Just Starting! Recommendations on what to do first?

[Endercraftermc]

Hey! I have already taken 4 attempts at starting a prison. (Whew! 6 Hours!) I have tried different ways of attempting to begin, but they all sucked. They seemed like a good idea, though!

My 4 Attempts:
1: I was confused, therefore I FAILED
2: Tried building entrance and offices first, until I realized that the prisoners had no cells, therefore I FAILED
3: Did well until second 'batch' of prisoners arrived and i realized that i didn't have room fore them, therefore I FAILED
4: Worked on Cells the whole time to discover that they were too small, therefore I FAILED

I don't know where to start! Any strategies that led you to prosper???

[Sperber]

I wanted to get to know the game first, so I disabled prisoner intake.

[thekillergreece]

When I first time played it, I started tutorial IMMEDIATELY. But it was very confusing to me, nothing of the tutorial explains properly so I chose sandbox. I only learned the basics of creating buildings and rooms etc. It took me more than 30 minutes in real life what these rooms requirements wanted. It took me 20 minutes to find which staff is worth. 10 minutes to figure why the prisoners refused to roam around with handcuffs on.

I started learning by watching youutube videos, re-play tutorials and such that. It was too hard for me as first time player. Now as time passed, I took experiences and know how to manage a prison properly.

I suggest you re-play tutorials a lot times and watch walkthrough videos on youtube.

[Drakexz]

Or take a look at finished prisons with good ratings. (Steam workshop)

[MrPomomies]

For very first start I'd suggest.

1. Don't even start on a map which doesn't have much trees.
2. Turn off the prisoner intake
3. Dismantle all trees on the map.
4. Sell every log you get this way

Now if you started on large map you should have at least 80.000$ to start with.

Now start getting trough those grants.
1. Administration
2. Basic detention care
3. Cell block A and B.
4. Staff well being
5. Visitor rights (If you designed your prison smartly, you can convert your holding cell to visitation room, and save on map space and money on foundations)

Now. you start taking in some prisoners. If you didn't try going too fancy you should still have reasonable amount of money, Prison capacity at 50-70 prisoners, only 5 guards (You will need more soon as the first group arrives).

[RGeezy911]

if you're looking for help on how to play, I created a custom, incomplete, tutorial on the workshop: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/f ... =307202968

If you're looking for design tips, try looking for already built prisons through the workshop. There are plenty of them!

Cheers!

[RichieGrape]

here is a version of the current prison i am working on...this version is a fresh map with all the cell blocks pre-planned

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=322909184.

download it by subscribing at the above link if you wish

• cells don't need to be bigger than 2x3
• Put beds in your holding cell(i like about 20 in there)
• follow the grants..they will get you set up well
• put toilets, tvs, and phones everywhere...shower, canteen, workshop(helps fulfill prisoners needs anywhere
• i don't recommend taking any max prisoners until you are up and running and have a good security force
• be careful not to place "rooms" under doors unless you are trying to link those two rooms together
• PLAN AHEAD...i spent about 4 hours on pause planning out the first version of this prison...personally i like having everything planned before i build and end up making tweaks along the way

[erikwithak]

I spent a lot of time watching YouTube videos from gamer channels(NerdCubed is actually where I heard about the game), and all the alpha videos from IV.

I made an attempt to build a prison right off the bat when I finally did buy it. But realized fast I still have a lot to learn.

So I went into sandbox mode. Very important to turn off failure conditions, or you will fail from bankruptcy very quickly. I used the "room sizes" guide on steam as a reference guide. And paused the game and spent a few hours laying out my design with the planning tool before a single brick was laid.

I am in the process now of building that prison. And I am learning a lot about the mechanics of it along the way, without having to worry about failing or money. This way when I decide to go with a new prison in the regular gameplay, I should have a better understanding of things.

Since the alpha doesn't have a real tutorial, I am using this as my own, haha

[Rumpel1408]

For me it helped alot to watch all the buildvideos as you see many features and how they work (besides they're quite hillarios)

[Jacq]

For me it helped alot to watch all the buildvideos as you see many features and how they work (besides they're quite hillarios)

+1

[colate8]

i suggest using sandbox mode with prison intake so that you choose when to get them to see how stuff works just to experiment with what works best and what doesn't work. it also helps you figure out a good strategy. i hope that helps!