Welcome to a research and building tab that is found only in The Last Autumn and Endless Mode, and in the latter case only if you selecte the Builders setting at the start. These are of course centered on one thing: building the Generator. Building the Generator itself is designed to be an extremely demanding task that takes multiple weeks to finish and huge amounts o resources. To accomplish this in a vaguely sane way, the game introduces several new concepts and mechanics to support it. First of all, the six core Generator component objects are buildings, but they don't work like other buildings. Placing a component instantly puts it into a 'finished' state where it's now a jobsite you can assign labor to, and once labor is on it, this slowly fills a progress meter. When that meter reaches 100%, at that point the component is truly finished and becomes impossible to interact with. This is broadly akin to the normal build rules with structures, but it obeys normal job hours (All components use the default 8:00-18:00 shift) and you directly control it instead of labor assigning itself to the task. Second, three new resource types are introduced that only matter to Generator construction: Structural Profiles, Steam Exchangers, and Steel Composites. These special resources are made at specific structures, expending regular resources to produce copies; this allows the game to give Generator components outrageous costs without requiring unwieldy nonsense where the player needs to build large numbers of Resource Depots. This is nice! Video games wanting singular massive, expensive projects all too often just put a big price tag on the thing irectly, and there's basically always layers of jank introduced by doing so; Frostpunk not only breaking the Generator itself into multiple parts but also having special resources you build out of regular resources is a nice little solution to many of the problems usually faced by this type of concept. Shaft Structure Costs 8 Structural Profiles. Phase I Workers: 50. Hours: 24. Base Safety: -3. forced accident is pretty safe Pressure Valves Costs 10 Structural Profiles. Phase II Workers: 30 Hours: 24. Base Safety: -2? no forced accident Tower Pumps Costs 10 Steam Exchangers. Phase II Workers: 50 Hours: 30. Base Safety: -3 forced accident produces Gravely Ill and Amputees unless Safe The Core Costs 25 Steel Composites. Phase III Workers: 50. Hours: 42. Base Safety: -3. scripted disaster can be made less bad by spending 5 Steam Exchangers on an event shuts off poison gas Support Frame Costs 25 Structural Profiles each. (Requires 50 total) Phase III Workers: 30. Hours: 16. (Each) Base Safety: -2. no forced accident Thermal Hull Costs 25 Steam Exchangers and 10 Steel Composites each. (Requires 50 and 20 total) Phase IV Workers: 50 Hours: 60. (Each) Base Safety: -2? fina lstep aside bonus researches no forced accident great time for Forced Labor or Selfless Sacrifice since gas is no longer worsening Safety Profiles Manufacturer Costs 30 Wood 5/7/11/13 hours needed with 1 Workshop at 100%. Tier: 0 Requires: Nothing. Unlocks the Profiles Manufacturer. The building! Profiles Manufacturer Costs 30 Wood and 10 Steel. Size 6x4 Manned by up to 20 Workers. +1 Heat, -1 base Safety, by default works from 8:00 to 18:00. Builds Structural Profiles for 25 Wood apiece at a top speed of about 1 every 40 minutes at 100% Efficiency, manually queued up by the player. Can only be placed within the Generator Build Zone. wood stockpiling nonsense Optimized Materials Costs 40 Wood and 25 Steel. 