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Prison Architect - unfinished

Posted: Sat Mar 04, 2017 4:49 am
by max2go
Is PA still being worked on? Because there are quite a lot of items that you'd find in a real prison missing in this one. Next to that the AI could be much more sophisticated.

Also, is there ever going to be multi-stories / levels capability be implemented? To make multi-stories prisons, guard towers overseeing the outskirts of the prison with armed guards positioned there, ... because there should really be no reason for that not being implemented, plus it would be very easy to implement - basically the same logic as it is now, except one additional path routing for staircases and elevators, plus armed guards can shoot up / down. When toggling to another level, it'll work just like on the ground level where you can switch between above-ground and below-ground view, except this would be inside-floor view, for electrical wiring and pipes.

Re: Prison Architect - unfinished

Posted: Sat Mar 04, 2017 8:09 am
by VoiD88
max2go wrote:Is PA still being worked on?


Other than bugfixing, no. The devs have moved on to their next project. Well, there is a slim chance that we might get another surprise content update like the last one, but I wouldn't count on that.

max2go wrote:Also, is there ever going to be multi-stories / levels capability be implemented?


No and there never were. Even while the game was in active development, the devs always said they wouldn't do that (it was asked quite a lot already).

max2go wrote:it would be very easy to implement


No it wouldn't. They would have to create a way to make the underlying game code work on multiple layers, which would probably require a rewrite of most of the pathfinding code.

max2go wrote:except one additional path routing


And that's the main reason why the devs wouldn't do it. The pathfinding algorithm already makes the game lag enormously once you get a certain number of entities (prisoners + staff), adding multiple layers to a prison would make that beast even slower (roughly about times two for every new layer). That's the opposite of what the devs wanted to achieve since Alpha version 8 or something.

Re: Prison Architect - unfinished

Posted: Sun Mar 03, 2019 12:27 pm
by max2go
VoiD88 wrote:
max2go wrote:Is PA still being worked on?


Other than bugfixing, no. The devs have moved on to their next project. Well, there is a slim chance that we might get another surprise content update like the last one, but I wouldn't count on that.

max2go wrote:Also, is there ever going to be multi-stories / levels capability be implemented?


No and there never were. Even while the game was in active development, the devs always said they wouldn't do that (it was asked quite a lot already).

max2go wrote:it would be very easy to implement


No it wouldn't. They would have to create a way to make the underlying game code work on multiple layers, which would probably require a rewrite of most of the pathfinding code.

max2go wrote:except one additional path routing


And that's the main reason why the devs wouldn't do it. The pathfinding algorithm already makes the game lag enormously once you get a certain number of entities (prisoners + staff), adding multiple layers to a prison would make that beast even slower (roughly about times two for every new layer). That's the opposite of what the devs wanted to achieve since Alpha version 8 or something.


Well that's an old post and I just saw the reply - anyhow, pathfinding was fixed (somewhat) and optimized, doesn't lag (anymore), at least not on my system. So, multi-story doesn't require a whole re-write, it simply requires to add another dimension (Z).