One of those little things you build Starbases on, gives you a morale bonus to planets in the sector, kinda like the +5% tech ones and +5% econ ones you get when you make starbases on them.

That said they ARE rare.

On a side note, has anyone ever seen the lifeforce Resource? and what does it do?

~SDC~

The one that said when you click on it (+5% morale bonus) !
LOL

No really you can handle morale pretty well with the adjustment of the taxes - keep approx. 60% of morale on the tax screen, this is a mean of all your planets, some will have a bad one others a good one but you can globally keep the control.

I must admit that I didn't play enough on gigantic map to check if serious morale problems would arise

"let us make food out of unwanted population."

Well, I'm glad no one's advocating doing anything drastic, and that all the proposals in this thread have been modest ones.

- Ash

oh thanks. i didnt know you could MINE morale.

I had big morale problems in my first games too.
In my latest game (level: bright) I didn't colonize any planets with planetquality less than 15.

It have no morale problems in this game at all.

I've had the tax-slider at about 50% the whole game (played for 7 hours maybe - I have terror stars and all that sh!t) and my aproval rating is about 60-70%.

And when available do build teleporters in all cities. They are very cheap in maintance and improves morale alot

Yeah, morale of 50 is the midpoint. Morale bonuses allow your planets to just have higher populations before they hit 50.

I still don't understand the morale problem, because I haven't found a big problem yet.

Here is a solution:

Make possible for player to adjust the point above which the population starts growing!

Need higher moral-adjust it to 60% or 80%, but expect that population level will be less and some of the planet become shrinking in population: you have to have less people in order to make them happier!

MxM

Does anyone remember MOO1? When the AI planets started filling up, they went to war to gain needed land.

You have 3 choices:

1) build morale improvements
2) risk the effects of low morale
3) go conquer a planet for your burgeoning population

Nobody said that being a leader was going to be easy.

Well its just silly that building a colony ship, launching it, then disbanding (or not, they dont have upkeep I dont think) it is a good tactic to use. Its a pita, but its highly effective in raising morale, and cheaper than all but a handful of the morale improvements.

olaf

Wampyre, the AI faces the same challenges you do. Well, maybe more if you know what I mean.

~SDC~

Propoganda in an emergency. Don't panic between morale-building facilities production! Morale can drop for a while to 50 or in the 40's. It's O.K.

I like how it's implemented because there is now a directly correlation between population growth and morale facitilities. In other words, maximum growth is a challenge! Otherwise there's little strategy to just maxing out planets...

Yeah, I think the over crowding penelty hits too early...we have 5 billion on this planet and it ain't anywhere near max capacity yet.

BUT...do you people with morale problems build starbases? Starbases are the key to the game (perhaps too much of a key).

You can propaganda every planet...but that costs money...but if you have a starbase you have a money making machine. Economy Starbases are powerful money bosters, but even starbases without a resource crank out money if you stick em on a trade route. Make enough money to afford the propaganda. And like Arturus suggested a morale resource produces ridiculous amounts of morale...its like a giant space opium plant or something.

I do think it needs to be nerfed down, but it hasn't been a game breaker for me yet and I haven't had to resort to the load up the transports strategy.

'And like Arturus suggested a morale resource produces ridiculous amounts of morale...its like a giant space opium plant or something.'

Could be worse. During the beta, when resources were first introduced, the morale resource also improved Planet Quality. I had five of those things in one game. +450% planet quality, plus the terraforming improvements (which at the time were a total of +70%) and events. You don't want to see the kind of morale problems that come up with a extremely high population on a class 130 planet. ×.×

~SDC~

There are a few ways to effectively raise morale:
1) Lower taxes
2) Build social improvements that help morale
3) Only colonize good planets (i.e. 15+)
4) Research techs that boost morale.
5) Build/buy trade goods that boost morale.
6) Build/improve starbases on morale improvements.
7) Built colony ships/transports to remove population.
8) Spend money on propaganda.
9) Wait for the population to decline (morale over 50)

Ways to lower morale:
1) Raise taxes.
2) Be destabilized by another empire.
3) Wait for population to grow. (morale below 40).
4) Have a treasury balance below 0.

All things being equal, morale will tend to head towards 40-50 if left alone as that is the break even point for the population growth/morale curve.

Bah, I don't see the problem.

Build a colony ship, fill it with 80% of the population, and feed it to a space shark.

(Yes, I do play evil, how did you guess?)