You mean m-o-r-a-l-e ?

"Moral" problems, you say?

Fear not. There's a topic on this specific subject:

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bad morale also makes planets easier to capture (bribing a part of the population to fight at the invaders side).
and i believe low morale makes planets join another civ faster.

I thought in v1.1 they added a production bonus for morale > 80%.

The beatings will continue until morale improves

I've had the I-league event happen several times.

The population growth bonus does help a lot. Later in the game when you need to fill transports like crazy, it's not too hard to run high taxes and keep morale in the green. Early in the game, when morale is tough, I tend to run it in the yellow, just above the red. I think some people may be a bit obsessed with keeping morale in the green all the time. You don't *have* to do that. OTOH, running it too low can hurt hurt you due to the loss in population growth alone.

if the morale gets too low and forms an i-league be prepared for a long fight believe me. (unless you ally with them, but sometimes they break the alliance and attack) should this happen take the planet back IMMEDIATLY.

It boost your population growth insanely.

If you got the neutral boost + all the achievement boost + some resource boost...
you can have both morale at 100% AND insanely high taxe rate

the AI is very slow at targeting morale achievements (hint hint)

Also Planet Quality impact morale, so it's much easier than it seem

PQ Boost (hability) + colonizing only large (15+) planet initially + neutral automatic availlability of planet tiles

=> gigantic planets, gigantic influence, gigantic pop growth and conpletly insane morale (did I mention the taxe income ?)

A key part in this strategy is to start off with a custom race and (yes !) the sensors technology already researched (this mean you'll spend he first 2 turn researching hyperdrive at 100% research focus ... but who cares... what's 2 turn)

instead of building colonies, you BUY factories and build ultra fast scan ship (custom design, scanners + multiple drives) once you reach 1ship/turn or at least 1/2turn you can move to a more conservative 33% research/military/social and you'll be ablle to send those fast colony ships (custom design) to those hugue worlds you found.

another side effects of having 4+ fast scan ships out there is grabbing every single anomalie for yourself (great if set to abundant)

if you're scared of the aliens you can set them to friendly, it buy you some time

but that strategy is very fast, and focusing on less worlds, but bigger, more efficient and happier mean those worlds will also be abble to churn out loads of colony ships real fast...

the poor alien will feel the grip of your iron fist culture if they try to colonize those size 10-- planets. I've seen planets flipping to my side without even lifting a finger

any game at painfull difficulty or lower is cheesecake

morale ? it's the key of the game.... that and custom built speed ships

I also love vulture ships

it's a variant of the ultra fast scout ship, but with a single low quality beam weapon. it's purpose: slaughtering constructors, freighters, transport ... anything undefended. combined with scan ships, thy are deadly (scanships are slow moving but full of scanners to scan your borders... think of it as of a slightly slow moving undefended starbase)

yep, I use my vultures for the luring too.

the scan ships are really for the borders, or when keeping tabs on a stronger oponent (it does happen at the hardest difficulty !)

It's also great to survey the perimeter of a far away resource base. less expensive than leaving a fleet there.

One thing to understand: the scanning is a radius. so lots of scanners + eyes of the universe = HUGUE view. you hardly need to move to see things.

basically the scan ship see everything. the fast fleet kill everything they see while avoiding the stronger oponents. you basically ruin their economy and waste their production.

luring their ships to your military starbase (s) < they stack !!!!> is a really great way to defeat stronger oponents. often you pick them one fleet at a time while circling your own fleets between rest (repair) and attack. they repair faster on a planet.

I always put a few scan ship at that killer-starbase ... he he he .... see them coming from far away, know where every fleet is for nearly half the map (gigantic size !) just push the scan ship in the right spot. since you see further you have plenty of time to *move asside* or to bring in a rescue team.

of course you need none of that if the oponents are all weak.

bad morale also makes planets easier to capture (bribing a part of the population to fight at the invaders side). and i believe low morale makes planets join another civ faster.

Also have a chance to repel from your cilization. I was playing one time and Approval Rating was around 59%, funny i lost all my planets included my home and all i have left is two scouts and a colony ship.