Prison Architect Alpha 33

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Chris
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Prison Architect Alpha 33

Postby Chris » Thu May 28, 2015 2:34 pm

Alpha 33 has been released! Steam users will be automatically updated. Non-steam users can download the latest version from the builds page here:
http://www.prison-architect.com/builds.html

You need an active forum account to access the builds from our website. If you haven’t already done so, please register your game here to gain access to the builds, the private forums, the bug database and the wiki.
http://www.prison-architect.com/register

Here is our video demonstrating the new features:



= Cell Grading
All prison cells are now graded on quality/luxury, on a scale 0 - 10
Factors that can affect the cell grading:
- Room Size
- Outside facing window
- Desk & Chair
- Tv & Radio
- Bookshelf
- Shower

- Entitlement
Prisoners are entitled to better quality cells (if they exist) as they build up time for 'good behaviour'.
You can see a prisoner's good behaviour time in their tooltip.
One day good behaviour is worth one point of cell quality
As soon as they misbehave, they will lose their nicer cell and go back to quality 0.
Your guards will automatically swap prisoner room assignments from time to time, to try to match everyone to the right cell
New incoming prisoners are entitled to an 'Average' cell when they arrive

New view : Logistics -> Room Quality
Shows the current grading of all cells in your prison.
The colour coding gives a rough guide - green means excellent quality, red means por quality

Shows two numbers over each cell, in the form X / Y
- Y is the current grading of the cell
- X is the grade that the current occupant is entitled to

- Behavioural changes
Prisoner's chance to misbehave is now affected by the quality of their cell AS COMPARED TO AVERAGE
Eg a prisoner in a below-average cell is now more likely to misbehave than before
Prisoners staying in above-average cells are less likely to misbehave, because they want to keep their room


= Misbehaviour / Temperature changes
- Prisoner 'boiling point' now factors in punishment/reform/health/security
This means prisoners become less likely to misbehave over time, if you successfully punish/reform them, and take care of their health and security

- Prisoner tooltip now shows time since last misconduct (good behaviour time)

- Prisoners with long sentences ahead of them are now more likely to cause trouble than before

- A prisoners re-offending chance is now recorded when they first visit the prison.
This value is visible in their Rap Sheet, under 'Grading', in the tooltip for Re-offending rate.


= New room : Mail Room
Allows your prison to receive mail from the outside world - ie letters from inmates families
Bags of unsorted mail will arrive every day at 6am, and be taken to the mail room
Prisoners work within the mail room to sort the mail into satchels, ready for delivery
Prisoners or Guards then take those satchels around the prison and deliver the mail.
Prisoners experience gains in Family, Recreation and Comfort when reading mail
The incoming unsorted mail is a new source of smuggled contraband


- New item : Radio
An additional luxury item you can place in a cell to improve it
Prisoners can listen to a radio for recreation (very similar to the way Tv works)


- Deliveries, Garbage, and Exports must now be at least 1x3 (previously would have been ignored if less than 3 high)


- Fire (continued)
- Fire now destroys utilities like pipes and electrical cables
- Fire trucks will now leave dead and unconcious firemen behind
- Firemen now take 75% less damage from fire than other entities
- Entities now react better to fire - avoiding it where possible
- Fire-engine siren sound now shuts off correctly


= Bug Fixes
- Fixed: Sometimes loading a prisoner based on a Name-in-the-game resulted in corrupted body and head sprites
- Fixed: Movement commands from the player didn't show up unless the entity was itself on screen
- Fixed: Typing '%' into input fields causes the game to crash.


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Syfawx
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Re: Prison Architect Alpha 33

Postby Syfawx » Thu May 28, 2015 4:15 pm

It should be called the mail room and there are delivery parcels. Instead of guards or prisoners giving the mail, which is a bit strange, they should collect it at another room called the post office. If in solitary, someone can deliver it.
MarkoMKD
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Re: Prison Architect Alpha 33

Postby MarkoMKD » Thu May 28, 2015 5:39 pm

Another new alpha without double cells,without gangs..the two main things to make this game so close to the reality
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Medu_Salem
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Re: Prison Architect Alpha 33

Postby Medu_Salem » Thu May 28, 2015 5:42 pm

Syfawx wrote:It should be called the mail room and there are delivery parcels. Instead of guards or prisoners giving the mail, which is a bit strange, they should collect it at another room called the post office. If in solitary, someone can deliver it.


