[Brainstorming] Ideas to improve this awesome game.

[Meethique]

Hey everyone.

I am a huge fan of Theme games. I played hundred of hours on Theme Hospital, Theme Park, Dungeon Keeper or RollerCoaster Tycoon.

When I saw that Introversion was going to release Prison Architect, I immediately bought it. Anyway, here are some ideas to make this game even better.

- Add some random events. It would be cool to be surprised from time to time. Power failure, general riot organized by the prisoners etc.
I am thinking about the earthquakes and epidemic seen in Theme Hospital.

- Make the prisoners more unpredictable. For example, they should try to escape by using doors usually reserved to the staff or by digging out a tunnel. They also should fight more often. You should be always in a state of alert. After all, prevent prisoners of escaping is the number one priority of a wander, right ?

- Having different prisoners profiles. I know it would be hard to implement but it would be awesome if each prisoner had a specific behavior. Some of them should be more inclined to fight for example. We could also have prisoners with psychiatric disease. These ones should have their own cell with dedicated facilities. The idea is to be able to distinguish them.

- Relationships. Implement clans would be cool. Prisoners could become friends and stick together when going to the yard or the canteen. By doing so, they could have more influence on the other prisoners and organize riots or escapes.

- Make the staff (wander, psychologist, chief etc.) more interesting. Right now, they just let you unlock features. It would be nice if prisoners could visit the psychologist from time to time. Some of them could be brought to the Chief's office after having breached the rules etc.

- Implement an experience system for the staff. In Theme Hospital, doctors or janitors do not have the same level of skill. They improve with the time or by being trained. Guards could gain experience and be more effective. Same for the workers.

- Add more buildings and items. Watchtowers, room for visitors (so prisoners can see their relatives and get weapons or drugs from them), security room (needed to make the cameras functional), new kinds of fences (electric ones for example) etc.

- Add more activities for prisoners. I know the workshop is gonna be implemented but I would love seeing other stuff. Linen washing would be great in my opinion. You could also assign them to floor cleaning.

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Other ideas by the community :

See the next message.

If you have any ideas, feel free to give them !

[Meethique]

Ideas from the community

*Staff*

- More details for the staff (name, artwork, easter eggs etc.)
- Ability to choose the guards' weapons
- Upgrade - skill system for staff (see gsuberland's post)
- Different tempers for the guards
- Scheduled escort of prisoners to the prison's facilities
- Dogs
- Food deliveries in the cells during lock-down

*Environment*

- Random events (riots, power failure etc.)
- Natural disasters
- Various kinds of maps with different backgrounds
- External elements - public pressure - medias etc.

*Facilities and layout*

- More security facilities (doors with lock systems, snipers etc.)
- Different security levels with dedicated facilities for each of them
- Specific and secured unload zone for prisoners' delivery
- Staff facilities : break-room for example
- Restricted areas - prisonners caught here are automatically punished
- Chapels for prisonners so they can pray
- Basketball court for the yard
- Laundry room along other 'work' activities

*Prisoners & Relations*

- Suicide of depressed prisoners
- Prisoners should have a release date (or be sentenced to death) to free some space from time to time
- More details on the prisoners (crime, artwork, dangerousness etc.)
- Social relations between guards and inmates
- Social relations between the prisoners (with potential gangs)
- Visit from relatives in a specific building
- More interactions with prisonners
- 'Biography' of prisonners once in the jail : each time they fight, try to escape... it should be reported in their profile
- Possibility to make specific regime for each cell-block
- Possibility to custom punishments
- Witnesses for the executions
- Escapes using helicopters
- Death of prisoners from starvation

*Other*

- Make assignments to cells easier
- Zoom to cursor
- Make building extension easier
- Ability to remove foundation
- Being able to scroll with the mouse

[Shuro]

Nature Catastrophes, Storms, Blizzards, Hurricanes

Clans / Wars / Knivefights

Observation, Cameras, Electronic Doors, Sirens, Lasersensors, RFID-Tags

Watchtowers & Snipers

Electric Fence

Multiple Layers (Tunnel, Underground-Cells for real bad Guys)

Suicide of depressed Prisoners

DOGS, German Shapperd Dogs *gg* Look, the prisoner is runnig, bite him

Really big Doors for Streets, moar security!

