How factions, communities and cornerstones work - Frostpunk 2 Tips and Tricks

[@DataEngineerPlays]

Edit: I've updated the cheat sheet on my google drive. Link in the description. Bohemians are now reason Apologies on my cheat sheet I have bohemians listed as tradition - they should be reason not sure how i can change that in the video though now its uploaded

[@1arko]

great guide :), at 18:08 you have wrong picture in Bohemians faction (Reason insted of Tradition)

[@swigo]

Bohemians are reason though…

[@pomamoba]

There’s a trick you can do with first heat stamp raising: The amount of stamps is determined by the size of faction. So if you first raise funds from your communities, then promote a faction(which makes some community members join it), gain favor, hit their ability and after that raise funds-you end up taxing some people twice for free.

[@DataEngineerPlays]

@@pomamoba lmao I love that trick

[@MyaMore-cb7zb]

Frostpunk really teach you how to become a politician uh.. Noice D:

[@Jin3098]

The production efficiency decrease from relink the chain is PERMANENT AND IT STACKS. I had my entire utopia run flushed down the toilet because of it.

[@DataEngineerPlays]

Yeah some of those cornerstone abilities sound terrible to be honest

[@ahsansariyadi7228]

​@@DataEngineerPlays I think it's a show on how bad extremism is

[@Rusk0000]

The adaptabilty one is broken you reduce the heat demand by so much that oil and coil seems useless

[@Hamzah.162]

Yeah it happend to me too the run was soo good but then got ruined by it without knowing

[@Carnefice]

​@@ahsansariyadi7228 it's definitely a bug. Extremism is always ideal in this series. This game is fantastic, but sadly it's still pretty buggy months after launch.

[@manvelmsurian9712]

At 17:50 . The bohemians are incorecctly listed as doing tradition. They do reason

[@DataEngineerPlays]

Ah oops my bad, I thought I double checked everything on the cheat sheet but I must of missed it! Thanks

[@user0K]

they do drugs

[@su8r0u71n3]

@@user0K i do drugs too!!!💗

[@DaUziel]

I'm kind of hoping for an "Oops All Factions" option and play with that chaos

[@DataEngineerPlays]

I'll get devoted with all 8 factions and have infinite boosts for everything 😝

[@su8r0u71n3]

@@DataEngineerPlays God i want that too so bad. I though that's how it would be. Got little sad when I realized it wasnt. 3, is not enough.

[@bagseys]

@@su8r0u71n3 Modding will change that. people like myself and you would be invested in a mod that can allow for this exactly

[@daterap8049]

Best video I've watched so far explaining these issues in Frostpunk2 - great job!

[@trondsjafjell4656]

Fun fact. If you research everything before embracing a cornerstone, you get to keep acces to those laws and technologies. But be aware that if you max every cornerstone, everything will cause tension and hate, which is quite funny

[@DataEngineerPlays]

@@trondsjafjell4656 you can still research the opposing radical ideas even after maxing the cornerstone no?

[@trondsjafjell4656]

@@DataEngineerPlays yes, as long as you do not embrace the cornerstone, then you can research as much as you want. But it will cause every single law to cause tension. Which is quite funny

[@DataEngineerPlays]

@@trondsjafjell4656 tension is easily resolved with fighting hubs so not a huge issue

[@AttiliusRex]

a disapointing matter of the current state of the game is that crime doesn't seem to be an issue what so ever makes all abilities and factions reducing crime just pointless

[@DataEngineerPlays]

I feel ya, I've never felt the need to touch the crime stuff at all.. Even when it is a tiny problem, you can slap down 1 surveillance hub and you're sweet... even in captain

[@valdir7426]

if you play with harsh rules maybe but it definitely can be an issue if you don't build at least a few watchtowers. High population with no guards will be a problem; for me more than the cold or food ever was.

[@jabbott6748]

Wow, this one didn't take long to blowup. Well done once again sir.

