Happiness Problem: Can someone please help explain

[Raleigh]

I am playing Monarchy level (level 4 difficulty).

I have a city with 10 people in it. 5 unhappy, 5 content.

There are 3 luxuries, one of them at double strength, making 4 happy faces. There are improvements making 3 content faces.

I have a Republic Government and there is no % going to happiness.

What I don't understand is why there are no happy face people.

At Monarh Difficulty I think everyone after the 2nd person is unhappy. Since I am at war, there is some war weariness too. Let's assume everyone is naturally unhappy. Wouldn't the 3 content faces make 3 unhappy people content, and 3 of the 4 happy faces, make those newly content people happy, and the last happy face should be wasted since there should be no one content left. Thus, I think my city *should* have something like 3 happy and seven unhappy and no content. But, obvioulsy the computer thinks differently.

Can someone please tell me what I am missing and if I am totally misunderstanding the way content/happy works...

Thanks very much!

[Spiffor]

Content faces are used to turn unhappy citizens into content citizens
Happy faces are used to turn content citizens into happy citizens OR to turn unhappy citizens into content citizens. It takes two happy faces to turn an unhappy citizen into a happy citizen.

[pedrojedi]

AFAIK, the luxuries do not "accumulate" effect; you have two luxuries that give 1 face, you gain 1 face; if you have two faces, you get two faces, not 1+1+2 faces... I may be wrong, but I think that's how it works.

[Spiffor]

Pedrojedi :
The same kind of luxury doesn't accumulate, i.e there is no difference whether you have one source of wine or 6.
But the different kinds of luxuries do accumulate : if you have one wine and one ivory, they'll give 2 happy faces total. If you have all 8 luxuries, a city with a marketplace will have 20 happy faces because of luxuries alone.

[pedrojedi]

that's odd, because even in peace times my democracy size 20 cities does not seem to receive these 20 happy faces.

I knew about the wine example, but the different luxuries to accumulate is news to me.

[Theseus]

pedrojedi, look at the happy faces next your luxuries in your city screen... the more you get, the more effect they have. That is also why luxuries get progressively (ridiculously) more expensive when negotiating with AI civs.

[vmxa1]

I just now finished my game and the 8th lux never showed up for trade. Incense was on the map in one location only and was never seen in the trade screen.
I also never got wines, but once in awhile was able to get them in trade for 20 turns. In the end I had 6 luxs, I sure could have used those extras as I had lots of unhappy people and was forced to cough up big time on the slider and use entertainers as well.

[Raleigh]

First, thank you all for replying I appreicate that greatly.

Second, if you have a market place, you do receive bonus luxuries for additional ones: i.e. your third luxury is worth 2, for a total of 4 (1+1+2).

Third, however, I am still confused about the math. Doesn't a content face make an unhappy person content and a happy face a content person happy? Or do happy faces make an unhappy person content as well? If happy faces + unhappy people = content people then I think my original example might make some sense, but if all they do is make content people happy, then I still don't understand what is going on

Thanks again for your help!

[Spiffor]

do happy faces make an unhappy person content as well?

Yes, they do

[gunkulator]

What's worse is when you ask your citizenry about why they are unhappy, you usually get a isleading answer like "It's just too crowded".

[Raleigh]

Thanks. Still couldn't figure it out but maybe next time...

[bongo]

I don't have the game in front of me but from what I remember 'Happy faces' from buildings make unhappy people content. 'Happy faces' from luxuries make content people happy BUT if there are no content people then unhappy people are made content. I don't rember how luxuries from gold works.

An example: city size 5, all unhappy, one temple, 3 luxuries, one marketplace.
original uuuuu
After temple cuuuu (temples are 1 right?)
temple+luxuries+marketplace hhcuu.

[Daz]

War weariness is also a factor. You cannot see how much it is so all the math is useless...

[Hurricane]

Bongo is right, but war weariness is very tricky. You can tell its effect by clicking on an unhappy face. If 100% say "it's just way too crowded" it means it only has normal unhappiness, but if some say "all we want is peace" they are affected by WW.

With no WW, your city would have 4 happy, 1 content and 5 unhappy:

10 citizens. Base happiness is 2 content, 8 unhappy. City improvements turns 3 unhappy into content, giving 5 content and 5 unhappy. 4 happy faces from luxuries turns 4 content into happym for the end result of 4 happy, 1 content and 5 unhappy.

[bongo]

I've studied WW before but haven't been able to work out the finer details yet.

Had a quick look at the game, it looks like luxuries created with entertainers and from gold works exactly the same as ordinary luxuries, first content citizens are made happy, then unhappy are made content.

For the record, one entertainer = 1
1 gold derived to luxuries = 1
I don't know if marketplaces have any effect here like they had in civ2.