Churches and Religion & Housing problems

[? Mark]

So, I moved on to the 5th campaign mission.
Such a relief after the 4th, where I could not produce raw materials and build farms...
so in 5-th mission I started OK, but then stumbled upon noticing that even with population little over 200 and having 2 churches (near residential buildings) and a cathedral (also in residential), I still struggle with happiness over religion.

Also, maybe someone can tell, whether faction's support somehow helps with analogous need fullfillnent?

But the main question is to hiw to handle religious and housing needs?

Although, housing is easier, I still don't get, why are people so unhappy.
Yes, most of them live in bunk houses or tenements, but tenements are with A/C,
and they are huge upgrades over shacks, with which most of my previous islands were filled. But people still seem unhappy. After all, even uneducated get $8, so all high school and college can go to apartment blocks in the city centre with better housing quality for just $3.

[Gustuv Wynd]

I typically do not build any churches and every so often I will kill off the leader of the religious group. After a while the people will be happy without churches and they will have one less place to be other than at work. Still have to let them take in a movie and such though.

[Uzi Master]

Killing the religious leader will just create another leader, and if you don't provide churches they're happiness will still be lower than if you did. They'll also spend time doing nothing when they would be going ot church, more time than it would take them if you built some.

[Cougarific]

If you've got 2 churches and a cathedral with ~200 population that should be plenty - one important thing to keep in mind is that the service quality of all religious buildings will improve as your priests gain experience over time (this is true of every service and industry).

Your religious happiness will not instantly skyrocket the moment you build a new church or cathedral - but if you just ignore it for a while and focus on other things, at some point you'll suddenly notice Hey! Religious happiness is fine now! And I didn't really do anything recently to improve it! <<That's just because your priests are getting better at doing their jobs. Pay them a good wage to reduce turnover and maximize their experience gains.

You can issue the Literacy Program edict to double the rate at which every worker on the island gains experience - it's a key edict in terms of generating happiness over the long term.

[Cougarific]

For housing - Bunkhouses are absolutely terrible - don't use them as long-term housing. I usually place one near every mine and farm when I first build the mine or farm, then go back and replace it with an actual House as soon as I can afford it.

Apartment buildings and Houses are the best overall housing. If you have a Foreign Office you can ask for aid from the USSR, cutting the cost of Apartment buildings in half. <<Doing this makes it much easier to build lots of apartments, which keeps Housing happiness high. I usually take the Character trait that provides a free Foreign Office so I can do get that USSR aid as quickly as possible, and try to avoid building any Apartments until I have that benefit locked-in.

Of course the best way to improve Housing happiness is to issue the Free Housing edict. But I usually save that for after I have plenty of profits rolling in. Do it too early and you can lock yourself into a death-spiral of debt.

The Social Security edict will also give students and the elderly enough cash in their pockets to afford nicer housing, and it's cheaper than the Free Housing edict, so issue that edict as soon as you can.

[CloudSeeker]

Tenants are not a nice home, it is croweded and not a nice place. I should say that if you want to be efficent allow for same sex marrige and then build houses or condominiums. If you give free housing the housing problem is solved. You make enough money to fund the free housing, same sex marrige means that the gays will move in together instead of taking up their own family slot which means more families can live in the same building.

When it comes to religion just build more churches, its about church visits and if everyone always keep the church full its hard to get in there.

[? Mark]

Thank you guys for tips. However, most of them are for Socialisitc and pro-USSR walkthrough. I'm playing capitalistic and pro-US.
Even my faction choice is such. So its hard.

[LOHR]

As a rule of thumb, a church or clinic will serve about 50 people. So for 100 you'd need 2. Although personally I often stretch it out to 75, or 100 for one building if I'm pressed. And upgrading the quality of service can improve it's output too.

The Cathedral should also serve 100, so it seems ilke it should be adequate. Are they fully staffed? That cuts down on their ability to serve a lot. Also, even if you have enough capacity, if the faction leader is upset, the factions general opinion of you will dminish and that might have an effect on contentness. You could try patching it in the short term by having El Pres visit the churches and cathedral often.

Oh, also check how many visitors each is getting. If for some reason one of them isn't getting many visitors that could be the hidden issue.

Also, upgrade to apartments. Capitalists like them much better anyway. If you're not paying enough you may have to lower the rent and just eat the cost until you increase pay. Also, every faction seems to respond well to Social Security, so don't be afraid to use that one even if you're going hard pro-capitalist.

[CloudSeeker]

Originally posted by Dr. Do Little:

Thank you guys for tips. However, most of them are for Socialisitc and pro-USSR walkthrough. I'm playing capitalistic and pro-US.
Even my faction choice is such. So its hard.

Being capitalistic and communistic isn't much different. Capitalism only cares about profit, if you want to care about wellbeing then it is communism.

[Uzi Master]

Originally posted by Dr. Do Little:

Thank you guys for tips. However, most of them are for Socialisitc and pro-USSR walkthrough. I'm playing capitalistic and pro-US.
Even my faction choice is such. So its hard.

There is nothing stopping you from appeasing both factions.

[Gustuv Wynd]

Originally posted by Uzi Master:

Killing the religious leader will just create another leader, and if you don't provide churches they're happiness will still be lower than if you did. They'll also spend time doing nothing when they would be going ot church, more time than it would take them if you built some.

I never see them sitting around doing nothing...or at least not for long. They are always going someplace, getting food, using entertainment, or working. Maybe they are going more places when they don't have a church? Though I see them doing that even with Churches. It seems to me that without churches they are more likely to go some where that might generate you some income or at work.

And I will be in the 80%+ happiness with zero churches. You can never get rid of a faction complelely as far I know, but after a while with the right edicts you can make it have lower numbers. The killing of the leader is just to take a known member away. Even if you kill the last member(leader), the game will just pick some random citizen to be the new leader even if they were a member of another faction. However, if there are 40 members and I kill the leader...there will then be 39 and thus one less person caring about it. Biggest problem is if the family gets unhappy about the killing...heh...but that doesn't always happen.

[Uzi Master]

If a citizen cannot fulfill a need, they will take a "long walk on the beach" which is really jut walking around aimlessly, accomplishing nothing while lowering their happiness, and taking longer than it would to just go to a service building.

[My Name is Mud]

I've mentioned this before but there's absolutely zero reason to build houses before you've built a ministry, have a foreign affairs minister (import one right away), and gotten the discounted appartments from the Soviets. Housing is usually the last basic need I fulfill. Getting a high school and college so you can educated your own people to do jobs is way more important.

If playing with Modern Times on, this is much tricker since the discount only counts towards either the old or modern appartments but not both so you have to wait a lot longer before cashing it in. In that case I might settle for some tennements in the interem. But they'd sill be the last basic thing I was building. Once you have a couple moneymakers up and running, the funding for housing sort of takes care of itself.

[? Mark]

Originally posted by Death From Above:

I've mentioned this before but there's absolutely zero reason to build houses before you've built a ministry, have a foreign affairs minister (import one right away), and gotten the discounted appartments from the Soviets. Housing is usually the last basic need I fulfill. Getting a high school and college so you can educated your own people to do jobs is way more important.

If playing with Modern Times on, this is much tricker since the discount only counts towards either the old or modern appartments but not both so you have to wait a lot longer before cashing it in. In that case I might settle for some tennements in the interem. But they'd sill be the last basic thing I was building. Once you have a couple moneymakers up and running, the funding for housing sort of takes care of itself.

Thats a wise tip, because I often waste lots of cash and effort into the residential blocks and still end up with bazillions of shacks and unsatisfied need.