7/9/13/15 hours needed with 1 Workshop at 100%. Tier: 2 Requires: Profiles Manufacturer. Reduces the Wood cost of Structural Profiles from 25 to 20, and halves their build time. As the Generator requires a total of 68 Structural Profiles, not performing this upgrade will result in spending 1700 Wood on the project. If Optimized Materials is researched before you ever build a Structural Profile, you will instead spend 1360 Wood, saving 340 Wood. (Or, well, 300 Wood since you spend 40 on the research) Ideally you do in fact complete this research, preferably before building any Structural Profiles, especially if you intend to use them for Protective Structures. adds a 10% Efficiency boost to all these manufacturing buildings? Safety Improvements (Profiles Manufacturer) Costs 40 Wood and 25 Steel. 8/10/14/16 hours needed with 1 Workshop at 100%. Tier: 3 Requires: Optimized Materials. Improves Workplace Safety by 1 at Profiles Manufacturer, taking it from a base of -1 to a base of -0. Protective Structures Costs 20 Wood and 10 Steel. 6/8/12/14 hours needed with 1 Workshop at 100%. Tier: 1 Requires: Profiles Manufacturer. Unlocks the Protective Structures ability at all buildings that use Workplace Safety. This ability has a 36-hour cooldon, spends 6 Structural Profiles, and improves Workplace Safety by 1 at that building for 24 hours. Optimised Protection Costs 40 Wood and 25 Steel. 8/10/14/16 hours needed with 1 Workshop at 100%. Tier: 3 Requires: Protective Structures. Reduces the cost of the Protective Structures ability from 6 Structural Profiles to 4. Since Stuctural Profiles cost 20 Wood apiece once their cost is reduced, Optimised Protection covers its on Wood cost if you use Protective Structures even once. Foundry Costs 40 Wood and 25 Steel. 7/9/13/15 hours needed with 1 Workshop at 100%. Tier: 2 Requires: Nothing. Unlocks the Foundry. Foundry Costs 60 Wood, 40 Steel, and 1 Steam Core. Size 6x4 Manned by up to 20 Workers. +1 Heat, -1 base Safety, by default works from 8:00 to 18:00. Builds Steel Composites for 25 Steel and 50 Coal apiece at a top speed of about 1 every 2 hours at 100% Efficiency, manually queued up by the player. Can only be placed within the Generator Build Zone. Innovative Process Costs 40 Wood and 25 Steel. 8/10/14/16 hours needed with 1 Workshop at 100%. Tier: 3 Requires: Foundry. Reduces the Steel cost of Steel Composites from 25 to 20, reduces the Coal cost from 50 to 40, and halves their build time. You nee 45 Steel Composites to build the Generator. You also need 5 more if you want to spend them on an event when building the Core, and 25 more if you want to do all the bonus researches. Note that in Endless Mode, those researches don't exist and the event oesn't occur, so you only need 45 Steel Composites in Endless Mode. In The Last Autumn, though, you need up to 75 Steel Composites. Safety Improvements (Foundry) Costs 50 Wood and 30 Steel. 9/11/15/17 hours needed with 1 Workshop at 100%. Tier: 4 Requires: Foundry. Improves Workplace Safety by 1 at Foundry, taking it from a base of -1 to a base of -0. Machine Shop Costs 20 Wood and 10 Steel. 6/8/12/14 hours needed with 1 Workshop at 100%. Tier: 1 Requires: Nothing. Unlocks Machine Shop. Machine Shop Costs 30 Wood, 60 Steel, and 1 Steam Core. Size 6x4 Manned by up to 20 Workers. +2 Heat, -1 base Safety, by default works from 8:00 to 18:00. Builds Steam Exchangers for 25 Steel apiece at a top speed of about 1 every 90 minutes at 100% Efficiency, manually queued up by the player. Can only be placed within the Generator Build Zone. Safety Improvements (Machine Shop) Costs 40 Wood and 25 Steel. 8/10/14/16 hours needed with 1 Workshop at 100%. Tier: 3 Requires: Machine Shop. Improves Workplace Safety by 1 at Machine Shop, taking it from a base of -1 to a base of -0. why do all safety improvements have the same resource cost, but everything else is allowed to be different? Redesigned Templates Costs 40 Wood and 25 Steel. 9/11/15/17 hours needed with 1 Workshop at 100%. Tier: 4 Requires: Safety Improvements (Machine Shop). Reduces the Steel cost of Steam Exchangers from 25 to 20, and halves their build time. You need 30 Steam Exchangers to build the Generator, and another 45 if you want to complete the bonus researches, so this is particularly important if you intend to do those. If you intend to leverage the Supercharge function, it gets even more important. Supercharge Costs 30 Wood and 20 Steel. 