Approval

Approval is a core mechanic in ES2. The primary purpose of approval is to curb a player's expansion - without this, the rate at which empires could spread across the galaxy would be limited only by their ability to churn out colony-and-supply ships, and all of the empty space in the galaxy would be filled quite rapidly. By having this system in place, on most galaxy sizes, empires will undergo an initial period of rapid expansion, but will reach a soft impediment, as further expansion causes their approval to plummet, and causes them to struggle with some new maluses that situation introduces.

Primarily, approval acts as a FIDSI multiplier; low approval causes all FIDSI (except industry) to plummet, and can cause starvation, scientific stagnation, economic crisis, and political apathy.

The bonuses/maluses are applied in two separate domains; individual systems have their own approval rating, which affects their food and influence production. Then, the empire itself has an overall (averaged from individual systems) approval rating, which affects a player's dust and science production. Notably, industry is not directly affected by Approval (a marked departure from Endless Legend), which makes the consequences of extreme approval shortages somewhat less crippling.

In some cases, the Approval modifiers will only have one level stated (such as +25% when Happy), without stating the level above/below it ( Ecstatic in this case), in such cases, assume the same value as the first level.

System Approval

System Approval shows the happiness of the system's population. It is expressed in percent from 0 to 100%, where 0% means complete mutiny and rebellion and 100% means absolute happiness. It is simply calculated by adding together all the system related bonuses and maluses.

These are the principal sources of Approval in a system:

Source	Details	Description
Colony Base	+50 Approval	Flat bonus provided by the Colony Base System Improvement
System Improvements	Luxuries Lottery: +5 per luxury deposit Luxuries Lottery(Horatio): +10 per deposit Infinite Supermarkets: +10 Colonial Rights: +5 per system level Denarque University: +10 Can only be built once per empire. Wellbeing Foundation: +25 Autonomous Administration: Increase by one the limit of occupied systems before triggering expansion disapproval. Can only be built on a level 4 system. High Serenity Program: +10 per Empire in Alliance +5 per Empire at Peace.	System Improvements provide positive bonuses, either flat, or based on system level, resource deposit count, faction count, etc.
Unique System Improvements	Cravers: Cathedral of the Swarm add +1 per ship in Empire. Can only be built once per empire. Vodyani: Spire of the Ordained +20 per Hero. Can only be built once per empire. Vaulters: System Science Station +5 per Anomaly	Like the above but is unique to a specific faction.
Empire Improvements	Applied Happiness Program +5 per planets Sophon add another +5 on Cold Horatio add another +5 on Hot The Pooster Program. Increase by one the limit of occupied systems before triggering an expansion disapproval. United Empire: Increase the limit by two instead of just one. Culture Unshock Increase by two the limit of occupied systems before triggering an expansion disapproval. Power of the Endless +20 on systems Ministry of Truth(Deed): +10 per Heroes assigned to a fleet	Benefits of the improvements are unlocked when the technology is discovered.
Planet Type ( per )	Generally, non-fertile planets generate negative . See Planets for full table with more information. Biophobic trait (Riftborn): Inverted bonuses, generally +10 per Population on Sterile planets -3 per Population on Fertile planets	Each on a planet can generate a certain fixed amount of approval depending on the planet's type. The Biophobic faction trait changes the per approval values profoundly based on planet fertility..
Anomalies ( per )	See Anomalies page for full list of anomalies and their effects.	per bonus on planet with the anomaly.
Luxury Resource deposits	See Luxury Resources page for full list of resource types and their effects. Effects when used in System Plan Transvine: +15 on System Lost Cities (N-P Artifacts): + 2 per Population Benthic Gems: -50% Overcolonization penalty on system	Flat bonus per deposit.
Population traits ( per )	Major Factions Horatio: +2 per on Hot Minor Factions Guardians: +5 per Kalgeros: +2 per, +4 peron Fertile Kal'Tik'Ma: +2 per, +3 peron Sterile Sisters of Mercy: +2 per Z'vali: +2 per	Population itself can generate approval independent or dependent of the planet type.
Empire traits	Initial traits Biophobic Core Worlds Harmonious I & II Optimistic I & II Utopian Infrastructure Vexed I & II Assimilation traits VR Amateurs (Z'vali) Obedient Flock (Kalgeros) Green Streak (Niris) Stalwart Stoics (Kal'Tik'Ma)	Some Initial traits and some assimilated/borrowed (via Development Grants) traits from minor factions have positive or negative influence on approval.
Governors' skills	<list of the applicable skills goes here	Heroes assigned to systems as governors can bestow approval bonuses upon the governed systems (or set the happiness to Ecstatic, outright)

• Some events provide temporary positive or negative .
• Involuntary nomads trait type colonization bestows temporary effect on a freshly colonized system and the other systems.
• Some empire laws provide positive or negative when in effect.
  • Symbiotic Living law (Niris): +5 per system level on systems, +1 per on Systems
  • Happy Harmonies law (Harmony): +5 per Strategic Deposit on System
• Current state of system's politics provide positive (system representatives' parties in the Senate) and negative effect (system representatives' parties not in the Senate). Often both at the same time.
  • +2 per leading Political Party representative on System
  • -3 per non-leading Political Party representative on System

Overpopulation Penalty

Crowded planets produce negative .

• It is calculated by "(Current Population - (Max Population x 0.7)) x 3.75 = Overpopulation Penalty." If it is below 0, then no approval penalties will be applied.
• Content Citizens I & II trait decreases this penalty by 25 and 40%
• Happy Sardines law (Kalgeros): No unhappiness from overpopulation on Systems
• Stalwart Stoics assimilation trait (Kal'Tik'Ma): -25% overpopulation disapproval

Overcolonization Penalty

Too many systems colonized by your Empire. Each colony over the colonization limit adds -10 in each system. This is the penalty for going "wide".

• Expansionists I & II trait decreases this penalty by 25 and 50%
• Crack Squad Law (Mavros): -50% overcolonization penalty on systems
• Star Trekkers assimilation trait (Kal'Tik'Ma): +1 to overcolonization threshold
• Researching Xeno Anthropology (The Pooster Program): +1 to overcolonization threshold
• Researching Cultural Invertics (Culture Unshock): +2 to overcolonization threshold
• Building Autonomous Administration: +1 overcolonization threshold
• Federation government: +1 overcolonization threshold per Hero supporting a leading Political Party on Empire
• Sandbox Difficulty: +2 overcolonization threshold
• Easy Difficulty: +1 overcolonization threshold

System Approval	Name	Modifiers
0	Mutinous	-75% and
10	Unhappy	-30% and
30	Content	nothing
70	Happy	+10% and
85	Ecstatic	+25% and

Empire Approval

The Empire Approval is calculated as an average of Systems' Approval weighted by population. Based on the result, the following bonuses are applied to the total Empire and output.

Empire Approval	Name	Modifiers
0	Traitorous	-30% and
10	Defiant	-15% and
30	Content	nothing
70	Loyal	+15% and
85	Devoted	+30% and

TODO

• What happens with mutinous systems?
• What happens with traitorous empires?
• Put the approval sources in a table