happiness?

[Mike]

Any tips on maintaining happiness? For example, I've got almost every religious item on the map for them to go to, but people are still widely unhappy.

I'd be fine with them "working less", but I'm not sure how to do that? Any way to set productivity to 75% or something, to give them some free time? Or do I have to just eliminate all tasks off the map and production centers?

[VA gamer]

maintaining reasonable workload is key but you cannot directly set it to particular value - manage your work areas / crop fields / resource limits / building. After harvest time if your workload is still near 100%, you just have too much stuff to do.

I have heard there is some kind of internal cooldown on religious objects so having a variety of religious objects in quantity is helpful. Beer is also helpful.

[Ghostlight]

How many of each religious structure have you built? My current village has population 50 and I have 10 Skull Poles, 5 Totems, 5 monoliths, and 1 Dolmen. I have no happiness issues.

[Panterich]

Originally posted by VA gamer:

maintaining reasonable workload is key

Is that a fact? Nothing about that is mentioned in any manuals.

Originally posted by Mike:

Any tips on maintaining happiness?

Keep death numbers low.
Have enough food.
See that there are no red triangles over people. Fix those manually.
Pay attention to half-hungry hunters going for a far hunt. They will butcher an animal, pick up raw meat and eat it raw on the spot. That has a significant impact on morale.
If a person has low morale and doesn`t go to Spiritual building, you should build more of those buildings and of different kinds.
Limit farming field numbers to what you actually need, since farming lowers morale. Also consider placing totems/poles near farming fields. At end game use Beer.
Have enough sledges. If a woodcutter cuts a tree without a sledge, 3-4 people will proceed to carry logs. That is a huge cumulative hit on morale.

I set limits for axes/sickles/picks as low as i can (reasonably) to stretch woodcutting/mining/farming over time. This makes it easier to find free sledges and balances morale loss from farming. I also try to 'park' people in huts during storms, not sure if that helps though.

[Mahzrael]

Lets say you have a citizen, Bob. Bob has low moral and must sleep. Bob goes to the tent cluster and notices that Sally is using the skull pole. The totem is free, but Bob just used the totem by the stables, and thus his "totem timer" is still on a "cool down cycle". Bob decides to sleep. When Bob wakes up, its harvest time, and work load is at 125%. Bob will work rather than use the skull pole. - Because of this type of loop, you need a Pole + Totem ( set) in 3-4 places ( usually where people gather).
If it is fall or winter, You must have warm clothing set to 125% - if you do not, then new people will be cold, naked, and pissed off until the work load drops low enough for them to make themselves clothing.

[VA gamer]

Indirectly, ofc - if workload is too high, not enough time for self-care / praying, so happiness will drop.

[Mike]

Originally posted by Mahzrael:

Lets say you have a citizen, Bob. Bob has low moral and must sleep. Bob goes to the tent cluster and notices that Sally is using the skull pole. The totem is free, but Bob just used the totem by the stables, and thus his "totem timer" is still on a "cool down cycle". Bob decides to sleep. When Bob wakes up, its harvest time, and work load is at 125%. Bob will work rather than use the skull pole. - Because of this type of loop, you need a Pole + Totem ( set) in 3-4 places ( usually where people gather).
If it is fall or winter, You must have warm clothing set to 125% - if you do not, then new people will be cold, naked, and pissed off until the work load drops low enough for them to make themselves clothing.

So only one person at a time can use each religious artifact? That might be my problem. I have ~60 ppl and only like two poles, two totems and one of those giant monolith circle things... figured they could satisfy more people... This should help immensely. Thanks!

[Liner]

beer is the answer