Approval

Approval is the measurement of your people's happiness. Higher Approval leads to increased productivity while low approval decreases productivity. Approval is displayed as a percentage (%) however is actually calculated in points between 0 and 100, values outside this range are truncated to fit. Approval also affects the Security of your cities, making them more or less prone to Espionage.

Cities have a base Approval of 60 which can be increased or decreased for a number of reasons, and your Empire has an overall approval rating, which is a weighted average of the approval of all cities in your empire. The way to calculate Empire approval is to take the sum of all cities' approval times their population, then divide that total by the empire population, essentially giving you the average approval of each population unit in your empire.

Approval Level Effects[]

City[]

Level	Min	Max	Effects
Rebellion	0	10	-50% , , -40 on city
Unhappy	11	39	-20% , , -20 on city
Content	40	60	+20 on city
Happy	61	89	+15% , , +30 on city
Fervent	90	100	+30% , , +40 on city

Empire[]

Level	Min	Max	Effects
Rebellion	0	10	-50% , on empire
Unhappy	11	39	-20% , on empire
Content	40	60
Happy	61	89	+15% , on empire
Fervent	90	100	+30% , on empire

Penalties to Approval[]

Over the course of the game, various things can reduce the approval of your cities. Among them, the most common ways to reduce disapproval are by Empire Expansion Disapproval and disapproval generated by low-level Districts. Empire Expansion Disapproval is a penalty to Approval that reduces it by 10 in every city you control for each city you have past the first, and effectively serves as a way to restrict how quickly an empire can expand; you can take over a lot of regions very quickly sure, but you will probably suffer a seriously reduction in approval as a result. Similarly, the Borough Streets district that serves as the main way to grow cities incurs a -10 penalty while at level 1, making the early growth of a city reduce approval quite a bit. However, it should be noted that Borough Streets provides a bonus of 15 for each level after first, making it possible to get a net +5 from a level 2 district, which counters the disapproval generated by new districts after a certain point. The Allayi have their own district, the Garth of the Allayi, which incurs a smaller approval penalty of -5 .

Beyond that, there aren't many sources of Disapproval. There are a handful of winter effects that can appear, a city's approval is reduced while under siege, and it's possible for an enemy empire to reduce the approval of your city if they have control of both Chaka and Fakir, have unlocked the Urkan Power training, and have one of the two rooted in a region next to your city. However, Approval is largely meant as a means to balance expansion and prevent empires that are particularly good at it (like the Broken Lords) from expanding too quickly.

Increasing Approval[]

Reducing Empire Expansion Disapproval[]

Because Empire Expansion Disapproval is often one of the main sources of disapproval, knowing how to counteract it is very important to growing an empire without crippling it. Two of the most direct ways to reduce expansion disapproval are with the Bread and Circuses and State-Approved Theatre technologies, which both decrease expansion disapproval by 25%, and are available in Era III and V respectively. Similarly, completing the Beloved of the People Legendary Deed in Era V will reward you with the Patriotic Propaganda technology, which further reduces expansion disapproval by 50%. Managing to get all three of these technologies will reduce expansion disapproval across your empire to 0, allowing you to expand your empire freely.

There are also a number of Hero Capacities and Skills that can reduce the expansion disapproval in a specific city, but those will be covered in the section on Heroes further down.

Districts[]

As mentioned before, each level 1 district reduces approval by 10, but this can be counteracted by leveling boroughs or the city center, as level 2 provides an approval bonus. Building districts in a double-wide line or in triangles helps to get level 2 bonuses efficiently. On top of this, there are a number of special districts - ones that can only be built once per city, empire, or in the world - that increase a city's approval. All of these districts have additional effects not listed here, and instead only the effect on Approval is listed.

Name	Faction	Obtained			Effect
City Center	All	On Settle			+15 per extra Level on City Tile
Borough Streets	All except Allayi	At Start	Varies		-10 on City Tile +15 per extra Level on City Tile
Garth of the Allayi	Allayi	At Start	Varies	Varies	-5 on City Tile +15 per extra Level on City Tile
Abbey of Anomalies	All	3rd Winter	400	10	x2 on City Tile Limited to one copy in your City To be built on Anomaly
Altar of Auriga	All	At Start	150	10	+5 per level on Altar of Auriga Limited to one copy in your Empire
Cargo Docks	All	Era III	600		+10 on City Limited to one copy in your city Can only be built on coastal waters or ocean with exploitation
Museum of Auriga	All	At Start	500	5 5	+20 per level on Museum of Auriga Can only be built once in the World

City Improvements[]

This list includes any City Improvement that increases a city's Approval. Many of the improvements listed have additional effects that do not affect approval, but for simplicity those effects are not listed.

