What does approval rating change?

For one thing, the population will grow faster.
More people = more $$$
Especially if you can keep the taxes high as well.

Gives a big boost to pop growth. Last time I checked it does nothing to votes, other than the side effect of more pop growth= more people= more influence= more votes. Votes are influence, determined by how much space you have under your culture.

Doesn't seem to do anything to Bush

Anyone know what the actual bonuses are?
Will having a 100% app. rating give you a 10% faster growth that 90%, or is it more than that?

Doesn't seem to do anything to Bush

That comment makes no sense whatsoever. When has America EVER been at 100% approval?

The bonus is something like pop growth doubled. Check the wiki. But it doesn't scale with approval, it's static mostly. below 40% pop decrease, 40-70& slow increase, 70-99% decent increase, 100%, OH MAH GAWD boots is closed! ah to hell with it!

I thought it came into play when voting for a party? like the fedralists etc.

If you are well liked your party can stay in power. Or am I incorrect in this assumption?

Only matters if you have changed from your initial government to a "better" kind.

I find it interesting how biased this game is towards an American-like government

(deletes tons of additional typing to avoid starting a huge flamer war )

Anyone know what the actual bonuses are? Will having a 100% app. rating give you a 10% faster growth that 90%, or is it more than that?

I think that the manual says that, at 100% approval, population growth doubles.

Hi!

it changes the number of votes you have in the united council

Wrong. That is influence.

and it increases the chances of getting your prefered government

Player gets government types by researching. To change government to a more "advanced" type one needs a certain percent of approval. There's no chance involved in that.

Is there something I'm missign about the effect of a high approval rating?

A planet with 100% approval has its pop growth doubled, after all the growth bonuses are applied. Since base growth is capped at 3% or 75M pop (whichever is smaller) it takes a lot of time to grow enough pop to get a positive revenue from a planet. But if a planet has 100% approval it wil grow by 6% or 150M. Add there a 50% bonus from Aphrodisiacs and pop grows by 9% or 225M. In 4 turns almost 1 biilion pop, or one full troop transport.

BR, Iztok

From the wiki Link

Formula for Population Growth (1.1) Population Growth = CurrentMorale X Government Level X PlanetQuality Factor X GrowthFactor. + If your morale is > 75% you get a 25% extra bonus to population growth. If it's at 100% you get a 100% extra bonus. + Population growth ability taken into account at the very end of this process for maximium effect.

Higher approval rating also means you can tax more, makes your planet less susceptible to flipping over to another civ (iirc), and if your planet is invaded with the Information Warfare option, more unhappy citizens join up against you.

Of course, the same is true for the other civs. A war of attrition, which forces the enemy to focus on high taxes and production, will create unhappy citizens. Information warfare allows you to use the current planet's population as "pink armour" during the invasion, or afterwards, free citizens. I've invaded 60% approval planets with 4000 troops, had half the planet join my invasion and end up with 6000-7000 population afterwards. Pretty sweet investment for 800 bc.

maybe i'm confused here, but doesn't approval also effect how quickly a planet will flip when it's in another's sphere of influence? or is that just straight up influence vs. influence?

A planet needs low approval to flip, yes.

As already said 75% approval and 100% approval give pop growth bonuses. Planets below 50% sometimes rebel and form an independent government. If approval is below 50% empire wide, and the government is Republic or better, a vote against the ruling party will give production penalties.

Again, keep taxes very low for the first 20 turns or so to get 100% approval on all planets and the big pop bonus. It will only cost a few credits early on and pay off big time. Send 500 million per colony ship so each colony gets up to full growth early.

Population growth ability taken into account at the very end of this process for maximium effect.

Is that a plus or a multiplier? I forget, haven't played in weeks.

It would only give "maximum effect" if it were a multiplier, because a plus would skip the multiplier from 75% or 100% approval.

The GalCiv2 approval mystery ...
IF the pop is busy making so many babies ...
Who is minding the markets to make all that movey ????

Babies are made at night, money during the day.
It does not take all that long to get a baby started, after all.