Yeah I think so too.

There should be one room where all the sorting is done and then the sorted mail should be delivered to another room(s) called Post office where the individual prisoners may pick up their mail on their own.

That allows for:

- A post office in every security level, so no guards preoccupied running around delivering mail to individual cells just because prisoners can't reach the cellblock.
- Prisoners writing mail themselves which they bring to the post office, where it is collected and brought back to the central mail room for sorting/packing before being taken to the export zone.

The later, namingly prisoners writing their own mail, would allow for various interesting concepts:

- They could arrange contraband thwow-ins (especially when you are espionaging their calls) and stuff like it
- The prisoners might use it as a way to smuggle contraband from a security level to another security level, because the prisoners working at the central mail room rather than packing the mail for the export zone are redirecting the mail to go to another post office where another prisoner might pick up the contraband smuggled that way.

Which would make it increasingly more difficult to prevent contraband from getting into max-security areas since eventually they might get it from somebody in a lower security area through the mail system.

But without mailsystem they should become increasingly more willing to misbehave because they feel isolated and robbed of any form of communication with the outside world or something like that, so you eventually have to build it.

Of course the guards stationed in the mail room where the sorting is done could be trying to avoid all form of communication that may happen between different security levels/cell blocks, but may not be a 100% efficient at it.
iScripters
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Re: Prison Architect Alpha 33

Postby iScripters » Thu May 28, 2015 6:24 pm

Medu_Salem wrote:
Syfawx wrote:It should be called the mail room and there are delivery parcels. Instead of guards or prisoners giving the mail, which is a bit strange, they should collect it at another room called the post office. If in solitary, someone can deliver it.


Yeah I think so too.

There should be one room where all the sorting is done and then the sorted mail should be delivered to another room(s) called Post office where the individual prisoners may pick up their mail on their own.

That allows for:

- A post office in every security level, so no guards preoccupied running around delivering mail to individual cells just because prisoners can't reach the cellblock.
- Prisoners writing mail themselves which they bring to the post office, where it is collected and brought back to the central mail room for sorting/packing before being taken to the export zone.

The later, namingly prisoners writing their own mail, would allow for various interesting concepts:

- They could arrange contraband thwow-ins (especially when you are espionaging their calls) and stuff like it
- The prisoners might use it as a way to smuggle contraband from a security level to another security level, because the prisoners working at the central mail room rather than packing the mail for the export zone are redirecting the mail to go to another post office where another prisoner might pick up the contraband smuggled that way.

Which would make it increasingly more difficult to prevent contraband from getting into max-security areas since eventually they might get it from somebody in a lower security area through the mail system.

But without mailsystem they should become increasingly more willing to misbehave because they feel isolated and robbed of any form of communication with the outside world or something like that, so you eventually have to build it.

Of course the guards stationed in the mail room where the sorting is done could be trying to avoid all form of communication that may happen between different security levels/cell blocks, but may not be a 100% efficient at it.


This. Other than that, awesome update :D
paulthekiller123
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Re: Prison Architect Alpha 33

Postby paulthekiller123 » Thu May 28, 2015 10:52 pm

Please listen developers of prison architect! I have suggestion for later updates! I think these new suggestion could boost your guys reputation and your game could be more popular.
These are for prisoners;
So firstly I really want the deployment to have more advancement, so just say that you would want to only deploy maximum and medium in one zone but not protective, minimum or death row in a canteen together, then in deployment you click on maximum and medium and put them in to one zone. By showing this, you guys. I want this because i want protective custody and minimum to be together because minimum are less likely to assassinate snitches (this could be shown in the deployment as half yellow and half grey in a canteen).

My second suggestion is that requirement for certain things such as filing cabinet, computers, phones and drink machine should have mechanics applied to them such as filing cabinets have plans of the prison (which makes it easier for them to escape) and prisoner can sneakily get a mobile phone and take a photo of the plans and go back to their room at night and start digging underground. Also drinking machine should be a no no for prisoner because there is caffeine and caffeine overdose can lead to lack of sleep which makes your prisoners unhappy but if there is no drinks for them they will be still be unhappy so ye average drinks a day.

