Church visits and appeasing the religious

[Privateer0]

Just like most other people I was never really able to make my religious faction happy. Even if I have a church, with plenty of room for anyone wishing to attend, the religious fellows still complain that there isn't enough religion. The people's religious happiness is also a bit below the level that the church provides, presumably because it'd be that level when they have just attended and then drop eventually.

Now, in the strategy guide they briefly say something that makes me think the "people attend church XX% more often" effects (due to "religious zealot" or "Inquisition") are not what I thought they were. It seems, just like it says, all the effect does is makes people attend church more often, as opposed to NEEDING to attend church more often. So, as opposed to waiting for an almost empty tank of religious need, they go to fill up when it's only half-empty, or something like that.

Presumably, this would result in higher average levels of religious satisfaction among the people, which would make make happy the people in general and the religious faction in particular.

Is that so, or am I just reading/imagining things that are not there?

[Red Louisiana]

Eh, whether I play capitalist or socialist, one thing remains constant...I never build churches(unless happiness is a concern)

they're such leeches on the economy...

lost wages, maintenance costs, building cost(laborers' time), not to mention a drop in productivity in church-going tropicans...

I usually kill off the hardline religious faction members, so you never see die-hard supporters...I also bribe the leaders of the faction, keeping them aove rebellion

[Privateer0]

your population will get the need to go to church more often.

Pity. I was hoping to finally satisfy the religious and build a theocracy.

[belbincolne]

As I understand it only a Tropican who has visited the church gets increased happiness - and not much then. The main idea is to use it build a cathedral as the happiness/visit factor is higher. That's one reason why I rarely bother with churches unless I've got so much cash that I can immediately follow with a cathedral and a university.

Incidentally I find that selecting the school as military or religous based has very VERY little effect on who goes there and thus on producing more soldiers/priests.

[Brf]

Usually I close off the church slots once I build the cathedral....

[Coconut Kid]

Just like most other people I was never really able to make my religious faction happy.  ...  Is that so, or am I just reading/imagining things that are not there?

You tend strongly toward making assumptions that are not based in the mechanics of the code - the code doesn't think like a person. There is a difference between the "faction's" happiness which is largely a function of the faction leader, and the weighted average of the individual religious happiness factor for the entire population.

Every unit has a religious need; the five needs are also happiness factors along with five non-need elements; each unit ranks\weights its ten happiness factors.

Each unit has two meters associated with religion: one registers how fast the need goes from satisfied to unsatisfied (and the reverse when being recharged); the other shows the level of happiness.

The needs meter discharges and recharges at variable rates. When the meter has discharged to the red zone, the unit enters the religion recharge mode. It then looks for a vacant slot in a cathedral (first) or church (second); if one is available, it claims it and starts to walk to the building - when it enters the building, the meter starts to recharge; if one is not available, it does the default routine - it goes home (or aimlessly wanders) and spends a long time reading its "bible" (check thought) while the meter recharges. When the needs meter is recharged, the religious happiness meter is set to the value of the building's 'Service Quality' rating or next to nothing for the default routine; then the unit transitions to its next mode.

The happiness meter stays at that value until the next recharge routine unless the unit moves through the religious aura (radiated effect) of a building in the meantime. The cathedral and church have a positive value auras; the pub, cabaret, night club, casino, and distillery have negative auras. Moving through the building religious auras causes a change (plus or minus) in the religious happiness meter.

Most players tend to make two mistakes: a} not enough slots in cathedral plus church buildings because they don't know about the default routine and its negative effects; and b} heavy reliance on the pub and cabaret for entertainment without knowing of their negative effect on religious happiness.

[Coconut Kid]

Purging Kulaks since 1928
Red Louisiana

The "liquidation of the kulaks as a class" was announced by Joseph Stalin on 27 December 1929. Stalin had said that "Now we have the opportunity to carry out a resolute offensive against the kulaks, break their resistance, eliminate them as a class and replace their production with the production of kolkhozes and sovkhozes." The decision was formalized in a resolution "On measures for the elimination of kulak households in districts of comprehensive collectivization" on January 30, 1930. All kulaks were divided into three categories: (I) to be shot or imprisoned as decided by the local secret political police; (II) to be sent to Siberia, North, the Urals or Kazahstan, after confiscation of their property; and (III) to be evicted from their houses and used in labour colonies within their own districts.

Kulaks = A prosperous landed peasant in czarist Russia, characterized by the Communists during the October Revolution as an exploiter.

..., whether I play capitalist or socialist, one thing remains constant - I never build churches ... they're such leeches on the economy -- lost wages, maintenance costs, building cost (laborers' time), not to mention a drop in productivity in church-going tropicans ...

The classic gameplay error of the superficial student of communism who applies personal attitudes and Bolshevik doctrine to the Caribbean. The game puts the church under the control of the player; he doesn't have to fight it as the Bolsheviks did. The default satisfaction of the religious need is not described to the player, so he assumes that suppression has no serious penalities. That is such a wrong assumption. The units waste more time on the default satisfaction than they could possibly use in a normal satisfaction.

Players who wish to role play the Stalinist\Hitlerist Genocide of huge segments of their people may frequently lose unless they play in a sandbox.