Spikes and massive drops in happiness

[Termite]

I have noticed that once a city gets beyond 200K+ there are sudden unexplained drops in happiness. Everything is ok with regards to leisure happiness, transport, and all other services. However, the happiness indicator can go from +450 to -1500 in a matter of seconds at normal game speed without any pattern that I can see. It happens in the day and at night so it is not the day/night cycle. Nothing changes in any of the stats other than this indicator. Trouble is when it gets to -1500 you can lose up to 10K population very fast.

This only starts to happen when the city gets to 200K+. Has anyone got any idea what is causing it? It looks like there is some variable that gets triggered at this stage of the game but nothing tells me what needs to be done to stop it.

[Useless Noodle]

that's not happiness, that's population indicator, it shows your growing population rate. That minus 1500 is the result of zoning a large chunk at once on the way to 200k+, aka your dying rate is 1500 people / week. Because people have a fixed age, if they move in at same time, later they will die at same time, we called it "Death wave", simple story. but 10k loss in a total of 200k, I would say acceptable. New people will come in as soon as the death wave is over. Just zone slowly next time, especially with high density resident.

[Twilight]

Just checked. I'm at 285k people and my happines graph is flat at 95%. No spikes. Also recently zoned new residential (+6k people).

Must be a different reason.

[Useless Noodle]

I "blame" CO for chosing a smiley face as a population indicator at the bottom bar, which is very misleading, plus at the begining, when you yet to develope anything, it's a red unhappy face.

[Termite]

I don't think it is a death wave as I am not getting the usual scull and crossbone icons all over the place that normaly appear in a death wave, unless my death services are that good at collecting the dead so they are not appearing. I will check the death/birth ratio and see if it is. I have to admit that I am using the mods 'realistic population' and 'configurable citizens aging' (set at a divider of 10). I always zone slowly to avoid the death wave, but the two mods might have skewed that a bit.

[Useless Noodle]

high possibility, as realistic population increase things, so even a small area can be as many people as a big one in vanilla. Also, because they all pack into 1 house, your death care may have an easy time, as all the death call happen in 1 place.

[Termite]

Originally posted by Grumpy Nita:

high possibility, as realistic population increase things, so even a small area can be as many people as a big one in vanilla. Also, because they all pack into 1 house, your death care may have an easy time, as all the death call happen in 1 place.

True never thought about death care having an easy time due to the higher number of households in a building. I will look at the death rate more carefully and let you know if it is due to that.