Own Streettool, Prisonerbus, drive in and unload it in the yard

Torture, like real American prisons, with waterbording and illegal photographies from prisoners (sacasm)

edit: stockbeds!

[UsF]

Multiple story constructions to save on space.
Grouping of cells into blocks, with settings for each individual blocks (confinement block, where prisoners have a different schedule than the rest for example).
Ability to give food to prisoners through their cell door by the guards (I have not tested if this is done by using confinement cells).
Towers for security personnel (multi-story guard posts).
Weapons for security personnel, ranging from blunt, non-lethal hand-to-hand, batons or stun-guns to pistols, rifles and beanbag shotguns.
Security doors with keys/electronic lock systems to design against riot spread (Subversion much?). Keys could be lost/stolen during a riot and taken by prisoners to open doors.
Visiting area with civilians entering the prison, maybe they even try to bring contraband.
Very detailed descriptions on prisoners if you have a competent psychatrist, giving you insight on their planning.
Potential sandbox mode, allowing you to see even more information not mentioned (social groups association, subconcious mindset etc.).
Vulnerable prisoners, that are high value targets for other prisoners (child molesters, former police officers, undercover agents etc.).
Social interaction of prisoners with the guards.
Hierarchy system of prisoners with potential "Godfather" figures forming, who are being trusted by the prisoners and guards alike.
Item quality for everything that can be picked up and used. Degrading item quality will result in the item potentially being destroyed, until repaired. Makeshift weapons cannot be repaired to full health again?
Production facilities, enabling you to use forced labour in exchange for happiness. Or if you want to be more nice, enable them to perform "useful" labour that they want to do, to increase happiness and potentially help them reintegrate into society.

I would like for it to be possible for riots to take over a part of the prison, but then being locked into that part, with the police and riot guards unable to do something. The prisoners would then basically set up their own rules at that point and live/try to get out until the food runs out, at which point many things could start (large breakout attempt, suicides, "alternative food sources" etc.)

[gsuberland]

Upgrade system for staff.
- Guards:
--- Army boots (makes them move faster)
--- Riot shields
--- Rubber bullet guns (instant K.O. if they hit)
--- Tazers (stun single prisoners, makes them drop weapons)
--- Tear gas (increases guard's ability to subdue violent prisoners)
--- Handheld metal detectors (improved contraband detection rate)
--- Non-lethal Combat Training (reduced damage to prisoners, knocks them unconscious quicker)
- Doctors:
--- Surgery kit (required to heal Seriously Injured people)
--- Defibrillator (chance to resurrect dead people, based on time)
--- Triage (area-of-effect healing)
--- Sedatives (calm down complaining prisoners, but cost per use)
--- Antibiotics (reduced chance of illness)
--- Stab vest (decreased damage from knives)
- Janitors:
--- Disinfectant (required to clean up blood)
--- UltraMop (increase cleaning speed)
--- Roomba (area-of-effect cleaning)
- Workers:
--- Workboots (faster movement)
--- Heavy Machinery (faster construction of foundations)
--- Toolbelt (faster construction of Objects)
- Cook:
--- Hygiene (less garbage produced)
--- Fast food (faster production of food)
--- Chef's speciality (reduced complaints from prisoners for 2 hours after each meal)
- All:
--- Defence training (increased resistance in hand-to-hand combat)
--- Panic button (alerts guards when staff are attacked)

[thekev506]

- Some kind of loading bay where more than one truck can unload at once, and the truck drivers helping to unload. It's so frustrating when you get a truck traffic jam and unloading takes forever

- More staff detail. More for guards to do, the need for staff to rest, setting up shifts. Having names for the staff and basic needs would be nice

- Prisoner options. I'd like to be able to designate specific cells and rooms for people, so I don't have 24 people using a shower room meant for 12 when there's a second shower room completely empty

- Prisoner gangs! They happen in real life and they'd add a whole new layer to the game

- Different security levels. Something in between regular cells and solitary would be good, you don't find death row inmates in regular cells after all.

