Taxes and contentment

[enf91]

I have all my taxes (except tariffs) at 0% (since I'm mining so much gold), and yet the contentment in my provinces still drops every quarter "due to high taxes". This is annoying because production sites are being shut down and there seems to be nothing I can do about it. Referendums and other contentment-increasing decisions seem to have little effect. It doesn't help that average militancy is 25%.... Anyway, why does my population think taxes at 0% are too high?

>>Tangentially, the Maricopa region (Phoenix) keeps being pillaged. I have sent cavalry there with attack orders, and they've never found anything, even when I leave them there for several turns. It has colony status. I have left them there during pillage recalculation turns (with supplies so they don't cause the pillaging I'm trying to stop), and still nothing.

[Jim-NC]

Do you have friendly "colonial" troops there (Indians)? There was a discussion on how troops with the pillager trait would pillage the colonizing power's lands. This may be the case there (or there could be a very well hidden unit in the mountains next to the territory).

It sounds like your contentment has dropped too low (what is the average, and the min/max), and now you are caught in a vicious cycle of strikes drop contentment, which leads to more strikes, that leads to contentment drop. Are you before or after the civil war?

[enf91]

Before (it just triggered and cost me 100 National Morale. I think the event that switches the objectives should come after the CSA secedes to avoid this). And no, I have a stack there now. It's the only one in the region, according to the tab.

Contentment was as high as 60%, then dropped consistently down to 48%. Before the war triggered, the lowest was 0% and the highest was about 85%.

[Jim-NC]

I believe there are events that drive down contentment before the civil war. If the lowest contentment was in the south, then that would explain why they were uphappy. If the 0% contentment was in other areas, then you may have a different problem.

Also, some of the contentment decisions can lower your contentment for some citizens, maybe even enough to outweigh the benefit (usually it says something like "opposite effect for upper classes"). I believe that social protection (I think that's the name) does that. Depending on the population mix, it could hurt certain areas to try to increase contentment.

As to the pillaging, I have no idea. In the MP game (where I am Britain), I have the same problem, I have this region that is continually pillaged. I have a cav unit there, but they don't see anything. Sorry that I can't offer anything on that issue.

[enf91]

Now that the CW has triggered, I can see the average contentment in the North is 58%, so the contentment in the South must have been about 40%, which makes sense considering how low their loyalty was. I guess that explains why contentment was so low. What it does not explain is why I keep getting "Due to high taxes, contentment in REGION$NAME$ fell from X% to (X-1)%" events even though I have taxes at 0%.

[Sherman]

Also, check to make sure that your Americans are getting a diverse supply of goods from the luxury category. You want to grab places that can produce things like silk, opium, and gems to keep them amused.

[Jim-NC]

I don't know why you would be getting the message, unless that is the only way the game records contentment losses.