Happiness Range Visual Guide

Kisk

Terrarian
N.B. : These distances were good for version 1.4 and will need to be reverified for version 1.4.1.

Since I was curious about the exact tile count between NPC houses and happiness, I've been testing perimeters in game.
By forcing specific tiles to be house anchors for neighbours, you can test the edges of ranges and areas by checking back with the central NPC to see if they lose their discounted prices or are no longer offering pylons.
I tested the whole north east quadrant block by block and checked consistency/symmetry in the other three.

This is the result.

Kik Happiness Death Star Day.png Day View Kik Happiness Death Star Night.png Night View (NPCs in houses)

When counting tiles, start at the central NPC's home anchor tile (central green team block) with number 1, white ticks are on the 5 count, glass lines on the 10 count.

Any house anchor tile placed in the green area is within the 25 tile distance for the single loved or liked neighbour.

Houses anchored on the inner yellow ring up to the outer grey area (including the glass wall grid) count as being outside the single loved/liked neighbour range but inside the 120 tile range. This is where you can include up to three other neighbours (as that calculation excludes the loved/liked one in the green area).

Anything on the outer orange ring and beyond are outside the 120 tile and don't affect the central NPC's happiness pricing.

Sooooo much real estate to make one single person happy O_O. I keep picturing the new 1.4 NPCs chasing those noisy, pesky kids out their back yard >>_<<. Or greedily rubbing their hands together drooling about the rent they will eventually charge :D.


One thing to note is that the diagonal distance is only 86 tiles to maintain max happiness.

:) hope this is useful
Thanks for reading

(I'll get you the world later today, image renaming done :p)
here's the world smeag
 

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The strangeness I've been seeing happens around the fourth or fifth placed NPC. I can get two pairs to be happy relatively close to each other but the next set had to be really far away.

I'll use these measurements and give it a go.


EDIT: (combined posts)
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I propose you name this diagram "the NPC happiness death star" by the way..... ;)

Kisk, Could you upload your world, I'd like to test it. It's tough to gauge even from just from a picture, even with markings..

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Kisk I'm putting the Angler in the house in the green zone and there's no change for the zoologist. She's not seeing him..

EDIT:
I guess that's supposed to be the idea, move him up one and she sees him...
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The strangeness I've been seeing happens around the fourth or fifth placed NPC. I can get two pairs to be happy relatively close to each other but the next set had to be really far away.

I'll use these measurements and give it a go.
Just so you know you can edit your post after making it instead of triple posting :3

Also this is really an eye opener... (though I honestly am not really effected by this new system...) thank you for your service!
 
Exactly smeagolheart, if the assigned home tile is any of those yellow sandstone slabs just outside of the green zone, they don't count as being within the 25 block loved/like area even if the bulk of your house IS within that area. That inner sandstone slab is the inner edge of the 120 tile zone (grey area).

The only thing that seems to matter for the calculation is the placement of the home tile itself.
 
so far, the clearest explanation I've found of the order of the formula variable checks for max happiness is this video by Ningishu
 
By forcing specific tiles to be house anchors for neighbours, you can test the edges of ranges and areas by checking back with the central NPC to see if they lose their discounted prices or are no longer offering pylons.
I've been wanting to understand the mechanics the game uses when it decides where to place the NPC housing flag (or anchor as you call it) within their house. I have an idea that would improve convenience in interacting with the NPCs but it involves forcing the flag/anchor to being placed where I want.

I experimented with it a bit and for example, was able to get the flag to move close to the left-most wall by moving the workbench & chair over there (this was in an otherwise empty house besides requirements to make it valid, and was roughly 20x20 in size). I understand the comfort and/or flat surface objects influence the flag position but to be short, ran into some things that confused me and I wasn't able to definitively conclude what was going on.

I get that in your houses (and my prisons i usually build) you were able to guarantee the flag/anchor position simply due to size of the house/floor, but do you by chance know how to force it somewhere specific (horizontally) in a larger house?
 
I've been wanting to understand the mechanics the game uses when it decides where to place the NPC housing flag (or anchor as you call it) within their house. I have an idea that would improve convenience in interacting with the NPCs but it involves forcing the flag/anchor to being placed where I want.

I experimented with it a bit and for example, was able to get the flag to move close to the left-most wall by moving the workbench & chair over there (this was in an otherwise empty house besides requirements to make it valid, and was roughly 20x20 in size). I understand the comfort and/or flat surface objects influence the flag position but to be short, ran into some things that confused me and I wasn't able to definitively conclude what was going on.

I get that in your houses (and my prisons i usually build) you were able to guarantee the flag/anchor position simply due to size of the house/floor, but do you by chance know how to force it somewhere specific (horizontally) in a larger house?

as far as I know the flag will rest on the one block that is solid
I'll have to experiment some to see how wide the platform floor can be with only the one solid block before I can get back to you on this :)

one thing I DID notice when I traced the edges of the ranges, was that breaking and repositioning the furniture and floor did not automatically change the flag's position
the NPC's flag had to be cancelled out of that house and then reassigned after I'd moved the one solid block for it to reregister a new npc anchor and flag placement
 
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as far as I know the flag will rest on the one block that is solid
I'll have to experiment some to see how wide the platform floor can be with only the one solid block before I can get back to you on this :)

one thing I DID notice when I traced the edges of the ranges, was that breaking and repositioning the furniture and floor did not automatically change the flag's position
the NPC's flag had to be cancelled out of that house and then reassigned after I'd moved the one solid block for it to reregister a new npc anchor and flag placement
Thanks for the response. I didn't think to build a larger floor with platforms and try to just place 1 solid block, sounds like an easy solution and if i remember the rules correctly, should work.

And regarding the flag not changing positions when rearranging furniture, it's funny you mention that because i was about to write that together with my 1st comment, because i noticed the same thing too when i was experimenting. Also then tested logging out and back in, which still didn't reposition/update the flag.

I considered using this as a tactic for forcing the flag location, but thought i best not in case of an accident or need to mess w/ furniture later. But also i plan to be moving NPCs in and out of homes frequently to take advantage of happy modifiers.
 
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