I'm playing on one of the larger maps with loose clusters& noticed that all of my planets have a "large empire penalty (-6)" giving them -6 approval... it seems a bit excessive that 6 planets qualifies as a "large empire", but if that continues with -1 morale for each additional planet I could see larger galaxies quickly becoming unplayable.
Since I'm sure there is more to this, does anyomne know what factors affect this?