[@someduudee]

Thanks alot :) Started playing the game yesterday, kinda overwhelming in the beginning but I am really enjoying the gameplay :D

[@knusperkeks2748]

Excellent guide! Thanks for the shoutout! There is an error in your neat graphic, unfortunately, the Bohemians subsribe to Adaptation, Equality and Reason, not Tradition! The Communities, Factions, Zeitgeist, are my favorite part of this game, and there are many different permutations one is able to generate by choosing different starting communities and laws! For example, I tried to make the Bohemains appear, but during the course of the game, I found myself more aligned with the Icebloods, which made them appear instead. Though to be honest, without the ability of the Bohemians to improve relationships, I'm not confident in my ability to keep all the factions in Devoted state, so I'll end up with Adaptation, Equality and Reason in the long run because I think these Cornerstones are the best. -Progress: Automaton Primacy: Indirectly promotes the player to not go for maximum population by reducing the amount of total workers required to finish tasks, which will reduce overall Heatstamp income. -Merit: Servitude: Creates a new community that can't be interacted with like normal, they aren't able to give you Heatstamps directly, and you need to have many guards to keep them from running away, so this free workforce is not so free after all. Also, there is a gamebreaking bug if you play the Creater or Dreadnought map which makes it so - after selecting a certain choice - that more communities than usual are able to enter your city, splitting up your population, making the game much more difficult! I've submitted feedback regarding this bug in the 11 bit studious discord channel in the FP2-feedback category, if you want to read more. The date was September 28th, 2024, 6:35 pm ( think that's cest ). -Tradition: The Great Chain. Glorified Fighting Hub, the efficiency debuff lasts either forever or a very long time, I think that's a bug. I think Progress, Merit and Tradition work fine, but they're not worth the cornerstone commitment, different from their counterparts Adaptation, Equality and Reason. I think there needs to be a balance update.

[@DataEngineerPlays]

Great points! The bug sounds hilarious. Btw if you want a particular faction to spawn, you can always go polar opposite to the faction. Eg. if you want bohemians, you can align to merit tradition progress, which will force the overseers to spawn which in turn spawns the opposing faction bohemians =) I'm not sure about in captains difficulty but in steward difficulty there's absolutely no problem remaining devoted with 2 factions and 3 communities at the same time

[@tuskular]

Adaptation is just absolutely insane, if you rush the cornerstone, your basically playing the game on easy mode at that point. its definitely way more powerful than any of the others, it makes fuel almost obsolete.

[@NotBamOrBing]

Also Merit's cornerstone ability Servitude has the much greater downside of **you're enacting slavery**

[@tuskular]

Great Vid, Personally after playing all of them on captain difficulty Id definitely say that the adaptation cornerstone is the best by a long shot, only the strong prevail was reducing my heat requirements by 180 making most of my buildings cost 0 heat upkeep when stacked with other bonuses even at -110 degreest, so if you can rush it then fuel is really no longer an issue and adaptation actually has some really good technologies. I just played a proteans play through and I'm burning 925 oil to support a city of 60000 people at -110 degrees. Also there's a bug with the final adaptive generator upgrade where for some reason it always prioritises oil and you cant use other resources properly it only uses 1 or 2 of coal and steam at all times for some reason. Equality is pretty damn nice if you rush it first as I was getting over 2000 heat stamps with the push of a button which is really powerful the earlier you get it, this makes sense to me as a lot of there laws are very meh although they do have some neat ones. whereas Merit is definitely better overall due to the sheer productivity bonuses you get plus the deaths you get from it are irrelevant and easily replaceable, there cornerstone gives an enormous productivity bonus, for reference apex workers is giving a 43.75 bonus to my steam extraction distraction district which is producing a base of 125 meaning we are getting a 35% increase in productivity, where as increased workload is increasing the production by 162.5 giving a whopping 130% increase in production, even labour oversight and empowered management were "only" each giving 37.5 increase in production Progress is still significantly better in the early and mid game due to the oil and workers economy as well as the significant production bonuses but automaton primacy can be pretty good to have but mostly to reduce squalor although the productivity bonus is pretty nice but your going to be producing more than enough by that point anyway which is why it kind of frustrates me that we can only build resources silos that store 50k, I had to build so many, why cant we get bigger ones?, also fyi you do get an event with it where if you have enough materials you can fix there algorithms so no one dies. Reason and tradition are very meh, the ability from reason is really good though since its really flexible, but population growth really isn't that important in this game as you can easily just accept people from the frost lands and you almost always have more than enough people or hands past the early game, so other than reducing disease from hospitals and reducing crime I don't think it really matters what you pick, although the tradition tension reduction ability can be convenient if your going very heavy squalor, but more importantly is can be extremely good if you still want to mix and match alignments after picking key stones and not have to worry about tension.

