Text: Rice bibimbap
The post-apocalyptic world ravaged by blizzards has endured people for nearly 30 years, and cities that have faced the collapse of their social systems again and again still haven't learned anything from the disaster. Factions between factions are scorching the confidence of the masses, and the depleting of reserves and looming danger are leaving the savior of the player scrambling. How will players save the precarious city this time around?
>>> fully upgraded operating system
In the original "Frostpunk Age", players need to gradually obtain map resources from the collection station, build human habitats in the gridded map, and in order to maintain the operation of human society in this icy and snowy world, food, heating, medical care, child welfare and work plan will determine the current social trajectory.
In Frostpunk 2, the area slightly farther away from the Portal Tower has been covered in snow due to 30 years of wind and frost, and in order to collect materials outside the base area, it is necessary to consume a new type of currency called Warm Coupon to "break the frost", which replaces the original steel and wood and becomes an indispensable resource for infrastructure construction.
At the same time, the building types such as medical buildings, food buildings, resource buildings, and functions unlocked through research in the original generation evolved into special buildings in logistics areas, industrial areas, mining areas, food areas, and residential areas in "Frostpunk Age 2", but because the grid changed from a ring to a hexagonal checkerboard, the logic of building placement changed. First of all, the functional area will occupy a certain checkerboard grid, so that there may be some restrictions on the buildable areas that can be developed through "frost breaking", so spending "labor and heating coupons" to expand the area of use can effectively expand the available area, but it also delays the valuable development time in the early stage.
The second is that special buildings will occupy the building slots in the functional area, and the other areas except the residential area will only provide an empty building slot at the beginning of the construction, and if you want to get more, you need to consume the developed slots for "expansion". Then the operational logic of studying new buildings, building/expanding functional areas, and building corresponding buildings to obtain corresponding effects unfolds.
>>> different ideas will lead to disagreements
By researching the techniques of "survival, economy, and society", players will lead the city to the next stage, but the social relations and ethics followed by different factions are also very different, so a bill and governance policy will often receive opinions from multiple factions. In order to better coordinate and manage this precarious city, Frostpunk 2 has been added to the council system.
Although in the original game, players already had to write laws for society to determine people's work schedules, medical care, food, and other important aspects of life, and maintain a certain level of hope and satisfaction for the people. However, Frostpunk 2 expands on this, and in the demo, each proposed bill will be voted on by different factions in the demo.
However, players can still negotiate with factions to gain a certain amount of room to maneuver, and give resource help, change or enact new policies in exchange for the ticket type they want, and gain the favor of the corresponding faction. However, the result of the enactment of the law is still a few happy and some sad, so it is important to balance the relationship between different factions, reduce the occurrence of disease and crime, and reduce the distrust of the masses in exchange for the opportunity to fight for the future of the city.
>>> field search is still key
Even though the player maintains the faction relationship in the early and middle stages, and develops various functional areas in exchange for a stable life for the people, the limited map resources and the occasional blizzard still threaten the city's residents. It's a good idea to explore outwards and find available resources.
In order to create a Frostland team, players need to build a logistics area next to the resources of the old post station, research the technology related to the frostland team, and reasonably allocate the number of teams to maximize the use of resources. The number of people in the group will be adjusted according to the difficulty of the expedition, so building multiple logistics zones and researching expedition technology will effectively reduce the cost and time of exploration, and if you are lucky, you may even find a permanent source of fuel!
>>> sustaining population growth remains the key to success
The construction of food and industrial zones, the maintenance of the daily lives of the city's residents, the development of plans to balance factional relations, the prevention of strikes and fights, the search for fuel resources, and the minimum standard of living for the people are all all contributed not only to maintain the basic functioning of the city, but also to gather firewood and sacrifice for their lives in times of crisis.
In the game, expanding the area of functional areas such as industrial areas, mining areas, and food areas requires the consumption of labor, and going out to explore requires the consumption of the number of frost land teams converted from labor, and in the face of natural disasters such as a sharp drop in temperature, the city will become a "human meat grinder" to maintain the basic operation of the city by consuming labor. Therefore, in order to achieve a certain goal, the growth of the labor force is indispensable.
>>>结语
Through the Frostpunk 2 demo, we can feel the idea that 11 bit studios wants to express in the sequel, "life is endless, conflict is endless". It only takes about 15 minutes to try the next round at triple speed, but the situation of the four factions facing each other is still a headache for the author, and when the official version is released and you can choose the map and difficulty, I am afraid that the internal turmoil caused by the increase in social differences will be more intense, but it will also make the game more challenging.
"Frostpunk" is participating in the Shanguo Spring Sale, ¥19 super low price can become a savior, saving the toiling masses in the post-apocalyptic world. "Frostpunk 2" will also be available on the Shanguo Store when the game is released, and interested players can check it out.