What choices impact the ending slide Evil-o-Meter?

Question

I just finished my first playthrough of Frostpunk (choosing Order), and got the "you suck, you monster" ending. This surprised me, because although I wasn't specifically aiming at a particular ending (I played spoiler-free and didn't even know there were different endings until I finished), I'm pretty sure I made mostly not-super-evil decisions:

• I avoided "kill 'em all" choices in event popups.
• I took in refugees (including sick refugees) at every opportunity.
• I avoided the most evil-sounding laws (Forced Conversion and the New Order one that automatically maxes out Hope).

I'm guessing something I did that didn't seem super evil to me is treated by the game as being evil:

• I built a prison. Is having a prison at all considered evil by the game?
• I sometimes imprisoned or banished people who had committed actual crimes, like stealing (but avoided punishing people for wrongthink, like the graffiti decisions).
• I spammed the Patrol and Propaganda Bulletin buttons - do these give you Evil Points every time you use them or something?
• I sent volunteers to preserve the coal mines during the storm event sequence at the end, and they died. The game specifically uses the word "volunteers," and we were going to freeze if I lost all my coal production, but I guess this might give you evil points?

Which of these likely got me the bad ending? Or is there a list anywhere of which decisions contribute to the Evil-o-Meter for ending purposes?

Answer 1

Unfortunately, I don't have a full list of everything here for you, but as this has been sitting a bit, thought I'd chip in 2 cents at least.

There's an achievement out there called 'The Golden Path' which basically details everything you should/shouldn't do when trying to 'be good' and there's quite a few guides out there that people have been theorizing about for awhile. One I used is here although I dispute some of the language: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1525540176

For your purposes here, the death laws aren't necessarily a problem (Emergency Shift and the like) but what most likely is the culprit is the followups.

You got both the Propaganda Center and the Prison? You said you specifically avoided Forced Persuasion and New Order, but what about the Pledge of Loyalty?

If you chose that law, it guarantees you get the 'bad' ending. While the propaganda and prison don't immediately make you bad (I can confirm the prison, propaganda is a bit on the fence) if you choose either of the next steps in the process you slip farther from Order and more to Tyranny. This puts you on the path of, congratulations you kept order, but at what cost? that the game narrative pushes for.

As for other evil-o-meter stuff, sending people to their deaths in the mines shouldn't have done it I don't believe. Also, Coal Thumpers are your friend there by the way. Banishing people may have been a bit much as well, but honestly, I never banish since that means I lose an entire worker I could be putting to use.

Spamming the ability buttons is completely encouraged btw, and in fact, its pretty much the only way to get the Golden Path achievement considering you're limited so much on other things.