7/9/13/15 hours needed with 1 Workshop at 100%. Tier: 2 Requires: Machine Shop. Unlocks the Supercharge ability at Generator components. This ability spensd 5 Steam Exchangrs to instantly increment current progress by 10%. 48 hour cooldown between uses at a given location. To be clear, that's '10%' as in 'of the total bar'. You could theoretically build the Generator by just spamming Supercharges instead of using labor.... aside the exasperating qualifier that the jobsite must be currently active to use the ability, and so at least one person has to be assigned during actual working hours. Advanced Supercharge Costs 50 Wood and 30 Steel. 9/11/15/17 hours needed with 1 Workshop at 100%. Tier: 4 Requires: Supercharge Supercharge now increments progress by 20% per use. If you're going to use the Supercharge function at all, ideally you get Advanced Supercharge first so it's twice as effective. Ventilation Plant Costs 20 Wood and 10 Steel. 6/8/12/14 hours needed with 1 Workshop at 100%. Tier: 1 Requires: Nothing. Unlocks Ventilation Plant. The building: Ventilation Plant Costs 25 Wood, 50 Steel, and 1 Steam Core. Size 6x4 +2 Heat. (Not that this matters) By default runs from 8:00 to 18:00, spending 25 Coal per hour to improve Workplace Safety by 1 at all locations, but Short Shift, Extended Shift, and Two Shifts unlock appropriate hours for the Ventilation Plant as well. Only one can exist by default, and can only be placed in the Generator Build Zone. This is your biggest Coal expenditure for most of The Last Autumn. 25 Coal per hour is more than the Generator uses at max Heat! or a 10-hour shift, that's 250 Coal! Ventilation Plant Coupling Costs 40 Wood and 25 Steel. 8/10/14/16 hours needed with 1 Workshop at 100%. Tier: 3 Requires: Ventilation Plant. Raises the Ventilation Plant limit by 1, bringing it to 2. Ventilation Plant Integration Costs 120 Wood and 80 Steel. 10/12/16/18 hours needed with 1 Workshop at 100%. Tier: 5 Requires: Ventilation Plant Coupling Raises the Ventilation Plant limit by 1, bringing it to 3. Efficient Fans Costs 40 Wood and 30 Steel. 8/10/14/16 hours needed with 1 Workshop at 100%. Tier: 3 Requires: Ventilation Plant. Ventilation Plants now spend 15% less Coal. (ie reducing their hourly usage from 25 to 21.25) High Flow Filters Costs 120 Wood and 80 Steel. 10/12/16/18 hours needed with 1 Workshop at 100%. Tier: 5 Requires: Efficient Fans Ventilation Plants now spend 15% less Coal, for a total of 30% less. (ie reducing their hourly usage from 25 to 17.5) Generator Upgrade: Riser System Costs 10 Steel Composites. 16 hours needed with 1 Workshop at 100%. Tier: 3 Requires: Completing the Generator's core construction. Gives you a feeling of accomplishment. Narratively, this is unlocking range improvements, I think. Generator Upgrade: Overdrive Costs 25 Steam Exchangers. 22 hours needed with 1 Workshop at 100%. Tier: 4 Requires: Completing the Generator's core construction. Gives you a feeling of accomplishment. Narratively, you're installing the Overdrive function. This is in fact the most glaring example of these three researchs not existing in Builders Mode: it would've been logical and cool for Overdrive to be something you had to separately install. That said, these all being mechanic-ed as researches rather than build projects means it wouldn't be very interactive. Generator Upgrade: Heat Vents Costs 15 Steel Composites an 20 Steam Exchangers. 30 hours needed with 1 Workshop at 100%. Tier: 5 Requires: Completing the Generator's core construction. Gives you a feeling of accomplishment. Narratively, this is increasing maximum warmth from the Generator. -------------------------------------- Next time, we See you then.