Let us talk about Population happiness
Posted: Fri Jun 12, 2020 5:37 pm
I think I finally got a handle on managing Population happiness. I thought I write it down for a tripple reason:
- make sure I got it righjt
- make sure I do not miss anything
- as help for everyone else that strugles with it
Managing the Penalties
There are 3 penalties to Happiness: Danger, Unrest and Fear. And they could not be more different in how they work. Note one ground rule here:
"The higher the Civilisation Score the quicker Unrest and Danger are reduced. However, the reverse is true for Fear."
Danger is worst of the lot, because there is no active way to fight it. Natural decay is the only way to get rid of it. And the only way to buff that, is via Civilisation Score.
Do not get it from cards or choices.
Avoid it at all costs!
If it is caused by a enemy nearby, get troops into position now and drive them away next turn, once you got enough AP to do so. You can even let them escape, main thing is that they are somewhere else, farther away.
Unrest is fightable, but also should be fought quickly. If you do not fight it, you will just increase the overall happiness damage you receive!
Troops in the city, security points and Fear all 3 combat it.
- Troops: It is totally worth it to gather and keep your conquering brigade in the city for 3 turns or raise a temporary formation of Infantry. Of course the cheapest way is to just place militia there, as you got them anyway and they are propably to outdated to use in combat.
- Security Points are primarily sourced from the Public Barracks asset. But the Private Assets "Police Station", "Customs" and "Scout Station" also provide some. Those also double as "security Force" for "send in the troops" choices. Investigation Govenror skill also provides some, howeveer.
If you do not have them when the trouble start, do not wait - use troops.
- Fear. Fear of your Regime. Usually caused by the Autocractic "Send in the troops" choice. If your profile supports taking it, take it. Sometimes even when it does not support it.
Fear of your Regime. This is somewhere between the "least dangerous" and "a very usefull tool". It acts as a cap on Happiness. While there is fear, Happiness can not exceed 100-Fear. Workers- being part of your Regime- are not affected by it either. It also reduces unrest and finally you also have total control over when and how it will be applied.
It is a tool of Autocracts, not a problem!
QOL is not the way!
To make it clear: Qualtiy of Life (QOL) will not permanently increase population happiness!
There is some effect on Happiness if QOL is higher or lower then Civilisation score. However, civilisation score will always try to match QOL. So sooner or later, it becomes a +/-0. And it can happen literally after 1-2 turn.
Strategem QOL may be a way
While the QOL part of Private assets does not bump Happinesess, a lot of Strategem based QOL Infrastucture have a happiness or other usefull effects applied to them.
Do those actually work? I tell you when I figured that out myself. The previews of the assets are currently slighty broken, so you have to build and wait for next turns production.
Unincorporated Zone
Setting a Zone to "Unincorporated" has a rats tail of effects. The one that maters for this discussion, is that Pop Happiness will increase quickly, up to 75.
The main downside is, that it no longe produces tax, recurits or colonists. But you can hire/have to still pay for the workers.
You only realy use it on freshly conquered Zone, until the Happiness reaches 75 and Loyalty is high enough you can start the Culture Adaptation process. Then they should just basic Incorporated/Regular zone.
Loyalty
I can not tell if Loyalty just trails the Happiness, or has an actuall interaction - excess Loyalty trying to pull happiness up. But if you got happiness problem, that means it is not doing nearly enough either way.
So not a solution either, more a sign of a Symptomatic issue.
What actually works
After all those things that do not work or may only be usefull in very special cases, there is one thing that does work:
"Luxury products and services", is what it is called on the Happiness Tooltip. Unfortunately it is not directly under your control, so getting them high is complicated.
You propably know that the Private Citizens want private Food? Well, that is only where the needs start!
Depending on your tech level they may also want: Food (as Luxury Good), Water, Fuel, more Fuel, Metal, Rare Metals, Machinery, Hi-Tech Ttems and even Atomics. See 5.3.20.1 for details.
But you can not just give those goods to them! With the minor exception of Food if "Emergency Food" is togelled, they have to spend private credits to buy them from the Trade Market.
You can see what they bought and sold under Reports -> Trade Reports. They are actually a main factor for driving prices on the market back up!
I asume that if they got a private mining asset, that private production part will be used on this bonus and the rest sold (for more Private Credits). But there is no real way to get them to get one. It does not seem to work that wa with "Luxury Food", however.
So the only real options are:
1. Make sure they got enough private credits. Do not overtax them. Maybe get a Public Budget (wich also has a small happiness effect itself sometimes). Make sure they got emergency Food togelled, if Food is the issue.
2. Make sure the prices on the Market are low. By selling any excess you got high.
3. If the good has limited storage, any excess will be sold. So a bit of overproduction is perfectly healthy. Just do not waste any precious resources this way.
