I seem to be having problems getting my prison to realize that certain areas are indoors -- I have foundations laid, walls built, doors placed, and it still says "NEEDS ENTRANCE" over the room. Is this a glitch, or am I doing something wrong?
I seem to be having problems getting my prison to realize that certain areas are indoors -- I have foundations laid, walls built, doors placed, and it still says "NEEDS ENTRANCE" over the room. Is this a glitch, or am I doing something wrong?
I ran into that a lot too, I think the system is just a bit buggy atm.
Woof. On the one hand, I love Introversion, and I really love Theme Hospital (and other such games of its ilk). On the other hand, I'm not sure I'm comfortable with the theme. Watching that video, it's good to see that they are seriously thinking about the subject matter. However, I fear I may hold off until later in development to see where they're going with this.
But that's all just thematic stuff. Mechanically, this game looks so gooooood.
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DrakeEdgelord TrashBelow the ecliptic plane.Registered Userregular
It's interesting to me that most of us can dismember foes in excruciating three dimensional detail rendered in high definition with a gleam in our eye. Yet certain themes and images can still create a strong reaction within segments of the gaming community. Things like sex or strong social issues like prisons-for-profit. Merely desensitization or is something else at work?
It's interesting to me that most of us can dismember foes in excruciating three dimensional detail rendered in high definition with a gleam in our eye. Yet certain themes and images can still create a strong reaction within segments of the gaming community. Things like sex or strong social issues like prisons-for-profit. Merely desensitization or is something else at work?
I think part of it is that most of the foes we dismember aren't given any sort of emotional resonance or humanity for us to consider. I give zero fucks about incinerating bandits in Skyrim because they literally have no emotions or thoughts outside of KILL THE PLAYER.
Meanwhile, I could never do the quest in Skyrim where you have to sacrifice a follower, because all the followers I encountered seemed to have a trace of humanity about them, and I couldn't get over it.
Similarly, the tutorial in this game really got to me because there was a legitimate story being told there.
It's not so much desensitization as it is that most games have nothing to which we could be sensitive in the first place.
so after playing a few games to try out different layouts, I'm finding that something like a prison camp style works the best.
You cover the border of the map with a chain link fence, and then build separate buildings for each purpose, ie. a building with just cell blocks, one with just showers, one for a holding cell, etc.
This way you don't run into as many problems with foundations getting wonky or bugged, it's easier to expand, and once you get the clone tool, if you need more of something you just copy the old building.
I agree with this. I tried to make several cell blocks, each with its own canteen and shower. Sometimes the inmates would use the facilities in their own block, but more often all prisoners would cram into one block's shower/canteen and it was a huge clusterf***. So in the game's current state large single purpose buildings seem to be best. I wouldn't be surprised if we see something like the burrow system in DF implemented later, so then you could make each cell block its own enclosed system.
so after playing a few games to try out different layouts, I'm finding that something like a prison camp style works the best.
You cover the border of the map with a chain link fence, and then build separate buildings for each purpose, ie. a building with just cell blocks, one with just showers, one for a holding cell, etc.
This way you don't run into as many problems with foundations getting wonky or bugged, it's easier to expand, and once you get the clone tool, if you need more of something you just copy the old building.
I agree with this. I tried to make several cell blocks, each with its own canteen and shower. Sometimes the inmates would use the facilities in their own block, but more often all prisoners would cram into one block's shower/canteen and it was a huge clusterf***. So in the game's current state large single purpose buildings seem to be best. I wouldn't be surprised if we see something like the burrow system in DF implemented later, so then you could make each cell block its own enclosed system.
Couldn't you make the exterior doors in each cell block staff-only, or does that not work currently?
My current prison is running smoothly (only three fights so far). However, I have blown through my grants (do you ever get more?) and am now facing a big problem.
I have 32 prisoners while my max is only 30. A little overcrowded, okay... but tomorrow morning it says I will have 16 more prisoners arriving. I have $616 and only 4 unfurnished cells open at the moment.
Well, I caved in and got the $50 option where you can add your name into the game. I really want to support the guys making this game, plus how cool is it to have your name in a game?
BTW, did you guys know you can get a 10% discount if you use the code "folsom"?
so after playing a few games to try out different layouts, I'm finding that something like a prison camp style works the best.
You cover the border of the map with a chain link fence, and then build separate buildings for each purpose, ie. a building with just cell blocks, one with just showers, one for a holding cell, etc.
This way you don't run into as many problems with foundations getting wonky or bugged, it's easier to expand, and once you get the clone tool, if you need more of something you just copy the old building.
