morale issue. . is it a bug!?

I'm not sure. It may be that the increase in morale is causing a bump in population, causing just enough overcrowding to bring the morale back down. I've noticed the same thing when I put starbases on the morale-improving resources or upgraded those starbases. If that is what's happening, it's happening *FAST*, however. I added two mining upgrades to two morale-boosting starbases in one turn, and two turns later, my morale was right back where it was. Between the two starbases and all the morale-boosting anomolies I found, I'm probably at at least a 40-50% morale bonus, but it sure doesn't feel like it. And I'm the populist party, so there's another morale bonus.

It's possible that a major power is destabilizing me, but in my current game, the only races that might have anything against me are struggling to exist, and if someone like that can afford to cause this much problem to someone so much larger than they are through destabilization, then destabilization isn't play-balanced. Also, I think that if this were the case, the game should do like MoO3 does, and tell me that someone is causing unrest, without telling me who.

this isn't quite the case, however. i'm not talking about not noticing a difference in my overal morale, i mean in the Stats page, which lists the bonuses that you received at the start of the game, plus any that you've accumulated thus far... for instance, you know those anomolies that a survey ship will find, such as the one that gives a 5% espionage bonus... after your ship finds them, by the next turn (it seems to take a turn for the effects to update) this extra 5% will be reflected on the domestic screen, stats page. same with repair, soldiering, pop growth, etc. Morale is the only one which seems to never update/refresh, according to these anomoly discoveries.

this *has* to be a bug... has anyone else noticed this? keep an eye on it!

~SDC~

When the anomalies modify your morale, they're not modifying the morale on your planets or your approval rating, They're modifying your morale ability, the ability to keep your people's morale high. 2% is a very small change; it can take up to 10% to make a noticeable change.

Is that true of the resources as well? I went from having just the base starbase on two morale-improving resources to having three levels of upgrades on both starbases in a handful of turns, but my morale wasn't any better when I got done. It's not a few bad apples either, I listed the planets, and every one of them had a morale of 51-53%, both before and after the upgrades.

vincent,
will keep an eye on it next game I play. If it's not upgrading you moral bonus on the stat screen by the % then it could be a bug.

paul.

~SDC~

I've noticed this as well. At least now I know I'm not seeing things.

And just to clear things up, here's what myself and the original poster are talking about:

Morale power-ups ("anomalies") that are discovered by Survey Craft are NOT having an impact on our Ability Scores as listed in the Domestic Policy screen. Even if you wait until next turn... or even the turn after that! Even if I've hit close to 10 such morale-boosting anomalies, my Morale Ability score is frozen at the same value it was at the beginning of the game.

We're not even talking about what the relationship is between Morale Ability and Approval Rating on planets... although perhaps a discussion of that would be useful as well! Maybe if a dev can clue us in on the relationship algorithm...

10% to have an affect on morale? You could get a 30% morale boost but ten to twenty clicks later your moral is down again unless you've researched and built every moral boosting improvent in the game. Or bled your population by sending colony ships out (even when there are no planets left) or sending out battle transports (even when you are not planning a war or invasion.)
Or maybe I'm just doing something wrong here?