Cell grading

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pijlbord
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Cell grading

Postby pijlbord » Tue Jun 02, 2015 12:54 am

So,

Has anyone got some tips for me?

For me, my prison designs are now totally broken after the latest update.

What I normally do is about a 300 person max-sec, with seperate supermax and protected custody (each about 20 to 24 cells each). In supermax and protected custody they are on permanent lockdown, and get nice cells with lot's of need furfilling stuff.

I quite like the idea of the new alpha, but now i'm stuck.

I built a new cell block design, with nicer high grades cells on the oudside, and lowering quality towards the middle of the block. So a few 'punishment' cells in the middle (grade 1 or 2), nicer cells around those (quite a few) about grade 5 and completely on the outside cells grade 9 and 10. I figured i had a pretty good mix.
But it doenst't work. There are way more fights and a lot of the cells keep empty. I just received my latest batch of inmates (filling out my prison) and about 40 of them won't get a cell. They just stay in reception. I figure because they can't get a cell matched to their grade?
I then built a holding cell but the guards just dump everyone in there that doesn't match their cell grade! And they also dump my supermax and protected custody inmates in there! Needles to say this doesn't quite work out.

Anyone got any tips about a good cell grade mix? Of how to get my guards to put my supermax prisoners in their own cell block instead of lockdown'd in a random cell?
AdmiralObvious
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Re: Cell grading

Postby AdmiralObvious » Tue Jun 02, 2015 4:10 am

So far, from what I've seen. Prisoners will only get put into a cell less than grade 5 when they enter, if you are using the 1-10 scale for your cells. If you were using a 0-2 system, guards would only dump new prisoners into a cell of grade 1 or lower, since grade 2 is "above average" for your prison, and won't match since new prisoners only get one day of "assumed good behavior". If someone misbehaves, this is dropped to zero, as you probably allready know, and if there are almost entirely grade 1 cells, it won't matter, since the defult cell assignment for misbehavior is 0, which means if you have a holding cell, it's going to be the post-punishment cell until the next day.

It's a weird, slightly broken system that involves meticulous math and planning, but it's a nice addition.
SwitchOut
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Re: Cell grading

Postby SwitchOut » Fri Jun 26, 2015 3:01 pm

I think this is the first game I've ever played where building the best kind of something isn't actually the best option. Since new prisoners come to your prison with an average cell eligibility it means that they won't be allowed in an above average cell until they have been good for enough days. If they cause an incident though (or if you choose to punish them, such as putting them in solitary because reasons) their eligibility switches automatically to 0, meaning they're not allowed to sleep in that nice cell you made. I don't even think prisoners with a rating of 0 are allowed in average graded cells either. not entirely sure about that though.

The best thing I think to do is one of 2 things: either make average cells for everyone and adjust them accordingly if they have been good or bad, or make 3 lines of cells: 1 line below average, 1 line average and 1 line above average. That way hopefully you've got a cell suited for everybody. You may need to make more cells than you need though to keep good behaving prisoners from being in below average cells, or eventually resort to option A and adjust your lines of cells accordingly. It certainly keeps giving you something to focus on, since if you can keep a prisoner behaving nicely long enough to get a good cell they are less likely to cause incidents, but you will still need to be prepared though as it only decreases the likelihood of bad behaviour, not eradicate it, and if they decide to overdose on something or join in on a riot, they won't go back to the nice cell until they behave nicely long enough again.
MMZ>Torak
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Re: Cell grading

Postby MMZ>Torak » Fri Jun 26, 2015 4:55 pm

I would also suggest a holding cell for each security level; especially if you segregate the prisoners by security level.
Leto2626
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Re: Cell grading

Postby Leto2626 » Sat Jun 27, 2015 12:00 pm

It's a new challenge to distributed cells with different grades to fit your prisoners. I really like it. It does mean your capacity is actually lower than it states.

There is one problem I have noticed that non-assigned cells (not specifically assigned to a security level) will almost never fill up. For some reason prisoners with a 10 grade stay in their 2 grade assigned cell of their security level than move to a non-assigned one.
lynnmate88
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Re: Cell grading

Postby lynnmate88 » Mon Jun 29, 2015 2:04 am

The idea is pretty good, but this system needs tweaking. It has sort of taken control away from me as to how I want to design my prison. I dont like prisoners gathering in holding cells because the system states they don't deserve a particular type of cell. I want to decide what they deserve and this necessarily doesn't mean a low grade cell, I also dont want to manually assign prisoners, there are too many. If they cause trouble, I dont want them to automatically be dropped to grade one. Maybe a grade for each incident or based on the severity of the incident, or something of that sort. The other effect is that I can't effectively judge my capacity, because some prisoners are bouncing back to the starting line. Thirdly, it makes me build more than I want too and oversee more than i'd like on average. I like to experiment with different builds so this system sort of breaks certain things for me, Besides that, this game eats my life and i really enjoy it, but this grading system needs some polish.
lynnmate88
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Re: Cell grading

Postby lynnmate88 » Mon Jun 29, 2015 2:16 am

As for how i've been managing my cells... I made about four types of cells.I have some terribly low grade cells for max security only. A lot of average, some above average and a few fancy cells for minimum security. I have the most lowish average cells and they fill up pretty quickly. The max security prisoners have terrible cells and it makes them angry so I try to place need fulfilling things in commonly traversed areas like the canteen and the shower and the yard, So they are usually calm by time they have to hit lockup again. I further micromanaging by checking incidents and upgrading max security to normal at some point. So they have a shot a better cell. It would be nice if there was a way to collectively see the behavior of prisoners without having to check individually. Maybe an outline of color to show well behaved prisoners,
xakthos
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Re: Cell grading

Postby xakthos » Mon Jun 29, 2015 10:35 pm

The way the cell grading is now is rather counter intuitive and doesn't seem to even always work as expected. I really dislike being forced to have a bunch of nonconforming to my standard cells just to deal with the 0s. Given that prisoners who get downgraded rarely seem to get reupgraded leaves me needing a prison filled with 0 quality cells just to be able to put them in rooms.
sim88
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Re: Cell grading

Postby sim88 » Tue Jun 30, 2015 2:01 am

Have you tried to upgrade your prisoners manually ? I'm doing that now, as I'm getting regular riots every day. Also I've had to create a below average, average and above average cell, and a large holding cell...
Inge Jones
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Re: Cell grading

Postby Inge Jones » Tue Jun 30, 2015 6:04 pm

I feel sure it's counterintuitive to have nice cells causing good behaviour only *after* being given a good cell. I'd like a way to be found for the very existence of good cells to incentivise some prisoners to behave well and get one. A bit like with the new shop - apparently they managed to make it become an incentive to work.

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