[Brainstorming] Ideas to improve this awesome game.

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SlashLife
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Re: [Brainstorming] Ideas to improve this awesome game.

Postby SlashLife » Sat Sep 29, 2012 7:34 pm

Meethique wrote:- 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.

- 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.

- Add more buildings and items. ... room for visitors ...


I think these will be coming. The sprite texture contains ambulance and fire trucks (hinting #1) and also civilian female characters (hinting #4). The translation file contains translations for gangs (hinting for #3 and pretty much includes a need for #2). Also there are a lot of item sprites in that texture (hinting items in #4).



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

I disagree. After all who needs dogs when you can have robot cat?
finneganrj
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Postby finneganrj » Sat Sep 29, 2012 7:54 pm

Apologies if this is in the wrong place.

I would like the map to scroll when I move my mouse to the edge of the screen.
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Postby taykad » Sat Sep 29, 2012 8:30 pm

Fiohnel wrote:5. Enable cloning / template creation at early game

If the most optimal cell design is 2x3 with the required 2 items and office is 4x4 with three items, don't force players to pull that routine of building the same room and clicking the items to put over and over again until they research clone late game. It's the most boring part of the game.


+1 to this. I was quite surprised to see that clone is not a free design tool right from the start. The real challenge and fun of the game is layout design, not tile placement. Once I lay down an entire ward with 20+ cells, doing it all over again is just a chore.
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Postby ADuck » Sat Sep 29, 2012 9:02 pm

Here's some ideas from the top of my head, I apologize if they were already referenced.

- Gangs. People here were talking about clans but usually gangs obey stricter rules, like those of the same nationality or skin color tend to stick together and form gangs. Also, these gangs usually are active outside so you could have events with gang leaders, especially high ranking leaders who could send orders from their prison cells to the outside, plan assassinations of prisoners of rival gangs or of their own gang as punishment, plan riots, etc. Have a danger category for gangs, all are dangerous but some are more dangerous than others.

-Family visits. It could add for emotional relief of prisoners or it could be used to pass contraband.

-Guards that can be intimated or corrupted to also pass contraband or other unsavory affairs.

-Prisoner demands. Prisoners could demand many things, fair treatment, better food, more outside time, etc. In that vein prisoners could also start hunger strikes or other such extreme non-violent protests in order to drive their points across, with the inevitable consequences it could have if the new media hear about it.

-A bit of fun, have a random event of some reality show producer wanting to produce a show in your prison, with all the consequences and dangers that can come from this.

-More management. Dictate the quality of food, the quality of staff (Well trained or poorly trained, specialized to handle determined situations, etc), could even go further and dictate water and electric bill though this is probably too much.

-The warden could gain leverage over gang leaders in order to have them maintain the peace with rival gangs and within the prison. On the other hand you could choose to go the corrupt way and be a corrupt warden, taking bribes from prisoners to look the other way about contraband, etc. The typical movie bad warden. Could be a fun path to take and lead to different dynamics within the prison. Obviously some or all guards could be honest and denounce you or they could go corrupt with you.
Ade_McC
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Postby Ade_McC » Sat Sep 29, 2012 9:20 pm

Object Suggestion: Wooden Vaulting Horse

Guard Towers with vision arcs and blind spots

Spot lights for night time atmospherics
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Postby Montuckian » Sat Sep 29, 2012 9:40 pm

Just a couple ideas from a design perspective.

* Allow for building preview in foundation mode. Much like room design in, say, Startopia, you could draw the foundations of a new building and even place walls and the such but let the building sit until you approve it. This would help early layout design where you want to build the most important buildings first, but still leave enough room for buildings that are unlocked with later research. This would also allow you to easily build buildings that are other shapes besides squares.

* Allow for restricted areas, where if a prisoner is found he is apprehended and punished appropriately (punishments can be set by the player).

* A feature like the burrow in DF where you can assign certain prisoners. This could be as large or as granular as the player would want, even going so far as to assign certain rooms to certain prisoners.

* I'd like to see variability in job candidates and a bit more scarcity. Applicants with good stats would cost more but likely be rarer. Poorer applicants would be cheap and more widely available but could have problems that would dispose them to corruption, cruelty, or inefficiency (alcoholics drinking on the job and falling asleep in the generator room, servicemen being careless and leaving tools lying about).

