Approval Rating

[George Clooney]

Approval rating should be made to mean something or be removed from the game.  Not that it is taking up a lot of pixels of screen space, but why provide meaningless data?

As my preference would be that it actually mean something, I suggest the following:

There should be consequences for very low approval ratings and benefits to having very high ones.  Currently approval rating is a scale is 0 - 100% percent.  Rather than being a percentage of the population that likes you, the approval rating should represent a score and be open ended in both directions. 

As your approval rating approaches zero, there would be a negative effect on your nation.  Tax revenues would be lower (people are more likely to dodge out of paying taxes), upkeep would be more expensive and production curtailed (good workers willing to earn their pay are harder to find), and military units would be more expensive to recruit (no one wants to die for an a-hole).  The effect would increase the further you go below zero until finally around -1000 approval rating your nation is essentially stagnant.

Conversely, as approval ratings approach 100, there would be a positive effect on your nation.  Tax revenues would be up a small amount, upkeep would be cheaper, production higher, and military units would be cheaper.

For those saying "what about North Korea?  It's a brutal dictatorship!" Be aware that "Rocket Man" actually has a high approval rating from his citizens.  Nothing about this proposal would affect that part of the role play aspects of the game.

There are mechanisms in game already that adjust the approval rating based upon a variety of criteria.  Why not take things to their logical conclusion?

[Dr Rush]

Nope, been over this many many times already.

tl;dr summary

1. The underlying formula is broken.

2. Fixing the above requires an entirely new formula and resetting the rating. More effort then its worth.

3. Some people like it as an rp thingy. Which is why it wasn't removed when the concept was abandoned.

4. The concept itself lacks meaningful utility or balance depending on which way the implementation leans.