Happiness (Civ5)

Happiness is a measure of people's feelings of contentment within an empire. It can also be interpreted as the citizens' "approval" rating of the leader (you). It is counteracted by Unhappiness, people's discontent or disapproval of your rule, which naturally increases as the game progresses. The two stats form a balance, which changes constantly and therefore affects the functioning of a civilization.
It is worth noting that "real" problems like food shortages or slow cultural growth have no bearing on the level of contentment of the people - more important factors are instead the overcrowding of cities, or such visibly vicious acts as conquering foreign cities and razing them, which have to be countered by the state with the old principle: "Keep people entertained and distract them with shiny baubles to make them forget their problems!"
== Levels of Happiness ==
There are three levels of Happiness: happy, unhappy, and very unhappy.
An empire with Happiness of zero or greater is considered happy. Happy civilizations grow as normal, and each turn's Happiness value is added to the empire's counter. We could say that such empires are well governed internally, although that doesn't necessarily mean that they will be successful or competitive.
A civilization with below zero is unhappy. An unhappy empire causes each city's surplus to be reduced by 75%, drastically reducing growth. In Brave New World, there are additional effects; see below for more info.
A civilization with of -10 or lower is very unhappy. A very unhappy empire does not grow at all, suffers a penalty, receives a nasty combat penalty (-33%) for all its units, and cannot train Settlers (though they can still use their existing Settlers to found new cities).
When drops to -20, the civilization's cities go into revolt, and rebels start appearing throughout the empire, based on the number of cities. The rebels are similar to Barbarians, but appear in groups. Once a group of rebels spawns, another group will not appear for a while. Again, for the exact effects of Unhappiness in Brave New World, see below.
== Happiness Sources ==
In order to counteract Unhappiness and continue an empire's growth, Happiness must be increased. There are many ways to do so.
*Luxury resources: For every different luxury resource which a civilization has access to (through possessing an improved luxury resource, trading with another civ, or alliance with a city-state with access to the resource), the empire receives +4 Global Happiness.
*Buildings: The Circus, Colosseum, Theatre/Zoo, and Stadium are the main options, but there are also some other choices, such as the Stone Works. These provide Local Happiness.
*Wonders: Many wonders provide varying amounts of (often Global) Happiness.
*Social policies: Almost all social policy trees have some way of boosting a civilization's Happiness. Common methods include granting Happiness from certain buildings and reducing the Unhappiness generated by .
*Natural wonders: Each natural wonder grants a permanent +1 Global Happiness bonus to all civs which have discovered it.
* Mercantile city-states: Each mercantile city-state provides +3 Global Happiness to each civilization with which it is at least Friends.
==== Global vs. Local Happiness ====
Happiness sources are divided loosely into Local and Global. The main difference is that while Global sources contribute to Happiness unconditionally, Local sources can only contribute up to the Population number of the respective city. This means that if a city has 5 and sources of local happiness adding up to 8 Happiness, the actual amount that will be contributed to your empire's Happiness will be 5, not 8.
The logic behind this distinction is sound: Sources of Local Happiness are the most common entertainment buildings (Circus, Colosseum, etc.), which provide shallow, low-level amusement for the masses. On the other hand, sources of Global Happiness are Luxuries, Social Policies, etc., which all provide deeper, more meaningful reasons for your empire to be happy.
== Unhappiness Causes ==
 Unhappiness directly subtracts from Happiness, and increases as a civilization grows. There are several sources of Unhappiness.
* Number of Cities: Each city in an empire adds Unhappiness as follows:
:
World size 	Duel	Tiny	Small	Standard	Large	Huge
Unhappiness per city	+3 	+3 	+3 	+3 	+2.4 	+1.8
* : A living person is an unhappy person. Each of a civilization's Citizens automatically generates +1 Unhappiness. This is also true for s, despite their unhappiness being shown separately from that of the rest of the population.
* Puppet Cities: Each puppet city in an empire adds the same amount of Unhappiness that a normal city does.
* Annexed Cities: Each annexed city in an empire produces more Unhappiness than a normal city, as detailed in the table below. This penalty can only be removed by constructing a Courthouse in the city.http://www.carlsguides.com/strategy/civilization5/war/annex-puppet-raze.php
:
* Razing Captured Cities: Razing a city creates the same amount of Unhappiness as annexing a city. This Unhappiness, however, diminishes during the razing process, and disappears entirely once the city is destroyed.
* Population of Annexed or currently razed Cities: Each citizen in an annexed city, or in a city being razed, generates 1.34 Unhappiness instead of the usual 1.
