I just finish my production asap and then focus on 'Economic Stimulus.'

My problem is that this build option is like an 'I WIN' button because my approval goes sky-high once I hit it, along with those other +50% bonus.

So, I just squeeze the population of work for a bit, then get econ stim going, and everything's all good.  Might eventually write about it for a nerf or balancing. 

I'm curious how one can build a ship and a factory. Wouldn't I be using all my production in building the factory, and so when the project is finished then I will build a ship? Would it not be faster to divide the labor between the two? Also, what if I'm under attack and need fighters, but I also need to upgrade my manufacturing. I would therefore have to stop production on the planet in order to have ships be built as there wouldn't be any excess production per turn if that production is all used for planetary items.

Also, if any production is not being used in the shipyard it is automatically moved back to the planet.

Wouldn't a more balanced approach be better on a planet instead of a purely manufacturing planet? Also, if one has built something on each tile in a planet, and the empire cannot support anymore ships, we would leave the production on the planet to sit idle? Wouldn't it be better if the production were changed into something more productive?

I think the complaint here is about the balance. When you use those research projects, is having a couple research buildings better than just a purely factory based planet doing research projects. It should be a loss on production when converting to research or wealth. Sounds like a balance act. I would say that 3 factories with research project equates to 1 research building with the planet using the research project. (I'm just throwing out the numbers here, I'm sure others have better number ratios than this)

My early experiments (in Alpha 0.31) was that:

• 4 mp buys 1 Research Project / Economic Stimulus, no limit on the number you can buy per turn
• Birthing Subsidies could be 4 mp also ... but maybe it's more, like 10 mp.  +25% growth is a way bigger jackpot than +1 rp or +1 bc.
• Festival I dunno.  I never tested it, and I don't understand cultural influence math anyways.
• I think partial projects do accumulate.  That may be why you see a planet's queue bar sometimes drawn partially-full (indicating work in progress) for a project.

So the threshold rule-of-thumbs are:

• Let TM be (1 + sum of planet's mp +%s).  Define TR and TW similarly.
• If TM < 4 TW, then Economic Stimulus is a loser.  You'd be better off just to set your planet, as-is, to 100% wealth axis in the wheel, and generate more bc.  (Save a game, try it one way, reload, try it the other way.  QED.)
• If TM > 4 TW, then Economic Stimulus is a winner for that planet.  So if you're going to pump wealth on that planet, do it via 100% manuf and ES in the queue, instead of using the wealth axis.

However, that doesn't mean it's the best strategy, because TW is a lower bound, not an upper bound.

• Let XW (planet's theoretical maximum wealth) be what your TW would have been if you had filled the planet with wealth improvements.
• If your TM > 4 XW, then ... hey, the all-manuf + ES path is the winner.
• If your TM < 4 XW, then you're making a tactical profit, but a strategic loss (compared to an opponent who just set his planet to XW in the first place).  So maybe what you're gaining is flexibility.

I dunno if it's even possible for a planet to have TM > 4 XW.