Taxes and Public Order

[Du Silence]

So, through all my gameplays, I've noticed something slightly wierd, which I hope the community might be able to shed some light on.

We all know we have public order in a city, some buildings improve it through various means and others might even make it worse.
Now, my observation is that when you progress in building up your city and build the higher levels of Tax Collection (level 3+), the public order actually goes up, instead of the expected decrease.
Has anyone else noticed that?

Also, slightly related question, there are multiple matters of public appeasing, happiness, law, squalor. Anyone could shed some light on especially Happiness? Is it better or worse than Law, and what cons and pros does it have compared to Law bonus?

[sadlogic]

iirc happiness can provide an additional growth bonus whereas law decreases corruption as bonus. So theres no better one per se.

[Du Silence]

Cheers for fast reply!

[ur-Lord Tedric]

So, through all my gameplays, I've noticed something slightly wierd, which I hope the community might be able to shed some light on.

We all know we have public order in a city, some buildings improve it through various means and others might even make it worse.
Now, my observation is that when you progress in building up your city and build the higher levels of Tax Collection (level 3+), the public order actually goes up, instead of the expected decrease.
Has anyone else noticed that?

Also, slightly related question, there are multiple matters of public appeasing, happiness, law, squalor. Anyone could shed some light on especially Happiness? Is it better or worse than Law, and what cons and pros does it have compared to Law bonus?

On the first I expect it's more 'other effects'. Increasing the 'Direct Tax buildings doesn't have anything like the same effect as changing the Tax Rate. By the time you are raising it to, say, Level 3, you are probably countering the, relatively, lesser effect with other Happiness/Law buildings as well as the Governor effect of Influence. It is also the Governor, if he's bad, however, who is possibly increasing Squalor and Unrest himself.

One the second you've probably also noticed that the increasing Law effects are smaller than the equivalent Levels of Happiness. That's because Happiness does just that - bribes the grumpy tax-payers by more 'bread & circuses' (no different to now!). Law, however, works directly to both reduce Unrest as well as reduce Corruption/Bribery (one of the biggest differences I've noted between RSII & Vanilla).

I much prefer the fact that, with some reasonable investment, it is possible to have entirely content settlements after only a couple of years after taking. Not all of them mind you, but most.