[@DataEngineerPlays]

Great analysis, I appreciate it!

[@Ducat_Podcast]

you're doing awseome job! thanks a lot for those guides!

[@alikazim01]

Thanks for putting up such informational videos, definitely helping a lot.

[@romandidelet5945]

From my experience in Utopia builder, it seems to me that the "random" communities are not truly random. From the bunch of starts I've generated, it seems that it is random but must satisfy 2 criterias, making it, well, not random. Those 2 criterias are : 1 - Must have two opposing communities 2 - Must have either one of Adaptation or Progress The consequence of this is that, to satisfy the first criteria, the fully random community choice is not a full random, but a randdom choice between the 3 available options. Thus you will always have Frostlanders vs Machinists or Labourers vs Merchants or Thinkers vs Lords. The consequence of the second criteria is that you will always end up with either Machinists or Frostlanders in your starting communities. This means that if your two opposing communities are those 2, then yes, the 3rd random community is truly a random choice among the remaining 4. However, if you have either Thinkers vs Lords or Labourers vs Merchants, then it becomes not a random choice among the 4 remaining, but a random choice between Frostlanders and Machinists. If anyone has information that goes against this I'll be glad to hear it, but from my experience this is what I've deduced when trying to generate a scenario where I had Labourers, Merchants and Thinkers as starting communities, and couldn't get it no matter how many times I rerolled.

[@DataEngineerPlays]

That's super dumb. But I can confirm you're correct. for my achievement second utopia playthrough I was trying to spawn 3 particular communities but its impossible. You always get an opposing pair and it seems the "random" one is always machinists or frostlanders

[@screes620]

What i'd love to see is a tier list of Laws/Idea's, or a "these are the best options for your first pick at the start of a new game". Or even a breakdown comparison between options. Like take Durable Goods vs Mass Produced. I can log into the game, save before i make the choice, pick one, then load the save and pick the other to find out which is better in the early game. But then, is it always better? Is there a cutoff where one is better than the other, or is one always better than the other, and if so, how much better? Are they effectively the same in the late game and it's down more to which faction supports them than to their actual outcome? This is the information i need to know.

[@DataEngineerPlays]

I could, but here's my reason as to why I probably wont. The game is fairly new and over time there will be many balancing patches that can change the numbers. eg. Durable goods might better than Mass produced right now, but next week that could change So to make this content relevant over the long term, I'd rather not tell you exactly what you should do, rather I like to explain how the system itself works, and arm you with the information to make those decisions on your own. I have SOME examples of what works now but I'm sure those examples will become irrelevant/patched/balanced out very soon

[@Khaim.m]

There's also the issue of hidden effects via quests. For example, early game it seems like Durable Goods is better: no point boosting production when you don't have any. But Mass Production has a quest pop-up that gives you a workforce boost (I think in exchange for some of the productivity) which is great, and doesn't actually require any industry to be effective.

[@cmLMolde]

I would like a video going into depth of "'population". One question is for how long injuries/sickness lasts. As I consider rushing exploration in the story mode, but if i don't know the "damage" of having injuries it's rough to know if it's a bad idea or not.

[@DataEngineerPlays]

great idea let me figure it out and see if I can't flesh it out in a future video

[@whatbear]

Great tip on granting agenda at the beginning of the game for easy favors

[@VicZam9]

17:42 one of the Utopia factions has Tradition where it should be Reason. 5 of 8 have Tradition in the examples. I believe it Bohemians that is shown incorrectly.

[@DataEngineerPlays]

Yes my bad I will have to go have a word with my editor about being more careful... (I'm just kidding I'm my editor)

[@VicZam9]

​@@DataEngineerPlaysall good. To err is be human.