Also I want new reputation such as hackers (clever deadly prisoners that can hack into your prisoner system and shut down electrical stuff such as the power generator and which in results makes riot more imminent, but to do this they must be provided with computers/laptops/office desk, but if it is a prisoner that don’t have this reputation, computers could be used as browsing which could increase their chance of passing the general education program/ foundation education(also could be used as recreation) and escapist(clever prisoners that have escape many prisons more easily than other prisoners through disguising(could be taken from a unconscious/dead officer), tunneling with their advanced knowledge of crafting(also I think you great developers should implanted crafting so it makes it easier for prisoner to escape), and so on).


I think books should also have mechanics implanted such as that reading books could be used as a source for education (reading which could increase their chance of passing the general education program/ foundation education), it also could be used as spirituality, literacy and recreation. And also there should be a new need that says that if your prisoners are making friends or not (sorry for bad grammar) and if your prisoners are friendly towards each other (which might result in higher chance of escaping together and quicker). Prisoners that mix with other prisoners (such as maximum mixing with minimum) can lead to fights and unfriendliness, so in this case, splitting different prisoners types into different zones are better.
I still have more things to add but I think these suggestions are enough for alpha 34.
PLZ TAKE THIS INTO CONSIDERATION. I LOVE THIS GAME AND I WONT STOP PLAY IT.
Last edited by paulthekiller123 on Sat May 30, 2015 12:11 am, edited 2 times in total.
PetrGasparik
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Re: Prison Architect Alpha 33

Postby PetrGasparik » Fri May 29, 2015 8:22 am

Thank you for another great release!

I AM SHOCKED: What has happened to the community? Instead of thanks for another update with great content, people are crying "I want this, I want that, why it is not there yet..."
STOP IT. Chris know what he is doing.

And for paulthekiller123: If you want your suggestions to be heard, write it in style that can be read. No one likes long paragraphs.
Deville
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Re: Prison Architect Alpha 33

Postby Deville » Fri May 29, 2015 12:03 pm

Not a big fan of how the room grading system works, to be honest. Mostly (or only, actually) because it requires the prison to have different level cells. In what prison are there different types of cells on purpose? And if no low grade cell is available, why not be kind and give a higher graded cell instead of moving the highly volatile prisoners all together in one holding cell? My holding cell has turned into a slaughterhouse.

But that aside I do like this update.

Is it possible two have two post offices for different security zones?
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Medu_Salem
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Re: Prison Architect Alpha 33

Postby Medu_Salem » Fri May 29, 2015 5:16 pm

PetrGasparik wrote:I AM SHOCKED: What has happened to the community? Instead of thanks for another update with great content, people are crying "I want this, I want that, why it is not there yet..."
STOP IT. Chris know what he is doing.


It is an update with great content, but don't be mistaken that the implementation of the mail room in this early form is only just another way to get contraband into the prison, as if the 4-5 other systems (metal sheets, food, etc) already in place aren't enough sources of contraband already.

I mean if there's not more to the mail system than just getting more contraband into the prison then it's basically boring because there's no further advantage/disadvantage or other mechanics coupled to that.

It's not even something you need to do like a kitchen to get your prisoners fed, a workshop to keep the cash flowing and whatnot. It's just optional to make the prisoners a little bit happier altough risking to get a lot of new contraband into the prison you can't even automatically search for, so why even bother.

On top of that it keeps some of your guards preoccupied since they have to deliver all the mail to the individual cells, which is when you have segregated security levels and hundreds of cells just plain ugly. It only increases the staff overhead needed to run the prison.

That's why I suggested to have one central mail room where the sorting is done and individual post offices which may be placed in the various security levels where the prisoners may pick up the mail themselves whenever they have time to spend. Also it would allow the prisoners to write their own mail and deliver it to the post offices. The later wouldn't be possible with a mail room only because how would the prisoners get their mail to the mail room when there are different zones in between? Have guards pick all the crap up individually?

