here and from my Great Admirals/vassal happiness would largely cancel out), and I had ~120 happiness and ~90 unhappiness, with my cities all set to default management working a moderate number of specialists. WLTKD brought unhappiness down to I think 75ish because of Hippodrome, Fealty, Synagogues and Theocratic Rule, but obviously at that point it was just overkill. But outside of WLTKD I was still doing very well on happiness

Religion was Ancestor Worship, Hero Worship, Orders, Synagogues, Zealotry, Theocratic Rule. So I pretty much erased unhappiness during WLTKD, but whenever it fell off I was still facing well over 100% happiness in a fairly wide empire that was also growing a lot due to consistent WLTKDs.

I'll planning on giving Progress/Statecraft Shoshone a try so I have a larger number of founded cities, no Artistry, and see how it feels. My experiences are reflective of how warmongering felt, and it looks like people are mostly having issues with either very-early Tradition and Progress.

 

[kawyua]

with a lot of these percentage modifiers for unhappiness yield reqs gone, i'm realizing how powerful -% distress stuff like equality and statue of zues is. they are aaaamazing when trying to go wide early on. like impossible without them. oh man i want forbidden palace sooo badly now.
and thank you so much for the
"increase (yield) by (number) for -1" for all the yields
this is great! I'm using it all the time.

 

[Dolen]

makes yield deficits more sensitive in cities

Really? Oh that's definitely the change that's been badly wanted for sure.

 

[Gazebo]

Really? Oh that's definitely the change that's been badly wanted for sure.

Cool, a sarcastic response, exactly what was needed, great work bud.

G

 

[Moi Magnus]

Really? Oh that's definitely the change that's been badly wanted for sure.

Yes, people want more control on happiness.
Increasing the part of unhappiness you have influence on (so yields deficits), compensated by needs being easier to satisfy (Tech modifier now 75% (was 225%)) leads to approximatively the same unhappiness (except early game according to some players) while having more control on it.

 

[Revolutionist_8]

Really? Oh that's definitely the change that's been badly wanted for sure.

It is actually a very good change that gives you more direct control over Happiness while smooting out other factors for balance. So yes, it's exactly what we need. There is no need to unfounded and sarcastical comments.

 

[Dolen]

the part of unhappiness you have influence on (so yields deficits),

Culture and science deficits, do we really have much control over it in the first place.

 

[Bhawb]

Yes, you do.

 

[Earf]

HI, I'm a long-time player of cpp. I like the new changes to happiness. I just wanted to show my game to add some data to this discussion. Settings are 'Standard Size, Continents+, Epic Speed, Emperor'. Opening policy is Authority. Goddess of Purity for my pantheon is helping a lot with happiness here. I'm also at 12 war wariness due to ongoing wars.

 

[Stalker0]

Yes, you do.

I think it falls in the middle. To some extent you do. But sometimes it’s trading one unhappiness bucket for another.

Ultimately is there a strategy to get yields to reduce unhappiness that is any different than what I would do anyway to get yields (because...at the end of the day...it’s all about yields)? I don’t really know.

I know that buildings are in a good place in terms of the feeling of control. I build x, I get happier...yay! Pretty cut and dry. Yields...still not convinced.

 

[Bhawb]

Uploaded a picture of my playthrough, technically I'm about to be in Renaissance (rushed Banks for the Forbidden Palace + Banks with a ton of stored gold shenanigans), but I'm effectively in mid-Medieval. Progress/Statecraft, and as you can see all my cities are happy. I've had to freeze growth a little bit early game because I expanded really quickly to forward settle Polynesia, but otherwise I've not had much issue with happiness. I'm actually growing faster than most of the AI, 3rd in population with ~2-3 pop for me to be #1, and my capital is way above anyone else's due to a pretty broken start with 5 deer in my capital.

I'm working a fair number of specialists currently across the cities too, capital and my other 3 strong cities have 3-4 specialists each.

 

[amateurgamer88]

Uploaded a picture of my playthrough, technically I'm about to be in Renaissance (rushed Banks for the Forbidden Palace + Banks with a ton of stored gold shenanigans), but I'm effectively in mid-Medieval. Progress/Statecraft, and as you can see all my cities are happy. I've had to freeze growth a little bit early game because I expanded really quickly to forward settle Polynesia, but otherwise I've not had much issue with happiness. I'm actually growing faster than most of the AI, 3rd in population with ~2-3 pop for me to be #1, and my capital is way above anyone else's due to a pretty broken start with 5 deer in my capital.

I'm working a fair number of specialists currently across the cities too, capital and my other 3 strong cities have 3-4 specialists each.

I recall that you said you play 4UC. Therefore, you have access both the Encampment and Buffalo Pound. Do you think those might have a positive impact on your happiness leading up to this point?

 

[Kim Dong Un]

Babylonian Empire after 240ish turns on King with Standard settings across the board. Awesome start location allowed me to expand early with progress, and I'm still sitting on my initial 9 cities with 2 puppets now as well. I only ever experienced 1 or 2 unhappiness "problems" that had me drop to around 60%.

*Edit - I went Progress/Statecraft/Industry, only need 4 more currently peace-blocked allied CS, and I've built 11 wonders. I'm 6 techs ahead of the next closest, and my religion envelops my continent with Lizzie, Monty, and the remains of Austria. Craftsmen/Tithe/Synagogue/Coucil of Elders. All these factors obviously contribute to my happiness, but it goes to show that a fairly wide empire can easily deal with this versions unhappiness, if the right situations arise and lead to good play. Then again, it's only King, and I'll try Emperor next. Due to Neb's flavour, all my unhappiness locally has been from boredom and distress. I assume the production from my buffed quarries has really helped on many fronts, and my start location basically won me the game outright. I'll confirm that statecraft was more than competent for my situation, and has allowed me to probably get the Diplo victory before waiting on the SV.

