Happiness (Please Respond)

[Lachrymologist]

Has anyone had luck acheiving a very high overall happiness?  The most I've reached is mid 50's.  Any hints would be appreciated.  Here's what I've found out so far:

Food:  (Feed the People Edict)  Crucial for happiness score, can bring food happiness up to 97!

Housing:  Hard to keep above 40 since new immigrants always come to this island (Base Apartment happiness 60, tenement 30)

Health Care:  Hard time getting it above 35.  Seems not enough people visit the Clinic.

Living Environment:  This starts high, but drops as your population increases.  Can lower people pollution by the anti-litter but you lose liberty.

Liberty:  Not to hard to keep in the 50-60 range, but you drop 5 pts. if you enact the Anti-litter edict.

Religion:  How much do these people need?  I always have a church and a cathedral, but can't get this above 40, wtf?

The problem as I see it is you constantly get new immigrants who in turn have poor jobs / substandard conditions and bring down your overall happiness.  

Also, how to keep people from polluting their own environment?  It's easy to control the factories, put them on the leward side of the island (down-wind).  But people follow the roads, travel the same routes to get to and from work / church / market.  As your population grows, you begin to have problems.

Anyway, sorry for the book as my first post, but was wondering how others are dealing with these issues.

[Reignking]

The problem as I see it is you constantly get new immigrants who in turn have poor jobs / substandard conditions and bring down your overall happiness.  

This sounds like an easy problem to solve -- you can prevent Immigrants from coming by building an Immigration Office, and setting it to keep them out.  I haven't tried this yet, but I should, because my population always seems to get out of control...

[Il_Ducky]

Re: Immigration office, I've had pretty good luck setting it to "Skilled Workers Welcomed" in the early to mid-game and then to "Tropico First" (no immigration) in the end game when the island's birthrate can fill the job slots. In general, I don't think you'll get too many immigrants if you don't have job openings.
For overall happiness, I'd highly recommend landscaping. A few large fountains and flowerbeds will really improve life quality at a relatively low cost. I think this works both at residences and at workplaces.
Another thing on housing quality, especially at the very end of the game, is too make sure nobody is living in a shack. Even a few people in shacks can bring the average housing happiness way down. A last minute buildup of bunkhouses, country houses, or tenements can really boost your overall score.
For the others, hopefully someone with more experience has some better suggestions, but mine would be to have some reduncancy on clinics and churches, with a central cathedral and hospital. When your population gets too spread out your people get crabby about not having those services nearby.

[Mjara]

Haven't used this yet, but I bet 'Love it or leave it' in the immigration office would help boost your score at the end of the game (I'd keep it at least 5 years).

[Blackrook]

Some scores are easier to control than others.

Liberty is one of the easiest to control.  Always hold free and fair elections (if you can).  Build radio, TV and newspapers and put them on appropriate liberty enhancing settings.  Build police stations instead of guard posts and armories.  Don't kill people.  I can usually get my liberty score between 70 to 80 by following this strategy.

I can never get housing higher than 30 to 40 because new immigrants keep coming and building those darn shacks!!!

I also have trouble with medical and religious happiness.  I don't like paying priests and doctors because I consider them leeches on society.  If I improved my attitude, maybe I would build more churches and clinics.  As it is I usually build one church and hire only one priest and one clinic and hire only one doctor.

You can get better job satisfaction by overpaying your workers, but this is a self-defeating strategy because you will go in the red and then the World Bank will lower all the salaries and that's the end of you when your army revolts.

Crime satisfaction is easy to establish.  Build a police station or two and you'll be fine.

I always have trouble with environmental happiness.  I'm a greedy polluter at heart and I like to chop down forests, build factories and mines and power plants anywhere I please, and I don't like to spend money on flowers and frills.  Ricardo constantly berates me: "The island is disgusting! Is there nothing we can do to improve the environment?"  I laugh and allow my people to live in their filth.

I never do the "Food for the People" edict.  I care about the people's health and would not want them to become obese.  Besides, I do not want to convert my cash crops into food crops because that cuts into my profits.

I hope that helps you.

[BananaBaron]

Playing a Che I got lucky in the random map with two big, green gold mines.  So, in a sense it was a sandbox as I had plenty of cash.

By the time the island had 300 people (no immigration office) I had gotten the health up to mid 60's with two clinics and a hospital.  

