#Frostpunk order or faith generator

Perhaps priorities shift when you’re facing -120C conditions. In the real world, such a decision would (correctly) revolt anyone with a soul in Frostpunk, it’s commonplace. For example, if I force people to work an emergency 24hr shift, there is a chance that a worker will die from exhaustion (causing a loss of hope) - but perhaps the needed resources from the shift will make their loss ‘worthwhile’. Rather, I think the game is implying that the leaders of a given society might be tempted to perceive ‘hope’ as a resource to be managed, and uses that mindset in order to ask us questions about ourselves. Obviously, it can’t in real life - people are not robots - but I don’t think the game is implying that it can, either. We can also take issue with the idea that ‘hope’ - a rough analogy to population personal wellbeing - can be quantified in such a way. But ultimately I don’t have a problem with that design choice - I think the game makes it pretty clear that totalitarianism is bad, going so far as to judge you for picking the most totalitarian policies at the end (more on that soon). There are problems, of course, with the idea that totalitarianism leads to a society where the ‘hope’ of the population is ignorable people didn’t start liking the Nazi regime (or even not-hating it) because it aimed to have a strong grip on private life.

Regardless of the reason for that obedience. Both of these policies result in arbitrary executions and repression, but also eliminate the hope bar entirely - presumably because the grasp of the player-character over New London is so tight that the obedience of its citizens can be guaranteed. The progression of this ‘purpose’ tree can be considered quite sinister - what starts with neighbourhood watches (Order) and chapels (Faith) escalates to propaganda centres and ‘public penance’, and finally to ‘New Faith’ and ‘New Order’ - policies essentially coded to mean ‘fascism’, or some other totalitarian nightmare. But the main point of the two tech trees is to improve hope and reduce discontent, with hope especially becoming less and less of a problem as you unlock more powerful policies further down the tree.Īn unavoidable choice presented to the player - but, perhaps, not the most important choice. These two paths can be seen as functionally the same in practice, Order has some policies with minor side-benefits relating to production (because what kind of Soviet allegory would it be if it didn’t have production modifiers attached?), and Faith has benefits affecting healing and health. These range from emergency shifts to prosthetics for amputees from pubs to child labour (or, in a different - mutually exclusive - branch, child apprenticeships in safe workplaces) one particularly useful policy allows for funerals to take place after the death of someone within the society, which mitigates the ‘hope’ fall somewhat.Ī precipitous drop in hope in the middle of the game - caused by the news that a nearby settlement has been wiped out by the cold and ensuing chaos - forces the player to ‘choose a path’, to give meaning to the lives of the citizens of New London.

The game gives you various methods of adapting to this - a tech tree called ‘adaptation’ allows the player to pass several laws, which can affect production, working hours, hope, discontent, and other general wellbeing. If hope gets too low, it can lead to a lose state as the society rebels against its unpopular ruler. When you order workers to do something they don’t want to do, discontent rises when bad news hits (such as workers dying from illness, overwork, or disaster), hope drops. The core mechanic of the game - and the source of the morality question - essentially revolves around the management of resources, including a ‘hope’ meter and (to a lesser extent) a ‘discontent’ meter. I think Frostpunk has gone further and done better than virtually any of its contemporaries when it comes to addressing ‘player morality in video games’ - clearly far better than the ‘fake’ morality of Bioshock, or the ‘nuking a city is as evil as stealing 200 forks’ of Fallout 3, or the ‘press triangle to praxis’ of Detroit: Being Human - producing an experience which forces us to reflect on our own attitudes in a manner which may not be comfortable.

#Frostpunk order or faith generator

Frostpunk is a 2018 city manager/survival game by Polish developers 11 bit studios of This War of Mine (2014) fame, which situates a group of survivors huddling around a massive generator at the heart of New London, in a world where the temperature won’t stop dropping for… Reasons.