I've only been playing for a few hours now, and there are some laws that confuse me a little.  For example, does the one that improves system cores have to be active the turn the ship is built, or do you get a part benefit while it is being build even if you repeal the law before completion.  Similarly with the colonization law that give happiness to the empire - does it have to be active the turn the outpost turns to a colony.  

There are a few laws like this, and if I understand them correctly as having to be active at the exact moment of the relevant event, I really don't like them since thematically they don't make sense, and it is a pain to micromanage them. 

I mean you can just leave them on all the time, as long as you are doing the stuff they affect that doesn't hurt at all.

Sinnaj63 wrote:

I mean you can just leave them on all the time, as long as you are doing the stuff they affect that doesn't hurt at all.

That's the problem though - they are costing tons of influence, but I'm building ships and colonizing sporadically, so I'm turning them on and off to stop wasting influnence, but I find the micro annoying, and I just don't bother using them in the end which doesn't seem right.

I don't recall if it's currently in the G2G balance mod only (i.e. planned upcoming changes) or the live version, but New Colony law now also buffs Outpost food output (reducing the time it takes to turn into proper colony) in addition to its usual effects and Spoils of War reduces ship upkeep, encouraging you to keep them on for a longer while instead of just switching them on / off for one turn. They are still a bit situational, f.ex. the former gets best use during colony spam phase and latter if you have lots of ships and are using them to fight, but shouldn't be something you have to micro too much.

There was also the diplomatic Influence cost reducing Pacifist law that used to have the same issue, and it got changed into gradual per turn bonus that caps at some point to encourage keeping it on for a longer while. I think the Industrialist ship HP buff law and Militarist weapon DMG law should get the same treatment so you can't just instantly ridiculously buff your ships for one battle and then switch them off. It's micromanagey and kind of cheap how you can just bypass the otherwise heavy Influence cost of what are supposed to be mid- and endgame tier laws.