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 (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 (blue): The default happiness.
Unhappy (red): Prevents celebration; when Unhappy citizens outnumber Happy citizens, Disorder ensues.- 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 citizens.
Communism uniquely disregards sprawl-related unhappiness entirely, while Fundamentalism overrides its effect.
Luxuries[]
Happy citizens are primarily earned through 
Luxuries. For every two luxuries generated in the city, one Content citizen becomes Happy; if no content citizens exist, luxuries instead make one 
Unhappy citizen Content, or one Angry citizen Happy.
The proportion of 
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 supplies 2 Luxuries.
Improvements[]
Several city improvements work to reduce unhappy citizens, with certain advances increasing their effectiveness:
| Improvement | Basic effect | Notes |
|---|---|---|
 Temple |
-1 Unhappy with  Ceremonial Burial-1  Unhappy with Mysticism |
|
 Colosseum |
-3 Unhappy |
Additional -1 Unhappy with  Electronics
|
 Cathedral |
-3 Unhappy |
Additional -1 Unhappy with  Theology-1 effectiveness with  CommunismProvided by  Michelangelo's Chapel
|
 Palace Courthouse |
+1 Happy |
Democracy only |
 Police Station |
-1 Unhappy from foreign deployment |
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 per unit. Under Communism, martial law is doubly effective (-2 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 citizen; under Democracy, every unit creates two 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 |
+1 Happy in all cities |
|
 Oracle |
Doubles Temple effect |
Obsolete with Theology
|
| Michelangelo's Chapel |
Provides Cathedral to every city |
|
 Shakespeare's Theatre |
Renders all Unhappy / Angry citizens content in city |
No tithes to Fundamentalists |
 J.S. Bach's Cathedral |
-2 Unhappy in every city |
Civilopedia describes effect as "on same continent", but effect is universal |
 Women's Suffrage |
Provides Police Station to every city |
|
 Cure for Cancer |
+1 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 / Angry citizens outnumber its 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 and no Unhappy / 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 in each Trade-producing tile
|
| Republic Democracy |
+1 Citizen per turn while  Food surplus exists
|
| Anarchy | No effect; existing celebrations cancel without message |
Scoring[]
Happiness directly influences the player's game score. Each Happy citizen supplies 2 points, and each Content or /
/
Specialist citizen supplies 1. Unhappy and 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[]
- Happiness in other games
Footnotes[]
- ↑ 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.
- ↑ 2.0 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.
- ↑ 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".
- ↑ Excepting Diplomacy and Trade, which nullify upkeep including war weariness.
References[]
- Ronan Hunt-Murphy (23 July 2004). "Sid Meier's Civilization II - Walkthrough". IGN. Archived from the original on 8 March 2018. Retrieved 2 November 2023.
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