Vox Populi Strategy Guide

[Balerune]

I would love a guide; additionally the cessation of the feeling that I have to run a spreadsheet to play the game(Happiness, bouncy happiness.)

The only thing I am pretty sure of is you have to max out the Authority tree because of the happiness and war bonuses. And I always start to have the feeling (later in the game) that I am not playing against various civs but against one AI that will use the various civs to defeat me in any way possible i.e. the various civs make very astute choices.

(Perhaps a spreadsheet mod to track happiness isn't such a bad idea? Or one that tracks the various bonuses etc that are active and when they expire etc.?)

Anyway.... I usually play King, Morocco on sandstorm map.

Oh and I forgot -- expand as fast as possible it is still a game of as many as possible prosperous cities.

 

[vyyt]

I would love a guide; additionally the cessation of the feeling that I have to run a spreadsheet to play the game(Happiness, bouncy happiness.)

Just curious: Why do you need to track the happiness and what exactly are you (would you be?) tracking?

 

[merill]

I would love a guide; additionally the cessation of the feeling that I have to run a spreadsheet to play the game(Happiness, bouncy happiness.)

The only thing I am pretty sure of is you have to max out the Authority tree because of the happiness and war bonuses. And I always start to have the feeling (later in the game) that I am not playing against various civs but against one AI that will use the various civs to defeat me in any way possible i.e. the various civs make very astute choices.

(Perhaps a spreadsheet mod to track happiness isn't such a bad idea? Or one that tracks the various bonuses etc that are active and when they expire etc.?)

Anyway.... I usually play King, Morocco on sandstorm map.

Oh and I forgot -- expand as fast as possible it is still a game of as many as possible prosperous cities.

Well... in won at emperor with 1-6 cities in cultural victory without any happiness problem (and absolutely no need to "track" them).

When you expand fast and quickly (particularly if you capture foreign cities), your unhappiness plummet, maybe that's your problem? Try to expand a little bit slower.
To avoid the "bouncy" happiness, you have to micromanage your cities yourself (at least the problematic ones).

 

[Txurce]

I think you should just play. I think that is the best way to get familiar with the changes. I didn't look up much about VP before I started and now I am very familiar with all aspects of the game. Most answers you get in the game tooltips and civilopedia.

Playing is the best way to become familiar with the changes, but without outside guidance, you are bound to be reinventing the wheel to some degree as you slowly improve your game. Nothing wrong with wanting a shortcut.

Just curious: Why do you need to track the happiness and what exactly are you (would you be?) tracking?

My guess is that he's being metaphorical about how complicated it is to figure out why you're unhappy.

tu79's guide to unhappiness answers just about everything on the subject... and yet I have constant unhappiness issues in the late game. I'm starting to gather that part of it is the relatively high standard of living in the AI civs. But how do others solve the happiness issue on Emperor, once you're in the Ideology stage? I have no idea, and wish there was more of a guide for that.

I've read a lot of what's been posted, but it's neither complete nor organized enough for me to combine it into a successful approach. I play on Emperor (Immortal on vanilla), and win enough to not want to drop a level. However, I win because I know how to war with a small force, and how to maximize Religion and the WC. But I do this despite consistently ranking right near the botom in pop, doing subpar in culture, and as I said, poorly in late-game happiness. The culture part is somewhat due to my playing only for Science victories, and playing for Culture would probably be a good learning experience. Boosting pop, though, should be the sort of thing that a small guide would exist for.

That said, a lot of my questions could probably be answered without a "guide" -- just by posting. And a lot have.

 

[Funak]

Just curious: Why do you need to track the happiness and what exactly are you (would you be?) tracking?

People usually uses spreadsheets as excuses when they don't want to bother learning how something works. You definitely do not need a spreadsheet for anything in this mod.

 

[Txurce]

I would love a guide; additionally the cessation of the feeling that I have to run a spreadsheet to play the game(Happiness, bouncy happiness.)

People usually uses spreadsheets as excuses when they don't want to bother learning how something works. You definitely do not need a spreadsheet for anything in this mod.

I think you're right about people in general being lazy about learning, but in fairness to Balerune, I don't think he was being literal about needing a spreadsheet.

 

[Funak]

I think you're right about people in general being lazy about learning, but in fairness to Balerune, I don't think he was being literal about needing a spreadsheet.

I know he wasn't, I just don't like that expression.
Some games actually requires spreadsheets, this game really doesn't.

 

[Txurce]

I know he wasn't, I just don't like that expression.
Some games actually requires spreadsheets, this game really doesn't.

You're right that it doesn't require spreadsheets, and you're also right that a lot of it is intuitive. There is some knowledge of higher math required to excel, though, that I don't have. This is the first game I've ever played where my use of basic math quit being a strength, and left me going "huh?" when top players would explain why they did something (this goes back to Civ 2).

I also think there's some confusion generated for non-math types when game discussions veer into code. A player might intuit (incorrectly) that understanding code goes a long way toward understanding the game. It's why we see those periodic "please don't answer with equations" requests.

 

[Funak]

You're right that it doesn't require spreadsheets, and you're also right that a lot of it is intuitive. There is some knowledge of higher math required to excel, though, that I don't have. This is the first game I've ever played where my use of basic math quit being a strength, and left me going "huh?" when top players would explain why they did something (this goes back to Civ 2).

I also think there's some confusion generated for non-math types when game discussions veer into code. A player might intuit (incorrectly) that understanding code goes a long way toward understanding the game. It's why we see those periodic "please don't answer with equations" requests.

You might be right, I spend so much time with math that I actually forget that some people doesn't seem to get it.

I mean I don't even see equations most of the time, I just see the solution.

 

[Txurce]

...I mean I don't even see equations most of the time, I just see the solution.

That's what I figured. It's basically the definition of intuition.

 

[tu_79]

@Txurce.

Playing culturally I never had happiness problems (I play in King). Going scientifically, sometimes I suffer ideology unhappiness, but I don't need it to win. Even going domination, after conquering some capitals, the only unhappiness is just after taking new cities. Going diplo, it's a mix.

After writting my guide (I was learning at the same time), I always have religious unrest under control. Most of it is in the unified changelog, but the guide is more comprehensive.