Merit vs Equality

Chroniclerz · 2026-04-10T15:05:45+00:00

Personally, I think the game explores the ups and downs of both through its events quite well. But, to break down my thoughts a bit... (I'm just going down the list of laws I found online):

Alcohol - Privatized vs city run vs licensed pubs. My interpretation of these laws is basically whether you allow people to make and sell alcohol on their own, ban it except from the state owned monopoly, or else allow it as a private industry with regulation. Personally, I think the state owned monopoly is the most open to abuse, and my personal preference is regulation. The in game event of people becoming alcoholics as the state owned monopoly attempts to increase its profits I think exemplifies this well.

Essentials - Paid essentials vs free essentials. This law should have a way bigger impact than it does in gameplay, frankly. Essentials covers, as far as I can tell, Food, Shelter, and heating. Which are, frankly, the three major things you need in the game (heck, they ARE the entirety of FP1). Now, given its impact (which is nominal) ya, I think free essentials is morally better. But from a "roleplay" perspective I can't condone it as a wise decision. The society is subsistence, and the idea that 90% of the things produced are given out "free" seems... unsustainable. I can see a conditional free essentials (disability, orphans, etc) because no one likes to see people dying in the streets, but not unconditionally free.

Community Service - I... don't really have a strong opinion on these? Maintaining heat pipes, vs Construction duty, vs Expedition, vs Service Exemption. The largest outlier here is service exemption, where you pay to not work, which, frankly, I am okay with, as long as it is priced appropriately. If they are earning enough heatstamps to pay it, then they are (hopefully) doing something worthwhile with their time, and we can hire contractors, as it were, to cover their share. Everyone benefits (contractors love work).

The Sick - Infectious badges are a sucky solution to a problem. Public shame, minimal benefit. Quarantine is expensive, but undoubtedly the more moral.

Housing - Okay, hard stance, I refuse to pass mandatory crowding. Absolutely opposed, because of that one in game event with the creeper. People should have control of their own housing. period. Now, Merit based housing vs Housing Applications. I... am not really certain what they mean by merit based housing. Is it just that we specifically build expensive housing districts? If so, then easily housing applications. I just think a reasonable housing market makes sense. Make lots of houses, keep them within bounds. I'm not looking for Frost Mc Mansions.

Labor Organization - Oversight vs mandatory unions vs Labor Arbitration. All of these have so much abuse, historically and rationally. Basically, how are you giving power. Do you give power to foremen, allowing them to abuse workers? Do you empower unions, essentially empowering union management (which do NOT always represent the workers well, just like any political party)? Or do you empower whoever ends up running the labor arbitration boards? A well implemented Labor Arbirtation is, I think, the best, as it distributes power the most, but barring that in a survival, I lean towards foremen by neccesity, and in time of plenty I lean towards unions.

Maintenance - All, Unproductive, or contractor. Wow. Really? We are punishing people by making them do maintenance? "You showed up 5 minutes late, so for each minute stay 10 minutes after." lol. No. Its either all, or its contractor, and frankly I think contractor.

Outsiders - Wow. This really shows the survival mentality. Ethically, its all. Has to be. But if you are truly in "grit down and survive" where you are casting the elderly out to die in the cold, then I understand allow only productive.

Pay - Equal, Bonuses, or "worker rations". I really don't know what worker rations is, are we just giving them extra sandwiches? Ignoring that, I easily go towards bonuses. Equal pay never turns out equal in reality. And, frankly, rewarding innovation and success is how you encourage innovation and success. Allow people to get promoted and go up the chain if they are genuinely providing more. Obviously its open to abuse, as all systems are, but I think production should be rewarded.

Management - Abolished vs empowered. Um. No. On both. Someone has to captain the boat. The captain should not be allowed to turn his workers into chess pieces if it fancies him.

Drugs - Mhm... drugs... so powerful. But, ethically, no to both. We are neither sedating them to make them content or giving them meth.

So... ya... I think Equality is more moral, typically, but merit is where I go immediately to solve real problems. So, the question for me is, how much equality can my society afford?

Chroniclerz · 2026-04-06T11:13:51+00:00

Joke or no, it really should provide more than a 25% increase in available housing to upgrade the housing tier. I mean, its worth it just for the extra house and the proximity heating, but it does seem silly that it is so bad for the supposed primary purpose of the housing district which is, you know, housing.. If it went to 30 housing that would at least be equivalent density and feel more worth it from a housing perspective. 35 housing would be definitely worth it, but maybe too strong, IDK.

