Crossing the line?

[Bukkfrig]

Hoping someone can shed some light on these points for me, referring to the ending comments about whether or not you may have crossed the line.

There doesn't seem to be any in-game downside to "crossing the line". Possibly just some negative events occur, but if you chose those laws you're probably still getting more benefit than not signing them. Is that right?

There seems to be a cutscene that tells you when you've crossed the line. Is that true, or are the cutscenes not tied to the end text?

Crossing the line seems to be mainly based on what laws you sign. In my latest playthrough (hard mode), I only signed Shrines, Evening Prayer and Faith Keepers, and the cutscene played. Would it not have played if I had not gone for Shrines? Is it also based on the number of relevant buildings you build, building cooldowns you use, decision points, etc?

I just want to know these things because my goal is to do a hardmode run without "crossing the line" and with nobody leaving for London.

[Skirlasvoud]

It is tied to laws, but only the oppressive ones. Shrines are fine, but Faith Keepers might not be since they're basically the Spanish Inquisition/The Sparrows.
I've done a faith runthrough with a Temple, but resisting my people's calls for Faith Keepers, Pledges and Public Penance and I was in the clear.


I have a theory:

Whenever you open the book of laws, there'll be 3 different potraits to Faith/Order.

Basic level Faith is a father and child holding candles. Basic Order is just the neighbourhood watch.
When you progress, Faith will change into a couple of pious looking priests and Order into a couple of Guards.

Should you "Cross the Line", I think the portrait turns to resemble Faith Keeper "Inquisitors". Not sure what Order does yet.


I also think it depends on whether or not it's a reaction TO something. If you're using Faith Keepers and Prisons in a direct reaction to combating the Londoners, you're fine. Using it as crowd control is not.

I'm currently doing a second playthrough to find out, so I'll return to share results.

[EliTheRev]

I am not sure about this either.
My first playthrough of scenario 1 on medium it ended with a very pleasant message. Though I did have prisons in that one but no child workers ...

But ever since then I get "Yet, we went too far" as the ending and I used child labor in safe places in all my other plays. I didn't have as many survivors on my first play but the message was more positive.

I never chose the very last two upgraded on faith or on order as they seemed kind of hardcore and unnecessary ... I think maybe the propaganda place and prisons was too much on order and maybe the faith keeps and temple ... I also had the public whippings just for fun which probably was a bit much :) LOL.

I am curious about limiting as many laws as possible to see how far I can get.

The shrines I HAD to use because of the extra benefits ... I'm not sure why they'd be considered crossing the line.

I'll have to experiment.

[Hrzn]

i used both faith keepers and public penance and still got the good ending, as in not going "too far"

[Bukkfrig]

I didn't mean to imply that the Shrines were bad, but I was wondering if you could squeeze in Faith Keepers if you only took the necessary path (i.e. just Evening Prayer and Faith Keepers). Because getting all three seemed to trigger the bad stuff for me if my theory about the cutscene holds. Not sure if this depends on difficulty either.

[Bukkfrig]

Originally posted by HrznKn:

i used both faith keepers and public penance and still got the good ending, as in not going "too far"

So did you get any religious cutscene? What difficulty?

[Hrzn]

Not really a different cutscene, just some minor changes in the text, unless there is an ending i'm missing, basicly it said we adapted, yet we haven't crossed the line, faith gave us strength.
I only play on normal difficulty though.

These are the laws i used :
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1374242966

[EliTheRev]

I had those same ones .... OH WAIT I did the righteous denuciation .... yeah that ones bad :)

[Anton]

I've singed up evening prayers.Failth Keepers, Temple and shrines = good ending. I haven't used child labor or triage or any other obviously "bad" laws, so I don't know how much do they matter.