[Fiohnel]

The game is made with UK / US prison in mind, where prisoner's human rights is kind of big deal. If Introversion is willing to delve further into more murky territory, then make it possible to have a scenario of prison in third world or warzone, where denial of human rights, torture, and heavy-handed wardenship is common.

Another potential room to explore is to add diversity to the prisoner type, or more specific prison type. For example underage prisoner, woman prisoner, gay prisoner, VIP / political prisoner, mentally ill or physically sick prisoner that can infect others. Specific prison type is scenario of prison dedicated to any of those type of prisoners.

I could push further with request for simulated prison rape or racist behavior but that's nuclear bomb. I don't think anyone would dare to go to that direction.

[Furohman]

I'd quite like some kind of staff facilities.
An example would be Theme Hospital where staff eventually got tired and had to spend some time in a breakroom, even something as simple as that would add to the game I think.
I'm not sure if going as far as shift changes and such would be worthwhile, but right now staff are pretty lifeless aside from visiting the medical ward if they're injured.

[Shuro]

The game is made with UK / US prison in mind, where prisoner's human rights is kind of big deal

For UK, okay, that could be right....but US? Often hear from overfilled prisons, outsourcing to Private Companys and and and...

... sick prisoner that can infect others.

Yaaay, prison epidemy, sounds fun!

I could push further with request for simulated prison rape or racist behavior but that's nuclear bomb. I don't think anyone would dare to go to that direction.

Prison without rape and colored groups(White / Black/ Latin / Asian)? No way

[gsuberland]

This is getting political. Stick to the gameplay, please.

[thekev506]

Something I forgot to add about guards - temper. A short tempered guard is more likely to be aggressive than a guard with a good temper.

[Fiohnel]

For UK, okay, that could be right....but US? Often hear from overfilled prisons, outsourcing to Private Companys and and and...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl ... dU#t=2086s The developers stated that in the sandbox mode you can build any kind of prison that you want, and US kind of prison is something they take into account. What I wanted to say is that there's more type of prisons than modern US or UK model.

This is getting political. Stick to the gameplay, please.

It's just gameplay feature request, nothing political is intended. I'm from third world where such treatment of prisoner is common, real thing, so I'm sorry if I hurt your first world sensibilities.

[Shuro]

Another Major Point for me:

Multiple Maps, like an Island or a City Prison, like Alcatraz with other behaviors (Island: Boats, Helicopters, etc)

[Molano]

This might not be the kind of suggestion your looking for but :

Some kind of key validation in the game. Maybe an online patcher where you have to login (with your key) to update the game from within the game. I've been reading some of the response to the alpha video on youtube and a lot of people are complaining about the price. And i read a lot of comments of people saying they would wait for the torrent. Just out of curiosity i tried looking for PA on a torrent site and found it on the first try. There should be something that gives people who buy the game a slight advantage over the pirates. I mean it wont be bullet proof and will be hacked regardless (look at minecraft), but at least make an incentive for people to buy it.

[gsuberland]

This is getting political. Stick to the gameplay, please.

It's just gameplay feature request, nothing political is intended. I'm from third world where such treatment of prisoner is common, real thing, so I'm sorry if I hurt your first world sensibilities.

It's got nothing to do with my first-world sensibilities. I'm fully aware of the sorts of things certain governments do to prisoners, and the terrible conditions in certain prisons. However, there's a time and a place for political discussion, and this is not it.