Happiness is an important value to all settlers in your city. A population with low happiness can quickly turn murderous, resulting in the deaths of other settlers and making the happiness problem even worse.
Improving Happiness[edit]
Early game, the best method of combating happiness is to create Spirits. Gather plants in the forest to find Aguave Tequila plants and begin cultivating them as soon as possible. A distillery can combine these with water to produce spirits, which will keep the populace happy.
The distillery is reliant on both water and aguave tequila plants, so ensure you have a source for both as well as storage, lest your production come to a halt.
The other early-game happiness solution is the Chapel, which also helps reduce crime. Build one early on and ensure it is staffed.
Later in the game, building more advanced housing and clothing to drive happiness up further. Note that the later in the game you are, the higher the standards the society has and the easier it will be to get them upset. Rough clothing is effective in the early to mid game with its ease of production, but you will want to adapt to down jackets later on.
Several Fine foods also will raise happiness. It is a good idea to make some of these foods as a means to boost happiness levels, if you are able to produce any. Read tooltips for different foods to see if they affect your happiness levels.
Combating Negativity[edit]
Negativity can occur at random via a villager event, but it can also be mitigated by hiring certain advisors at the town center.
Early-game, one of the fastest ways to run out of spirits is to either run out of water or aguave tequila plants. It is always worth checking to see your current stock and ensure your distillery is constantly working. If the supply for both is good, then you can try constructing a second distillery to improve production.
Churches improve happiness, but not as much as spirits do.
Later in the game, police stations can be used to determine killers. Banish these people from the city by clicking on the "No" symbol after selecting them. High happiness and churches prevent crimes, however, so players shouldn't require too many police stations.