Happiness and Respect

[belbincolne]

I've always thought that the figure for these was the average of the ten items making each up.  However it isn't - not even if some items were weighted. After umpteen tries I've finally completed "Ore" even though I had two street uprisings taking up the entire last 12 years and I finished $160,000 in the red with everyone paid $1 - I even got a high score of 1600 due to my earlier exports.

However although many of the individual scores was quite high (with half my population killed off everyone was housed - rent nil - and fed) so that the average was around 35 happiness but score 10 and respect was similiar.

Anyone knoq how it's worked out? (Not that it really matters

[Coconut Kid]

I've always thought that the figure for these was the average of the ten items making each up.  However it isn't - not even if some items were weighted. ...

However although many of the individual scores was quite high ... so that the average was around 35 happiness but score 10 and respect was similiar. ...

I'm not sure I understand your question.

You looked at the Almanac 'list' which puts each citizen in rank order by 'happiness' and shows a number when you float the cursor over each individual. From that, you calculated (or 'eye-ball' guessed) the average to be 35.

Am I with you so far?

Then you looked at the Almanac page which gives the 'total' (score) for 'happiness' which lists above the total for each of the 10 elements. There your 'total' was 10 rather than the 35 you got from the other page.

Is that what you are saying?

 

[belbincolne]

Sorry Kid that's not it.

In the Almanac under People - Happiness 10 items are listed (Housing/Food/Religion etc) and finally a total Happiness figure. I've always assumed that if you added all ten together and divided by ten that gave that figure (I'd assumed that it was also possible that some were weighted - e.g. Food & Housing) but in a couple of recent scenarios I found the final figure was perhaps half the average figure at a time of depression (e.g. after refusing an election / during a rebellion) and then realised in other scenarios that the final figure always seemed to be a bit (lot) lower than the average. Hence my question.

[Coconut Kid]

O.K. Got it - I think. 

Looking just at the People/Happiness page:

Floating the cursor on the "total" line, the following comment appears in the Info Bar:
"Happiness is a combination of many quality (sic) of the above factors. ..."
I suspect that 'quality' is a typo and should be 'qualities.'

So an 'average' is definitely out, but the actual algorithm is not identified. The simplist statistical algorithms are mean, median, mode, and range. The "mean" is the "average" you're used to, where you add up all the numbers and then divide by the number of numbers. The "median" is the "middle" value in the list of numbers. To find the median, your numbers have to be listed in numerical order, so you may have to rewrite your list first. The "mode" is the value that occurs most often. If no number is repeated, then there is no mode for the list. The "range" is just the difference between the largest and smallest values. The "median" is a possibility especially if weighting is simply repeating a weighted number.

It is interesting to note that the first nine numbers are identified in the info bar as averages of that value for all the citizens. Since each citizen has an individual weight (from 10 to 0) applied to each ten factors, that computation must be some different (I'm glad it's a computer doing it).

The "Respect" figure (#10) is a study in itself, but it has a heavy weight from faction membership and is certainly not the result of one of the simple algorithms.

I think the almanac Lists/All Residents - Happiness page should not be neglected. Each resident has a computed percentage of happiness. One of the simple algorithms could be applied to this list of values to derive a "total happiness value."

Sorry I can't give you a definitive answer, but closer examination of the factors certainly reveals more about the game.

 

[belbincolne]

Thanks Kid - even more complicated than I'd imagined but it bears out my own thoughts that it needs constant checking if you need to win elections fairly.

[Coconut Kid]

When looking at the "Politics Panel" for an unit, one sees on the left a list (at least one) of the political factions to which the unit belongs. Each is annotated with one or more plus marks (+) to indicate the level of commitment of the unit. To the right one sees a meter for each "Respect" and "Overall Happiness".

As is mentioned elsewhere, 'Respect' is an important component of happiness; it ranks up near food, housing and job in importance. However, it is more complex than those. Respect for you, El Presidente, "is almost entirely determined by politics". Since in your wisdom you do not allow formal political parties, the peoples' natural inclination to form groups to cause problems bubbles up through the 'factions'. How you treat each faction and especially its leader is important in the determination of respect for you by individuals and overall.

"Each faction has a designated leader (use Almanac to identify and locate). This leader's personal happiness has a significant impact on the faction's members' attitude towards you. Later in your rule, when each of the 6 faction leaders may influence hundreds of supporters each, (remember, one unit may belong to several factions and be influenced by each) pay special care to these leaders -- make sure they have good jobs and houses, bribe them if necessary, and generally make them as happy as possible. They are the key person reflecting the satisfaction of the faction with your policies and actions.

There are lesser effects on 'Respect' from El Presidente's personal characteristics. And do not forget the adverse effects on 'Respect' which may reverberate through families as the result of using some edicts.