Will also point out I'm using 3/4UC as well, but the UB (National Monument replacement) promotes extra food and science on building investment, which are both things that should technically lead to more unhappiness if I grow/tech too fast. I've never slowed growth, have all cities working specialists on default to a certain extent, and as you can see, I'm even focusing food on my holy city of Borsippa at the moment.

Last picture is to show how Lizzie hasn't dared to settle that iron and salt (I specifically left it after settling Borsippa in early game, to see if she would). She's been sitting on 3 cities the entire game and has never DoW me, even with authority; we're currently in a defensive pact that she approached me with recently. Obviously the changes to territorial dispute are apparent, but every other AI had no problems with settling, and I actually find it interesting that Lizzie didn't settle that spot, as it would've surely instigated a war that she knows she wants no part of (I snowballed to top dog quite early). All other diplo between myself and the AI with regards to territorial dispute seemed spot on. I've still only played 1 game though, and I'll keep an eye on it over my next few games.

 

[Bhawb]

I recall that you said you play 4UC. Therefore, you have access both the Encampment and Buffalo Pound. Do you think those might have a positive impact on your happiness leading up to this point?

Buffalo Pound is giving me pretty minor happiness difference. The bonus production of Well is instead converted to food (net 0 effect on Distress, but makes the city face slightly higher unhappiness from less production towards buildings), so essentially the effect on happiness is whatever the difference of having a Buffalo Camp vs the next best tile would give. So it absolutely has mattered, but I don't think it is giving me 15+ unhappiness reduction.

 

[pineappledan]

Is he playing 4UC? There’s a single buffalo resource in that whole picture.

 

[Bhawb]

I am, although 3 of my cities didn't spawn a buffalo resource. Can buffalo be placed on tundra/desert? I have 3 cities that have no flat plains/grassland to spawn the buffalo on, so in that sense I actually am kinda playing 3.5UC

 

[pineappledan]

Nope! No bison on the tundra and desert

 

[Viralvoid]

I don't know if the happiness is easier to control in this patch like what it should be, I play Indonesia, standard speed, immortal, 4UC. Early game, unhappiness really is a problem based on my past games, on early industrial (only 1 industrial tech), I did what I can do to rise from 62% approval to 92% by building Uffizi (Thanks to way to transcendence) and entering into golden age.

I built every production buildings on all cities still suffering from distress, caravansary-custom house-bank on all cities, still suffering from poverty, No problem with boredom/illiteracy though. I micromanaged every city, stopped growth (well, I know 15+ pop is pretty high on early industrial). I took fealty for the WLTKD bonuses (synagogue, candi).

Like what other suggested, I won't build Statue of Zeus because it is not priority wonder or I don't need the technology ASAP as Indonesia, equality helped a bit, but, rationalism opener does not help at all or I didn't notice, I took faith for the masses for the culture building and its bonus happiness, but none of those helped to lift me up, I'm still at less than 75% approval. What helped me is Uffizi and a golden age, which is weird and very situational. I'm afraid, what if the golden age ended, I wonder what will happen next, what if China built it first with a GE (She's trying to build it, way to transcendence just helped me) ... I can not work my scientists specialists anymore?.

Spoiler Indonesian Empire :

EDIT: I also noticed, I got backstabbed three times in this game by Austria, Assyria and Babylon. They declared war on me even though we have a DOF, no diplomacy screen, suddenly we went to war, no "peace blocked" on the portraits. It's just weird.

 

[tu_79]

I don't know if the happiness is easier to control in this patch like what it should be, I play Indonesia, standard speed, immortal, 4UC. Early game, unhappiness really is a problem based on my past games, on early industrial (only 1 industrial tech), I did what I can do to rise from 62% approval to 92% by building Uffizi (Thanks to way to transcendence) and entering into golden age.

I built every production buildings on all cities still suffering from distress, caravansary-custom house-bank on all cities, still suffering from poverty, No problem with boredom/illiteracy though. I micromanaged every city, stopped growth (well, I know 15+ pop is pretty high on early industrial). I took fealty for the WLTKD bonuses (synagogue, candi).

Like what other suggested, I won't build Statue of Zeus because it is not priority wonder or I don't need the technology ASAP as Indonesia, equality helped a bit, but, rationalism opener does not help at all or I didn't notice, I took faith for the masses for the culture building and its bonus happiness, but none of those helped to lift me up, I'm still at less than 75% approval. What helped me is Uffizi and a golden age, which is weird and very situational. I'm afraid, what if the golden age ended, I wonder what will happen next, what if China built it first with a GE (She's trying to build it, way to transcendence just helped me) ... I can not work my scientists specialists anymore?.

Spoiler Indonesian Empire :

EDIT: I also noticed, I got backstabbed three times in this game by Austria, Assyria and Babylon. They declared war on me even though we have a DOF, no diplomacy screen, suddenly we went to war, no "peace blocked" on the portraits. It's just weird.

Your army is one of the worst in the world. No wonder you are being backstabbed.

 

[XplosiveLun]

Possibly due to vassal. It seems AI still can bypass the master and declare war on vassal.