Faith vs. Order, is there really any difference?

[Bladehelm]

First, I love this game. Not talking trash at all! This may be more of a philosophical question (and maybe the point of the game) because in the end, from a gameplay mechanics standpoint, I don’t really see any major difference between Faith and Order.

So far as I can tell, and I am not SUPER far into either tree, there seems to be a 1 to 1 equivalent for every Faith building or law with a corresponding Order building or law. Each starts with a smaller building to influence smaller areas of your settlement then progress to slightly bigger buildings that influence larger areas and add some Hope raising mechanics and then adds a final building that adds even more Hope raising mechanics. Both trees seem to have a more benevolent path and a more totalitarian path as well.

Am I missing something here? Is there any fundamental mechanical differences between the two paths, or are they essentially the same mechanics with different skins and flavor text?

[Swatti]

Gameplay-wise my colony totally borked using Order. Londonists kept gaining followers, i just quit.

Loaded a save and went the Faith with ZERO trouble. Seemed far easier.

[Forra]

There are differences! Or so I feel, feel aside. But the broadest strokes? Faith supplements hope, heat management, and health (in that order) while Order supplements productivity and dissorder management.

For instance, Faith has a cheap building that acts like a basic steam hub but runs on food rather than coal, and a building works like a sub-par infirmary that doesn't need Engineers but outperforms medical posts. Order meanwhile has a way of flinging a little food at a building to boost its productivity for 24 hours, and its various dissorder controls mean you can push the workforce harder in general.

Both have several building abilities that boost hope and lower disorder, but Faith's definitely seem skewed in favour of boosting hope (ie:Swatti and my own placating the Londoners easily with faith).

[Kestas]

They are 90% similar. Main difference is that most faith buildings dont need settlers to operate or heatingm also you get uniq Healing building and extra heater for work places. And on order said besides being more settler intense you get buff skill or command for work efficiency increase and a prison it get solve few events more humanly.

[Skirlasvoud]

They both have buildings that need to be placed in such a way that their radius overlaps with your residences. It'll gain your people hope when they do.

Faith has Houses of Worship.

Order has Watchtowers AND Guardstations. If you use just the Guardstations, Order is similar to Faith and cost just as much space, even though placement is different
If you use both, you can raise the amount of innate hope higher than Faith can, but you can argue whether or not it's worth it. Like others have said, these towers need to be manned, while Houses of Prayer do not.

[Bladehelm]

Originally posted by Swatti:

Gameplay-wise my colony totally borked using Order. Londonists kept gaining followers, i just quit.

Loaded a save and went the Faith with ZERO trouble. Seemed far easier.

It's funny because this is why I was asking, with Faith I was able to get my Hope maxed out and my Discontent all the way at zero about a week before the Londoners left and managed to keep it that way until they all abandoned their plans to leave.

I just hit the same point in my Order playthrough and I am having pretty much identical results, with a TINY edge going to Faith due to the fact that a few more Londoners accumulated in my Order playthrough.

[Skirlasvoud]

It's commonly agreed that Faith is a LOT better than Order.

[Xeltek]

For me Order is the best ive never had any trubel and the Lononers just got Jailed and executet. =) And who need hope ? when you can have obedience.

[Kestas]

Originally posted by Skirlasvoud:

It's commonly agreed that Faith is a LOT better than Order.

True they have easier start (you dont need man power) and get more useful building faster then order. i hope in the future they will revamp both so they would actually be different. Not just reskins with few tweaks

[The War of 1812]

Order saved our city. Do you rebel against our True Order? *throws you all in prison, and hands you a leaflet touting the greatness of your dear leader*

[The War of 1812]

Order saved my city from the cold. Guards patrolling the streets stamped out dissadent CRIMINALS, and gave hope to the people. And our prisons kept those poor sods well fed, so what's the harm?

[Setzer]

Order can get pretty crazy on production.

Agitators give a aura of +20% productivity bonus. It includes RESEARCH and cost NO people to operate.

Leaders give for +24h a +40% productivity bonus. Just 10 food to enable it.

Thats +60%. Add extended workshift and your building is running at +200% productivity.
Also it does work with automatons making them OP.


Guardstation for the price of 15 people (3 guarstations in good places) you can add hope and remove discountent for 3 ranges of the city covering 95% of the houses.

and the propaganda area also boost hope and lower discontent.

I don´t even used prison, vows, and very dictatorial things. They are not needed to unlock the good stuff and your city don´t like a full dictatorship.

Just look like a factory that needs to work 24h to meet that anoying client demand for tomorrow, but thats understandable in their situation ^^.

but if you go that route you can push extended shift even more, but i don´t know why you would want that as all you need are 8 (coal + steel + 4 techlabs, maybe a 9 for wood :) ).

[The War of 1812]

I didnt use the Agitators bc they seemed TOO 1984esque. Prisons made sense, guard stations made sense, and my propaganda center was just good marketing!

[CriticalMissEnjoyerNearTheDoor]

I think Faith Offers more utility, it can help with medical care, heating, hope, discontent and to minor extent efficiency. Also the choices seem better suited for an idealist who wants to do a "good" playthough.

Order seems to get messy pretty fast while you can stay away from most grey/dark choices in the faith tree while having access to all the utility.

[JuX]

Faith is the better choice if you want to keep people alive and deal with londoneers quickly. While order gives buffs to production but their propaganda centers cause suicides and prisons kill inmates by lack of medical attention.

Note : If you dont people to die at all, dont chase food thieves with keepers, unless you plan to reload the game just get success on the chase.

[Brandon_Lee]

Faith may be better at dealing with londoners quickly, but order is more effective, productiviry boosts let you stockpile that many resources that you won't even have to send volunteers to the mine in the end. And if you are too concerned with 'moral' aspects - I think that order is fair and faith is cruel.