* Public Opinion: Only possible once you have adopted an Ideology. If another civilization with differing Ideology has stronger cultural influence on your empire than yours, your Public Opinion starts generating Unhappiness.
== Brave New World ==
 Happiness has been reworked in the Brave New World expansion pack, with the introduction of the new Ideology mechanics, including the Public Opinion. This is now a new potential source of Unhappiness: in case its level is not "Content", it now adds directly to Unhappiness, and the exact amount of points added depends either on the number of cities, or the number of population, whichever is greater.
The first thing on Happiness in Brave New World is the effects of an Unhappy empire have been changed - now each point of below 0 gives a penalty of -2% and output (applies directly to the output of each city), as well as -2% Combat Strength for all units. Effect on city growth is the same as before (as if you were adding only 1/4 of the normal amount you would otherwise add to your Food Basket).
At the Unhappiness level of -10 ("Very Unhappy"), growth stops completely, you can't train Settlers anymore, and rebellions erupt at regular intervals in the form of "Barbarian" units appearing right near a city of yours, using your most up-to-date units based on your technological progress. , and Combat Strength continue to lower steadily.
Finally, when your empire's Unhappiness reaches -20, given your Public Opinion is low, some of your cities may start to revolt and change their allegiance to other empires following their Preferred Ideology. The effect is as if the other empire suddenly acquired the city in question. Border cities are most likely to defect, and the civilization they go to is the one with the Preferred Ideology whose is closest to the city.
Clearly, this presents a grave danger for your empire, while at the same time the new gradual worsening of the situation feels more natural (as opposed to simply having either an "Unhappy" or a "Very Unhappy" stage).
== Strategy ==
Keeping your empire happy is difficult, but important. The main thing you need to remember is that your empire gets gradually unhappy, as time goes - whether it is from growth, or due to more cities being founded or conquered. To counter this, the first thing you need to do in the first stage of the game, is get access to as many luxury resources as you can get hold onto. Later, you'll have to depend more on buildings and Social Policies, especially when Ideology kicks in. Keep in mind, however, that the Local Happiness produced by buildings (which is the most accessible way to raise Happiness) is limited in most cases to +6 per city (higher with access to certain resources, which in turn allows construction of more Happiness-boosting buildings), and you will have to procure additional ways to keep your people happy. Try to think ahead of time so as to avoid crisis periods.
Try to keep your empire happy at all times, but don't despair if your empire's Happiness becomes negative for a few turns - it's not the end of the world. Try to trade for some more luxuries, or build Happiness-boosting buildings, and think of some long-term strategy to boost your Happiness (such as building up to a particular Social Policy or building a particular Wonder). Or, try to eliminate any extra Unhappiness, for example from Occupied cities.
Acquiring the favor of city-states is a useful strategy: not only do city-states provide all their luxury resources to their ally, but city-states also provide +3 Happiness to each civilization which is at least with them. city-states can also make useful and since they aid in the acquisition of (some of which are key to maintaining a happy civilization).
In Brave New World, you will have to deal with Public Opinion where your civ will be influenced by other civs with higher rates than your own. If you aren't playing a culture civ, you might find your Happiness suffering because of this.
One solution is to try to improve your tourism rate slightly to overcome this, but you may also have to adopt some of the Happiness-oriented tenets of your Ideology in order to even out these losses. If it gets absolutely unmanageable, you can adopt the Ideology of the person presently leading in tourism, but this will cost you all of your Ideological Tenets thus far, and so it is not advisable unless you are desperate.
 Buildings That Generate Happiness
Era 	Building 	Happiness	Note
Ancient 	Circus 	+2 	City must have or nearby
Ancient 	Stone Works 	+1 	City must have an improved or resource nearby, city cannot be on plains
Classical 	Burial Tomb 	+2 	Egyptian unique building
Classical 	Colosseum 	+2 	
Renaissance	Satrap's Court	+2 	Persian unique building
Renaissance	Ceilidh Hall 	+3 	Celtic unique building
Renaissance	Theatre 	+3 	Requires Colosseum (unavailable in Brave New World)
Renaissance	Zoo 	+2 	Requires Colosseum (Brave New World only)
Modern 	Stadium 	+4 ( +2) 	Requires Theatre or Zoo
 Wonders that cause happiness
Wonder 	Happiness 	Requirement
Circus Maximus 	+5 global 	Must have a Colosseum in every city
Chichen Itza 	+4 local 	Civil Service
Notre Dame 	+10 global 	Physics
Forbidden Palace	-10% Unhappiness in non-occupied cities 	Banking
Taj Mahal 	+4 local 	Architecture
Neuschwanstein 	+2 local, +1 global from every Castle 	Railroad
Eiffel Tower 	+5, +1 per two additional policies adopted ( +5 Global) 	Radio
Prora 	+2, +1 per two additional policies adopted (both global)	Flight
 Social policies that deal with happiness
Policy 	Tree 	Era 	Requirements 	Effect
Aristocracy 	Tradition 	None 	None 	+15% when building Wonders (any Era) and +1 Happiness for every 10 Citizens in a City.