[@anthonycartwright5154]

Wow, I didn’t realize the cornerstone abilities at all. Hm. Excellent graphic on the factions and abilities! Great content! My biggest complaint with factions is the kinda flat way you interact with them. Really feel there is untapped potential to make them more “human” since you basically “grow” with them the whole game. To that end, I wish they had a figurehead that could color in story for that faction (and push into extremism). It would go a long way…and weirdly fit the FP name, age bios. Imagine New London story if you had named reps you learned their story as you went….and how your decisions fulfilled or destroyed their vision of the future. Would make the chapter 5 start hit so hard, you “know” them.

[@DataEngineerPlays]

That sounds like an awesome idea should suggest it to 11 bit studios

[@KnightandDay33]

Frostpunk 2 would honestly be my GOTY if they did a massive rebalancing pass After playing a few rounds of Utopia Builder on Captain difficulty: - Make crime more consequential (eg: make squalor increase crime, make crime decrease heatstamps rather than be caused by a lack of goods, etc) - Low relations with minor factions should have more consequences (no reason to please them late game currently) - Breaking promises with major factions should have more consequences (perhaps increase fervor + more demands) - major factions should be more difficult to please (right now it's just promise + secret police spam) - Signing "Rule" laws should have greater consequences - Signing "Captains Authority" should have MUCH greater consequence (eg: you must win a civil war for the law to pass) - High tension / low trust should cause a civil war (that would be extremely difficult to win) rather than making you lose after a timer - outposts should be significantly nerfed - Equality + Tradition cornerstones need to be entirely reworked (basically useless) - Population growth speed should be quartered (who cares about population deaths otherwise) - Disease should rapidly cause a significantly amount of injured workers, but few deaths unless it reaches catastrophic (makes hospitals, increased workforce abilities, and disease reduction policies actually useful) - *MAKE MORE THREATS* -> whiteouts are fun, but become trivial quickly - Perhaps a slight shift in focus from "survive deathly storms" to "desperately maintain this crumbling empire" as your presence on the map expands. In other words, let the colonies *rebel!* If New London is getting most of their food from a single colony, what would happen if they hold their shipments ransom to force a policy change? Let me have a full on war with a colony I once settled. Let them have rival guard squads, and allow me to use tactics to best decide how to defend/attack our respective assets. Heck, add war-specific districts (armouries, war-automatons, etc) and let me engage in a *PvP build-off* with the game to decide how i'll siege my colony back Love the game so far, but there is still an insane amount of potential features to add (that I suppose modders will cover)

[@DataEngineerPlays]

@@KnightandDay33 yes I like these ideas, essentially the game is too easy

[@Ricardo_Rick]

The only part that i dislike is the fact you NEED to balance the factions, i mean, if a faction is 100% against my views and is trying to destroy the City there should exist a way to remove that faction from the run, it doesn't need to be a violent way but a way to slowly convert the members so that you don't have to worry about them anymore.

[@DataEngineerPlays]

You can't convert a community, but you can convert the faction. If you condemn the faction you dislike and promote the faction you do like essentially you get the effect you're describing. You'll have the disliked faction at 1% pop and they basically become irrelevant. You'll have to deal with a civil war, but after the war that faction becomes "imprisoned" in your city.

[@Ricardo_Rick]

@@DataEngineerPlays is it easy to deal with a civil war tho? i didn't allow one to happen in the main story after all. DO you need to research the prisons to imprison them or is that another thing?

[@DataEngineerPlays]

@@Ricardo_Rick Super easy to deal with civil war. Get the 6 rule laws. Then when civil war breaks out you just need to enact captains authority rule law. You need 1 prison + 45 guards and click the button in your central district to activate captains authority... civil war over + deletes the trust mechanic and off you go!

[@Ricardo_Rick]

@@DataEngineerPlays isn't there a way to do it without crossing the line? i might try to do it in the future, this game didn't catch me as much as the first, but i played the story mode only tho

[@DataEngineerPlays]

@@Ricardo_Rick There might be, but I'm not aware of it, I'm not sure if you can send a faction off peacefully somewhere.

[@Tinyuvm]

Once again great video! The political management is a "Take from Paul to give Peter", kind of situation. But it's very entertaining. IMO making promises should be used only when you really need it, because if you need to change the law you don't get the Trust penalty. Granting agenda makes you more flexible even when the Law proposed is bad!

