Happiness

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Overview[]

Happiness is evaluated at both the empire and the local city level. As in Brave New World, the empire is happy if you have at least as much happiness as unhappiness. In a happy empire, excess happiness is converted to Golden Age points, while an unhappy empire suffers from growth penalties in its cities and combat penalties in its units. New to Vox Populi, individual cities are also either happy or unhappy. Rather than producing a set amount of unhappiness per population, each city produces unhappiness based on how effective that city is compared to other cities in the world. If an individual city has more unhappiness than happiness, it will suffer a penalty to growth and unit production.

What Causes Unhappiness[]

City happiness is no longer directly affected by the number of citizens in a city. Instead, happiness is based on a set of functions that look at economic variables. Overall, population is still key, however per-city unhappiness is a bit easier to manage (and tailor to certain play-styles). This makes Tall and Wide gameplay equally feasible, so long as your empire is well-managed.

A general rule is that a city can never have more unhappiness than it has citizens. In principle, this makes it possible to partially control happiness by avoiding growth in your cities, similar to Brave New World, although it is always better to address the root source of unhappiness.

Importantly, urbanization (unhappiness from specialists, as described below), will always produce unhappiness, even if it puts the city's total unhappiness above its population.

Needs[]

The most important sources of unhappiness are needs. At a basic level, needs compare the yields of the city, including science, culture, gold, food, and production, to the rest of the world. If any of your yields fall below the global average yield per citizen, you will receive unhappiness depending on how far below it falls.

In detail, each yield in the city is divided by the city's population to find the yield per citizen. These values are then compared to the median yield per citizen across all the cities in the world. For example, your city's science output per citizen will be compared to the median science output per citizen. If the median yield per citizen is higher than the yield value of your city (i.e. you are producing less than the global median), the difference between the two is factored by a per-citizen unhappiness parameter and the unhappiness is generated. In other words, if your cities are behind the global average in yields per pop, the difference will be converted into unhappiness.

Each global median is called a needs threshold. These thresholds can be modified by a number of sources. For example, many buildings and social policies decrease a specific needs threshold by a certain percentage. This reduces the amount of yield you must output to prevent unhappiness from forming. In addition to buildings and policies, there are four global modifiers that will always affect all of your cities:

Empire needs - each city except your capital increases needs thresholds of all cities by 9%. Note that this modifier is lowered by several buildings, including the Walls line of buildings and Public Works.
City pop - every 2 citizens in a city will decrease its needs thresholds by 1%.
Capital status - The needs thresholds of the capital are increased by 25%.
Tech level - % of techs you've completed (out of total # of techs) multiplied by 150%. So halfway through the tech tree, your needs thresholds will be increased by 75%. At the end of the tech tree, they will be increased by 150%.

Many other buildings reduce needs-based unhappiness by a specific amount. For example, the University decrease unhappiness due to illiteracy by 1. These effects are applied after the thresholds and potential yields deficits are calculated. If a yield is not below the threshold, such buildings will not give you extra happiness.

List of Needs:[]

Poverty: Poverty is measured through the gold yields of a city. As a city begins to grow and develop, poverty will be created. New sources of gold will be needed to counteract it. International trade-routes give their gold to their city of origin, so sending trade-routes from impoverished cities can help counter this unhappiness source.
Distress: Distress is based on the average of your food and production yields. Large cities that consume most of their food may have difficulty in counteracting distress. Internal trade-routes can be used to increase a city's food or production output, and thus counter distress.
Illiteracy: Illiteracy is measured through the science yields of a city. Represented through the citizen's literacy, promoting trade routes to much-advanced civilization can help reduce illiteracy.
Boredom: Boredom is measured through the culture yields of a city. Boredom is especially important, as other civilizations get a tourism bonus toward you if you have high levels of boredom. Trade routes to more cultured civilizations can counteract boredom. Great works can also be moved to bored cities to increase their culture output.

Other sources[]

In addition to needs, a number of other sources cause unhappiness at a set rate.

Starvation: If a city's food output is below 0, it gains one unhappiness for each food it loses per turn. Thus, a starving city can increase unhappiness tremendously. This often happens when enemy units start pillaging and blocking yields from being worked causing mass starvation.
Pillaged tiles: A city gets one unhappiness for every 2 pillaged tiles in its vicinity. People don't like seeing their houses constantly burning and will start generating unhappiness for their leader to do something about it.
Isolation: A city is isolated if it lacks a connection to the capital, either through a road/lighthouse, or through a trade-route. Note that isolation can occur if a road or lighthouse connection is broken because of a military blockade. Trade-routes are not directly affected by blockades, but may be pillaged by the enemy units if not protected. An isolated city produces 1 unhappiness for every 3 citizens.
Religious Tension: Religious Tension is produced by religious diversity in a city. If a city has a majority religion, every 2 citizens not following that religion produce 1 unhappiness. This can be reduced by using Inquisitors to remove religious minorities. Many religious buildings also reduce unhappiness from religious tension by set amounts.
Urbanization: Each specialist produces 1 unhappiness, representing the effects of people living in the city such as pollution and a high population density. Importantly, urbanization always applies, even if it puts the total unhappiness of your city above its population. Because a city's happiness can never go above its total population, working too many specialist slots may make it impossible for the city to be happy until its other sources of unhappiness are addressed. Note that urbanization is the only "regular" source of unhappiness that affects puppets.
War Weariness: is being described thoroughly here.
Random Events: Certain random events may make you unhappy.
Occupied cities: An occupied city without a Courthouse produces 1 unhappiness per citizen.

