Greetings Archons! Today we'll look into one of the most important aspects of your city; it's inhabitants!
In Polismos you will interact with families rather than individual citizens, and each family has a trait which defines them. These traits affect how they react to your policies, how fast new innovations can be researched, how much military power you will have, and much more. Having a city made up of mostly intellectual families will make you blaze through innovations, while having lots of martial families will make you much stronger militarily, for example.
Last names weren't really a thing in ancient Greece, so a first name is used instead, representing the head of the family.
Families also have an approval value which represents how well they think you're leading the city. If enough families disapprove of your rule they might just kick you out! So how do you maintain high approval? Well, while there are many ways the most reliable one is to make sure they are happy.
Family happiness is mainly a result of their access to goods and services that you have promised to provide for them - That's right, in Polismos you choose what goods your people will consume. Initially you only need one, but as the city grows bigger you will have promise many more.
Promising the right goods for your people is essential.
Your families can live in two types of buildings: townhouses and farms. Townhouses need to be built next to other urban buildings, and will supply labour to the city. Farms on the other hand will provide grain, olives, or grapes, depending on their type, and need to be built where there is potential for the corresponding resource.
Family homes can grow larger as the game progresses.
Managing family happiness varies a bit between farms and townhouses. Farms do not consume goods related to what they produce (an olive farm will never request olives or olive oil for example), making them easier to please that way. Families in townhouses do not have this benefit, but can become happier (or unhappier) from nearby buildings - who wouldn't want to live next to a gymnasion or prytaneion, am I right?
Beautiful buildings are great at increasing family happiness.
That's it for this dev diary, thanks for taking the time to read it! Please note that the game is still in development and thus subject to change.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2745040