Can't Make Cities Healthy....

[Patton91]

I need some major help.

I'm doing alright in Single Player, got some good income, when BAM! I get raped by unhealthiness and unhappiness (kind of synonymous) in my cities.

Most of my cities are on rivers, and many that aren't have Granaries (early) and aqueducts (later). I just don't get what I need to do. Also, the over-crowdedness is pissing me off, because there's nothing I can do about it (no matter where I place my guys, it's still too crowded, and if I make some people into Specialists, there's starvation). BTW, I'm not even sure what Specialists do, let alone whether they will help with overcrowding.

These problems are making the game not fun for me, so any help would be greatly appreciated!

[Solver]

Connecting health resources (such as pigs, sheep, wheat, rice, corn) will fix your health problems.

Are you relatively new to Civ4? If so, you might want to give select sections of the manual a (repeated?) read as you play the game.

[Patton91]

Originally posted by Solver
Connecting health resources (such as pigs, sheep, wheat, rice, corn) will fix your health problems.

Are you relatively new to Civ4? If so, you might want to give select sections of the manual a (repeated?) read as you play the game.

Thanks, I thought I should do that, but I never really thought it'd work.

No, I'm not NEW (per se) to Civ--I had Civ III-- just, I'm not very good.

Maybe I'll give the extended Manual a read-thru. Thanks!

[Solver]

Oh, it not only works, it's the primary method of fighting unhealthiness. Same goes for happiness resources and happiness.

Connecting resources should be one of your highest economic priorities at all times.

[Pinchak]

Yes, resorces are key to keeping people healthy and happy.

For health, the food resorces are the primary means of stopping Mr. Yuck from appearing under your cities name. There are other things such as building the hanging gardens, or picking an expansive civ that give you a little help. Also, for every 2 forests in your "city cross" you get a +1 health boost. Things like jungle or floodplains can tank your city health in a hurry, so consider leaving some forests around to counter this, as well as chopping jungle that is within the city cross, (floodplains only gives unhealthy if the tiles are being worked).

Happieness is usually harder to deal with early game, while health becomes the issue later game. This is mostly because there tends to be more health resorces avalable early game. (things like incents, wine, silk, etc.. need specific techs to "use" them).

Carismatic civ trait will give you a +1 to happy, as will building Noter Dame. Early game though, your best bet is too research Monarchy, and enable Heritic Rule civic. This gives +1 happy to a city per military unit stationed there. The representation civic can also solve unhappieness, but usually comes later in the game (unless you can build the pyrimids).

Religion is also a great way to deal with unhappyness.

Remember, to use a resorce it just has to be "mined" (farmed, domesticated, etc...) within your cultural boarders... NOT nessisarily within a city cross.

Overall though, if you find your citys constantly growing faster then you can deal with... just slave them. Knocks your population down, and gives you production.

[Cyclotron]

Also remember that it's variety of resources, not quantity of each, that matters - so connect all your resources and use the excess to trade with your neighbors for resources you don't have. Good trades can give you a lot of happiness and health, as well as better relations with other civs.

Also remember that certain buildings have synergy with certain resources. If you have a lot of seafood, harbors are great for health, and if you have a lot of grain resources, build granaries. If you have gold, silver, or gems, make forges a priority if you have happiness problems. Grocers and markets in the middle ages are also very helpful for squeezing more health and happiness out of your other resources.

[Willem]

Originally posted by Patton91
Also, the over-crowdedness is pissing me off, because there's nothing I can do about it (no matter where I place my guys, it's still too crowded, and if I make some people into Specialists, there's starvation).

You might find it useful keeping a lid on how fast your cities grow by controlling your food surpluses. In my games, I only allow a surplus of 2 food. If a city starts producing more than that, I'll put some citizens on Hills or Plains Forests and have them produce Hammers instead of Food. Or I'll create Specialists if I really have a ton of food being produced, if I can. If you allow your cities to produce a large surplus, you're going to run into unhealthiness/unhappiness problems very quickly.

BTW, I'm not even sure what Specialists do, let alone whether they will help with overcrowding.

Basically they gain you Great People points, aside from the bonuses you'll see if you mouse over them in your city screen.

[joncnunn]

Re: Can't Make Cities Healthy....

If the unhealthiness is coming from flood plains, early on your better off not giving a d&mn about it and leting the cities grow to happiness limit. The citizens working those tile feeds themselves even with the unhealthfulness and also brings in some commerce even before you improve the tile. If it's coming from Jungle, all the more reason to clear it for something more productive.

Unhappiness though is something to be avoided unless it's temporary (say as slavery pop rushing).

From the below, I'd say your not building Granaries fast enough; they are usually the first structures I build. Citizens = Power.

The specalists are things to turn your citizens into before they grow too big. There is no entertainer. Instead connect luxaries and build the happiness buildings. Hint: You can have multiple temples in your cities.

Originally posted by Patton91
I need some major help.

I'm doing alright in Single Player, got some good income, when BAM! I get raped by unhealthiness and unhappiness (kind of synonymous) in my cities.

Most of my cities are on rivers, and many that aren't have Granaries (early) and aqueducts (later). I just don't get what I need to do. Also, the over-crowdedness is pissing me off, because there's nothing I can do about it (no matter where I place my guys, it's still too crowded, and if I make some people into Specialists, there's starvation). BTW, I'm not even sure what Specialists do, let alone whether they will help with overcrowding.

These problems are making the game not fun for me, so any help would be greatly appreciated!

[Six Thousand Year Old Man]

When your population gets close to the happiness/healthiness limits, it's time to either create some specialists, or kill some off with slaving.

[ldeska]

I think that you do not connect resources to your cities... this is the easiest way to combat unhappiness and unhealthiness.
The are more ways to do it: civics, buildings, trading of resources...

[Thedrin]

Patton:
(no matter where I place my guys, it's still too crowded, and if I make some people into Specialists, there's starvation).

'It's way too crowded'

You cannot get rid of this unhappiness. For every unit of population in a city there will be one unhappiness of this type. It exists so that cities cannot grow indefinetly.

Pinchak:
(floodplains only gives unhealthy if the tiles are being worked)

I'm fairly certain this is wrong. A flood plain always gives unhealthiness.

[Pandemoniak]

I'd say no city is ever way too crowded.

Either you lack the special ressources to boost your happiness/healthiness, either you lack the technology to connect them to your empire, but I keep thinking a big population is never a disavantage.

In the early game, if you want further growth, a good choice might be to research and create small settlements for a few bonus ressources you can connect.

In the later game, I never found it a problem. I havent started to play past Monarch, tho, what level are you playing ?

[Lord Avalon]

Just to clarify about linking resources: if you link all your cities to a resource, they all benefit. This doesn't necessarily mean a complete road link between all your cities - a resource linked to a river will connect with any city linked to the river. Sailing links cities on the coast.

If you build the Pyramid wonder, that also gets you access to Hereditary Rule (as well as the other government civics), so military units counter unhappiness.

[Crossfire]

Yes, I was also going to mention that you need to connect your cities to each other along with connecting the resource to one of your cities.

Also you can adopt the Hereditary Rule civic so that you can gain additional happiness by putting additional troops in your cities.

I am pretty sure that Floodplains affect your city whether you work the tile or not though.

[joncnunn]

While the flood plains always yields unhealthiness, it's not always epxressed because the fraction portion gets dropped.

Originally posted by Thedrin

I'm fairly certain this is wrong. A flood plain always gives unhealthiness.