I agree with this. I tried to make several cell blocks, each with its own canteen and shower. Sometimes the inmates would use the facilities in their own block, but more often all prisoners would cram into one block's shower/canteen and it was a huge clusterf***. So in the game's current state large single purpose buildings seem to be best. I wouldn't be surprised if we see something like the burrow system in DF implemented later, so then you could make each cell block its own enclosed system.
Couldn't you make the exterior doors in each cell block staff-only, or does that not work currently?
That might work if you get rid of yard time, or have a separate yard for each block. Yeah that is worth a try, I'll give it a shot.
Edit: I tried this out and it really doesn't work with the current pathing. The prisoners all try to go to another block's shower/canteen, but since the door is forbidden they just pile up behind it until it opens for a worker/guard. Then they all push through before the door closes. Then when it is time to go back to their cells, it happens again in reverse because now they can't get into the cell block. Just have to wait to see what the next patch brings.
Also had a funny thing happen. My main shower and canteen are across a hallway from each other. A big fight started at meal time and started to spill out into the hall. Then some prisoners decided to run into the shower room to get at a work crew that happened to be installing shower heads at the worst possible time. But in this version prisoners automatically take their clothes off whenever they enter a shower room. So these guys stopped to disrobe before they run down and pummel the hapless workers. Meanwhile the fight in the canteen is still going on, and those prisoners chase after the prisoners in the shower, also stopping to remove their clothes. A big naked brawl ensues, and I end up having to expand the infirmary to handle the 23 injuries.
This game is super fun, and will only get better as the bugs get ironed out. The worst ones right now are all the building bugs. It really sucks to plan out a whole new cell block and then not be able to use it because the worker refuses to place a pipe segment on one square.
This game is super fun, and will only get better as the bugs get ironed out. The worst ones right now are all the building bugs. It really sucks to plan out a whole new cell block and then not be able to use it because the worker refuses to place a pipe segment on one square.
Well the designer did say he had Dwarf Fortress envy.
(Please do not gift. My game bank is already full.)
The paid alpha has gone very well for them. Also, some info on some upcoming features. I really like the sound of sections of my prison coming under prisoner control!
It's interesting to me that most of us can dismember foes in excruciating three dimensional detail rendered in high definition with a gleam in our eye. Yet certain themes and images can still create a strong reaction within segments of the gaming community. Things like sex or strong social issues like prisons-for-profit. Merely desensitization or is something else at work?
I think part of it is that most of the foes we dismember aren't given any sort of emotional resonance or humanity for us to consider. I give zero fucks about incinerating bandits in Skyrim because they literally have no emotions or thoughts outside of KILL THE PLAYER.
Meanwhile, I could never do the quest in Skyrim where you have to sacrifice a follower, because all the followers I encountered seemed to have a trace of humanity about them, and I couldn't get over it.
Similarly, the tutorial in this game really got to me because there was a legitimate story being told there.
It's not so much desensitization as it is that most games have nothing to which we could be sensitive in the first place.
I, on the other hand, sacrificed many followers for being pack mules that couldn't carry enough to suit me ;-)
Anyway, stuff like this makes people uncomfortable because it actually makes us consider our own society; when we're blowing up hundreds of faceless whatevers in a shooter they are usually easily "othered"; they're robots or aliens or zombies or guys wearing the opposite color uniform, or they immediately respawn without leaving a corpse. Nobody (that I know of anyway) has ever made a game where they humanized all the occupants of a town or something, then forced you to murder them all.
What this game does is take a group that society "others" all the time (prisoners) and asks the player to think about how they're treated, how they behave, what their motivations are, and how we should best deal with them. It's not really surprising that it'd be uncomfortable for a lot of people, especially if the best in-game answers to those questions deviate from their real-life beliefs.
Eat it You Nasty Pig. on
it was the smallest on the list but
Pluto was a planet and I'll never forget
Regarding the link above. Yay for success! Especially after all the tribulations Introversion has been through. Those features don't sound terribly exciting to be honest, except for the riots. Right now it just seems like there's no way to meet the prisoners needs AND make enough money to take in new prisoners every 24 hours. Or maybe I just need to get better.
This alpha is fun! Reminds me of Dwarf Fortress back in the old 2D days. Managed to make some nice prisons - the game gets a lot easier once you have individual cells, as from there you can keep better tabs on prisoner movement. Chokepoints mean... bad things happening, especially without proper use of metal detectors and poor management of the showers entrance.
It was like World War 3. Only with naked dudes and shanks.
I am like...2 youtube videos away from buying this game. I watched the 45 minute conference video, and I'm about to watch parts 2 and 3 of wobbly's LP.
