Happiness confusion

[PlanetNapalm]

Very strange, I am a neutral people, I have at least a trade agreement with 9 of the 10 empires I know about. I am at peace. I have an Urban Pacification Center in each system. At least 14 MPs on each planet. And I have quite a few planets with Angry or unhappy people.
Including one with 42 troops on it.

I read the bit in the FAQ, and it seems to me the planet with 42 troops should be going up 6% per turn (less the 2% for natural decline - unless neutral is a higher drop)

Are all my "Allies" ships considered "enemy" for purposes of happiness? Even so, I don't think there are more than 2 or 3 enemy ships in any of my systems.

[douglas]

PlanetNapalm said:
I am a neutral people


You mean you have the neutral happiness type? Build lots and lots of troops, that's your only hope. Neutral happiness got screwed over in a very big way in stock. Non-intercourse treaties, troops, and the automatic over time change are the ONLY things that can improve happiness for neutral happiness races. ANY other kind of treaty causes unhappiness, though only on the turn it's established, colonizing and capturing planets causes unhappiness despite being a good thing normally, building ships causes unhappiness, battles cause unhappiness regardless of the outcome, and friendly ships nearby have no effect.

[El_Phil]

Neutral could be called 'I need to give myself a handicap against the AI' or 'Build loads of troops'

I vaugley remember 240 being significant in troops numbers. Something about being able to absorb any negative effect.

Still I was playing a game, swapping sides as I tend to for a laugh. I tried to invade a planet and got a 'Divide by zero error' I think this is because the troops on the planet were 'police' troops and so had nothing, not even a cockpit. Yes this was a mod, so I think that's the reason. But confirmation would be nice. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

[PvK]

Yes. If a troop has no components, it will crash the game during ground combat. Usually zero-component troops aren't possible. However there was a problem with some earlier versions of Proportions mod where the AI would try to put shields on infantry (which don't fit) resulting in these game-crashing troops.

PvK

[Fyron]

El_Phil said:
I vaugley remember 240 being significant in troops numbers. Something about being able to absorb any negative effect.

I do not think there is any such magic number. All factors combine, then the max change per turn is applied.

[El_Phil]

Must of been under a specific set of circumstances 240 meant something. Buggered if I can remember what though.

[Atrocities]

My philosphy is to simply blow up the sun in that system and rebuild.

[PlanetNapalm]

Looks like I made a tactical mistake. I didn't realize that neutral was more xenophobic than xenophobic.

[Alneyan]

PlanetNapalm said:
Looks like I made a tactical mistake. I didn't realize that neutral was more xenophobic than xenophobic.



I guess you are speaking of cultures then: those only affect your characteristics, with Berserkers and Merchants being top of the class. Happiness type is chosen on the last tab in the Empire screen, and is set at peaceful by default.

[PlanetNapalm]

I was thinking that as I was not going to be constantly at war, and certainly not always at peace, that neutral seemed the logical choice.

Thinking... the one thing that consistantly gets me in trouble.

[Xrati]

What's your racial setting for happiness? If you reduced it to 50 your race won't like anything you do except for what AT suggests, genecide!!! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/rolleyes.gif

[Alneyan]

Not quite: 50 happiness will only increase your trouble getting your guys and gals happy, but it will not lower your happiness, so you will not get insta rioting. Neutral races have that one advantage: they are slightly less likely to be unhappy than the others. Even a Peaceful race needs less than 45 happiness, if memory serves, to start having happiness going down to Unhappy and below while nothing happens.

Oh, and be careful when signing agreements: in a game where I took over a neutral, I got several alliances on a single turn, and almost killed my Empire because of that... They all rioted since they obviously didn't want any alliance. *Sighs*

[Xrati]

Yes I found out about that one the hard way. I offered a non-intercourse treaty and when accepted my happiness went down the tubes! I was playing a 'peaceful' setting. I just broke the treaty and went back having none with them, and the happiness went up.

[Starhawk]

Well I am a neutral in Devnull and I have been at war for about 40 years now (one way or another) and I've only had to deploy a few hundred Federal Security troops (I modded in a 2 kt trooper) per system to get the few rioting bastards under control though my biggest problems have been from this race I recently "annexed" and the buggers apparently liked their old empire better because riots have broken out on all but 3 of their planets lol