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Happiness in Civilization II is a mechanic that determines the general satisfaction of citizens within a given city. In addition to its contribution to game score, maintaining happiness is important for a civilization's internal stability. When citizens are unhappy, city production shuts down, and the population is more susceptible to foreign subversion; under Democracy, sustained riots will trigger government collapse. Conversely, happy cities provide improved production, and are more resistant to subversion.

Happiness is chiefly managed through two tracks: mitigation of unhappiness with improvements and Wonders, and promotion of happiness via luxury spending. The Attitude Advisor provides an at-a-glance overview of the empire's happiness.

Happiness levels[]

Each citizen working a tile is coloured to one of four ranks of happiness, ordered left to right in the city screen:

  • Happy Happy (cyan): As long as Happy citizens equal the number Unhappy, civil disorder will not occur. When at least half a city's population is Happy and no Unhappy citizens are present, the city will celebrate.
  • Content Content (blue): The default happiness.
  • Unhappy Unhappy (red): Prevents celebration; when Unhappy citizens outnumber Happy citizens, Disorder ensues.
  • Angry Angry (black): Extremely unhappy citizens generated by sprawling civilizations; they have the same effect as Unhappy citizens.

Modifiers generally raise a citizen's happiness to the next available level: Angry to Unhappy, Unhappy to Content, and Content to Happy. However, luxuries prioritize converting Angry citizens directly to Happy.

Specialists are not subject to happiness.

Happiness factors[]

Happiness is determined by a number of factors, some specific to individual cities, and some applied across the civilization. Modifiers are applied in a sequential order, listed here as they appear in the 'Happy' window of the city screen:

Difficulty and empire size[]

The player's difficulty level determines cities' base level of contentment before unhappy citizens appear:

Difficulty Size before unhappy
Chieftain 6
Warlord 5
Prince 4
King 3
Emperor 2
Deity 1

A civilization controlling many cities experiences additional unhappiness. The base "riot factor" is defined by game rules (14 in a standard game), modified by difficulty, government, and map size.[note 1] The more cities a civ controls beyond this optimum, the greater the unhappiness across the empire; this is the principal source of Angry Angry citizens.

Communism uniquely disregards sprawl-related unhappiness entirely, while Fundamentalism overrides its effect.

Luxuries[]

Happy citizens are primarily earned through Luxury (Civ2) Luxuries. For every two luxuries generated in the city, one Content Content citizen becomes Happy Happy; if no content citizens exist, luxuries instead make one Unhappy Unhappy citizen Content Content, or one Angry Angry citizen Happy Happy.

The proportion of Trade (Civ2) Trade devoted to luxuries is determined by the civilization's tax rate. Economic improvements including Marketplaces, Banks, and Stock Exchanges increase a city's net Luxury output by 50% each; Superhighways do not increase luxuries directly, but boost the city's trade route revenue. Luxuries can also be generated locally by Specialists: each Entertainer Entertainer supplies 2 Luxuries.

Improvements[]

Several city improvements work to reduce unhappy citizens, with certain advances increasing their effectiveness:

Improvement Basic effect Notes
Temple (Civ2) Temple -1 Unhappy Unhappy with Ancient Social advance (Civ2) Ceremonial Burial
-1 Unhappy Unhappy with Ancient Social advance (Civ2) Mysticism
Effect provided by advances, not the Temple itself
Double effect with Oracle (Civ2) Oracle
Colosseum (Civ2) Colosseum -3 Unhappy Unhappy Additional -1 Unhappy Unhappy with Modern Applied advance (Civ2) Electronics
Cathedral (Civ2) Cathedral -3 Unhappy Unhappy Additional -1 Unhappy Unhappy with Renaissance Social advance (Civ2) Theology
-1 effectiveness with Industrial Revolution Social advance (Civ2) Communism
Provided by Michelangelo's Chapel (Civ2) Michelangelo's Chapel
Palace (Civ2) Palace
Courthouse (Civ2) Courthouse
+1 Happy Happy Democracy only
Police Station (Civ2) Police Station -1 Unhappy Unhappy from foreign deployment
Only relevant to Republic and Democracy
Provided by Women's Suffrage (Civ2) Women's Suffrage

Government[]

In addition to mitigating unhappiness from city sprawl,[note 1] different governments provide specific happiness-related effects that can be beneficial or deleterious:

Martial law[]

"Military" governments (Anarchy, Despotism, Monarchy, and Communism) feature martial law: up to three combat units stationed in a city automatically suppress unhappiness, at a rate of -1 Unhappy per unit. Under Communism, martial law is doubly effective (-2 Unhappy per unit).

Democracy and Republic[]

Under "civilian" governments (Republic and Democracy), military units deployed in the field (not garrisoned in a city or occupying a fortress within three tiles of an owned city) cause unhappiness ("war weariness") in their home city.[note 2] Under Republic, each unit after the first creates one Unhappy Unhappy citizen; under Democracy, every unit creates two Unhappy Unhappy citizens. Police Stations and the Women's Suffrage Wonder mitigate war weariness.

