[HELP WANTED] {GUIDE} The Ultimate Guide to Prison Architect

General chit-chat and minor questions about just about anything

Moderator: NBJeff

GC13
level2
level2
Posts: 211
Joined: Tue Jul 23, 2013 4:06 pm

Postby GC13 » Thu Aug 15, 2013 5:50 am

teichou wrote:so I just got the game today and I love it...this guide will be very nice...only thing is...how do I get more then 4 guards?
You can hire as many as you can afford.

When did you hire your guards? You can't hire much in the way of staff before your first eight prisoners show up. You'll want to get an Accountant so you can hire as much staff as you want.
Zourin
level1
level1
Posts: 10
Joined: Fri Sep 06, 2013 4:53 am

Re: {GUIDE} The Ultimate Guide to Prison Architect

Postby Zourin » Fri Sep 06, 2013 5:52 am

I've found that biting off too much at once gets you into trouble. Building a holding cell, a six-office block, meal facilities, common room, etc and a cell block all at once will keep workers tied up on huge projects and never quite finish any of them, Heaven forbid you should overqueue them and have to cancel/rebuild the entire core facility from the foundation up.

Good basic points to drive home when building facilities:
Always outline what you want and where with the planning tool. Using the active building tools will only get you in serious trouble. (if you place it, you bought it. See, it's already on a truck)
With the outlines in place, start with the foundations and doors, THEN the utilities, THEN the walls.
Don't build 'extras' until ALL the minimum 'needs' are met. That means don't build more than one bench or toilet in a holding cell until every other room has what it needs.

By the time the first prisoners roll in, you kinda want a full service-long term holding cell designed and in progress with beds and showers. This can buy you more time to get a full cell block designed, and allows for extra overflow, such as having only 4 open cells and 8 new prisoners coming in, or someplace to throw a prisoner who's dug a tunnel and compromised his cell's requirements. With a couple hours of yard time, you can keep them on regime lockdown.

In fact, by having a 'whole lot of nothing' and a holding cell with beds, showers, phones, and a pool table, you can probably get away with taking the second days' group and stuffing them into the holding cell and teaching them the meaning of community and the value of sharing. This can buy you a few days of construction work with minimal staffing. I'm not sure if being set to 'Nothing' allows for visitation, but as long as you throw them out into the yard for a couple hours and feed them, they'll be relatively content. Treat it like a communal cell/shower/community room and you can get away with plenty.

For cell blocks, Designate the cells with the shortest distance for a tunnel (usually the ends) as Solitary cells. If you're accepting multiple risk groups of prisoners, cells along the row adjacent to the exterior walls should probably be reserved for 'low risk' prisoners. Consider keeping high risk prisoners in the holding cell, let'm get uppity, and encourage them to spend long periods of time in solitary.

For cantinas, I've tried some interesting redesigns. Putting the serving tables near the prisoner entrance means that prisoners don't have to walk to the back of the cantina before they get their food. Giving them an extra hour to eat (for stragglers) as well has having a few toilets nearby helps (and is fairly realistic). Also, you can create a small kitchen area with just a couple of sinks so that you can get a few prisoners to wash trays without letting them near the cookers and fridges. They should just collect the dirty trays, wash them, and put them back out in the service area.

If you want prisoners to work in your kitchen, I think you can limit access to low risk prisoners (rather than 'general population'), and that should cut back on the risk (as well as keep normal and high risk cleaners out).

For utilities, consider throwing the power substation on the far side of the street, with aesthetic fencing. If you need to throw on a capacitor, it's a short jaunt across the street and save you a 5x5+ lot of space. The water pump can be thrown into any 3x3 closet in the interior. I usually run my big pipes and power conduits along hallways and through doors, so that I never have to worry about buliding under walls. Favor small pipes where they can reach, they're less expensive.

For Wardens with a sadistic touch, place all of your solitary cells with their doors overlooking an execution room and electric chair. Of course, from the looks of the hippy-prison tutorial, this might be a little too much for GC13 to throw in :P
Fovruf
level0
Posts: 1
Joined: Sat Dec 28, 2013 2:33 am

Re: {GUIDE} The Ultimate Guide to Prison Architect

Postby Fovruf » Sat Dec 28, 2013 2:42 am

Lovely guide!

