Low Happiness

[adven_turing]

I have a pre-built town that I integrated into my republic. It has everything the citizens want: church, fully-stocked shopping centre, sport, culture. Yet happiness is on average 50%. In many buildings, it's down in the 30s. What can I do to fix this?

[Dummkopf]

No idea. I found the same issue so I usually play on the lower unsatisfied citizen reaction settings which keeps happiness high.

[Elessar_warrior]

Originally posted by adven_turing:

It has everything the citizens want

Drinking quality water, sewage, electricity, heating, garbage collection, good housing quality, loyalty, crime, health, attractions, jobs...?

[adven_turing]

Originally posted by Elessar_warrior:

Originally posted by adven_turing:

It has everything the citizens want

Drinking quality water, sewage, electricity, heating, garbage collection, good housing quality, loyalty, crime, health, attractions, jobs...?

All that is fine. The only issue is that some people have no access to kindergarten, but it shouldn't be lowering happiness that much.

[Silent_Shadow]

What are the complaints at the buildings themselves?
Even if you provide stuff, citizens still need a way to get to it reliably.

Other stuff that kills happiness includes high unemployment and crime, and while the church makes people happy by satisfying their need to pray, it also lowers their loyalty, and lower loyalty increases the loss in happiness when a need is missed.

[adven_turing]

Originally posted by Silent_Shadow:

What are the complaints at the buildings themselves?
Even if you provide stuff, citizens still need a way to get to it reliably.

Other stuff that kills happiness includes high unemployment and crime, and while the church makes people happy by satisfying their need to pray, it also lowers their loyalty, and lower loyalty increases the loss in happiness when a need is missed.

That's the thing. I click on the building, but it doesn't show anything is missing usually, except for the kindergarten.

[Silent_Shadow]

I would suspect high unemployment or crime is the cause then.
Housing quality may also be a factor, but is unlikely at these happiness levels.

[ChalwaBechatex]

I had same problem with pre existing city. I think here are factors:
Low housing quality - you can build buildings with 90% while some existing have like60%.
Alcohol can help with happiness, just provide medicine and forget about positive demography.

[Shrike]

Is happiness capped if you don't have a radio or television station?

[TTV_That_Gamer_Taz]

Originally posted by Shrike:

Is happiness capped if you don't have a radio or television station?

Yes in theory. If your housing has a Quality of 30% it can limit the happiness level. Also, add a radio/TV station and set it to 100% cultural enjoyment should increase your happiness of your peeps.

[adven_turing]

My pre-built houses with 78% produces happiness of ~30%.

[moa]

In those pre-built houses people wont get happiness if they don't work.
- first they work
- then they do free time stuff which grands them happiness (if 100% fullfilled)
Without work their stats are frozen and only want praying/doctor and they wont loose nor gain happiness after their free time has finished.
This is the same if they do not have a kindergarten. They are unemployed and therefore wont have any needs which would grand them happiness.

For populated maps you have to provide a kindergarten and work for anyone you care about.

You probably had them work on something without providing a passenger bus to the town or they had no water or electricity during that time and their happiness dropped therefore. Then they made babies and now they cant work. So I suggest you provide a kindergarten for them.
If you like you could also replace the residential buildings with regular ones. Then a kindergarten is optional and people will have their usual needs, whether unemployed or not.

Also important: Since this last update the unfulfilled needs list gets deleted after one(?) day, so it is now really hard to figure out what the cause might be. Could be that nobody is seeing a doctor, too long work trip, understaffed shops, infrequent bus, low loyalty etc. I personally don't like it. I rather go without out the small breakdown in the happiness tooltip on the upper right but instead have the option to check the houses by hand and have the full history of the people by checking them individually.

[TTV_That_Gamer_Taz]

Also. What’s your loyalty level? If it’s too low it can affect happiness. If that’s the case, add a monument within range and it should help bring up happiness.