The Easiest Method of Maintaining Morale That You've Found?

[Charles 22]

I ask this because there are three methods I can think of, and though I haven't used this new method on anything outside a WWII scenario, I'm wondering what y'all think of it and if you have any methods that are possibly better.

#1. The ol' method of letting the governor doing it. I consider this out of the question.

#2. The method of trying to keep your cities at a high level of morale, but not to compromise production or anything else. The idea is to keep them 2 levels above the riot level. The method of dealing with the riots is to reload the prior save to fix ONLY a riot somewhere. Levels are adjusted everytime a production popup occurs (and occasionally at other places). This is the method I had been commonly using. It works well when your cities are small and when the number of units are small, or when you're not at war. Where the problem lies is if you forget to save at the END of the turn before switching to the AI's turn, and then find that if you did a great amount of fighting that turn that it's a real hassle to start the turn all over because one city rioted.

#3. The current scenario method. I try to maintain city morale only when a production popup occurs (should my production item's time be short - It's not limited to that, but if I see my next prodcution item will be done in 7 turns, then I adjust my morale such that on the 7th turn it will be at it's minimum non-riot morale, given any pop. increase or decrease that is going on). The other thing helping me maintain morale is the F1 screen. I "try" to leave no unhappy citizens when I use this method, therefore when I check the F1 screen I can scroll down ALL the cities quite easily, looking only in the morale column (NOT the 'faces' morale column). In that column it shows you the number of happy and content citizens (but sadly not the unhappy ones). All I have to do is make sure that the happy column has at least one person. Doing that and combining it with adjustments made with popups (if necessary) seems to be pretty foolproof. I used to check both the happy amount and glance over at the animated faces column to make sure there were no sad faces, but even so, even if you do have a sad face, if there's a happy one you'll skirt most of the time. I must say that using this method involves cities which for the most part are making units for every 1-3 turns, but it does seem to work very well under those limited circumstances. Adjust on production popups if necessary and then check F1 at the end of the turn.

Man if that same morale column would list the unhappy faces as well I'd be set. It's just to difficult trying to distinguish the faces in the F1 screen if you have a large population and there are all three types of faces on it.

I hope I explained method #3 without being too confusing

Any other ideas?

 

[Chieftess]

There's no morale system in Civ3. If you mean happiness, then it's pretty much an already-explained topic. Connect to luxuries, and use the lux slider and try to keep your cities in WLTKD.

 

[Tomoyo]

I just deal with it. I usually catch it before it riots, though.

One turn of production usually isn't too much, unless it is very early.

 

[Charles 22]

There's no morale system in Civ3. If you mean happiness, then it's pretty much an already-explained topic. Connect to luxuries, and use the lux slider and try to keep your cities in WLTKD.

Yeah, that's what I meant. I'm not too fond of WLTKD, though what I described in method 3 is pretty much the same thing. In any event, whatever level you're trying to maintain, the difficulty is pretty much the same, as one doesn't want too much fluctuation. Trying to keep in WLTKD is just as difficult as trying to stay one level above riot conditions, assuming one doesn't throw excess entertainers in.

I'm sorry if touching on an already explained topic may be a trifle too boring, but apparently if this method I described were explained earlier, it must've been a trifle too boring for me, because I sure don't recall it, though of course I don't read every thread.

The current game I'm playing has little or no luxuries -period- and thanks for reminding me of the slider, though I can't imagine using it in this situation. I find the slider only helpful when I'm not able to meet the maximum research effort through the pop. alone. Too often I find that a 10% slider boost to all my cities is WAY too inefficient to hope to achieve any sort of dominance (most cities would need no boost, only one or two would need 10%, and then a few more would need only 5%). Playing the scenario I'm playing has really changed my outlook, but I never did like the inefficiency of governors or sliders. Basically, I'm willing to work for maximum efficiency, and only then do I want to make that as easy as possible. I'm not a good enough player to just sit back and crank luxuries to 10-20% all the time and hope to win.

 

[Tomoyo]

Hmm... Currently I'm playing a game where I built Sistine's, JS Bach's, Shakespeares, Cathedrals and Marketplaces in all my cities, the Hanging Gardens, and all eight luxuries, on Monarch. (Rhye's Earth Map)

This just seems too irrelevant for me.

The most efficient way is to let the governor control some of your cities, and keep an eye on the ones with fluctuating population

 

[TimBentley]

CrpMapStat and CivAssist (both available in the utility programs section of the creation and customizatino forum) both will alert you when a city is going to riot (unless something changes during the turn or you lose a luxury in between turns or something like that), making it possible to avoid almost all riots (if you pay attention, at least).

