Greetings. Let me say first off great job. The game has of course hooked me and I am still going. Let me start off by describing some settings which I really really love.

Large galaxy

Tight clusters

Habitable planets: Uncommon (this is important because I like islands of stars with void in between the areas.)

Stars & asteroids: Common

Planets & anomalies: Common

Blackholes: Uncommon (There were still too many I feel even for a large map, although the need for the resources is probably why.)

Now I started out with all players, I was Human and my opponents were set to 'gifted' all 3 of them. I started at the top of the map and due to the Habitable frequency, in my 'area' I found only 5 planets I could colonize which I did. The rarity of planets makes finding and rushing to them all the more fun. The major problem is, I only amassed a few Ideology points. At first I opened the starter for Pragmatism then the Starter for Benevolent.

Now after 230 turns and no more colonization I cannot get any more points. I did not have enough to open the 2nd tier and now I do not have a way to generate any ideology in any tree. There needs to be a way via the anomalies events to still get Ideology points on maps with few planets to colonize.

I had a CTD at exactly 9pm last night on turn 207, when I after I invaded a Drengin planet. After I reloaded, the game was fine.

Approval at this point is a real challenge. I am trying to make money and some of my planets have 15 or even 5% approval. This is due from what I see on the tooltip as 'population pressure'. Ok I need more information. What is it how can I relieve it? Will increasing food, raise the pop cap and lower (for now) the pressure? In a previous post it was stated that AFTER all is colonized and you are cruising along at a good clip there will eventually be no way for you to keep your peeps happy, all you planets will reach the cap and everyone will be unhappy.

I did orbit a transport and enlist a large amount of malcontent warmongers and this trick seemed to help but the problem comes back as soon as the population goes up.

Again I am handicapped by not enough planets in the galaxy at start so I cannot get the Ideology's that help with approval nor can I make the buildings that build ideology. So what are some of the options I can do, what tech trees am I missing? At this point I will look at the food producing and tile terraforming techs. Once I open up a new tile or two what is better? Adding a Farm or a Happiness improvement?