According to conquest victory conditions, it tells me I need to control 58 star systems. I am playing as Riftborn and with the tech researched, I can only colonize 14 star systems without the overcolonization penalty. Even changing government to Federation only adds 2 more star systems, making it 16. That leaves 42 star systems left to colonize. I also know that each star system over the limit induces -10 approval penalty. If I were to colonize additional 42 star systems, that would induce -420 approval penalty across all star systems. In my opinion, this is out of balance. Either the -10 penalty has to be reduced or the base overcolonization cap has to match with the density of the galaxy. The more dense the galaxy is, the higher base overcolonization cap.

What are your thoughts on this matter?

I started a thread on the overcolonization penalty yesterday (link below).  I completely agree with you.

https://www.games2gether.com/endless-space-2/forums/65-general/threads/25760-over-colonization-penalty-10-approval-per-system-too-much?page=1

Not sure if this will mitigate, but there are two techs in empitre quadrant that raises this limit.

Yes but the two techs help very little, personally i think approval penalty should be be scrapped altogether or at least late game.

The larger the system the harder it is to win conquest victory.

spidapig wrote:

The larger the system the harder it is to win conquest victory.

Well, yeah, that's the idea. Rapid expansion should be punished. You can't scrap the system, unless you will place another barrier instead.