I mean if the planet sucks and has -15/10 and you get disapproval from that I get.



But how do you stop disapproval just from size? You just suppose to limit the number of planets to colonize in a system?



I got the approval resources but they don’t seem to help enough. Anyone got some good advice?

Your tax rate is a major factor as well. Make sure you aren't over taxing your people, they will appreciate it. Also, don't colonize too many planets with a heavy approval hit. Stick with the smaller planets at first that have -5 or maybe -10 hits or less, then take on the harsher worlds when you have the ability to more easily keep your people happy. You could also look for planets that have resources that give bonus to approval. This can sometimes improve your overall approval in that system or cancel out completely a negative approval rating on another planet. Don't worry, once you get the hang of it expansion without worry about disapproval will seem pretty easy.

In addition to what was said, there is also penalties for expanding and overpopulating planets.



In the south tree, you can research tech that will reduce the expansion disaproval, first one is at the casimir effect tech, with reduce the penalty by 22%. Follow that tree and you can get more of those when you need them.

Also, there is a penalty from population. The counter to this one is found in the left tree, when the approval building are 'pink arrow in the research box'.

The first 3 reduce approval penalty, third one gives you a boost to FIDS if you system are estatics, the fourth one reduce the overpopulation disaproval by 30% (i think, maybe more).



When you are in one of your system view, you can see the approval bar for this system. If you put your mouse over it, it will show you the positive and negative modifier. From there, you can make accurate decisions on how to reduce the penalty.

You can also see the approval rating of all your system individually by going to the overview panel, which also show you your empire approval, which should be kept a fervent if possible for the bonus or at the minimum of Happy, to not receive a malus.



Hopes this help, have fun!

is there any way to easily reorganize approval by getting off a bad colonization like in some other space civilization games?

More happiness buildings, and terraforming.

You cannot 'leave' a system. once you colonize it it's done unless someone takes it from you.

You can however give it to someon else.

A human could decide to not takeit but AI will happily take it even if it has the worst of the penalties.

Hopefully (but doubtful now) the ability to raze systems wins in the latest G2G votes. The ability to raze/abandon systems is a godsend for an invasive miltary playstyle.



Anyway, you must maintain a balance between researching approval boosting tech on the left hand tree and building the associated unlocked requirements, with the colonization tech (new planet types and most importantly, the -22% expansion disapproval tech on the lower tree). Approval ratings is the Achilles's heel for any rapidly expanding race.

Basically, my rule of thumb is to not touch planets with a big negative to happiness at all. One thing I've learnt is that there is usually little point in colonizing another planet in a system unless you need it. It's far more effective letting your first planet grow up to at least 1/2 full of population, unless you need your second planet for industry of food (if the latter, it should probably have been your primary planet IMO).



Plusses to happiness can outweigh loads - transvine makes _any_ system good to colonise, for example. Just look at the pluses and minuses



Expansion disapproval affects your empire, ie. your colonies, and your outposts inside your sphere of influence. Once an outpost becomes a colony, or is encompassed by it gets hit by the empire expansion disapproval. I've had that expansion disapproval at -70, so knowing when an outpost will become a colony and get that -70 happiness hit is something to keep an eye on. Expanding your influence over an outpost means that the expansion disapproval is applied, too.

(note - there used to be a bug, which is probably fixed, which shows expansion disapproval upon founding an outpost. This only affects the first turn).

I actually generally have an issue with disapproval because of conquest. I have to slowly lower my tax rate and switch more and more of systems over to industry to dust to pay for my expenses. By the time this happens I generally have conquered 2 of empires so I have about half the galaxy including the core as I usually play on a spiral 8 with 8 players.

i had a bit of complication with conquest and disapproval. when the Cravers attacked me, i started a campaign to conquer them entirely from impulse.



i was surprised that i didn't get any of their racial traits as bonus when they were gone cuz i thought i read somewhere you would get that. maybe i was mistaken.



there should be patches to address decolonizing to adjust approval at least. it be better to add one for getting racial trait gains after conquering a species.



you can do both of these in Space Empire. these features just make sense.

Smauler wrote:
...there used to be a bug, which is probably fixed, which shows expansion disapproval upon founding an outpost. This only affects the first turn

I can confirm the "shows expansion disapproval upon founding bug" is still occuring during the colonization turn. When System approval is recalculated on the next turn, the 'Expansion disapproval' for that system is removed.

1. Don't over-expand. Or to be more precise, science research towards expansion disapproval technologies and happiness buildings should keep pace with your expanding. As I recall, there are 4 techs that reduce expansion disapproval by 22% each. And there are multiple buildings that offer happiness boosts (the pink icons on the left branch of the tech tree).

2. Balance your tax rate. Lower tax rate = more happiness. I find the sweet spot to be 25-35% in mid/late game (and 30-40% early-game).

3. Try to avoid settling planets with negative happiness anomalies like toxic and such. They reduce the production of the planet and give you negative happiness. Ideally, settle systems which have positive happiness boosts, or have planets without any negative impact (jungle, terran, and ocean).