Fundamentalism[]

Fundamentalism completely eliminates unhappiness within the civilization, at the cost of significant penalties to Science production. Happiness-related improvements (Temple, Cathedral, Colosseum) have their maintenance costs waived, instead providing gold equal to the number of citizens they placate.

Wonders[]

Happiness-related Wonders can be divided into two groups: Wonders that modify or substitute for happiness improvements, and Wonders that provide happiness directly.

Wonder Effect Notes
Hanging Gardens (Civ2) Hanging Gardens +1 Happy Happy in all cities
Additional +2 Happy Happy in host city
Obsolete with Industrial Revolution Economic advance (Civ2) Railroad
Oracle (Civ2) Oracle Doubles Temple (Civ2) Temple effect Obsolete with Renaissance Social advance (Civ2) Theology
Michelangelo's Chapel (Civ2) Michelangelo's Chapel Provides Cathedral (Civ2) Cathedral to every city
Shakespeare's Theatre (Civ2) Shakespeare's Theatre Renders all Unhappy Unhappy / Angry Angry citizens content in city No tithes to Fundamentalists
J.S. Bach's Cathedral (Civ2) J.S. Bach's Cathedral -2 Unhappy Unhappy in every city Civilopedia describes effect as "on same continent", but effect is universal
Women's Suffrage (Civ2) Women's Suffrage Provides Police Station (Civ2) Police Station to every city
Cure for Cancer (Civ2) Cure for Cancer +1 Happy Happy in every city

Celebration and Disorder[]

At sufficient happiness or unhappiness, a city will host a celebration in the leader's honour or descend into disorder, respectively. Celebration and disorder are calculated at the start of the player's turn, and will persist for as long as their conditions are met. If enabled in City Report Options, notification popups are issued when a change in happiness status occurs.

Civil disorder[]

Civil disorder occurs when a city's Unhappy Unhappy / Angry Angry citizens outnumber its Happy Happy citizens. During disorder, economic activity (Trade, Science, Production) is suspended, although Food is still stockpiled. Cities in disorder are also cheaper to subvert.

Democratic governments are uniquely sensitive to unrest: if any city is experiencing disorder within two consecutive turns, the government collapses into anarchy.

We Love the King Day[]

"We Love the King Day",[note 3] also known as celebration and abbreviated WLtKD, occurs when at least half a city's population is Happy Happy and no Unhappy Unhappy / Angry Angry citizens are present. A city requires a minimum population of 3 to celebrate. During celebration, the city experiences a production bonus based on its government type:

Government Effect
Despotism Tile yield penalty waived
Monarchy
Communism
Fundamentalism
+1 Trade (Civ2) Trade in each Trade-producing tile
Republic
Democracy
+1 Citizen Citizen per turn while Food (Civ2) Food surplus exists
Anarchy No effect; existing celebrations cancel without message

Scoring[]

Happiness directly influences the player's game score. Each Happy Happy citizen supplies 2 points, and each Content Content or Entertainer/Tax_collector/Scientist Specialist citizen supplies 1. Unhappy Unhappy and Angry Angry citizens provide no points.

Civilopedia entry[]

Unhappiness Due to Civilization Size
Once you have built a certain number of cities, your citizens start to worry about your ability to effectively govern your civilization. When this occurs, additional unhappy citizens appear in each city.

The number of cities you can build before causing additional unhappiness is based on a number of factors, including game difficulty level and government type. The number of cities is higher for more advanced governments and lower levels of difficulty.

Modding[]

Cities' default unhappiness threshold is defined at Line 8 of the @COSMIC section in Rules.txt, while the "riot factor" for empire size is defined at Line 9. In Test of Time, citizens' score value can be customized on Line 23; the given integer is the bonus from Content/Specialists, and is doubled for Happy.

Most other happiness mechanics are hard-coded. Certain advances modify the effects of city improvements: Temples only work if a civ possesses Ceremonial Burial and/or Mysticism; Colosseums are boosted by Electronics; and Theology and Communism increase and decrease Cathedrals' effect, respectively.

War weariness from air units under civilian governments[note 2] varies based on their assigned role: Air Superiority units do not cause unhappiness, while all other types[note 4] continue to incur unhappiness even when stationed in cities.

See also[]

Footnotes[]

  1. 1.0 1.1 The exact formula is outlined by Prof. Garfield here and detailed in a subsequent post. Note that the riot factor is applied in a staggered pattern based on cities' founding order, and that foreign cities captured or lost have a one-turn lag before their effect is computed.
  2. 2.0 2.1 Air units follow special rules: interceptors (Fighters and Stlth Ftr.s) do not provoke unhappiness, while all others cause unhappiness even when stationed in cities. See the Modding section for details.
  3. The exact name varies based on the civ leader's government title, eg. under Democracy it renders as "We Love the President Day". For this reason, celebration is sometimes referenced as "We Love the ____ Day".
  4. Excepting Diplomacy and Trade, which nullify upkeep including war weariness.

References[]

Civilization II [edit]
Conflicts in CivilizationFantastic WorldsTest of Time
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Standalone remake with different graphics, units, etc.
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