Food was at 70 with 4 corn farms, a pineapple farm, a goat ranch and two fisherman's wharfs.  i dodn't do the food edict.

Religion was a problem as I ran out of room for a cathedral (too many folks, too many normal houses).  However i got the points up with "Word of God" in the media.

Job statisfaction was so so...I did pay pretty well, added the skylight to the jewelry factory, etc.  I

By biggest pain was I finally relented and added an armory near the end of my 50 year reign.  The Generals started compaining in less than a year about pay, etc.  I was better off without them.

And, yes, lots of trees, entertainment, a fountain or two...

[Mr.ABC]

I don 't have a unbeatable concept either. But I agree on the possibility to avoid pollution by planting trees, especially along the most frequented roads. What with health care: I think it pays to have at least three clinics and then one hospital once you've got electricity. The point here is that people actually have to come to the clinic to profit frome the medical service. So if it is too far away for them they just wont go. To get religious happines up you need a cathedral IMHO. Because the service quality for the church is somewhat around 40. Even if people go to the church they will find the sermon boring. For entertaining a stadium is the best choice, since it provides space for many people and is attractive to many as well. If you can do it, go for the edicts "papal visits" and "pan-carribean games". They both give a boost to overall happiness.
On the building issue, the most important things have already been said in the above posts. I never manage to build as fast, as people are immigrating. I guess it is a matter of experience with the game to have a constant eye on housing.
Hope that helps.

[caddet]

The one thing I do differently is avoid tenements.  I use apartment buildings and houses.  I had one island that I think had over  apartment buildings.  No bunk houses, no tenements.  As far as I could tell, the only people living in shacks were retirees, and a couple children living alone (no income, so no rent).  I never did get all of them out.

[Huanga1]

I usually set up a few apartment buildings with no rent near places where retirees and students live. This raises my housing rating a little. Also since I've got plenty of money, I only build hospitals and cathedrals. They have a much higher rating and can serve many more people. And it looks like everyone is having problems with the environment. So I say screw it, if they won't get cleaner with time, why bother? They're a small faction anyways.

[Mercator]

And it looks like everyone is having problems with the environment. So I say screw it, if they won't get cleaner with time, why bother? They're a small faction anyways.

That's it, my next scenario is gonna be all about the environment!  Your right, they are normally a small faction.  So my next scenario is gonna rock your world because the majority of the population will be environmentalists.  And your island is gonna be a pig sty!


WooT!

[Crandaddy]

I would just add that the affects of the media and good entertainment can boost happiness scores quite high.  Of course, this requires a large economy to support, but if you're playing a game where Happiness is the only factor in your score its definitely worth investing in two of each type of media.  I love the Financial Times newspaper, especially on a map where I have factories, free elections, banks, and a good relationship with the US.  Brings more people into the happiest faction.  Be careful with the Word of God if your religous faction isn't already at Decent or so, you don't want to lure more people into the religous faction if you're a lying, gambling womanizer with no cathedral.  The extra boost in respect isn't worth it--you're better off luring peole into factions you have a good relationship with.  Of course, if you do have a decent relationship with the church, the Papal Visit edict will be a good boost to your overall happiness.

[Mercator]

*Slaps himself on the forehead*


I am a dummy!


I've been trying the scenario Born Again, where you need to have a happiness of 60 and 300 people.  I've been tossed out twice now!  Well, I've been using my 3 fully staffed newspapers to up the relations of the factions that have been cool or cold.  I forgot that it also brings people IN to the faction as well!


Poop!


Thanks for the reminder!  Now I can try again and maybe not be ousted by the military!

[Eddy]

I'm almost afraid to ask, but what does "woot" mean?

[Mercator]

*clears his throat and begins to recite as if reading from Websters Dictionary*

"The utterance of the sound (as it is more accurately described as a sound rather than as a word) is often used to denote excitement, agreement in a positive matter, pleasure, and quite often as a rallying call. "

But beware, senor, improperly uttered, the word can cause inflammation of the vocal chords. It can be a very painful predicament!  So far, the only known cure for the inflammation (commonly referred to as 'Wootatensilitis') is a good beer.


WooT!

[BigTroutz]

dont forget that each visit to a lesser quality building like a church vs a cathedral or a clinic vs a hospital brings your corresponding rating down....so, what i do is bulldoze clinics where i can place a hospital, limit churches to ONE priest but fill cathedrals with bishops, etc to maximize the quality rating. this applies to ALL the segments of happiness rating as they apply.  (of course, a church in a townlet is better than NO church, etc)  In addition, many posters talk about bunkhouses for the retired & jobless, but i find there is usually an apartment complex somewhere only partially filled, i make this one free and cash in the higher housing quality ratings.

