Possible bug? Discontents through forced labor never reverting?

[FullofHoles]

In one of my cities, I used MASSIVE amounts of forced-labor rushing during a war. I rushed EVERY THIRD TURN for at least 100 turns. (Food production was excellent so I was able to go from population 1 to population 2 every third turn.)

It is HUNDREDS of turns later and still my unhappy people report "94% We cannot forget oppression". I can only maintain ONE non-entertainer. (Population of 5.... four entertainers.... ONE CONTENT PERSON... great food production...)

The rushing all happened back in the stone age and now the middle ages are beginning to end. I am not sure how many turns have come in between, but I have researched at least 12 techs since stopping "the oppression". Averaging 12 turns per tech... 12x12=144 turns... plus 5 in anarchy... 149. And the percentage given in the discontentment report is still 94% for past oppression??

Maybe everything is working correctly, but I was wondering if I had overloaded a buffer so that the computer would never reduce the problem (not even if the game went on for millions of years if the discontent variable was not being lessened). The thing that makes me think so is that the percentage is still 94%. (I do a little programming so I understand how a buffer can be overloaded if it is filled faster than was programmed for.)

Basically, if the discontent factor is working correctly, I have no problem with having to wait around, BUT if it is working incorrectly and waiting will not help me, I will just abandon the city.


That brings me to my second question:
The city in question is my capital... If I abandon my capital (by way of starving them down to a small population and then rushing settlers until they are gone) does a new capital get built automatically (as it would if my capital fell)? Would it just be better to try to get the filthy Romans to CAPTURE my capital so that I would get the free reestablishment of a capital somewhere else?

Thanks in advance for any help.

 

[mark1030]

I don't think you can ever really get rid of a city, can you? When I've tried to build settlers or workers, if there isn't enough population to leave the city with 1 the unit isn't created until there is.

Don't know about a possible bug, but I think each rush build causes 1 citizen to be unhappy for 20 turns. If you were rush building every few turns, I think that would add up. If you rush built 4 things, that would make those 4 workers unhappy for 20 turns. With 8 they'd be unhappy for 40 turns. How many things did your rush build? It might reset the counter every time you added unhappiness to each citizen so if he was 19/20ths done with his unhappiness and you rush built something it might disregard the 19 turns you had built up and add 20 more making it a new 40 turn deal.

 

[FullofHoles]

I am estimating that I rush-built forty swordsmen (that would be 120 turns at once every three turns.) If you are right about the counter resetting for a 19/20ths type of thing, you might have the solution to my problem.

At the time I was rushing, I had only one citizen (rushing every instant that the second citizen was built). 40x20, including resets, should leave me with 800-unhappy-citizen-turns "produced"... divided by my current population of five gives 160 turns until the pain goes away...

Okay... that makes sense. Game is quite likely working correctly then. I may have played as little as 125 turns since the end of the rushing (I was guessing 149 turns but it could be 125.)

Someday, Rykla will be happy again... Probably about the time that I research Steel. Damn these people have long memories.

 

[FullofHoles]

Incidentally, I have successfully abandoned cities. I had a size 2 that was in imminent danger of capture. It had built up about 35 shields. I switched production to "settler" and the next turn the game said "If Bactra builds a settler, the city will be abandoned. Abandon city? Delay production? Change project?"

I built a settler, abandoning Bactra. Disbanded settler.... MASADA! Those damn Romans failed to gain anything for their invasion.

 

[FullofHoles]

Mark1030, you were right... the city did come back into order eventually. I think I probably set a record for length of discontment though... IT TOOK UNTIL THE YEAR 1620 FOR MY CAPITAL TO RECOVER FROM DISCONTENT CAUSED BY OPPRESSION BACK IN THE STONE AGE! Hehehe... I think that I will probably not use rush-builds to quite that extent again.

I was wrong though when I joked that it would probably take until the advent of steel. It took until the advent of MASS PRODUCTION two techs beyond steel.

 

[Sebastian]

Err.. how in the world can you actuallly TELL why they are unhappy?

 

[LayZMan]

You guys know if flat out starving the unhappy ones to kill them off helps any? I never had problems to the extent of some of you guys but would be nice to know. I think there is a certain turn consequence for either each rush built unit or improvement or penalty for each citizen used. If so, then obviously if you're hacking up your population all the time, you're screwed for awhile.

 

[LayZMan]

You guys know if flat out starving the unhappy ones to kill them off helps any? I never had problems to the extent of some of you guys but would be nice to know. I think there is a certain turn consequence for either each rush built unit or improvement or penalty for each citizen used. If so, then obviously if you're hacking up your population all the time, you're screwed for awhile.

 

[Nanook]

Originally posted by Sebastian
Err.. how in the world can you actuallly TELL why they are unhappy?

Either left or right click on the unhappy person in the city screen. It'll give you a list of reasons why they're unhappy, such as overcrowding, war weariness, etc etc.

 

[FullofHoles]

LayZMan:

The way I understand it, starving them off should actually HURT your situation more. If I understand correctly, there is a "bank" of unhappiness that builds up at 20-unhappiness-turns for each citizen sacrificed. Each separate set of 20-u-t's is assigned to the next content citizen and lasts until it is used up. This means that the more citizens you have, the more 20-u-t packs you can be using up simultaneously.

I am not sure about any of this, but it seems likely.