A Citizen Happiness Idea and Formula

[SAI-40]

So, I think I've posted about it before under a different name, but one cosmetic feature I'd love to see if Citizen Happiness. From what I recall, one of the biggest things holding us back was the lack of a formula for deciding how happy your citizens are--so I figured we could come together and figure one out. Mathematics has never been my strength, but I'm sure someone around here knows how to do it.

 

Here are the things that should go into it, in my opinion:

 

• Population Density: The more dense the population, the less happy they are.
• Disease Rate: Disease makes people unhappy.
• Pollution Rate: Pollution makes people unhappy.
• Infrastructure: The more infrastructure you have, the better off your nation is, the happier people are.
• War: Being at war just takes a flat amount of happiness away, period. Just a small fraction for as long as your nation is fighting. Perhaps being under ground control could also lower it more.
• Food: Having a surplus makes your people happy, not having enough makes them unhappy.
• Power: If you have a city that is underpowered, your people aren't going to be happy about it.
• Tax Rate/Average Income: The higher your tax rate, the less happy people are. The higher their Average income, the happier people are.
• Civil Improvements: Perhaps buidling things such as Police Stations, Hospitals, ect. could also give a small boost to your Citizen happiness. Whatever makes your city a better place to live in.

Anything else you guys think she be taken into consideration--or not taken into consideration? Anything else you guys can think to add? Should it be just a cosmetic feature, or should it have some sort of in-game effect?

[Speaker Faris Wheeler]

about 90 percent of those above exist, 

 

 

Improvements (7/7) ?

Power Resources Manufacturing Civil Commerce Military 1 Coal Power Plant 1 Coal Mine 0 Oil Refinery 0 Police Station 0 Supermarket 0 Barracks 0 Oil Power Plant 1 Iron Mine 1 Steel Mill 0 Hospital 1 Bank 1 Factory 0 Nuclear Power Plant 0 Lead Mine 0 Aluminum Refinery 0 Recycling Center 0 Shopping Mall 0 Air Force Base 0 Wind Power Plant 1 Farm 0 Munitions Factory 0 Subway 0 Stadium 0 Drydock

[SoS]

The tax rate isn't truly adjustable, so it would be tough to factor that as it stands.

 

Possibly make it simple and add one happiness point per project or per 1k infra, something like that.

[naTia]

Morgan, he isn't talking about adding improvements, but rather adding a citizen happiness based on existing mechanics/improvements.

 

As for the proposed I have to say:

• Maybe we could expand the happiness to be more than cosmetic and affect production rates/money earned
• Tax rate and income should, of course, balance each other out just as the policy changes do
• Take away infrastructure just for smaller nations
• Or don't because it could help balance out pollution that naturally comes with extra infrastructure

Edited November 1, 2014 by The Captain Nao

[Atzuya]

Please not another income modifier rating :c

 

We already have a somewhat rudimentary 'happiness' index. Commerce works pretty much the same way happiness would work in another nation sim game, as they're pretty much shiny things you buy to make your citizen produce more money.

 

Also, running out of food reduces income by a third iirc

[Tim Armstrong]

I like the idea of an in game happiness factor,  SAI-40. I agree with Nao that happiness often leads to productivity and that this should be more than cosmetic. Further I agree with Atzuya that there are already many factors to consider with the current income modifiers. Without further complicating the income calculation, perhaps a productivity rate that applies to the production of resources is appropriate.

 

As for a formula, I'll put up a straw man:

 

(Infrastructure/100 * .001) + ((Food on Hand / Daily Food Required) * .002) + ((Avg income - 2) * .005) + ((100 - Population density) * .001) - (# of current wars * .005)

 

The resulting percentage could then be multiplied by each the rate of production for each resource being made by that nation. 

 

I left out disease/pollution/civil improvements because those already play so heavily into the income calculation. I also left out the powered factor because it is difficult to quantify (more of a yes or a no) and if you aren't powered you have bigger problems to contend with than a drop in citizen happiness.

Edited November 4, 2014 by Tim Armstrong

[T Servo]

That first point I like very much.

 

Morgan, he isn't talking about adding improvements, but rather adding a citizen happiness based on existing mechanics/improvements.

 

As for the proposed I have to say:

• Maybe we could expand the happiness to be more than cosmetic and affect production rates/money earned
• Tax rate and income should, of course, balance each other out just as the policy changes do
• Take away infrastructure just for smaller nations
• Or don't because it could help balance out pollution that naturally comes with extra infrastructure

 

[naTia]

As for a formula, I'll put up a straw man:

 

(Infrastructure/100 * .001) + ((Food on Hand / Daily Food Required) * .002) + ((Avg income - 2) * .005) + ((100 - Population density) * .001) - (# of current wars * .005)

 

The resulting percentage could then be multiplied by each the rate of production for each resource being made by that nation. 