 

[SJ Frank]

First of all, it sounds like you don't know the basic rule about civ happiness:

- a cities will stay happy if it has at least as many happy citizens as unhappy citizens.

So having at least 1 happy face does not guarantee that a city won't riot, nor it is necessary to make sure that there are no unhappy citizens.

You are on the right track regarding how to check for happiness. F1 is a great tool. The faces in that screen are seperated into 3 columns, from left to right: happy, content, unhappy. You just need to make sure that the first column is fatter than the last.

Also, because of the way that corruption works, you don't need to check all of your cities. Those cites far from your capital can be fixed after they riot. Because of their corruption, their rioting won't cost you much. In general, you just need to make sure that your most productive cities do not riot. Rank your cities in F1 according to what you think make them important(population, production, etc.), and you shouldn't need to scroll the city list when checking happiness.

The great thing about use F1, is that when your empire grows large enough such that F1 checking becomes impractical, then having a few cities rioting in a turn also becomes none-critical.

On a more advanced level, when dealing with unhappiness, it is good to plan ahead. For instance, if you know that your city will becomes unhappy at size 9, then you had better have the remedy in place when you grow to size 9. The remedy can be a building, a military poilice unit, an extra click on the lux slider, a lux item, or maybe just building a setter/worker out of the city.

 

[The Last Conformist]

Can't get bothered to check all cities each turn once I've got a handful. I just take the occasional revolts.

Luxuries and Marketplaces are best way of dealing with them, since it doesn't sacrificize anything else (except what you may be paying to other civs for foreign luxes).

 

[Charles 22]

Hmm... Currently I'm playing a game where I built Sistine's, JS Bach's, Shakespeares, Cathedrals and Marketplaces in all my cities, the Hanging Gardens, and all eight luxuries, on Monarch. (Rhye's Earth Map)

This just seems too irrelevant for me.

The most efficient way is to let the governor control some of your cities, and keep an eye on the ones with fluctuating population

Hmmm, well what if you played a scenario with NO luxuries and NO wonders? I am playing such a scenario. It changes your strategy considerably. Just to give you some idea on what I'm dealing with, barracks are giving one unit of happiness increase for example. It's not like there's nothing that will help with happiness, but it's very unconventional.

 

[Charles 22]

SJ Frank:

- a cities will stay happy if it has at least as many happy citizens as unhappy citizens.

Already knew that. This scenario isn't a regular generated game. I am curious though if the method #3 I described would work very well in the generated environment, but I'm leaning towards that it won't. If it does, it probably only works under heavy fighting and when many towns are heavily populated.

You are on the right track regarding how to check for happiness. F1 is a great tool. The faces in that screen are seperated into 3 columns, from left to right: happy, content, unhappy. You just need to make sure that the first column is fatter than the last.

Oh yeah, but as I somewhat alluded to, the problem is when the populations get quite high and the F1 screen where the faces are, is all but useless. In such an instance the combination of things mentioned in method #3, at least in the current scenario, provides immunity from riots, and does so in a very quick way, still with the notion of gaining maximum efficiency. I don't doubt there's a better way to achieve the goals of simultaneously getting maximum efficiency, no riots, and doing that speedily, but I hadn't seen anything the board which struck me like this has. I'm eager to hear something besides 'turn up the slider' or 'turn on the governor' as I find those solutions lacking. If one has 200 cities and you're doubling the 2nd place civ I can see this sort of auto-pilot approach. The only problem is that the vast majority of my play isn't when I'm at that stage.

Also, because of the way that corruption works, you don't need to check all of your cities. Those cites far from your capital can be fixed after they riot. Because of their corruption, their rioting won't cost you much. In general, you just need to make sure that your most productive cities do not riot. Rank your cities in F1 according to what you think make them important(population, production, etc.), and you shouldn't need to scroll the city list when checking happiness.

I appreciate your help, but believe me I know very well how this game works, though there's probably always a weak point somewhere. In any event my problem isn't understanding the basics, it is in dealing with this scenario, and then wondering if the coping method I've come up with is the best fro dealing with riots etc. Oh, this scenario virtually has NO corruption whatsoever, so my main dealings are with trying to find any sad guys with cities whose pop. has become large enough that i can't easily distinguish their presence.