Name	Faction	Obtained			Upkeep	Effects
Sewer System	All	Era I	75		1	+20 on City
Central Market	All	Era II	250	2	2	+25 on City
Altar of Transcendence	Ardent Mages	Faction Quest	1000	30 / 30 /	7	+30 on City Limited to one copy in your Empire
Auriga Institute	Drakken	Faction Quest	800	5	4	+20 on City Requires an income of 20 from the City
The Ogmakwan	Wild Walkers	Faction Quest	5000		10	+80 on City Limited to one copy in your Empire
Arts Council	All	Era V	2000	10 5	10	+30 on City
Imperial News Network	All	Era V	2000	5 10	10	+20 on City

Heroes[]

Capacities[]

While there are no capacities that directly increase a city's Approval, there are a couple that reduce the effects of Expansion Disapproval, though they are fairly rare.

Hero	Icon	Name	Effect
Breyos Master Icespear		Expansion Support 1	-25% expansion disapproval received on city
Ystros Watcher Firespike		Expansion Support 2	-50% expansion disapproval received on city

Skills[]

As with the capacities, some of these skills target expansion disapproval rather than directly increasing approval.

Skill Tree	Level	Name	Effect
Ardent Mages	4	Persuasive Methods	Level 1: -50% expansion disapproval received on city. Level 2: -50% expansion disapproval received on city.
Roving Clans	2	Feet on the Street	Level 1: +100% Ownership recovery rate on city. Level 2: +50% Ownership recovery rate on city. x0 Expansion disapproval on city.
Drakken	5	Cultural Ambassador	Level 1: +10 on city. Level 2: +10 on city. Level 3: +10 on city.
Morgawr	2	Cult of Tides	Level 1: +10 on city with oceanic exploitation. Level2: +10 on city with oceanic exploitation. Level 3: +15 on city with oceanic exploitation.
Kapaku	2	Heat of the Hearth	Level 1: +2 Approval for city center and expansions on Volcanic terrain. Level 2: +2 Approval for city center and expansions on Volcanic terrain.
Sisters of Mercy	1	Righteous Cause	Level 1: +10 on city. Level 2: +10 on city. Level 3: +10 on city

Accessories[]

Only the Mithrite Tomes provide a bonus to Approval of a city when equipped on a governing hero, increasing it by a small amount for each unit garrisoned in the city.

Material	Tier		Effect
Mithrite	1	24	+2 per unit on city
Mithrite	2	48	+4 per unit on city
Mithrite	3	96	+8 per unit on city

Miscellaneous[]

Assimilation[]

The Eyeless Ones provide an assimilation bonus of +5 on Cities per pacified and rebuilt village, up to +30 .

Empire Plan[]

Tier 2 of the Empire and Expansion branch of the Empire Plan increase the Approval of all cities by 25

Resource Boosters[]

One of the best ways to gain approval, Luxury Resource boosters all provide a boost to Approval while they are active. Dye, Emeralds, Gold, and Spices all provide a bonus 5 on Cities while their boosters are active in addition to their other effects, while Wine provides a bonus 30 to all cities, making it the best way to increase approval in the early game. All other luxury resources provide a bonus of 10 .

Technology[]

As mentioned before, there are a handful of technologies that reduce expansion disapproval, but there aren't many that directly increase Approval. The only exception to this is the Necrophages' faction-exclusive technology, Demanding Gods, which they can research in Era II. This technology allows the Necrophages to sacrifice 1 in a city in order to increase the city's Approval by 30 for a number of turns equal to the population at the time the sacrifice is made, though the duration can be increased by sacrificing another .

Urkans[]

An empire that has control of both Chaka and Fakir will be able to unlock the Urkan Power training, which makes it so that when either Chaka or Fakir are rooted in a region next to a city, that city will get +50 if it is owned by the person who controls either or is owned by an ally of theirs, or a -50 penalty otherwise.