Puppets[]

With the exception of Urbanization, none of the above rules apply to puppets. Instead, each puppet generates 1 unhappiness per 4 population. Puppets will still generate Urbanization unhappiness if the governer assigns citizens as specialists (and unlike occupied cities, the governer's decisions cannot be overriden!). Note that this unhappiness will not affect the puppet itself because puppets follow their own rules for growth. It only makes a difference at the empire level.

What Causes Happiness[]

Happiness comes from both empire sources and local sources:

Empire Sources[]

Empire sources of happiness are tallied over the scope of your entire empire. Once the total is determined, the points are dealt out to each of your cities in the order they were founded. For example, if you have 4 cities and 14 empire-wide happiness, your capital and the second city you founded will each receive 4 happiness, while your other cities will receive 3 happiness. Note that a city cannot have more happiness than its population, so if a city has reached its maximum happiness, it will be left out of the dealing. Any other happiness it would have received will be redistributed to other cities. If all your cities have reached their maximum happiness and you still have happiness points remaining, those extra points will be reserved until you have the population to support them. For example, at the beginning of the game, you receive around 9 happiness for your difficulty level. Your capital, however, starts with just one population, so the UI will only display 1 happiness. You will get the remainder as your population grows.

Note that puppets are given no happiness from empire sources.

List of Empire Sources[]

Starting Bonus: Each game, you start off with a specific amount of happiness based on your difficulty.
Luxury Resources: You receive happiness for each type of Luxury Resource connected to your empire. Luxuries can be connected by improving resources in your lands, trading with other players, and allying City States. New to Vox Populi, the happiness provided by Luxaries scales with era and with the size of your empire. Each Luxury starts with a base of 2 happiness. They give 1 additional happiness for every 5 cities you've founded, and get a small boost each time you enter a new era. (The exact formula is $H=2+N(0.2+E)\quad |\quad N={\text{Number of Cities; }}E={\text{Era starting at 0}}$ )
Monopolies: Some resource Monopolies grant 6 extra happiness to your empire.
Great Admirals: Great Admirals do not give you happiness directly, but they can be expended to provide 2 copies of a unique Luxury resource not found on the map.
Social Policies: All Social Policy trees and Ideologies provide ways to generate happiness, although their mechanisms vary widely. Note that many Policies cause certain buildings to give happiness. For example, Nobility in the Fealty tree grants 1 happiness to each Castle. These count as local sources.
Natural Wonders: Each Natural Wonder discovered grants 1 empire-wide happiness.
Landmarks: Landmarks provide +3 happiness to both the builder and the owner of the plot when constructed. This means you can build Landmarks in other players' lands and still gain benefits. (Note that you only get 3 happiness if you build a Landmark in your own lands.
Vassals: Each Vassal grants 2 empire-wide happiness.
City States: Mercantile City States grant you happiness when you are friends or allies with them. Of course, all City States can grant you happiness by granting you access to Luxury Resources.
Random Events: Just as random events can make you unhappy, they can also make you happy.

Local Sources[]

Unlike empire sources, local happiness sources can only be applied to the city they are generated in. It can not be redistributed to other cities if the city has reached its maximum happiness. However, cities prioritize receiving local happiness so empire sources can be redistributed elsewhere if local happiness is high. Note that cities in resistance do not produce any local happiness.

List of Local Sources[]

Buildings: In Vox Populi, relatively few buildings directly increase happiness. These include the Circus and the Grocer. Note that many more buildings may provide happiness after adopting certain Social Policies. Most happiness related buildings work by decreasing unhappiness, as described above.
Wonders: Certain wonders like Notre Dame and the Neuschwanstein can give you a big boost in happiness.
Public Works: Public Works is a new project unlocked at Machinery that increases city happiness by 1 and lowers the empire needs modifier by 5%. It can be built any number of times, but gets more expensive each time you build it.
Concert Tours: When you expend a Great Musician to perform a Concert Tour, the happiness in your capital will be increased by 1.
City-State Quests: Certain City-State Quests may increase the local happiness in your capital.
Religion: While not near as important a source of happiness as in Brave New World, there are still a few beliefs that can increase your cities' happiness, typically via a religious building.

Future Tech: While this source will be irrelevant for nearly the entire game, Future Tech will increase the happiness of your capital by 1 each time you research it.

Levels of Happiness[]

There are three levels of unhappiness. Unhappy, Unrest, and Revolt. An Unhappy civilization will reduce growth in all cities and the value of your national yields (i.e. your total science per turn). A civilization experiencing Unrest can have many more problems, including combat penalties and open rebellion, and a civilization in Revolt can potentially have cities abandon your empire.

Happy[]

When you have a positive amount of happiness you get a % increase to your yields like and , up to 10%. Also excess Happiness is added as Points.

Unhappy[]

When your happiness is negative and your happiness icon is looking sad , your population is "Unhappy." An unhappy population's yields are penalized contrary to the happy bonus as is ( via -%'s). Likewise Unhappiness lowers accumulated Points and your Units' ability to fight. The penalty goes greater than -10%.

Unrest[]

When your happiness is negative and your happiness icon is looking angry , your population is experiencing "Unrest." If your population is experiencing Unrest, your cities stop growing altogether, you cannot build any Settlers, and your military units get a nasty combat penalty. Additionally, you might have rebels (barbarians) appear within the borders of your empire.
Remember that unhappiness is not permanent. You can always increase your citizens' happiness - no matter how pissed off they are at you - through the methods outlined above.

Revolt[]

When your unhappiness reaches -20, your population will be in "Revolt." At this stage, your empire will experience all the penalties from "Unrest", and your cities may abandon your empire, "flipping" to the civilization that is most culturally influential over your people.