Monarchy 	Tradition 	None 	Legalism 	+1 and -1 Unhappiness for every 2 Citizens in the .
Meritocracy 	Liberty 	None 	Citizenship 	+1 Happiness for each City you own connected to the and -5% Unhappiness from Citizens in non-occupied Cities.
Military Caste 	Honor 	None 	Discipline 	Each City with a garrison increases local city Happiness by 1 and by 2.
Professional Army (pre-)	Honor 	None 	Military Caste	cost of upgrading units reduced 33% and +1 Happiness from every defensive building (Walls, Castle, Arsenal, Military Base)
Cultural Diplomacy 	Patronage 	Classical 	Scholasticism 	Quantity of Resources gifted by City-States increased by 100%. Happiness from gifted Luxuries increased by 50%.
Protectionism 	Commerce 	Medieval 	Mercantilism 	+1 Happiness from each Luxury Resource +2 Happiness from each Luxury Resource
Naval Tradition 	Exploration	Medieval 	None 	+1 Local Happiness for each Harbor, Seaport, or Lighthouse
Humanism (pre-) 	Rationalism	Renaissance	None 	+1 Local Happiness from every University, Observatory and Public School
Democracy (pre-) 	Freedom 	Renaissance	None 	-50% unhappiness from specialist population
Police State (pre-) 	Autocracy 	Industrial 	Militarism 	+3 Local Happiness from Courthouses, build Courthouses in half the time
In vanilla Civilization V and Gods & Kings, adopting Order generates 1 Happiness per city.
Happiness bonus from Aristocracy doesn't apply to the population of puppet cities. Monarchy gives -50% Unhappiness from population which stacks multiplicatively with other similar effects, for example with Indian ability for a total of 25% Unhappiness from population.
There are also numerous tenets in each Ideology which boost Happiness, including Universal Healthcare which is available to all three.
 Ideological tenets that deal with happiness
Ideological Tenet 	Ideology 	Level	Effects
Universal Healthcare	All 	1 	+1 Local Happiness from each National Wonder.
Capitalism 	Freedom 	1 	+1 Local Happiness per Mint, Bank and Stock Exchange.
Urbanization 	Freedom 	2 	+1 Local Happiness per Water Mill, Hospital and Medical Lab.
Universal Suffrage 	Freedom 	2 	Unhappiness from Specialists is halved. Golden Ages last 50% longer.
Socialist Realism 	Order 	1 	+2 Local Happiness from each Monument. Build Monuments in half the usual time.
Young Pioneers 	Order 	1 	+1 Local Happiness per Workshop, Factory and Solar/Nuclear/Hydro Plant.
Academy of Sciences 	Order 	2 	+1 Local Happiness per Observatory, Public School and Research Lab.
Fortified Borders 	Autocracy	1 	+1 Local Happiness per Castle, Arsenal and Military Base.
Militarism 	Autocracy	2 	+2 Local Happiness per Barracks, Armory and Military Academy.
Police State 	Autocracy	2 	+3 Local Happiness from each Courthouse. Build Courthouses in half the usual time.
 Religious beliefs that deal with happiness
Religious belief 	Belief type	Effects
Goddess of Love 	Pantheon 	+1 Happiness from cities with of 6+
Sacred Waters 	Pantheon 	+1 Happiness from cities on rivers
Ceremonial Burial	Founder 	+1 Happiness for every City following this religion +1 Happiness for every 2 Cities following this religion
Peace Loving 	Founder 	+1 Happiness for every 8 followers of this religion in non-enemy foreign cities
Asceticism 	Follower 	Shrines provide +1 Happiness in cities with 3 followers
Cathedrals 	Follower 	Use to purchase Cathedrals (+1 , +1 , +1 Happiness, +1 Great Work of Art slot)
Mosques 	Follower 	Use to purchase Mosques (+3 , +2 , +1 Happiness)
Pagodas 	Follower 	Use to purchase Pagodas (+2 , +2 , +2 Happiness)
Peace Gardens 	Follower 	Gardens provide +2 Happiness
Religious Center 	Follower 	Temples provide +2 Happiness in cities with 5 followers
Founder beliefs provide Global Happiness; Pantheon and Follower beliefs provide Local Happiness.
== References ==
== See also ==
* Happiness in other games
Category:Game concepts (Civ5)