So currently it is a one-way-system and I don't really think it adds much value to the already existing systems.
Snitcher
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Re: Prison Architect Alpha 33

Postby Snitcher » Fri May 29, 2015 8:54 pm

The post delivery system is bugged, empty stachels arrive every few seconds, way too much for my prisoners to handle this.
The freights zone is flooded, the game therefore unplayable.
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WiseWoodrow
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Re: Prison Architect Alpha 33

Postby WiseWoodrow » Sat May 30, 2015 10:09 pm

Really not sure if I like the new room grading system. I think a prisoner should ALWAYS get a room, regardless; Never should he be sent to a holding cell. I think it'd be better if they just shoved him in the room closest to his actual level regardless of if it's worse or better, because anything's better than a holding cell.
Thit
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Re: Prison Architect Alpha 33

Postby Thit » Tue Jun 02, 2015 8:44 am

The satchels in the mail room just stay there. my mail room is flooded with empty satchels. Otherwise i think its a fine addition, just please fix the satchel bug. I cant even force them to be dumped. its pretty annoying. Though i do also like the idea of a post office so prisoners can pick up their own mail and write mail as well. it seems like a good and more realistic idea.

I dont know if i like the room grading system. I mean sure, if you want to have a luxury prison its a nice system to add, but i dont particularly want to have multiple cell blocks for each security level just so they can have higher and lower graded rooms and if you are going to do graded rooms like this, you should probably make higher and lower grade beds as well.. just an idea. Also, will they actually use the shower in their cells if i add one in there now? i tried doing it before because fights would break out (when i was new to the game and not so good at managing dangerous prisoners) whenever they had shower time but they wouldnt use the one in their cell, im guessing because it wasnt designated a shower room?
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Re: Prison Architect Alpha 33

Postby JareX » Tue Jun 02, 2015 5:11 pm

Thanks for all your work. This new update is great.

But I have to say that I have one major issue that is preventing me of having fun, and has made me stop playing the game. (almost)

The new cell grading systems is nice, but it completely destroyed all my prisons because I use a U shaped cell block. On all the other alphas they worked, but now they are broken, and I'm now forced to make a box shaped cell, which I totally dislike. I don't care about cell space efficiency, I rather be more creative with cell shapes.

Now, all my cells are invalid because the game does not recognize them as 2x3 cells, even though the cells has 7 or more squares. (I know that researching small cells would solve the problem, but the validation of cells should work as always)

I'm not saying the cell grading feature should be removed, what I'm saying is that irregular cell shapes should be validated as always, because it's boring to have all my cells box shaped. This means I have to re adapt all my cells to a boring 2x3 or 9x9 box. And when they shower the water is pooled all over the place because I had to remove the inner wall.


So please, bring back the old cell validating system, so that I can make innovate and different cell shapes.

thanks!

PD: I also reported this on the mantis bug tracker: http://bugs.introversion.co.uk/view.php?id=8985#
mtries
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Re: Prison Architect Alpha 33

Postby mtries » Wed Jun 03, 2015 7:52 am

WiseWoodrow wrote:Really not sure if I like the new room grading system. I think a prisoner should ALWAYS get a room, regardless; Never should he be sent to a holding cell. I think it'd be better if they just shoved him in the room closest to his actual level regardless of if it's worse or better, because anything's better than a holding cell.


I have the same problem. Many prisoners are in the holding cell and that's bothering me, because i have so many empty cells with different grading level.
Also max prisoners are in the med section. And the supermax section is complet empty.
Rayeth
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Re: Prison Architect Alpha 33

Postby Rayeth » Wed Jun 03, 2015 1:54 pm

Chris wrote: - Behavioural changes
Prisoner's chance to misbehave is now affected by the quality of their cell AS COMPARED TO AVERAGE
Eg a prisoner in a below-average cell is now more likely to misbehave than before
Prisoners staying in above-average cells are less likely to misbehave, because they want to keep their room


Love the idea of that!
Although, why not also think the other way "I want a better cell then the 2x2 closet I currently have so I behave a few days."?

I designed a prison without reading that post in full so I made it like Grading:3 for the general audience, Grade:0 for those who misbehave, Grade:5 for the ones who behave.
This results in a few lucky guys that never misbehaved or smuggled at their arrival and therefore live in the Grade:3 cells and a very large group of prisoners that were downgraded because of either arrival-day-smuggling or some other misbehave and are now living in the "closet"Grading:0 cell.
Since this system now makes them misbehave even more they will never ever be upgraded to Grade:3 again.

So this leads me to the conclusion: If you want your prison to run smoothly without major discontent just give all prisoners a Grade:10 cell so they will behave and thus easier to control.
Am I correct in this or is there something I missed regarding this system?


PS: The "everyone gets transferred to the holding cell" - bug is already recorded in Mantis, although it has several manifestations there.

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