Problems with overcrowding

[Ghost Dancer]

Hi

I'm fairly new to this game and I think I am missing something quite essential (a brain for example ).

Seriously though, I seem to have a problem with overcrowding. I can't see any other posts with people having a similar problem so this must seem like a pretty stupid question.

Basically, all my cities are overcrowded. This is ok for smaller cities because happiness gained from temples, theatres etc. is greater than unhappiness gained from overcrowding. However, on bigger cities (my capitol has just grown to size 21), even after building every happiness generating building possible, it's just too much. This also affects the city health as well.

I'm sure I'm missing something obvious here but I can't work out how to overcome this problem. The only thing I can see is the "avoid growth" option in each city. Would this prevent the overcrowding from occuring? If so then that's good, but what about cities that are already overcrowded, how do I make it so my population is not overcrowded?

Any help would be much appreciated.

 

[MrMahk]

Putting avoid growth on would stop the unhappiness from escalating for now, and if you are a huge tech leader, it might be good to raise culutre a bit, as I believe this provides extra happiness from theaters and colosseums- (I'm pretty sure it's these two)

As for getting rid of population, slavery would do it...

PS: Welcome to CFC!!

 

[m15a]

remember that although cities "naturally" grow, doesn't mean you always have to let them. plan ahead and if you know you can't make your cities happy, trade off food production for hammers, gold, or specialists.

having smaller cities with fewer farmers means that you can consider having cities closer together. which means less corruption or more cities of you're cramped.

if you feel like you really want to have bigger cities, there are lots of options, though. a nice simple one is having the representation civic. the one that gives you +3 happiness in the largest 5 or so cities. other possibilities are raising your luxury rate and making sure your cities have theatres and colleseums. you can also put shakespeare's theatre in your pargest city. nice if you want to have one really huge one.

edit: oh yeah. and if you already have unhappiness, starvation is always an option. those unhappy citizens really suck, so they're better off dead*. with slavery, don't forget that it adds to unhappiness.

* don't feel bad. you're not really killing them. you're just displacing them.

 

[Pellanor]

This is just one of the many things that you have to manage in Civ IV.

Th eonly way to get rid of overcrowdedness is to increases happiness / health. Even that really doesn't get rid of the overcrowdedness (I'm starting to like that word), but only makes it so it doesn't have any impact.

To increase hapiness: build the hapiness buildings, increase your culture slider, get access to as many different "happiness" resources as possiple (Gems, Ivory, Wine, etc...)
To reduce Unhapiness: make sure you have defence in the city so they don't complain about not being protected.
To increase health: don't chop all your forests, get the health buildings (Granary, Harbor, Aquaducts, etc...) , and get access to health resources (pigs, rice, clams, etc...).
To reduce unhealthiness: chop jungles, build recycling centers.

If you use the avoid growth button then your city will not grow above it's current population. Ever. Or at least untill you turn it off.

The only ways to get rid of population: Slavery to rush buildings / troops, or you can just manage your resources so that there's not enough food produced and your people starve.

I think there were three topics on this yesterday, but I'm too lazy to check.

By the way, I'm not expert at Civ IV, so these are just some basic strategies. When somebody more expereinced posts, listen to them.

 

[Wodan]

After you get theatre, try putting your culture slider to 10%.

Regardless of that Slavery is always a good option. Yes, it adds to unhappiness which is what you're trying to avoid. However, at worst it's a break-even proposition and you get rushed production out of the deal. (you "spend" a citizen and get -1 happiness, but you now have less population and thus you shouldn't be getting as much unhappiness for overcrowding).

Wodan

 

[Ghost Dancer]

Wow, those responses were quick. Thanks.

So overcrowding always happens, you just need to build enough distractions to keep them happy?

I did switch to represemtation - it helped for a bit but then the city grew bigger. Starvation sounds like a solution, I'll give that a try

Thanks again for all your quick responses.

 

[petey]

Trading resources helps. If your cities can support 10 happiness and 15 health but you don't have any extra resources, trade away one of your single health resources for a happiness resource to get a couple of extra population in before hitting one of the limits. You can later cancel this if you can get hold of another resource elsewhere. Also, look at your buildings and see what bonuses they give to resources - for instance, if you have a Cathedral, then Incense is worth +2 happiness instead of +1, so if you're trading to an AI for Gold when he has an extra Incense, cancel that trade and redo it for the Incense instead of the Gold for the extra bonus.

If you have theatres and colliseums, you can up your happiness by increasing the culture bar. Also, if your cities are growing too fast for your resources to keep up, switch some citizens to specialists to slow the rate down while you go and take over a city that has something you need.

If worst comes to worst, sometimes a city is more productive if you starve out some unhappy citizens.

 

[Spiral]

After you get theatre, try putting your culture slider to 10%.

I think theatres and colloseums provide +1 for every 20% culture

Hereditary rule can help alot with happiness if you can afford a sizeable defensive military.

 

[Imaginactra]

I am making the assumption that if your city is size 21, it is fairly late in the game (post 1200 AD or such) and you have contact with many "friends".

I just popped open my latest Civ IV save (1958 AD, very late game) and brought up the city screen for my second city (size 22). My capital, a size 26 city, has the globe theater wich eliminates any unhappiness from any source, so I cannot use it as a guide to help you.

Currently, I am generating 26 happiness to the 22 population (on Noble level). The smileys break down to: +2 Our State religion is the best (From the Bhuddist Stupa), +2 Some buildings make us happy (Temple, Colluseum with 0 luxury percentage), +15 We love our luxury resources, +1 In our Religion we trust (happiness from Bhuddism itself), another +1 From Buildings (not sure which one this refers too), and +5 We just love life (handicapping from Noble level).

The luxuries I get in break down this way; +2 from dyes (theater adds +1), +2 Gems (Forge adds +1), +2 Gold (Forge +1), +2 Incense (Stupa +1), +2 Silver (Forge +1), +1 Spices, +1 Wines, +1 Hit Musicals (Broadway), +1 Hit Singles (Traded 1 Musical for Singles), +1 Hit Movies (Traded one of my 4 Aluminum for it).

Some of these above (other than the singles and movies) are imported. Trading your surplus for these goods is the key. If you don't have the surplusses that I have (huge map, 11 opponents, alone on my own continent), then the theater (+1 happy per 10% luxury, +1 for dye) and colloseum (+1 happy, +1 per 20%) are your keys, togeather they can generate significant happiness, but you have to adjust your luxury slider to make them function beyond their base.

Hope this is a help.

 

[Ghost Dancer]

Ah, I was focussing on my research. Knocking the culture up with Coleseums etc. makes a BIG difference Thanks

I've also staved out some of my population which has helped.

 

[GeorgeOP]

I'm just throwing out a guess here, I'm not sure if it's accurate.

One of the holdovers me and several other people had from CivIII was to farm everything in sight. I learned that you only need a couple of farms (depends on what food bonuses you have, etc.) Use the extra space for Cottages, especially those river spaces. This automatically slows down your growth, and adds Commerce to your city, which increases research, gold, and culture.

 

[TEP]

Use the extra space for Cottages, especially those river spaces.

True, but make sure you farm some of those river spaces as well so you can chain irrigation later on.
I made the mistake of placing cottages all along a river. Later, after they had grown to nice towns, I had to tear some down to get irrigation (+1 food) to the farms my growing city needs.