Happiness bar!!! does anyone else hate this?

[SpidyM]

First off, I want to say the game has come on leaps and bounds from what it was.. Im actually enjoying playing it to an extent. The graphics are looking way better, followers actually do what they are supposed to do (most of the time) and theres a lot more things to do in game like the voyages, creating settlements and farms (to an extent), much better than before where it just looked like a brown circle. Plus easier to farm etc. Then comes the happiness bar..
What the hell is going on.. I cant see anything good coming from this apart from frustration. I built 3 (celebration) statues, the ones that increase your happiness quite a bit (cost me all my gems). Ive got trees by abodes all in good places.No matter what i do ...even with finger of god and loads of belief killing Astari and doing as much damage to their settlement as i can..which brings them down a bit...but the Astari always get on top and you can even watch their meter rise at a fair speed. Frustration is an understatement...
Anyway the reason for this discussion was simply can anyone give me a few pointers on getting this sorted? Or at least is it possible to play the game without loosing 50% of my followers? Also give me some of your feedback and thoughts on the happiness bar, as im sure im not the only one that dislikes it...cheers

[PimPy Butcher]

Build a fountain at your home, and put a swamp around there festival place … every time they go out to celebrate (every 1 h) they die in the swamp…

If you start your fountain 8 min before they start there festival your ppl gets happier and it lasts 2 min after their festival ends

[SpidyM]

Ok havent got swamps yet, but looking at timeline its not far off. Thanks for that :)

[PimPy Butcher]

Ok I had alot of problem with the Astaris (or what they are called ) before I unlocked the swamp... I might have lost almost 100 ppl to them.. but after I´ve unlocked the swamp, it was a easy killl :) Happy hunting

[SpidyM]

Nice one cheers again. Was getting fed up with game. now i have renewed hope ;)

[Digital Jam]

It's funny. When the happiness bar was first mentioned, along with the Gifts from God, as an upcoming game mechanic, the community was not impressed. We said, 'hey, is this just another f2p mechanic? Are you just going to make our followers miserable and require us to buy these gifts, then make us click on them every ten minutes?'

'No, no, no!' Said our community rep's. 'Don't be silly. Happiness is going to be an amazing new mechanic, that won't act like that at all.'

I'm so glad we have them. They're so well informed/trustworthy.

[blindfaith88]

And clicking on that fountain like every ten minutes makes me feel not god like at all. Isn't it enough I had to plop the thing down? Can't the mayor or someone of my settlements go out and keep the water running? Why can't I assign someone that task like I assign a farmer?

Also the tree of joy is way cooler to look at, why can't that boost happiness as much as the fountain? Cant my people go picnic under it or carve their names in it or do something with it to make them extra happy like the fountain does?

When are my people going to build something for me? Like a temple or an altar or heck a thank you fruit basket. Yeah there are some pink bubbles that let me know they think of me but I could do with a ton more intereation and reaction than these little dudes give.

[Alun1]

the unfortunate thing with the Astari, any negative effects on them (Swamps, etc) have no effect on them when you log off, so every hour they will have their festivals and their happyness will go up and up.

the only definitive way to beat them is reduce them to 0 population while you are online. otherwise they will continue to take followers.

[Fengor]

Yeah, the whole happiness mechanic can sod right off right now as far as I'm concerned. I don't think it's bad persay, lots of sims use a managable stat, but forcing us to buy the fountains and other things with gems is ridiculous.

Frankly, the root of this problem is the gems, they need to go as soon as possible.

[SpidyM]

Originally posted by VNGAlun1:

the unfortunate thing with the Astari, any negative effects on them (Swamps, etc) have no effect on them when you log off, so every hour they will have their festivals and their happyness will go up and up.

the only definitive way to beat them is reduce them to 0 population while you are online. otherwise they will continue to take followers.

yeah your right log back on and bang lost 30 plus followers :/ Good news is just got meteor and used it.. right in the middle of the Astari festival.. Have to admit was great watching them all running about burning then falling in the swamp haha.

Also agree with Fengor its crazy using 20 gems for 1 fountain. Takes so long to get 20 gems :/ Hopefully an update will sort this out.

PS thanks for all the responses.