happiness

[wupwup]

this ma be in the wrong place because its in th campaign but... why do my citys riot? with low taxes and every happines booster after a while my peasants rebel. i looked in the details page and its always squalor in my big citrys. how can your reduce this? is there anything you can do apart from give them a health bonus?

[Sher Khan]

The paradox here is that lowering taxes means higher population growth. It makes them happy in the short run, but a few generations later the population has grown out of control.

Unless you can spare enough coin to build infrastructure necessary to keep order (militia buildings), happiness and health (religious and other buildings), I would recommend always keeping a sizeable garrison while setting taxes to high unless the immediate situation requires higher public order.

[wupwup]

yeah thats the problem thought. cus later on when every city you have is loosing mones cus of the garison... ur screwed

[Silent Assassin]

Here are some tips:
1- Keep a good Garrison
2- Don't lower your tax I usually always leave them at high or normal
3- Don't build the farms more than the second level
4- Never build brotels or Taverns

[HighLord z0b]

Never build Brothels or Taverns? I think the chance of getting bad traits doesn't outweigh the benefits of training spies and assassins.

[NobleNick]

Due to a study I did recently (and may post here sometime) I always leave taxes on Very High. If you are ever forced, through lowered P.O. (happiness) to lower them or add garrison, immediately fix the problem and raise taxes, again, to Very High. Lowering taxes does not solve the problem: only puts it off a few turns.

[Morkonan]

this ma be in the wrong place because its in th campaign but... why do my citys riot? with low taxes and every happines booster after a while my peasants rebel. i looked in the details page and its always squalor in my big citrys. how can your reduce this? is there anything you can do apart from give them a health bonus?

I think the biggest problem is that you really can't do land improvements above the second level because population growth outpaces the combined reductions offered by city improvements. Basically, you have to keep the population starved and paying high taxes in order to avoid overpopulation and squalor. Even then, it's sometimes difficult.

High population cities are just a bad thing, all the way around, unless you have had the time and money to build nothing but improvements designed to keep them happy. Then, it's really not doing much for you, is it?

[robbo]

The only time I set taxes to low is when I want to upgrade a settlement from a large town to a city for example. Once the population is at the required amount I'll bump up the taxes as high as they can go again.

Farms can cause a big population growth so as someone said, avoid building the high level ones if you can. In other cases, you may look at the trade info screen and see you have a very good harvest. In those cases it might be worth upgrading your farms. However make sure that you accompany this with the town hall line of buildings.

Regarding the brothel line of buildings. These come with a happiness bonus along with a population growth bonus so do have benefits. Don't build them in every city but choose somewhere where you might want to create a lot of spies/assassins. It might also be a good thing if you don't have a governor in that settlement to avoid him inheriting bad traits. However once again, if you're building this line of building then make sure you accompany it with the same level of town hall. Also don't mix brothels/Inns/taverns with farms. The population really will get out of hand that way.

Upgrade your walls as soon as they become available as the extra space will reduce the levels of squalor. Don't forget this also gives you an extra free upkeep unit in your city so make sure you take advantage of this.

I tend to build town halls and barracks in every city. I then pick separate cities that specialise in either brothels, farms or churches.

Providing you build most of the happiness buildings early on in a cities development, by the time it reaches a huge city, you'll be able to have high taxes and great trade. So in terms of the money they'll be bringing in, it's definitely worth the effort.

Lastly, a chivalrous governor will help keep the people happier. If a city is quite happy on its own then move the governor to somewhere where he may be needed. Join and capture crusade targets to get a big gain in chivalry. Then send the crusading general back home to reduce unrest in a city that looks like it's on the brink of rebellion. If you have a chivalrous governor his sons are also likely to be chivalrous so you don't have to constantly join crusades.

Don't forget population growth can lead to +happiness due to population boom as well so its not always a bad thing, it just needs to be kept under control.