Keeping the students happy...

[Pundonor]

HOW ??

The only ones on my unhappy list are the students although i give em free housing and even a free bar... what do they want?

They decide going to college stating: "I just got a paycut, now i have to move out, those government morons!" and their jobsatisfaction goes straight to zero so when they graduate, thanks to El Cliffo's notes that seem to be very widespread, they stay unhappy for the first months or so.  3 new soldiers simultaneously right from highschool--->guaranteed coup d'etat  

Anyway I'd like to know how you guys handle them students...

[Eddy]

Well, that's the thing.  It is pretty much impossible to keep students happy.  Just ask any college administrator.

The best things to do are give them decent housing so they aren't in a shack, provide for their needs, such as entertainment, religion, and health care, and maybe keep an eye on the environment and have trees and fountains on their way to and from school.  In short, do what you do for your other citizens, but remember that students by their very nature aren't happy.

As for the issue of instant coup d'etats?  I would X out all of the open positions but one so you only have one unhappy person at a time.  Also, make sure they aren't on special ops training since that increases the unhappiness of the guards and soldiers.

[Blackrook]

It is possible that students are unhappy because PopTop made them that way.  IRL the students are always the ones causing trouble for the government with demonstrations, sit-ins, riots, etc. Just let them have their fun while they're at school because when they get a job they won't have time to protest anymore.  

[Pundonor]

I happen to be a student and having the time of my life without free housing free pubs free health care nor religion (well religion is free, but why bother  ).

The way i see it they should have a max happiness being student and a gradually decreasing happiness taking jobs  

Anyway thanx for the tips, they have to be content with bunkhouses and tenements though (one look at my place and that should increase their happiness)

[Eddy]

Oh believe me senor, I agree with you.  Oh boy do I agree, but we have to look at it on a global scale.

Students are young, idealistic, away from their parents for the first time, and learning about the inequality that exists in the world.  Add the idea that in college, it's basically ok, even encouraged to let off steam, and you have people who are going to express their anger/disgust/fear for things.

[Mike]

I have the answer to the housing problem-
It's impossible to solve.  Students MUST live in shacks, because when their pay is 0, and their rent is 0, the rent is an unacceptable 100% of their pay.  If they graduate and become soldiers, just keep an eye on them.  Usually, nothing happens.

[Slickie_T]

They do NOT have to live in shacks.... If you provide free housing such as a tenement with no rent it gives the students, retirees, etc. a place to live without having to build shacks.  Sure you dont make money off of it but it eliminates a lot of the shacks that pop up all over the island.

[Mjara]

Although it might be difficult to keep students happy (their job happiness is impossible to increase), you can affect the amount of time they spend as students.

The education edict will increase on-the-job learning, giving you more skilled teachers, which decrease the amount of time in school.

Ditto for Learning with Larry.

As an aside, why even bother worrying?  I almost never have a full HS or full college, and even if I did, that'd amount to an extremely small fraction of my population.

[Revolucionario]

Students are always grumpy people. It is in their blood I tell you. Students are at the age when nothing really makes them happy, maybe making classes later would help. Students in Tropico as in real life are very fickle people to please.

[Coconut Kid]

Verisimilitude
Overdone.

The only ones on my unhappy list are the Students although I give 'em free housing and even a free bar -- what do they want?
They decide going to college stating: "I just got a paycut, now I have to move out, those government morons!" and their job satisfaction goes straight to zero so when they graduate, thanks to El Cliffo's notes that seem to be very widespread, they stay unhappy for the first months or so. ...

98% of the thread is an overlay of real world perceptions based on the missapprehension that the NPCs and the Tropican World are perfect representations of the real world. Not a useful way to approach gameplay.

Probably the PopTop developers did short Students on specialized code. Until someone actually reads the code for the decision tree for NPC's changing jobs, we will never know exactly why an NPC quits a paying job to take the Student job\occupation.

The issue is that the Student avatar\unit is unique in having a job which is acomplished by being a patron\customer of a free building. That means that the player is unable to pay the Student patron of a school. The Social Security edict is a quick & dirty fix, but with some drawbacks\glitches -- the cost is low because the numbers are few, but the computation results in an obscure figure. It's worth it to keep job satisfaction from going to zero. It would have been preferable in some ways to have two edicts: SS for Retirees as created by PI; Scholarships for Students with the amount set per school building like a "reverse fee" for the entertainment buildings - pay for entering.

While you are here, consider the Student's personal display. The Student's real job is not to fill any of the universal needs meters on the Overview frame. Nor is it to provide some sort of productive effort in an employment building like other avatars. The Student's real job is to be a patron\customer of a school building long enough to fill the Student Skills Meter displayed on the Skills frame. The player's interest -- after getting him\her to take the relatively thankless job (the two buildings have no Service Quality Level since "school" did not get included in that concept -- WOW! perhaps a 'mod' to bldg.dat file?) is to get that meter filled rapidly. I'd guess that the usual 'thru-put' considerations apply -- mainly Teacher\Professor skills. We have a lot of conflicting reports about the effect of actual presence or absence upon the filling of the meter; I'll go with actual presence being better\faster.

That leaves the big question open -- how to attract NPCs to the JOB (strange as it is) in the first place?