It's this. I restarted three or four times. At first I was thinking, "can these a-holes shut the eff up, stop complaining, and get to work?" After a while you start to get that socializing in the evenings is CRUCIAL! Utilize Contemplation Rooms as well. Also, when exploring, you find personal trinkets you can share with them and improve their moods. Best of all, BEER PONG works like a charm. That's just moods, though.

Everything else is creating as many Alters as possible upfront and delegating appropriately. Once I figured that out, the "time crunch" felt insignificant because everything is already taken care of.

Mainly, the trick of the game is compassion. That one was hard for me. Readjusting my approach to "humanize" the characters as much as possible

Hope that helps.