What do you hope to see next and what is your dream fix?

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yuk
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What do you hope to see next and what is your dream fix?

Postby yuk » Tue Sep 06, 2016 10:44 am

So they're stopping work on Prison Architect and I assume they are moving onto something new... What sort of thing would you like to see?

I'd love to see more managerial type games, specifically where you assign things and your peeps get them done. One game I was fond of as a kid was The Nations where you'd manage a tribe and how they built up and survived. I also like a similar game in development right now called Towns and another called Rimworld which looks exactly like Prison Architect. I'm also a fan of Black and White 1 and 2, and Simcity type games. I like the games where you manage what happens but ultimately you're really just "planning" and hoping your influence does what you expect it to. In Simcity you plan the city and hope it works, and a lot of managerial games are like that...Prison Architect is like that too...you build it and hope you keep the prisoners happy, working, and the staff happy and working, and the electricity on and water flowing ha ha.

They probably already have plans but I was wondering what everyone here was thinking.

Additionally...if you could have ONE fix or tweak to Prison Architect before it was dropped forever what would it be and why?
For me it would be to fix the pathfinding. It's annoying when workers can't assign themselves to single tasks and they all run to the one. It also explains why janitors and gardeners work in "droves"...and it explains many other issues as well, like prisoners walking to the other side of the prison for work...instead of the closest prisoners being assigned to that workplace.
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Re: What do you hope to see next and what is your dream fix?

Postby xander » Tue Sep 06, 2016 5:06 pm

You do know that IV have announced their next project(s) already, right? They were mentioned in the release announcement for update 6.

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Re: What do you hope to see next and what is your dream fix?

Postby relix92 » Tue Sep 06, 2016 7:29 pm

I have a prison that I spend all of my time on.
It currently has above 250 hours of running time, because I've dedicated to this one project and I'm intent on perfecting everything about it.

However.. since it was 110 hours deep, there has been a "coma guard", a bug that has never been addressed, never been fixed.

A guard becomes unconscious from a fight - and lies in your medical bed for eternity.
There is no "sack" option, you cannot fire him - he is unconscious and medical doctors will not/cannot heal him.

This has apparently ruined hundreds of prisons for many other players in PA - I thought it was just me at first, but I quickly found many complaints of the same issue around the internet, months ago.

Its the very definition of EYE SORE.
Not only is it visually unappealing to see it every day - it also blocks that medical bed from other inmates or guards using it.
So essentially, if you were to have this bug repeated - you would entirely lose your infirmary.

I had a second guard go into another "coma", but by that time I had learned my lesson, and kept multiple saved files of the same map.
I backstepped, losing an hour or so of work, simply to avoid having another bed taken up for eternity.
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Re: What do you hope to see next and what is your dream fix?

Postby yuk » Wed Sep 07, 2016 7:57 am

xander wrote:You do know that IV have announced their next project(s) already, right? They were mentioned in the release announcement for update 6.

xander


No I did not know that, I had absolutely NO IDEA. Hence the topic! :P

relix92 wrote:I have a prison that I spend all of my time on.
It currently has above 250 hours of running time, because I've dedicated to this one project and I'm intent on perfecting everything about it.

However.. since it was 110 hours deep, there has been a "coma guard", a bug that has never been addressed, never been fixed.

A guard becomes unconscious from a fight - and lies in your medical bed for eternity.
There is no "sack" option, you cannot fire him - he is unconscious and medical doctors will not/cannot heal him.

This has apparently ruined hundreds of prisons for many other players in PA - I thought it was just me at first, but I quickly found many complaints of the same issue around the internet, months ago.

Its the very definition of EYE SORE.
Not only is it visually unappealing to see it every day - it also blocks that medical bed from other inmates or guards using it.
So essentially, if you were to have this bug repeated - you would entirely lose your infirmary.

I had a second guard go into another "coma", but by that time I had learned my lesson, and kept multiple saved files of the same map.
I backstepped, losing an hour or so of work, simply to avoid having another bed taken up for eternity.


Can you remove the bed to get rid of him? Maybe install the dev tools mod and remove guards then put new ones in? Sounds like a sucky problem! I had a similar issue with parent prisoners but it eventually resolves if you remove the bed.
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Re: What do you hope to see next and what is your dream fix?