I was kinda struggeling right on the start to get a good prison, but this certainly helped me alot with the basics.
3ender
level0
Posts: 1
Joined: Mon Feb 17, 2014 2:26 am

Re: {GUIDE} The Ultimate Guide to Prison Architect

Postby 3ender » Mon Feb 17, 2014 11:18 am

Thanks for the guide :D
Gillan_Greenleaf
level0
Posts: 7
Joined: Sun Mar 16, 2014 10:31 pm

Re: {GUIDE} The Ultimate Guide to Prison Architect

Postby Gillan_Greenleaf » Mon Mar 17, 2014 4:49 pm

Introversion needs to get you to make their instruction manuals.
DaMacGuy
level0
Posts: 2
Joined: Mon Aug 05, 2013 9:37 pm
Location: Atlanta, GA

Re: {GUIDE} The Ultimate Guide to Prison Architect

Postby DaMacGuy » Wed Apr 09, 2014 12:50 am

Great guide. Hoping you can start updating faster than Introversion updates the game. :-)

I noticed you have a 3x3 room for solitary? Since the there is no minimum size or item requirements I usually go for a 1x1 or a 1x2 room for solitary.

You must be very gentle to your bad of the bad. :-)
User avatar
VoiD88
level5
level5
Posts: 1001
Joined: Thu Dec 08, 2005 9:24 am
Location: Soltau, Germany
Contact:

Re: {GUIDE} The Ultimate Guide to Prison Architect

Postby VoiD88 » Wed Apr 09, 2014 10:15 am

DaMacGuy wrote:I noticed you have a 3x3 room for solitary? Since the there is no minimum size or item requirements I usually go for a 1x1 or a 1x2 room for solitary.

You must be very gentle to your bad of the bad. :-)

A 3x3 solitary cell made a lot of sense several alphas ago, before the suppression effect was introduced. Before that, inmates who got sent to a 1x1 or 1x2 solitary room with nothing in it would come out of it angrier than they were before, so it made sense to actually put everything they needed into a solitary cell to calm them down while they were in there. A 3x3 room is big enough for everything they needed (except food).
LeafyGreens
level0
Posts: 1
Joined: Mon Apr 14, 2014 1:32 am

Re: {GUIDE} The Ultimate Guide to Prison Architect

Postby LeafyGreens » Mon Apr 14, 2014 1:42 am

Great, but needs instructions about programs.
Fyfebro
level1
level1
Posts: 31
Joined: Mon Jan 27, 2014 12:16 pm

Re: {GUIDE} The Ultimate Guide to Prison Architect

Postby Fyfebro » Tue Apr 15, 2014 12:39 pm

Thanks this was a very helpful guide and I learnt some valuable tips and tricks. 10/10
Inspecteur_Derrick
level0
Posts: 1
Joined: Fri May 02, 2014 10:42 am

Re: {GUIDE} The Ultimate Guide to Prison Architect

Postby Inspecteur_Derrick » Mon May 05, 2014 1:07 pm

Good job, thanks for your work, very helpful for noobs like me ;-)
tommy290
level0
Posts: 1
Joined: Tue May 13, 2014 12:52 am

Re: {GUIDE} The Ultimate Guide to Prison Architect

Postby tommy290 » Tue May 13, 2014 1:14 pm

Awesome guide! Thank you so much for putting it together. It's going to be a big help to me.
User avatar
Ardor1911
level0
Posts: 2
Joined: Sun Jun 22, 2014 12:56 pm

Re: {GUIDE} The Ultimate Guide to Prison Architect

Postby Ardor1911 » Sun Jun 22, 2014 3:13 pm

Why just 5 minutes ago i was able to see your beautiful work,and thanks for that,but now steam it's saying to me that the post was deleted?
MoonR1d3r
level0
Posts: 1
Joined: Sat Jun 21, 2014 8:00 pm

Re: {GUIDE} The Ultimate Guide to Prison Architect

Postby MoonR1d3r » Sun Jun 22, 2014 3:14 pm

I was viewing that guide yesterday and today it says that it got deleted by owner.. o.O
User avatar
Ardor1911
level0
Posts: 2
Joined: Sun Jun 22, 2014 12:56 pm

Re: {GUIDE} The Ultimate Guide to Prison Architect

Postby Ardor1911 » Sun Jun 22, 2014 3:18 pm

Exactly what i was saying!
tot totz
level0
Posts: 1
Joined: Sun Jun 22, 2014 12:49 am

Re: {GUIDE} The Ultimate Guide to Prison Architect

Postby tot totz » Mon Jun 23, 2014 4:44 am

The link seems to be broken to me. Does it appear to be like that to anyone else?

Return to “General”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 13 guests