What I'm saying is, I'm going to own this game by the end of the night.
If you place medical beds with the head of the bed against a wall that's not the north wall, then sometimes when the prisoner is done with medical treatment they exit the bed and end up inside the wall. The upside is that the prisoners become ultra happy, all of the need bars get filled up and they just chill out standing around inside the wall never moving, never complaining.
only way to fix it is to destroy the walls that they get trapped in.
I ran into a similar problem with ordinary beds. I had 2 prisoners get stuck in the walls, so I told my guards to search them. That successfully dislodged them, but now they just stand around "needing a wee" never going for food or leaving their cell.
I just ran into another fun bug. Two prisoners arrived in the garbage truck, they patiently sat in the back waiting for my guards to come deal with them. But my workers were faster at loading it up with garbage so it drove away with my 2 prisoners still sitting in the back amongst the garbage my workers had just loaded up. I can only assume that now they're waiting at the dump thinking they got transferred to some really shitty prison.
It's a very pretty prison, but also very wasteful in terms of space. I could see prisons like that being a lot more useful once patrols and escapes are introduced though. Right now, all that really works are hive designs that maximise prisoner containment.
I'd love to see visitation rooms, guard dogs, and proper watch towers added, but they'll probably be a good while yet.
Edit: Adding on to the wishlist: various maps with associated challenges. Imagine an Alcatraz map with land surrounded by water. Protected against escapes (yeah there was debatably one but let's ignore that), but enjoy the difficulty of more violent criminals and delays on all emergency services. Don't know how far they'd be willing to go down this line, but chaplains would be interesting as well.
Really enjoying this so far, though holy shit this game is brutal at creating pressure cooker situations right now. I need to try it, but someone on the official forms said that if you delete the delivery area and move it "inland" you stop recieving prisoners until you put it back along the road.
I had back to back to back days of 12, 20 and 14 prisoners arriving. Ouch.
So, does each prisoner have a short bio/file like everyone did in Theme-park/hospital?
Not right now in the alpha, but this is intended. One of the preorder bonuses is being able to submit your name and a rap sheet of your own to them for inclusion in the game.
anoffdayTo be changed whenever Anoffday gets around to it.Registered Userregular
edited October 2012
So this game is pretty good, huh? I have to be honest. When I first heard about it I instantly thought of this crappy looking game I saw at wal mart before called prison tycoon. What makes this game so good? I just got Skyrim for 30 bucks, so spending 30 on an alpha seems crazy.
It's okay right now. It has the potential to be great when it's done, but it's still pretty feature-light at this point. But it is shaping up like a dwarffort/themehosp-alike, and I have a lot of faith in introversion, so.
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I ran into that a lot too, I think the system is just a bit buggy atm.
But that's all just thematic stuff. Mechanically, this game looks so gooooood.
I think part of it is that most of the foes we dismember aren't given any sort of emotional resonance or humanity for us to consider. I give zero fucks about incinerating bandits in Skyrim because they literally have no emotions or thoughts outside of KILL THE PLAYER.
Meanwhile, I could never do the quest in Skyrim where you have to sacrifice a follower, because all the followers I encountered seemed to have a trace of humanity about them, and I couldn't get over it.
Similarly, the tutorial in this game really got to me because there was a legitimate story being told there.
It's not so much desensitization as it is that most games have nothing to which we could be sensitive in the first place.
I agree with this. I tried to make several cell blocks, each with its own canteen and shower. Sometimes the inmates would use the facilities in their own block, but more often all prisoners would cram into one block's shower/canteen and it was a huge clusterf***. So in the game's current state large single purpose buildings seem to be best. I wouldn't be surprised if we see something like the burrow system in DF implemented later, so then you could make each cell block its own enclosed system.
Couldn't you make the exterior doors in each cell block staff-only, or does that not work currently?
I have 32 prisoners while my max is only 30. A little overcrowded, okay... but tomorrow morning it says I will have 16 more prisoners arriving. I have $616 and only 4 unfurnished cells open at the moment.
This... this is going to go badly...
BTW, did you guys know you can get a 10% discount if you use the code "folsom"?
My board games -->http://www.boardgamegeek.com/collection/user/cpugeek13
My BGG wishlist --> http://www.boardgamegeek.com/wishlist/cpugeek13
That might work if you get rid of yard time, or have a separate yard for each block. Yeah that is worth a try, I'll give it a shot.
Edit: I tried this out and it really doesn't work with the current pathing. The prisoners all try to go to another block's shower/canteen, but since the door is forbidden they just pile up behind it until it opens for a worker/guard. Then they all push through before the door closes. Then when it is time to go back to their cells, it happens again in reverse because now they can't get into the cell block. Just have to wait to see what the next patch brings.