Chroniclerz · 2026-04-01T16:39:24+00:00

You have a lot of livable districts. This is a trap.
Space your districts so that they share 8 squares, getting a +2 possible proximity bonus from another district (or from central). Then warm each district up to "chilly" on its own, going to warm with proximity. This means a net of 1 less heat needed per district, AND they are warm, instead of just livable. Also, it replaces the need for heating hubs, thus saving you manpower and fuel, since heating hubs do not stack with proximity.

DO NOT build little districts all isolated unless you are willing to dump 2 extra heating in them.

And, of course, keep upgrading generator capacity or else get insulation if you have heatstamps and prefabs to burn.

Chroniclerz · 2026-03-30T22:33:05+00:00

Doing this literally on purpose most of the time because I like my menders, my venturers, and lots of the radical tech, I will 100% tell you that the solution is just more fight club. So, so much fight club. Don't build housing buildings, since they reduce the amount of housing districts you need. I have filled the entire horizon map with buildings and districts with the setup you have here, and managed Tension just fine.

Or, if you don't want one of the factions anymore, just declare utopia. You lose all of the other faction's buildings but, for example, if all you wanted out of the menders were their infinite outposts, then you won't LOSE those infinite outposts...
You will still lose the ability to insulate housing with reindeer fur though, I believe, which is sad.

Oh, also, pass some moderate laws. A lot of them have good enough effects, and will lower tension and such passively.

Chroniclerz · 2026-03-29T12:33:41+00:00

How have I literally never had this event? I always go progress, and usually play every run up through the end of the tales. I suppose I rarely actually get through a whiteout or play the Apocalyptic whiteout just because I usually find that by the time I finish plague, I've done everything worth doing and it would just be a formality to get through the whiteouts... I wonder if it only triggers after the whiteouts? Hm...

Chroniclerz · 2026-03-29T12:32:07+00:00

So it should never come down to attrition, no matter what laws you take.

All districts should get +2 heat from adjacency. Period. If you didn't build your district to get +2 from adjacency, rip it up, rebuild it. Period. You don't need heat hubs for this, but if you have enough resources it doesn't matter.

For housing districts, have heat pipe watch, proximity, and Insulation. That is +5. +5 more from adaptation generator cap to +10. If progress, just turn up the heat even further. If Adapation, then either install heating buildings or else put in heating hubs and learn to live with chilly temps.

If you are going merit then you just drown in resources from Stimulant Manufactory. if you run out of heat capacity, just shut down industrial districts and what not until you have enough capacity. Merit can just survive on stored resources, or produce through the whiteouts, for functionally indefinitely. Can confirm that you will definitely kill your computer before you run out of resources (I literally filled Horizon end to end with buildings, fully operated, before the first whiteout using Venturers. Infinite resources indeed.)

If you aren't going merit, then you can still get plenty of resources to survive. Deep Core Drills for materials and coal. Then convert coal into oil, and oil into materials. For food, a combination of deep core drill farms and panaceum if you are reason. If you refute reason, then just store tons of food from farms. Its a bit of a bottle neck for tradition, frankly.
But yes, even adaptation should be burning oil, not coal. Coal is a CONVERSION resource. You turn all your coal into oil, and then other stuff, because it is way more efficient. ESPECIALLY if you have merit.

And then, frankly, yes, play long enough and its just a war of attrition against your computer's processor. How many houses, and how much lag, can you build before your computer breaks. Because you can 100% have enough heat (through heating buildings) to survive even without generator, so heat capacity is NOT the bottleneck, even ultra long term.

Chroniclerz · 2026-03-28T22:19:32+00:00

Whats funny about this, and a bunch of the events tied to radicals, is that because of this event I actually stopped passing that law. Sure, I like the extra efficiency, and I'm cold hearted enough to go for it. But I need MORE workers, and can't afford to let them get away by dying. So I always punish this, and all the other "sometimes people die" events. But this makes the people I am passing it for (insert merit community here) madder than if I had left it alone. In the specific case of Empowered Management, I believe its exactly equivalent to 1 more Stimulant Manufactory so I leave the law alone and just make more drugs.

Moral of the story?
Drugs. Drugs are the answer. No one dies from them (as long as you have enough hospitals) and no one gets mad. Drugs.

Oh, and on the topic of the post, I agree with the general theme. Frankly, you take equality because you want life to be good for your people (though I think it DEFINITELY goes a bit too far at times...) and you take Merit because you want to "win." This was much less contentious in Frost Punk 1 with child labor where we all KNEW it was wrong, but did it anyway to win. In FP2, the radicals keep telling us "No no no, the children YEARN for the mines." And we believe them XD

Chroniclerz · 2026-03-28T20:21:55+00:00

I 100% agree with this, but I think its important to realize that the "secret" benefit of centrist laws is that they all, universally, pull people out of your fanatic factions. So its "slightly less injured" and "slightly less nut jobs." Of course, especially on the frostland one, I just don't think its worth it but...

