"Its just way too crowded!?"

[Trunks22]

How can i reduce this problem?

its getting really frustrating, all of my unahppy citizens are unhappy ONLY because "its too crowded"

Is there a way to rid this prob WITHOUT expanding culture? Even if im getting 50 per turn, i need 10k or 100k for the next expansion, which will take so long. Any ideas or strats?

[Skanky Burns]

Being unhappy because "its too crowded" is not related to the cultural border of the city. It is related soley to the population of that city. A size 12 city will have more unhappy people than a size 6 city, all things being equal.

So, how do you stop them from being unhappy??

1: Build a temple, colloseum and cathedral in the city. Each reduces the number of unhappy people.

2: Get luxuries, the more the merrier. Up to 8 luxuries can be enjoyed by the city, making people happy.

3: If you have over 2 luxuries, build a marketplace. It will increase the amount of "happy faces" your luxuries generate. See below.

4: Make some of your population specialists, particularly entertainers. This will help make your population happy/content.

5: As a final resort (IMO), increase your luxury spending just under the science spending slider.

Chart of "Happy Faces" produced by luxuries in a city with a marketplace.
1 luxury - 1 happy face
2 luxuries - 2 happy faces
3 luxuries - 4 happy faces
4 luxuries - 6 happy faces
5 luxuries - 9 happy faces
6 luxuries - 12 happy faces
7 luxuries - 16 happy faces
8 luxuries - 20 happy faces

Hope this helps

EDIT: Typo

[Illyrien]

Is it possible to see what my citizens are unhappy about? How do you do that?

[vmxa1]

Just select one and it reports the reason for being unhappy.

[Illyrien]

so thats how :-)
I had been wondering if maybe I had missed a page in the Governor

[barefootbadass]

Really the only thing of interest is the "give peace a chance" reason which indicates war weariness. It also lets you know for ages about early game pop rushing and any conscription you have done to piss them off.

[HalfLotus]

There's also:

"Stop the aggression against our mother country!" This happens when you have foriegn nationals in your cities.

or

"We cannot forget the cruel oppression you bore down upon us!" This unhappiness from pop-rushing.

and

"Hell no, we wont go!" Drafting

Is "way to crowded" unhappy also caused by too many cities?

[Skanky Burns]

Originally posted by HalfLotus
There's also:

"Stop the aggression against our mother country!" This happens when you have foriegn nationals in your cities.

To stop this, make peace with the civilization these people were from.

"We cannot forget the cruel oppression you bore down upon us!" This unhappiness from pop-rushing.

Only time will make this one go away. 20 turns per pop-rush, although its not determined exactly what happens if you pop-rush more than once.

"Hell no, we wont go!" Drafting

Again, just waiting is the only way to make this go away.

Is "way to crowded" unhappy also caused by too many cities?

AFAIK no. There is a set amount of content people per city, and once the population goes over that amount, each new person is unhappy. On Deity it is 2 people, on other levels you get more content people before unhappiness kicks in. I dont think its related to number of cities at all.
But of course, i could be wrong.

And for completeness:

"give peace a chance" reason which indicates war weariness.

To stop this, either change gov to Despotism, Monarchy or Communism. Or make peace with each and every civ you are at war with.
To reduce the effects of war weariness, build police stations and/or the Womens Suffrage.

Hope this helps too

[HolyWarrior]

If you have a city of mixed population, is there anyway to determine which group will be taken from when a worker is created?

It would help get rid of those "Stop the aggression against our mother country" types.

[HalfLotus]

I believe that workers and settlers come from the foreign national population first. They remain foreign nationals as well.