Postby tid242 » Wed Sep 07, 2016 2:28 pm

yuk wrote:
Additionally...if you could have ONE fix or tweak to Prison Architect before it was dropped forever what would it be and why?
For me it would be to fix the pathfinding. It's annoying when workers can't assign themselves to single tasks and they all run to the one. It also explains why janitors and gardeners work in "droves"...and it explains many other issues as well, like prisoners walking to the other side of the prison for work...instead of the closest prisoners being assigned to that workplace.


On a related note, My #1 fix would be lag/slowdowns. Why? - so I could buy an infinitely sized prison.
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Re: What do you hope to see next and what is your dream fix?

Postby xander » Wed Sep 07, 2016 4:42 pm

tid242 wrote:On a related note, My #1 fix would be lag/slowdowns. Why? - so I could buy an infinitely sized prison.

For play on your infinitely fast computer with infinitely much RAM? :P

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Re: What do you hope to see next and what is your dream fix?

Postby relix92 » Thu Sep 08, 2016 1:03 am

yuk wrote:Can you remove the bed to get rid of him? Maybe install the dev tools mod and remove guards then put new ones in? Sounds like a sucky problem! I had a similar issue with parent prisoners but it eventually resolves if you remove the bed.


Removing the bed leaves his unconscious body on the floor, and the bed cannot be placed back.

Its a nightmare.
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Re: What do you hope to see next and what is your dream fix?

Postby relix92 » Mon Sep 12, 2016 11:44 pm

So, I was recently speaking on another thread about issues concerning Death Row,
and it made me remember..

That unconscious "coma" guard I've had bugging the hospital bed for the last 150+ game hours?

Mercifully killed by my scissor-wielding Death Row inmate.


So, there you go... there is your fix for this glitch.
8)
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Re: What do you hope to see next and what is your dream fix?

Postby yuk » Wed Sep 14, 2016 6:42 am

relix92 wrote:So, I was recently speaking on another thread about issues concerning Death Row,
and it made me remember..

That unconscious "coma" guard I've had bugging the hospital bed for the last 150+ game hours?

Mercifully killed by my scissor-wielding Death Row inmate.


So, there you go... there is your fix for this glitch.
8)


Ha ha ha ha ha XD

xander wrote:You do know that IV have announced their next project(s) already, right? They were mentioned in the release announcement for update 6.

xander


So I was thinking about this today. I didn't come in until update 7, so I wouldn't have seen that if I tried. And also both of those games look terrible to release LOL. I mean the paint shooting one is sort of interesting but overall neither interest me. It's almost like they don't know what sort of games they want to be known for and are just making whatever comes to mind....which is not a good idea brand wise. I haven't played any of their other games but if this is their first truly successful game I would be examining why and building from that....not going in a completely different direction and having to build up a new fanbase all over again.
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Re: What do you hope to see next and what is your dream fix?

Postby xander » Wed Sep 14, 2016 6:14 pm

yuk wrote:So I was thinking about this today. I didn't come in until update 7, so I wouldn't have seen that if I tried. And also both of those games look terrible to release LOL. I mean the paint shooting one is sort of interesting but overall neither interest me. It's almost like they don't know what sort of games they want to be known for and are just making whatever comes to mind....which is not a good idea brand wise. I haven't played any of their other games but if this is their first truly successful game I would be examining why and building from that....not going in a completely different direction and having to build up a new fanbase all over again.

Uplink, IV's first game, was quite successful---both commercially (in the sense that the core of IV had no need to find other work) and critically---in the context of a small indie developer in the early 2000s (when things like digital distribution were virtually non-existent). Darwinia was critically acclaimed, and, combined with Defcon (also critically lauded) made enough money that IV were able to expand significantly (though, in hindsight, probably too quickly). Multiwinia, a game that most closely hews to your advice (do more of the same), was IV's least successful game.

As for branding, IV are known for making games that are quirky and different, and not repeating themselves (again, Multiwinia being a kind of "sequel" and flopping). You might not see that as a useful brand image, but it seems to work for IV.

xander

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