Toward the end of my game, i bulldoze any leftover shacks, lower quality housing, churchs, clinics etc and replace them with higher quality stuff. Another thing i think goes on is that you will see an increase in environmental quality by just PLACING gardens, fountains, etc, even tho they arent built yet.  not sure about this but it seems that way.

[gd2]

BigTroutz, I've noticed the same thing with landscaping:  even if what u plant isn't planted yet, or fully grown, they still have a positive effect, and a much more positive effect once they are built/fully grown.  I suspect the seemingly premature effect we see comes from not the ornamental trees we place, but from all else.  According to the manual some plants are "natural" and so when u place these types they apparently start growing right away(can anyone confirm?) and grow to full size, while the ornamentals are placed, or "built".  For expl, if u place grass near a cow on ur ranch, the cow will often start eating it straight away.  At first I thought that perhaps grass starts out fully mature. Turns out it just grows to maturity.  But still, from what I've seen, if the critters start eating right away then maybe its a bug?  Either that or workers dont need to come to even "plant" these types of natural plants.  Perhaps El Presidente's godly landscaping does this planting immediately and maybe the naturals thus start growing right away?  Anyhow the positive effect we see on the environment before the stuff we plant even gets planted or matures is undeniable. Bug or no bug it's a very nice touch .  One time relations with the environmentalists went from cool to decent before any of what I planted was placed or matured, and living quality along with overall happiness imporved as well.  Even though fully mature/planted landscapings are much nicer it was still surprising to see how positive the effect was even before any of them were planted.

Landscaping is one of the easiest, cheapest, most basic tools for improving ur island including ur ppl's lives significantly.  For those who may consider snubbing a faction, IMHO the environmentalists shouldn't be the one, for cryin out loud all u need to do to make em happy and in the process make EVERYONE else happier as well is a simple bit of landscaping! Ignoring these things affects everyone/thing and thus ultimately the player will get screwed from if nothing else a lower score compared to if they had just done a bit of landscaping, not to mention the likelihood of a polluted pit of an island and all the neat nasty things that go along with it.  Kind of like in real life...

[berrydoo]

I had free elections, and a liberty rating of around 70.  Then I built a TV station and started broadcasting the BBC and my liberty rating jumped to 100%.  Yep.  100%.  Do that, and then issue the food for the people edict and you have two different happiness ratings in the 90s.  Also, I constantly issue (and re-issue) the mardi gras edict, and that jumps entertainment from about 50 to about 75 for a few years.  I also issue the Papal visit or the Pan Caribbean games right before a close election.

Hope that helps!

[Malovane]

A thing to keep in mind is that the overall happiness rating is not an average of the rest of the scores on the sheet, it is the average happiness of each of your citizens. There is a big difference. If you want your citizens to be as happy as they could possibly be, you have to micromanage. Everyone has a series of weights tied to each attribute. Some want a great place to live, others are happy living in a shack. Some want a better job, others could be unemployed and happy.

Another thing to keep in mind, is you can completely disregard one or two aspects of the game (environment, housing yada yada) and still make your people extremely happy. Use the Love it or leave it feature on the immigration office. The people who have high weights in what the island doesn't have will get up and leave. You will be left with only the people content with what's there. It doesn't get rid of everyone immediately, but it sure makes an impact over long periods of time.

Respect:

Not too hard to gain, and is a good step to increasing happiness as most people hold it in high weight, and can be remedied by edicts. Building all the buildings people ask is a good start. Bribe the leaders of each faction... their happiness means higher respect with the entire faction. Also tied into respect is full employment for workers, pay rates, tax cuts, papal visits, your raw % increase or with the factions, and overall respect increase or decrease %.

You can get the highest respects if you are either a militarist or a religious freak, as you can get around 50% bonus through just who you are. This way, you set your schools to educate through parochial or military means and those people will become part of those factions... one level each time they are educated. A newspaper spouting your propaganda will really help as well. Religious is probably the better choice as the militarist option drops liberty quite a bit. You can, however attain respects in the 80's and 90's with both types. Try not to shoot people. Use radio and tv propaganda.