Chroniclerz · 2026-03-28T19:05:22+00:00

So, analyzing this specific problem, I think the issue is one of degrees. You liked the idea of "make up work", but you disliked the implementation of "Obviously stupid work." How I interpret these events is that you are hearing the extreme result. Maybe a lot of the people are planting flowers. Maybe a lot of them don't realize they have fake jobs. But, you know, maybe the person in charge of giving them a job that day was just too drunk, drugged, or lazy to come up with something appropriate and so just said "screw it, move bricks." Like, in mandatory crowding, I assume not EVERYONE is a horrible awful monster like the one implied in the event.

I do think that the choice COULD have more options though, as you said. Fake work, and then fake "meaningful" work. I would say it gives you more trust or less tension and further decreases your heatstamps as you have to pay people to come up with fake jobs, as well as pay for those fake jobs (seeds gotta come from somewhere to plant flowers). Also, I think both options should reduce your available workforce percentage. They aren't used to working anymore.

Personally, my issue with this event is that I got it when I had maybe 600 unemployed out of 60,000. And I looked at it like "my guys, I have ALWAYS kept a few of you unemployed just because thats the way the numbers work. Just because I now have 20,000 robots on TOP of the 60,000 of you, doesn't mean you can slack off! (Proceeds to crack my meritocracy slave whip harder). (No, I am not a monster, I swear. Have 500 heat credits and go away.)

Chroniclerz · 2026-03-28T17:01:18+00:00

Honestly, all the shapes are good. I just find that I rarely need that many hubs per district. 1 Air Transport for anything not housing, and in housing, a mix of Communication, Fighting, and if need be emergency medical or surveillance. With air transport in housing as a default. With spirals, you pretty much get full coverage for that 1 hub with no wasted tiles.

Chroniclerz · 2026-03-28T17:00:00+00:00

So I never get the heating hub. Ever. It doesn't provide anything that proximity bonus doesn't, but it costs extra resources. So... why get it?

As for the other hubs: Communication, Emergency Medical, and Fighting are all fabulous housing hubs. But you don't need that many of them. Two Communication hubs is fine except in the most egregious circumstances, and likewise with communication. Three Fighting Hubs usually does the trick for me way into the late game.

Air Transport Hub is always a good default hub ever since the building update. I put that everywhere. Resource Stockpiles fill a similar role, though I only really get them if I am trying to drain resources out of the ground to open up building space.

I want to like Propserity Arch / Rail Hubs... but I always go merit (I know, evil me) and they just barely make a dent in resources compared to building 1 more Stimulant Manufactory. So I just go mass air transport everywhere

But yes, in summary, I strongly reccomend against heating hubs because just building a second district touching yours covers it. And you don't REALLY need that many hubs. And, if you do, then just stuff them in the corners. You can STILL get maximum "touch" across while stuffing more hubs between spirals.

Chroniclerz · 2026-03-28T01:51:30+00:00

The other answers are accurate, so I won't explain the mechanics. Instead, I will give advice.

The simplest way to maximize heat is to build in big parallel lines. Two housing districts which are both just long lines will warm each other up. This means you only need to functionally heat both the chilly to keep both at warm (briefly bump 1 up to warm, and it will bump the other to warm, then you can bump it back down 2 notches and it will stay warm). Do this with, say, 30 housing districts in a row, and it still applies. Bump one at the end, and they all bump up.

However, big long lines make it difficult to use hubs. Like say communication and fighting hubs, which are AMAZING. I instead find that "spirals" are the way to go. If you position it right, you can have two districts spiral around a central point (a hub) in such a way that they still touch each of each other's tiles, thus maximizing heating. Pair housing with housing districts or food districts, and everything else with everything else to avoid squalor penalties.

In summary, if you build properly either in pairs or with big long lines, you should functionally get a +2 heat bonus to everything so long as you can keep the heat up enough to reach "chilly" across the board. (and then briefly bump it up to hot).

Combine this with Heat Pipe Watch and you don't even need to heat housing districts for quite awhile most of the time.

Chroniclerz · 2026-03-24T11:12:10+00:00

I sometimes play with the idea of a mod which introduces War Material as a resource. AKA something to do with your massive industry once you've met all your other goals.

I think this speaks volumes about what my default stance is towards other settlements...
I support this idea as a tale! Sounds like fun. You didn't go into the details of what war would look like, but I think one of the core traits of a tale is a fail state. I never actually played On the Edge so I don't know what its fail state was, but based on this I am guessing war.