To further illuminate you guys on what is going on the scenario which I'm playing this scenario also uses a member of the population to make new units. So perhaps you guys start seeing the constant changing in the population that is going on? Make an infantry unit, which may be produced by this stage of the game in 1 or 2 turns, it takes a pop. out of the city, which resets the pop displacement on the hexes somewhat, and the city is growing a pop per turn a lot of times, and you can maybe begin to understand how playing this fine scenario demands some rethinking to keep cities from going to riots all the time and still keep the maximum efficiency.

The great thing about use F1, is that when your empire grows large enough such that F1 checking becomes impractical, then having a few cities rioting in a turn also becomes none-critical.

Yes I made that admission on this or the prior post, however, I'm almost never at that stage. When I have 30 cities or less I simply won't tolerate a couple of them rioting practically every turn. It can be great work, so therein lies my problem. I'm willing to work, but I just want to achieve the ends I want and still make it as easy as possible. The reload method I described in the original post fits many games I've been in, particularly when there's little or no battling, but spending 10 minutes fighting your battles in other situations, and then having to reload it because you won't accept a couple of the more important cities going to a riot -and- refighting those battles just doesn't work.

On a more advanced level, when dealing with unhappiness, it is good to plan ahead. For instance, if you know that your city will becomes unhappy at size 9, then you had better have the remedy in place when you grow to size 9. The remedy can be a building, a military poilice unit, an extra click on the lux slider, a lux item, or maybe just building a setter/worker out of the city.

Comprende. It's just that so much of that works just fine with minimal delay in the earlier stages. It's when the wars are running thick and the pops are high -and- you've already built every blooming building that you can that the rigor of continuing can get wearisome.

 

[Charles 22]

CrpMapStat and CivAssist (both available in the utility programs section of the creation and customizatino forum) both will alert you when a city is going to riot (unless something changes during the turn or you lose a luxury in between turns or something like that), making it possible to avoid almost all riots (if you pay attention, at least).

I'll have a look at those things. Thanks, they might help overall.

 

[Charles 22]

The crpmapstat is just great for what I wanted.

The scenario I'm playing (some 80 hours deep now) has done something funny though. I've never seen a city do this before I ran that utility, but Calais had a pop of 4 the turn before, and now it has 14! I also lost the Tirpitz and Bismark mysteriously. They happened to be stationed in Calais along with a good number of ships. I'm pretty sure I didn't hit the delete button, and if I did it sure didn't pop up a warning window like it usually will. The only thing I care figure is it didn't like me trying to bombard out of that port and somehow deleted them and gave the city 5 men apiece for them. Really odd. I'll have to be ont he lookout and keep a careful eye on attmpted ship bombarding out of port.

 

[sabo]

Hmm... Currently I'm playing a game where I built Sistine's, JS Bach's, Shakespeares, Cathedrals and Marketplaces in all my cities, the Hanging Gardens, and all eight luxuries, on Monarch. (Rhye's Earth Map)

This just seems too irrelevant for me.

The most efficient way is to let the governor control some of your cities, and keep an eye on the ones with fluctuating population

And I bet you can keep your Luxury slider at zero and still have we love the king days huh?

 

[BrianJ]

It would be nice if it were possible to have all hapiness generating buildings built in any city whenever they are available, and all luxuries available, to prevent rioting. This obviously isn't always the case though, in fact never, in any game I've played. Unless, of course, I've just conquered the world.

Therefore, this topic is certainly not irrelevant.

I find that rotating through the cities using the <> keys in city view mode works quite well in searching for troublespots. I do this at the end of each turn. Eventually, of course, this becomes tedious if you have a large number of cities.

The OP seems to have a specialised scenario running.. which makes it difficult to make suggestions, since he is the only one with access to that scenario.

 

[Charles 22]

It would be nice if it were possible to have all hapiness generating buildings built in any city whenever they are available, and all luxuries available, to prevent rioting. This obviously isn't always the case though, in fact never, in any game I've played. Unless, of course, I've just conquered the world.

Therefore, this topic is certainly not irrelevant.

I find that rotating through the cities using the <> keys in city view mode works quite well in searching for troublespots. I do this at the end of each turn. Eventually, of course, this becomes tedious if you have a large number of cities.

The OP seems to have a specialised scenario running.. which makes it difficult to make suggestions, since he is the only one with access to that scenario.

I used to do the same thing, and then I happened on that different scenario and adjusted to the method #3 I described. As I said in my lost post however, that program is the end of that. It's the difference between night and day. You don't have to check the cities for rioting anymore.

 

[Longasc]

In the beginning, check every city regularly, later on let the mood manager governor do when MM becomes tedious - you can afford the little bit production loss, the governor is not so bad at all in the late game phase where you do not need to maximize everything.