Also had a funny thing happen. My main shower and canteen are across a hallway from each other. A big fight started at meal time and started to spill out into the hall. Then some prisoners decided to run into the shower room to get at a work crew that happened to be installing shower heads at the worst possible time. But in this version prisoners automatically take their clothes off whenever they enter a shower room. So these guys stopped to disrobe before they run down and pummel the hapless workers. Meanwhile the fight in the canteen is still going on, and those prisoners chase after the prisoners in the shower, also stopping to remove their clothes. A big naked brawl ensues, and I end up having to expand the infirmary to handle the 23 injuries.
My board games -->http://www.boardgamegeek.com/collection/user/cpugeek13
My BGG wishlist --> http://www.boardgamegeek.com/wishlist/cpugeek13
Well the designer did say he had Dwarf Fortress envy.
(Please do not gift. My game bank is already full.)
Prison Architect paid alpha makes $100,000
I, on the other hand, sacrificed many followers for being pack mules that couldn't carry enough to suit me ;-)
Anyway, stuff like this makes people uncomfortable because it actually makes us consider our own society; when we're blowing up hundreds of faceless whatevers in a shooter they are usually easily "othered"; they're robots or aliens or zombies or guys wearing the opposite color uniform, or they immediately respawn without leaving a corpse. Nobody (that I know of anyway) has ever made a game where they humanized all the occupants of a town or something, then forced you to murder them all.
What this game does is take a group that society "others" all the time (prisoners) and asks the player to think about how they're treated, how they behave, what their motivations are, and how we should best deal with them. It's not really surprising that it'd be uncomfortable for a lot of people, especially if the best in-game answers to those questions deviate from their real-life beliefs.
Pluto was a planet and I'll never forget
Regarding the link above. Yay for success! Especially after all the tribulations Introversion has been through. Those features don't sound terribly exciting to be honest, except for the riots. Right now it just seems like there's no way to meet the prisoners needs AND make enough money to take in new prisoners every 24 hours. Or maybe I just need to get better.
(Except through the electric chair.)
This alpha is fun! Reminds me of Dwarf Fortress back in the old 2D days. Managed to make some nice prisons - the game gets a lot easier once you have individual cells, as from there you can keep better tabs on prisoner movement. Chokepoints mean... bad things happening, especially without proper use of metal detectors and poor management of the showers entrance.
It was like World War 3. Only with naked dudes and shanks.
Old PA forum lookalike style for the new forums | My ko-fi donation thing.
What I'm saying is, I'm going to own this game by the end of the night.
If you place medical beds with the head of the bed against a wall that's not the north wall, then sometimes when the prisoner is done with medical treatment they exit the bed and end up inside the wall. The upside is that the prisoners become ultra happy, all of the need bars get filled up and they just chill out standing around inside the wall never moving, never complaining.
only way to fix it is to destroy the walls that they get trapped in.
I just ran into another fun bug. Two prisoners arrived in the garbage truck, they patiently sat in the back waiting for my guards to come deal with them. But my workers were faster at loading it up with garbage so it drove away with my 2 prisoners still sitting in the back amongst the garbage my workers had just loaded up. I can only assume that now they're waiting at the dump thinking they got transferred to some really shitty prison.
I don't even.
I'd love to see visitation rooms, guard dogs, and proper watch towers added, but they'll probably be a good while yet.
Edit: Adding on to the wishlist: various maps with associated challenges. Imagine an Alcatraz map with land surrounded by water. Protected against escapes (yeah there was debatably one but let's ignore that), but enjoy the difficulty of more violent criminals and delays on all emergency services. Don't know how far they'd be willing to go down this line, but chaplains would be interesting as well.
Old PA forum lookalike style for the new forums | My ko-fi donation thing.
Then I played the tutorial and had to stop. That shit was way more intense than what I signed on for...
Old PA forum lookalike style for the new forums | My ko-fi donation thing.
I had back to back to back days of 12, 20 and 14 prisoners arriving. Ouch.
Also, I do hope they add parole and releases.
Wouldn't mind seeing other scenarios too, like maybe Shawshank, or if you want to be sadistic, Arizona.
Arizona gets all the press because of Mad Dog Joe, but Louisiana takes the cake in the US in the shitty prisons for profit category.
Penny Arcade Rockstar Social Club / This is why I despise cyclists
Not right now in the alpha, but this is intended. One of the preorder bonuses is being able to submit your name and a rap sheet of your own to them for inclusion in the game.
Old PA forum lookalike style for the new forums | My ko-fi donation thing.