What Approval Is
Settlement Approval is a 0–100 score displayed in the HUD. It's a legibility tool — a quick answer to "is everything roughly okay?" without having to click through every citizen panel. It is updated once per day.
Approval is purely informational. It doesn't affect immigration, doesn't trigger events, doesn't gate anything. A low score is a warning, not a punishment. Think of it as a dashboard, not a win condition.
The Eight Inputs
| Input | Weight | What it measures |
|---|---|---|
| Happiness | 35% | Mean Happiness need across all citizens, including children |
| Food variety | 15% | Number of food groups currently stockpiled in barns |
| Clothing | 10% | Percentage of citizens wearing at least one clothing item |
| Housing | 10% | Percentage of citizens with a home assigned |
| Warmth | 10% | Percentage of fuelled homes — only counted in winter, 100% otherwise |
| Health | 10% | Mean Health need across all citizens |
| Social access | 5% | Percentage of citizens within 60 units of a tavern, chapel, or market |
| Natural beauty | 5% | Beauty score from buildings with inherent natural appeal — hearths, chapel, town hall, apiary, orchards, vineyards — normalised by population so the score stays meaningful as your settlement grows |
Hover over the Approval score in the HUD to see a breakdown of each input's current contribution.
Score Colours
| Score range | Colour | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| 70 and above | Green | Your settlement is in good shape |
| 40–69 | Amber | Some areas need attention |
| Below 40 | Red | Something important is being neglected |
Using Approval Effectively
Because Happiness carries 40% of the weight, it dominates the score. If approval is low, start there — check what moodlets citizens are carrying and address the worst negatives first.
Food variety at 15% is the second-most influential input and is often the easiest to improve. Two food groups gives a small bonus; three gives a meaningful one; four maximises the variety bonus. Even a small fishing hut or an apple orchard alongside your grain fields can push this input significantly.
Social access at 5% is the easiest to hit near 100% once a tavern or chapel is built. If it's reading low, you may just need another social building in a different part of the settlement to reach outlying citizens.
Natural beauty and Social access each carry 5% of the weight. Natural beauty grows organically as you build landmark structures — you don't need to do anything special to raise it. In a large settlement, the score normalises by population, so it stays meaningful even as you expand.