- Do keep in mind that 2+3 work for everyone on the planet.
- make sure I got it righjt
- make sure I do not miss anything
- as help for everyone else that strugles with it
Managing the Penalties
There are 3 penalties to Happiness: Danger, Unrest and Fear. And they could not be more different in how they work. Note one ground rule here:
"The higher the Civilisation Score the quicker Unrest and Danger are reduced. However, the reverse is true for Fear."
Danger is worst of the lot, because there is no active way to fight it. Natural decay is the only way to get rid of it. And the only way to buff that, is via Civilisation Score.
Do not get it from cards or choices.
Avoid it at all costs!
If it is caused by a enemy nearby, get troops into position now and drive them away next turn, once you got enough AP to do so. You can even let them escape, main thing is that they are somewhere else, farther away.
Unrest is fightable, but also should be fought quickly. If you do not fight it, you will just increase the overall happiness damage you receive!
Troops in the city, security points and Fear all 3 combat it.
- Troops: It is totally worth it to gather and keep your conquering brigade in the city for 3 turns or raise a temporary formation of Infantry. Of course the cheapest way is to just place militia there, as you got them anyway and they are propably to outdated to use in combat.
- Security Points are primarily sourced from the Public Barracks asset. But the Private Assets "Police Station", "Customs" and "Scout Station" also provide some. Those also double as "security Force" for "send in the troops" choices. Investigation Govenror skill also provides some, howeveer.
If you do not have them when the trouble start, do not wait - use troops.
- Fear. Fear of your Regime. Usually caused by the Autocractic "Send in the troops" choice. If your profile supports taking it, take it. Sometimes even when it does not support it.
Fear of your Regime. This is somewhere between the "least dangerous" and "a very usefull tool". It acts as a cap on Happiness. While there is fear, Happiness can not exceed 100-Fear. Workers- being part of your Regime- are not affected by it either. It also reduces unrest and finally you also have total control over when and how it will be applied.
It is a tool of Autocracts, not a problem!
QOL is not the way!
To make it clear: Qualtiy of Life (QOL) will not permanently increase population happiness!
There is some effect on Happiness if QOL is higher or lower then Civilisation score. However, civilisation score will always try to match QOL. So sooner or later, it becomes a +/-0. And it can happen literally after 1-2 turn.
Strategem QOL may be a way
While the QOL part of Private assets does not bump Happinesess, a lot of Strategem based QOL Infrastucture have a happiness or other usefull effects applied to them.
Do those actually work? I tell you when I figured that out myself. The previews of the assets are currently slighty broken, so you have to build and wait for next turns production.
Unincorporated Zone
Setting a Zone to "Unincorporated" has a rats tail of effects. The one that maters for this discussion, is that Pop Happiness will increase quickly, up to 75.
The main downside is, that it no longe produces tax, recurits or colonists. But you can hire/have to still pay for the workers.
You only realy use it on freshly conquered Zone, until the Happiness reaches 75 and Loyalty is high enough you can start the Culture Adaptation process. Then they should just basic Incorporated/Regular zone.
Loyalty
I can not tell if Loyalty just trails the Happiness, or has an actuall interaction - excess Loyalty trying to pull happiness up. But if you got happiness problem, that means it is not doing nearly enough either way.
So not a solution either, more a sign of a Symptomatic issue.
What actually works
After all those things that do not work or may only be usefull in very special cases, there is one thing that does work:
"Luxury products and services", is what it is called on the Happiness Tooltip. Unfortunately it is not directly under your control, so getting them high is complicated.
You propably know that the Private Citizens want private Food? Well, that is only where the needs start!
Depending on your tech level they may also want: Food (as Luxury Good), Water, Fuel, more Fuel, Metal, Rare Metals, Machinery, Hi-Tech Ttems and even Atomics. See 5.3.20.1 for details.
But you can not just give those goods to them! With the minor exception of Food if "Emergency Food" is togelled, they have to spend private credits to buy them from the Trade Market.
You can see what they bought and sold under Reports -> Trade Reports. They are actually a main factor for driving prices on the market back up!
I asume that if they got a private mining asset, that private production part will be used on this bonus and the rest sold (for more Private Credits). But there is no real way to get them to get one. It does not seem to work that wa with "Luxury Food", however.
So the only real options are:
1. Make sure they got enough private credits. Do not overtax them. Maybe get a Public Budget (wich also has a small happiness effect itself sometimes). Make sure they got emergency Food togelled, if Food is the issue.
2. Make sure the prices on the Market are low. By selling any excess you got high.
3. If the good has limited storage, any excess will be sold. So a bit of overproduction is perfectly healthy. Just do not waste any precious resources this way.
- Do keep in mind that 2+3 work for everyone on the planet.