Housing:

Apartments and houses. If you can afford it, use only houses.. then later on luxury houses. Check the housing you have for people with no weight in housing. You can evict those to make room for people who do care.

Environment:

Be a green thumb. Issue the anti air pollution and litter standards. Use small fountains to increase really ugly areas, 6 to 8 spaces apart. Then use shrubs to boost the beauty a tad more.  If it is beautiful already, leave it be... or just add some shrubs.

There are couple important things to note if you want to improve the environment to make your people happy and are low on cash. One is that the environment rating for a person is the average of the environment just around his/her residence and workplace. The other is that typically environmentalists are the only ones who care about the environment. Most people have 0 to 3 weight in environment, while evironmentalists generally have 3 to 10. Knowing this, find the environmentalists and fire/evict them to the most beautiful spots on the island.

Mines pollute... always. Farms are always ugly.

Food Quality:

Usually at 69 to 70. Don't use cattle or goat ranches. These will adversely affect your Food Q as they always run out of grass to eat. You will also get annoying messages like "Presidente, your people Starve! Grow more food, Quickly!" Instead.... use papaya and banana groves. Allow for 5 spaces on each side of the farm for the trees, then put houses at the corners. Have services relatively closeby. If set up efficiently, they can churn out 5 times as much food as a corn farm. When your food production hits 3 times what your population eats, hit the food edict. Your Food Quality will shoot to 95 to 98.

Make sure you have places for people to access food readily. Restaraunts and Gourmet Restaraunts are great as they dont require high school workers like markets do, and provide entertainment. They can hold around 10 to 15 food units each, and markets can hold about 20.

Entertainment:

People have varying needs for entertainment. Some like this, some like that. Their favorite entertainment type will give around a 30% boost to their entertainment rating when they go to it, their second favorite, 20% and so on. Things they don't have listed are at 0% addition of entertainment value. So, varied entertainment is the key. One of each should do nicely, even at a population of 500. Mardis gras and get elvis occasionally, and entertainment value can shoot past 95.

Health care:

Not much you can do here besides add hospitals. It will generally take a long time to raise this score, as it is an average over time.

Religion:

Cathedrals... and a rinky dink church with no pastors. Get the pope.. Not a whole lot to this god business.

Crime:

A couple police stations here and there. Most people have a low weight in crime safety, but its easy to control nonetheless. If you have a nice environment, it helps curb crime somewhat... if its already somewhat low that is. Being incorruptible as a trait helps this quite a bit. Stay away from martial law and inquisition though... they do have rather poor side effects on other areas. While these 2 edicts will drop crime, well... yeah its pointless to what you give up.

Liberty:

If you were elected, you should have a liberty rating of +20%. After a couple elections, your liberty should be around the 90's... no worries. An added radio station or tv station can pump this to 100%.

Job Quality:

Pay is the biggest factor. If a workplace has an Easy does it setting, use it.

As for factions, there are certain things you can do to increase your respect.

Military:

If you want to please the militarists... yes, you have to have a large army. But this hurts liberty. A couple soldiers and a general is all you really need if you are going for overall happiness of citizens and want to keep the militarists content. You generally wont have any rebel threats so you can remove the military altogether if you really want. The militarists wont be too impressed, but its worthwile to weed them out.

Capitalists:

Better houses for the rich (normal houses work fine), and varied entertainment. Good tourism and industry profits. A couple banks. Thats all these guys want.

Communists:

Keep pay rates relatively similar. A 5 peso difference between each is enough to keep Commies thrilled and still have people wanting to get an education. Make sure noone lives in shacks. Everyone living in bunkhouses is really all that matters.... as long as they aren't in those crummy shacks.

Enviros:

As long as there is little pollution and a somewhat decent looking environment, these guys will be happy.

Religious:

Lots of churches, cathedrals. Contraception ban (though hurts intellectual faction). Popemobile rolling in. Nothing too special.

Intellectuals:

If more than 25% of the island is educated, these guys are overjoyed. Otherwise, all they want is a good liberty rating, a high school and a college.

Hope this helps ya.

[Revolucionario]

I found that the immigration office really helps to control the riff raff. Just have no immigration at all, I know it hurts econ. a little but happiness could go up.

[Coconut Kid]

A thing to keep in mind is that the overall happiness rating is not an average of the rest of the scores on the sheet, it is the average [of the overall] happiness of each of your citizens. There is a big difference. ...