my cities just won't get happy!

[Beefy]

I,'ve got 2 cities, Cuapa in Italy and Carthage, i've tried everything to make them happy(both on yellow/blue), and at the moment combined they are losing me -4000 each turn! i've had to demand denarii from other factions in exchange for map info!

I've tried spies in the towns, more garrison, moving better family members in, building better buildings to reduce squalor etc!

any ideas?

[Siris]

Yes, set tax to maximum, send out your armies, let it revolt, then re-take them, & slaughter your insolent citizens who dont realize how good they have it.

Treat them like the Barbarrians, if its what must be done. I had to do it to my 2nd largest city once, lost 20,000 citizens, but if its what is required to be done, then you must do it.

But do this as a last resort, try adding better trained soliders to the city, a good Governor, lower taxes, build the "happy" buildings. :duel:

[Old Celt]

You don't need to do anything. The ideal state from the tax and traits

perspective is to tax people as much as possible without them

revolting. Sounds backwards, but that's the way the game was made, and

reflects the reasoning of governments at that time period (maybe even

now, but that's another topic). Keeping your happiness at Blue Face,

Disillusioned and taxes at high or very high is the only way to get

good tax man traits for your governors. It's hard to get into the line

of thinking that making people really happy in the pleb ranks IS NOT a

primary goal of this game.

Cities do not lose money, ever, plain and simple. The value you see on

the city label is just a gauge, and a very misleading one. The actual

way a city's income and expenses are worked out can be seen on the

Settlement Detail scroll. You can see all the money you make from

taxes, farming, trade, mining, and administration. You also see how

much goes out for army wages, and troop support. This money all goes

into a central treasury, but the stupid label you see on the campaign

map calculates what the share of payout should be only by the

population level of your city. The more people you have, the greater

percentage of the overall "pie" that city occupies, and so, the

illusion of "losing or making" money appears.

The ONLY place you can see what's truly going on is at your End of Turn

report. That report shows the Central Treasury income and expenses. If

you are in the black there, you have no problems. The only way you can

be losing money is if this report shows you in the red: and it will

show you where your money goes. So if you spend more than you should on

construction or have too large an army, you can tell from there, but

this in NO way means individual cities lose money, that's impossible.

[Dutch_guy]

Yes, set tax to maximum, send out your armies, let it revolt, then re-take them, & slaughter your insolent citizens who dont realize how good they have it.



better stil give ( or sell ) it to your enemies , works the same , but it just seems more fun doing it that way.

and of course happines buildings are a must, and well if it's not one of you're core troop producing city's build happines and law temples.

PS: love your sig Beefy

[imdWALRU5]

Yes, set tax to maximum, send out your armies, let it revolt, then re-take them, & slaughter your insolent citizens who dont realize how good they have it.

Treat them like the Barbarrians, if its what must be done. I had to do it to my 2nd largest city once, lost 20,000 citizens, but if its what is required to be done, then you must do it.

But do this as a last resort, try adding better trained soliders to the city, a good Governor, lower taxes, build the "happy" buildings. :duel:

Try that but I suggest that u enslave the populace instead of slaughter.
That way you dont loose that many citizens and send some to your other cities

[lars573]

I,'ve got 2 cities, Cuapa in Italy and Carthage, i've tried everything to make them happy(both on yellow/blue), and at the moment combined they are losing me -4000 each turn! i've had to demand denarii from other factions in exchange for map info!

I've tried spies in the towns, more garrison, moving better family members in, building better buildings to reduce squalor etc!

any ideas?

What do you have built in the cities, and how big is the population. If you have skimped on the public health or happiness buildings that could be your problem. If you are closing in on the next civic level that could be your problem too. As in my experience public order takes a dive just before you can upgrade the city. Also the -4000 when you glance at your city isn't how much you are in the hole financially. It's the cities total income minus the chunk of army and family member support the city is paying. If you want to know your finances go to the financial scroll.

[Rapidly]

Letting your cities revolt and then slaughtering/enslaving is like shooting yourself in the foot to spite your neighbor's face. You economy takes a big hit which sets you back years. Much better to fix/tinker/grow your way out of revolt as OC suggests. If you've got only two cities showing -4000 for each then you probably are trying to support way too big a military for your small economic base. In which case you should scale back or (much preferred) take some new territory.

[SpencerH]

Set the system to autotax and forget it. The only reason to change it (for a short while) is if you have a city that is growing too slowly.

[Beefy]

PS: love your sig Beefy

lol thanks so do i!

anyway thanks guys, some very useful stuff there!

cheers!