I have about 100 hours under my belt, and for the most part, enjoy the game very much.



Over most of that time, my tax rate is nearly always between 5% and 15%, which keeps the important bars green for FIDS boosts. I normally play either with the Science Afinity, or with the Automatons. The only improvements I ever seem to use are the ones to boost approval, increase population cap per planet or very rarely if I have a dedicated Science/Food/etc type planet, will lay on 1 or 2 to specialise.



It seems if I put any more than about 3-4 on my whole empire, they just dont seem viable once my tax rate hits 5%, and even worse once I have a fleet/hero upkeep of 300+ per turn.



Am I missing something obvious, because I just find the improvement very underwhelming (not counting terraforming, thats a different issue completely, which I like)



Many Thanks.

I find it the opposite. If I can boost popular support to have a high tax rate and still be fervent, I get lots of Dust. This takes care of income problems. To offset the problem of drops in FIS due to tax, one should institute improvements. Not only are your planets able to speedily build those high end improvements in a bound, your income won't suffer from it. The Sophons are tough because you want that tax rate to be low. But if it goes too low there is a loss of income.



The thought really is how much Dust or Science can I squeeze out of every system so that all of my tech and income easily outstrips my opponents. After all you are fighting to win certain objectives before the others achieve them. And not all peoples out there are friendly and peaceful.

I don't get it your not using the bottom tree/approval buildings? most my games i'm on 75-95% tax all green (except new system that I take from the AI, those I just buy everything due to massive dust per turn)



Food>pop>IND/dust>approval/science>defence/ship xp



is generally the order I follow.

Increase the tax and be able to afford more buildings.

Usually by the time you get the 2nd Approval-Improvement and the +2 Dust per Pop on Planet with Moon-Improvement most dust- and approval-problems vanish and you can afford about anything you might want.

There is no need to have every system at 100% Approval. 80%+ is enough. So just adjust the tax rate to the point where you get over 80%.