[@DataEngineerPlays]

I feel like granting agenda barely gives any favour with the faction though, so if you want to quickly get devoted with a new faction for instance you kinda have to do all 3 at once, do a promise, then grant the agenda, and then give them heat stamps

[@Diekirch7090]

Venturers lets fcking go (god I love post apo ultracapitalism)

[@jira6423]

Venturers are not the ultracapitalism faction they are the totalitarian state controlled faction. At least in theming. Duplicate of the order/stalwart path in the story.

[@themikemania7221]

Fraction skills: 1. Faithkeepers-power of God. 2. Icebloods-power of the hunt food. 3. Stewards- guard of order. Technogrates-power of technology. 4. Proteans-power of health. 5. New londoners-citizens of the city.

[@VicZam9]

I currently started a new Utopia run and chose Foragers vs Machinists, with Lords being the random that spawned at the start with them. Dreadnought map. Went Adaptation, Merit, and Tradition early to get Icebloods to spawn. Of course this will make Technocrats spawn later. Now that I have them I'm relying on the Icebloods to stay devoted for the food bonus. They can give the food as a rally choice as well, potential to stack them I hope, so far I've only gotten one rally with them. I'm going to try and keep Technocrats happy as well. Hopefully I can balance them both. Ambition for the run is Colonize the Frostlands. On another note. Anyone else noticed that the colonizes are simply called "Fuel, Food, and Materials" on other maps I've played (Windswept Peaks and Broken Shore). But on Dreadnought they have names, "Crater, Windmoor," and I forgot the other one.

[@tadesubaru1383]

Thank you fir making such as comprehensive video!

[@DataEngineerPlays]

@@tadesubaru1383 no worries, that's my job, I'm a data engineer 😁

[@Yaegosh]

Great guides. Do you have a spreadsheet on how to spawn each faction?

[@DataEngineerPlays]

I don't have one handy sorry, but in the video I show you what each faction is aligned to, just use that to spawn a specific faction. You can also spawn their opposite faction and that will eventually spawn your desired faction

[@VicZam9]

10:22 Incorrect. When you choose random communites, it's not totally random. It's still the same pairs of opposing communities.

[@DataEngineerPlays]

Is it? Damn I shouldn't make assumptions and actually test everything sorry

[@VicZam9]

@@DataEngineerPlays In my experience so far, I've been picking random to test it. Seems to be always the same three pairs. Have never gotten a city with three communities that don't have an opposition.

[@thobsandst]

Wishing for a list of all Laws that interact. Great vids move the info!

[@DataEngineerPlays]

There'll be a frostpunk 2 wiki one day

[@DataEngineerPlays]

Btw have you checked out my ideas tree video? on there is a cheat sheet of every law categorised by what problem it solves

[@thobsandst]

@@DataEngineerPlays I did love your work man!

[@johnthebaptist9828]

Great stuff dude

[@jacksonp881]

most importantly, cornerstones change the visuals of your city

[@DataEngineerPlays]

Do they now? I've never even noticed!

[@disneyjohnarroyo]

Great guide bro! Anw, can someone tell me what will happen if there's a Civil War? 2 Factions are going to war and I want to do something about it hahaha. My trust level is full though.

[@DataEngineerPlays]

@@disneyjohnarroyo check my lets play series episode 8

[@meconagood]

The best ending is not to be allied to any one faction, which will be easier if you have good relations with both. You are locked out of it if you have a cornerstone, and any radical laws will make it much harder. The easiest ending is to exile a faction, which can more or less be done with their permission if you give them rights. The next ending is Captain's authority, which will be quite easy if you have at least guided voting unlocked already, though all six makes this the easiest ending by far. glhf

[@disneyjohnarroyo]

@@meconagood I am neither allied to them, it happens that a faction is in protest and I was forced to others to counter protest. Is there anyway to stop the brewing civil war?

[@za3bloot]

great vid as always ... I think I'm missing something at 22:37 when you hit the ability i look at the work force and it is 4882 before and after hitting the ability it didn't change, why ? or where is the added work force ?