 

I left out disease/pollution/civil improvements because those already play so heavily into the income calculation. I also left out the powered factor because it is difficult to quantify (more of a yes or a no) and if you aren't powered you have bigger problems to contend with than a drop in citizen happiness.

 

I like the attempt at a simple equation but I think we might need to add some things:

 

 

• Before food affects your nation, there should be a minimum that scales based on current population. Only because the current system accounts for troops, which I think, if underfed, would not add or take away from happiness.
• Also, if your nation creates food, then sells a bunch of that food, they lose a ton of production and start losing food. So, they have to buy it on the market, when they could just produce it.
• Disease, pollution, and civil improvements should also be factored in because (I feel) the need to buy many of the civil improvements is too low.
• Powered should affect it if there are improvements that require it based on the amount of improvements missing power. There should also be a limit for the happiness lost or else people would get their happiness bombed every time they bought too much infra.
• Average income and tax rate need to be in the equation, but only to account for the added income based on commerce. OR, you could just add the commerce rate into the equation.
• What does the production affect.

 

 

 

As a major point, I think we need to consider how much each thing affects your nation before something like this is implemented.

 

Here is how this would effect a nation like myself. (Sorry I copy/pasted)

 

 

 

(4,000.00/100 * .001) + ((378.80 / 139.09) * .002) + ((22.25 - 2) * .005) + ((100 - 87) * .001) - (0 * .005)

(40 *.001) + (2.7234 * .002) + (20.5 * .005) + (13 * .001) - (0)

.04 + .0054468 + 0.1025 + .013

0.1609

 

Sooo, instead of 6 tons of gasoline per day I make 1? That sounds a bit extreme.

 

 

Edited November 4, 2014 by The Captain Nao

[Tim Armstrong]

Hi Nao, with your result of .1609 you would be producing 1.1609 x 6 tons of gasoline = 6.9654 gallons. Pretty happy little workers you have there!

 

Feel free to change the formula with what you think should be added guys.

Edited November 4, 2014 by Tim Armstrong

[Stanislaw Sikorski]

I believe what we're trying to achieve is realism. With war, not everyone would be unhappy about war. As for tax rate and average income, that would just make people change their policies to have the highest average income and lowest tax rate, it wouldn't change their revenue but it would increase their citizen happiness which destroys the idea behind the policies being used as a RP element of the game.

[naTia]

As for tax rate and average income, that would just make people change their policies to have the highest average income and lowest tax rate

 

Yes.

 

Which is why any happiness formula should have tax rate and income either be evened out, or replaced with just the average commerce of each city.

[SAI-40]

I tend to forget that tax rate and average income have no real affect other than being cosmetic, and so I'm totally behind just leaving it out of the equation if it does become something more than a cosmetic feature. However, I still don't feel that it should be anything more than cosmetic. Why? Because realistically, some people don't care at all about their citizens being happy, and they should be allowed to make that choice. It should, in my opinion, be nothing more than a roleplay element.

[Mikhail Gorbachev]

So, I think I've posted about it before under a different name, but one cosmetic feature I'd love to see if Citizen Happiness. From what I recall, one of the biggest things holding us back was the lack of a formula for deciding how happy your citizens are--so I figured we could come together and figure one out. Mathematics has never been my strength, but I'm sure someone around here knows how to do it.

 

Here are the things that should go into it, in my opinion:

 

• Population Density: The more dense the population, the less happy they are.
• Disease Rate: Disease makes people unhappy.
• Pollution Rate: Pollution makes people unhappy.
• Infrastructure: The more infrastructure you have, the better off your nation is, the happier people are.
• War: Being at war just takes a flat amount of happiness away, period. Just a small fraction for as long as your nation is fighting. Perhaps being under ground control could also lower it more.
• Food: Having a surplus makes your people happy, not having enough makes them unhappy.
• Power: If you have a city that is underpowered, your people aren't going to be happy about it.
• Tax Rate/Average Income: The higher your tax rate, the less happy people are. The higher their Average income, the happier people are.
• Civil Improvements: Perhaps buidling things such as Police Stations, Hospitals, ect. could also give a small boost to your Citizen happiness. Whatever makes your city a better place to live in.

Anything else you guys think she be taken into consideration--or not taken into consideration? Anything else you guys can think to add? Should it be just a cosmetic feature, or should it have some sort of in-game effect?

Yes, however, population density dosen't necessarily hirt happiness irl. Also, crime rate should take away from happiness a bit. Bit otherwise brilliant. We should work together in coming up with rankings for sheepy to implement (I already have a few ideas).