It’s been a while since our last proper post about the game itself, so it’s about time to look into one of the most essential mechanics in our game: citizens’ satisfaction!
In Laysara, there is no such thing as a global happiness level - instead, every single household has its own satisfaction metric, showing you how its inhabitants feel. It is because you are supplying goods to the houses, and a house could be in the range of a service or enlightenment building, which is usually something that its dwellers desire.
The basic rule is simple - fulfil your citizens’ needs to boost their satisfaction level and upon reaching certain thresholds, you’ll be able to upgrade their housing. Upgraded houses can accommodate more inhabitants, which allows you to create more dense urban districts - which is something you definitely want if you care about efficiency :)
In-game house menu: so close! Fulfil one more need to unlock the sweet “Upgrade” button!
So, in order to make your folks happy you need to fulfil their needs. Needs are divided into three categories:
- Food needs: This is pretty self-explanatory, right? Citizens need to live close enough to a Food Market with a steady food supply - the more diverse, the better!
- Prosperity needs: People don’t just want to survive - they want to thrive! This means access to service and entertainment facilities (such as Baths, Inn or Yak Racing) and a supply of utility and luxury items from a Commodity Supplier.
- Enlightenment needs: Spirituality is very important for Laysara folks! They crave access to a variety of enlightenment buildings, such as Shrines, Mandalas and Yak Guardians. Some even want to live in a Monastery Enclosure!
Needs are divided into three categories - you need some from each one!
To make your citizens happy you need to fulfil different kinds of their needs - everyone has to eat, appreciates having a moment to relax, and wants to spend some time reflecting on the ways of life. The proportions however differ based on folks’ background - their social caste (you can read about them more in our previous post here). Lowlanders really strive for Food variety, as a high-quality diet is crucial for physical labour. Artisans demand lots of Prosperity items and services because high living standards will motivate them to maintain their refined production jobs. And lastly, Monks seek a lot of Enlightenment sources - which kinda makes sense, right?
See these little grey symbols? It means that Monks living here require a lot more Enlightenment needs.
As you may have noticed on the screenshots, some needs are represented by smaller, and some by larger bricks. Well, that’s because some needs could be more desirable than others. Some fulfilled needs will cover two squares in the satisfaction progress bar (hence the double brick!), and some - only one.
The second part of the house menu shows you what folks living there want.
Let’s take a look at Lowlander’s demands - some of them are highly demanded (double brick), others are still appreciated, but not so much. But some needs aren’t there at all - Lowlanders are just not into Perfumes and won’t benefit from living near a Monastery. This means that the desirability of any given need can vary based on the caste of the house’s dwellers.
Food demands of Lowlanders, Artisans and Monks.
Let’s take Cheese as an example. As you can see, Lowlanders would be really happy if they could get it from the Food Market - it’d boost their satisfaction level doubly! Artisans are not that crazy about Cheese, but still, will appreciate it as a nice addition to their menu. Monks, on the other hand, are not interested in having Cheese at all! Even if they have access to Cheese from a nearby Food Market, they just won’t eat it and their satisfaction level won’t change. Looks like you’ll have to find a different way to keep them fed!
There is one more nuance, which you may have spotted already: It is up to you, the player, to choose which demands you’d like to meet, and on which you’d rather pass. Don’t have enough yaks for milk and cheese production? That’s okay - the happiness mechanic won’t require any specific needs like “Now you need cheese for the upgrade!”. You’ll need to fill the satisfaction meter, but the exact tools you use are 100% up to you. It’s your job to find the best strategy in any given circumstance - and circumstances will change quite a lot.
A lot of fertile area makes it really easy to produce Tsampa (barley flour) and distribute it to your people - but you won’t always be that lucky.
You’ll always want to reach these satisfaction thresholds - but in every city and on every slope you’ll have to decide how to do it.
Development updates
As it comes to development updates, we don’t have anything revolutionary to share - we’re working hard to get Laysara ready for our Early Access launch :) No promises about any dates just yet, as we’re still not sure how much more time it will take. We’re improving the game on every front and are really hyped about how it is coming together. As an example, here is a sneak peek of the new carriers’ 3D models and animations:
There is much more going on behind the scenes and we can’t wait to show it all to you, but for now, there is still work to be done - and that’s what we’re focusing on right now :)
As always, if you want to chat, just head to our Discord server :)
Until next time!
Quite OK Team