[@DataEngineerPlays]

My apologies most likely, its because the game was on pause when you hit play your workforce should increase

[@za3bloot]

@@DataEngineerPlays no worries i thought its a bug like the heat one or I'm missing something

[@bigjuicer6313]

Thank you , wondering the dlc will talk about the factions

[@DataEngineerPlays]

I imagine they can make a second set of the 8 factions... eg the menders, the story version being the pilgrims, they share the same beliefs with the menders but different abilities. They could just make the analogous 4 more factions that they haven't covered with the story factions

[@lwolfer3440]

Ive unlocked the cornerstone ability, question tho is it a passive or an active because I cant seem to find the ability.

[@DataEngineerPlays]

Did you "enact" it? In the center of your ideas tree is the cornerstone enactment button, the big giant one

[@aidanthornton173]

So which faction would I pick to shed the fragile, feeble flesh and embrace the purity of steel? If that's not possible, can any of the factions make the population turn into ice land mutants?

[@DataEngineerPlays]

Maybe in a future expansion

[@russellrhoades3044]

Evolvers

[@parasitor92]

Thank you for your video. The game's glossary isn't so clear.

[@Nemo-hg7hn]

Which faction will be more powerful in the late game?

[@b9904]

Overseers

[@Nemo-hg7hn]

@@b9904 why ?

[@b9904]

@@Nemo-hg7hn increased production for every city.

[@DataEngineerPlays]

It depends on what you're trying to do. If you're in the campaign, I prefer the faithkeepers over the stalwarts, since they give + trust which is more useful late game. In utopia it depends what you're trying to do. Are you going for a particular achievement? Are you trying to build the biggest city in the world (use the menders) are you trying to get every research (technocrats) etc etc

[@Nemo-hg7hn]

@@DataEngineerPlays I tried iceblood faction, it provided lots of food. But I didn't know how to get other faction. Two utopia game extend to the same faction

[@daboy1394]

so I'm good to neglect crime if I have the stewards in my hand...

[@thegrowingdarkness1377]

In my playthrough. I had the Progress icon circle full, but did not get a cornerstone pop up, did I miss something to get the cornerstone ability?

[@DataEngineerPlays]

There's no pop up. When the progress cornerstone is full you go into the idea tree. Under the first 3 tabs in the center there should be the cornerstone ability you can enact

[@fabiandonvil]

when you can enact the cornerstone, you will get a popup telling you you can do it. i believe that in the campaign you can't enact a cornerstone until you have reached act3 or 4.

[@nickcalixto4408]

Maybe you need to pass a radical law from that ideal

[@Prommy666]

Utopia or Story? Because in story, you cant enact the cornerstone unless you are in "colonizing winterholme" part. Its because the moment you choose a cornerstone, you lock yourself out of one of three possible endings

[@dawnv3436]

omfg I didn't know the central blocks were learnable JFC

[@DataEngineerPlays]

Right? It's totally not obvious

[@jacksonp881]

i have never got the algorithm ability to allow picking hunger

[@Sophia1a1]

Thank you.

[@mohammadalkawari3646]

You Shall Address me as Captain!!

[@DataEngineerPlays]

But I don't want to offend the stewards =(

[@valkyriehero6271]

you can only choose 1 ability out of the two conflicting cornerstone the other will be permanently locked ,

[@DataEngineerPlays]

Yeah that's true, what I meant was you can have 3 ideologies maxed out and use their cornerstone abilities, while still levelling the opposite ideologies to get access to the radical ideas

[@valkyriehero6271]

@@DataEngineerPlays i still don't really recommend them due how due to how much tension is is created .

[@purpledevilr7463]

The Menders are my factions of choice.

[@georgenewton1427]

me to basically my political views IRL

[@purpledevilr7463]

@@georgenewton1427 precisely. And you get to fight what are basically liberal capitalists.

[@robertcampbell3019]

Technocrats any day of the week.

[@purpledevilr7463]

@@robertcampbell3019 I genuinely got a reaction of disgust reading that. Huh.

[@robertcampbell3019]

@@purpledevilr7463 go pound snow ill be sitting atop my throne of technology, as my automatons do everything citizens once did, as the children chill out in their mandatory schools, and the workers comfortable with their unions. And everyone earns equally.

[@beng2500]

W

[@Jarg-d6l]

love how they dont explain anything in game and leave you to fend for yourself 😅 Played it for the first time last night and had to refer to google about 20 times an hour to do the simplest things

[@DataEngineerPlays]

Hope my guides clarify it for you!