Happiness is Confusing?

[Moon]

In recent playthroughs I've been trying to make my villagers much happier and take everything into consideration, but some of them are just never happy? I can have a villager in a perfect match relationship, working a job to her skills, that ups her aspiration, with no negative debuffs or traits and she's STILL completely unhappy? All her needs are met, and she's working with people she likes so there's a nice ambience in the work building, but I really don't understand what affects happiness. All the service buildings are find and the village is thriving so it's not that.

It can be fun for building a story, but it negatively affects her lifespan and morale so I'm not sure what to do when this happens with a villager.

[Lilaria]

I didn't understand it either. Almost none of my villagers are ever happy, I don't know how to create a village with good productivity, good marriages and happy people. I just don't think it is possible.

[The Jumpy Gamer]

I have that issue too. The ambiance at work is good, they've got a great marriage, working in their aspiration, and still depressed and dying between 45-50. I hope they patch this.

[Cherrayu]

I also have this issue, it seems that when a villager does not work they are happy, yet when they start working, perfect job/aspiration or not, they get depressed. I give them many relationships, perfect marriages yet they just don't want to work. The guide even says that a villager does not need their perfect job to be happy with their work, if their skills match. I can even see that in their vitality tab, there are more positive factors than negative, yet vitality is extremely negative. At this point I think its a bug, but a game breaking one in my opinion, since my villagers keep dying at 45-50. Or I am missing something, glad I am not the only one.

[Fidea]

You're not the only one! I've been really struggling with how to correctly balance and maintain morale but I can't seem to figure out the system for it. I have noticed that peasants almost always seem to have extremely negative morale, but if that's the case then I want to be able to fix it! I've even reduced peasant class taxes to zero but they're still unhappy and dying too early. Loving the game, but I definitely need a bit more clarification on certain mechanics.

[space.radiska]

Yeah I don't get it either. It's my second playthrough, after I did lots of stoopid stuff in my first one (nt understanding many mechanics, not finding the best matches etc.)
So this time I've been taking it slower and paying attention to everything! Most of my villagers should be happy, as far as I can see.
For example I have a female villager with ONLY positive traits. One is even resilient which gives +10 morale. Her relationship and traits are each 20 so = 40. With -8 occupation (I didn't upgrade it yet) BUT her Morale is -60 and keeps decreasing?? I seriously don't understand what she needs....

[chaleur]

I had some too I put in the suggestions thread that it would be nice to see a log of what's making a particular juvillager unhappy because some of mine are continually unhappy even though they have good relationships and traits bonuses and only a -7 or so from occupation. It should have been a +20 + 15 - 7 and instead they were at a total of -55.

[ZeddOTak]

Hello!
We'll take a look at your problems related to this topic.
Can you tell us if the "Bard" building is built?
And can you tell us how many villagers you have at the end of the game?
Thanks in advance!

[Moon]

Originally posted by ZeddOTak:

Hello!
We'll take a look at your problems related to this topic.
Can you tell us if the "Bard" building is built?
And can you tell us how many villagers you have at the end of the game?
Thanks in advance!

In that 75 year playthrough I didn't have time to build the bard building, no. But I ended with 63 villagers. Is that building the only way to increase happiness?

[KrazyKatAttack]

I recently started playing this game, and I needed to find a solution to my villager's morale dilemma. I needed to figure out how to increase her happiness meter. She also has the depressive trait and was almost full-blown depressed. So here's how I helped her make a full recovery and regain all her happiness. Happiness is based off occupation, relationship, and traits. It is totaled by points. Suppose I had a villager with +2 points for relationship, -4 points occupation, and 0 points for trait, I will be in a continuous decline with a total of -2 points. In order to figure out what's the problem, you need to go to their character chart and hover over the sad cloud icon on the happiness meter. It will give you a breakdown of your points. For my villager all I had to do to improve morale was purchase work condition upgrades which was just enough to put her in the positive. You could also have her quit her job until you can improve the other impositions that are impacting her happiness. I hope this helps you correct your villagers mood.