Why do my villagers always want to be unhappy?

[ataylorm]

Only issue listed is "I am starting to get hungry" and village has a nice cottage, good job, 4 hours of leisure time a day. Health is full, food is down 3 spots, water down 1 spot, it's spring. I'm losing villagers but can't figure out why. They just get unhappy and leave no matter what I try and do.

Under Morale I have:

Slightly Decreasing

- Schedule Balance
- Work hours
+ Leisure hours
HousingPoints
+ Sleep hours
HousingPoints

He has 9 hours of sleep and 4 hours of leisure.

[Face]

some villagers like to work nights. make sure thats not the situation. I split my villagers in half day/night shifts anyway and have offset leisure hours for them. you don't want too many villagers all trying to relax at once.

have you built enough totems? only 3 villagers can relax at a time.

I also do 4 hours of leisure a day, 2 when they first wake up, and 2 before they go to sleep. i keep teh day/night shifts offset so that the leisure times do not stack.

occasionally i get someone who glitches with a -negative feeling, or what ever its called. it doesn't go away, even after a night of rest. sometimes it stacks. i restart the game, and those negatives go away immediately.

sometimes i get a stubborn villager who is tough to keep happy. I keep a preset "vacation" schedule, and toggle them to that for a day or 2.

[The Mob]

Schedule balance is the key on this one - he probable a night worker working days or Morning person working nights. I do 12 work and 8 sleep with 2 leisure on wake up and before bed.

[RequiemsRose]

if they work at all, you will get "- work hours"...but "- schedule balance" usually means they'd like more sleep or leisure, or would like sleep/leisure at more favorable times for them. Plus some may have personal preferences or traits that have to be accounted for (some prefer night over day, some hate being up at night and love the day, some hate existence in general because they are cursed with the "soggy discomfort" trait in a game that rains a bare minimum of every 3 days on default). Make sure to check their traits and adjust accordingly.

If they do have a decent schedule but still arent happy, trying improving their leisure or overall conditions. Adding the stone circle if you dont have one yet makes a big difference, adding more as population grows does as well. Even adding a couple of otherwise seemingly pointless decor items can also help improve their moods a bit. (Also make sure their basic needs are met but since your only real complaint is "starting to get hungry" and not stuff like "homeless" or "unsafe" i assume you got that part covered already, just never hurts to double check).

Also have to second the wisdom of the previous poster about staggering schedules, but that's less about the schedule balance effecting mood and more about preventing issues like the forum posts about villagers dying of dehydration cause they all stack up on the nearest well when they hit break time all at once but only one person can actually use that well at a time and they run out of time for everyone to get a turn.

[Sinpurge]

Make a note to yourself to pay attention to Perks that affect their happiness during specific work hours. (Day + Night) This is primarily in reference to Night Time villagers who Thrive during the night and suffer penalties during the day.

[Betty]

Look for villagers with happiness perks. There's a few.

Day/Night/Weather happiness perks. These will help a lot.

Extra sleep/leisure can help. Some villagers will need to rest more to stay happy which can be annoying so give these villagers jobs like Cook, Builder, Fishing and Warehouse or Dog trainer.

Making villagers Warriors can boost happiness as well. Make sure you have patrols so they feel safe.

Keep fires lit, keep them in good homes. Cottages are best in my opinion, 4 per Cottage and they're cozy.

Have totems for them and dogs can help with happiness too if I recall.