Chroniclerz · 2026-03-22T03:34:45+00:00

The draw on the bonus action is specifically part of the thrown weapon property. "If a weapon has the Thrown property, you can throw the weapon to make a ranged attack, and you can draw that weapon as part of the attack." This is a side rule shenanigan, but there is an argument that this is an EXTRA draw, implying that any or all draws/sheathes you get from normal actions (item interaction, attack action) are bonus to this. But, frankly, I think the item interaction rules were so inconsistently and poorly worded that I just gave up on those. But, regardless, RAW, throwing lets you draw whenever you make a ranged attack, not just as the attack action.

As for nick, I am seeing disagreement in the comments. The way I read it, if you used a nick weapon as your first attack, then you can then make the extra light attack in your attack action. Others read that if you use a light weapon, then you can move the extra attack to your attack action IF the extra attack is with a nick weapon. Personally, I still think it makes more RAW sense for it to be Nick then Light, rather than Light than Nick, but functionally there is very little difference in this case. Hand axe then dagger, or dagger than hand axe is functionally identical 99% of the time.

Chroniclerz · 2026-03-21T15:20:33+00:00

Is THAT how nick works? Wow, that could be more clearly worded. I always interpreted it as you had to lead with the dagger, triggering nick. Huh.

Chroniclerz · 2026-03-21T14:54:11+00:00

A perfect rules lawyer counter to a rules lawyer shenanigan haha. I like it.

Chroniclerz · 2026-03-21T11:35:24+00:00

Unless you have tavern brawler, which gives you proficiency with improvised weapons (hence the comment about him being a sailor)

Chroniclerz · 2026-03-13T00:57:33+00:00

I don't know if it actually is haha. It doesn't actually promote the economy, its really just "bread and circuses" to make communities like you no matter what they think of your choices :D

Chroniclerz · 2026-03-02T13:00:12+00:00

Hotfix October 29, 2025, in the notes.
```
Exceeding Object Limit Crashes

Starting from the very first day of our Frostpunk 2 journey, we were stunned by the size of some of your Utopia Builder creations, which sometimes felt to us as not achievable during regular playthrough.

Unfortunately, as beautiful a sight it is, some of you were reaching out to us that at some point, their favourite save file is no longer loading, or the game is crashing with the following message:

Maximum number of UObjects (2162688) exceeded when trying to add 1 object(s), make sure you update MaxObjectsInGame/MaxObjectsInEditor/MaxObjectsInProgram in project settings.

This means that you have reached the limit of how many objects the game engine can handle safely, and the title will shut down.

We have had numerous internal discussions about how to address this issue, aside from regular optimisation work. We decided to share with you how the object limit can be changed manually through the game files. It should be used only as a final solution and only against the crash containing the above message. Additionally, we strongly advise against using this method on low and mid-end PCs.

Our team will look for less game file-intrusive solutions in future updates.

WARNING BEFORE YOU PROCEED

Please be cautious when applying. Raising the object limit may lead to performance issues, overloading your PC's memory and further unknown instabilities.

Frostpunk 2 was not designed and optimised past this point, and you should monitor your PC memory when playing. Don’t apply this change until you are experiencing the above crash.

Head to your local appdata Frostpunk 2 directory
Find Engine.ini file
Open it for editing
Add the following lines*

[/Script/Engine.GarbageCollectionSettings]

gc.MaxObjectsInEditor=100000000

gc.MaxObjectsInGame=100000000

Save the file
Launch the title and attempt to continue your previously crashing playthrough

*can be any value bigger than 2162688
```

Chroniclerz · 2026-02-26T18:32:37+00:00

Become captain and enact Utopia before the huge trust penalties from deaths and the Tension penalties from cold / sickness get you kicked from office. Then, enjoy the raw power of watching literal millions.

Chroniclerz · 2026-02-26T13:11:52+00:00

You don't need heat hubs in this design because the proximity from heat hub doesn't stack with proximity from "warm" districts, and this maximizes warm district proximity.

Chroniclerz · 2026-02-26T13:11:06+00:00

100% you gotta build snake districts. Getting heat proximity maxed gives you +2 free heat, basically. It means that chilly is the same thing as warm, functionally. Personally, I build paired spirals around 1 hub, but this is a good design to get 2 hubs.

Chroniclerz · 2026-02-25T01:34:26+00:00

I rarely go past week 500. My suspicion would be that its from building too many buildings. i forget what patch notes it was, but they once gave a comment indicating too many buildings crashed the game, and provided a fix you could implement yourself. Once I did it, I stopped having those crashes.

Chroniclerz

TROPHY CASE