* Greater choice when picking a warden. Think tropico, where a warden has a certain background, work history, positive characteristics, and flaws that confer certain boons or drawbacks to his management of the prison. It'd be interesting maybe if the warden had the option to be controllable and his presence would be able to change the behavior of prisoners and staff alike (cooks work faster in his presence, interrogated prisoners would provide more info, like who has weapons or who's the leader of such and such gang [some of which may or may not be lies])

* Notation system for characters in game. If a prisoner starts fights, he could be noted as such if it's witnessed. If a prisoner is suspected to be hiding weapons, or one of his fellow prisoners rats him out, it would be noted in the profile. Players could write their own notes and observations about staff and prisoners on their file.

* Autonomy of guards when it comes to searching prisoners. Some guards would be better at noticing suspicious behavior and act independently to stop it. Guards would also use power of numbers to subdue prisoners instead of acting independently.

I guess that's all for now. I've only spent about five hours in game, so take these with a grain of salt.

Edit: Just one more I thought of

Weapons for guards could be stored in an armory and purchased separately. Prisoners who access the armory could cause some serious havoc.
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Hessen
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Postby Hessen » Sat Sep 29, 2012 9:52 pm

Shower-rape.
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Postby RMJ1984 » Sat Sep 29, 2012 10:52 pm

One of the reasons that there is an optimal size is that there is lacking in objects and ways to effect a person. i mean surely a bigger office with more stuff in it, like TV, plants, phone, would make the staff person more happy and more productive, game needs stuff like that, so its not just plant 2-3 items and same size room.

Im sure more of that will come.
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Postby Hezzy » Sat Sep 29, 2012 11:56 pm

- Restricted areas (Prisoners caught in these areas are automatically punished by lockdown or solitary)
- "Send to cell" button for prisoners, or an option to dole out punishments manually.
- One way doors (for prisoners entering your prison, going to holding cell)
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Postby Behrditz » Sun Sep 30, 2012 12:53 am

Here is my idea: Plantation prisons.

You know, the kind you see in movies set in the Southern US in the 40s.

*No walls, but theres a kill perimeter you cant cross. Keep your prisoners happy enough and they will have enough self-preservation to stay in the perimeter. Too unhappy and they would rather run and end it.

*Fields for the prisoners to work, and crafts for the prisoners to build. Maybe this mode would have less government funding, and rely more on a prisoner economy.

*Hot boxes for punishment. Basically just solitary, but with flavor.

*Chain gangs. Link a bunch of prisoners together to complete a manual labor task. Either in the prison, or maybe some kind of function to send them out and do off-screen public works for prison funding. Based on guard amount, and needs level (happiness) of prisoners, maybe a chance for escape attempts and loss/death of some prisoners.


That's a lot of stuff and would probably take a long time. Maybe it could be an expansion for later after the game has been doing well.
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Postby Norton » Sun Sep 30, 2012 12:56 am

Guard system similar to evil genius would be really awsome!
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Postby Pixelchaser » Sun Sep 30, 2012 12:58 am

"Legs" bod style....it would be a characterfull touch.... watch http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oSHXtjfEE4c
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Postby ADuck » Sun Sep 30, 2012 1:11 am

Expanding the chaingang idea, how about having prisoners, perhaps the best behaved ones, have jobs that are monitored by guards on the outside, which would bring additional income to the prison.

Also:

-Schools. Some prisons do have schools inside for inmates to earn their school diplomas. Having a teacher and a classroom could add interesting dynamics to the prison. Maybe even inmates who get educated may be handed more complex jobs.

-True innocent inmates. People who were wrongly accused and sentenced. Some of them may act in semi-disruptive ways to express the injustice committed on them. Like being active at night and sleeping during the day or refusing to sleep anywhere but the floor. It could also add some interesting interactions between the warden/guards and the inmate.

-A room where inmates can talk with their lawyers. Also, a court room for judging offenses committed within the prison.

-A morgue. People will die invariably so their bodies have to be stored somewhere.

-Investigation teams. Some prisons have specialized investigation teams in charge of gang investigation or other specific area like inmate murders. Specialized investigating teams could be sent to investigate the more serious incidents within the prison.
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Postby Legion303 » Sun Sep 30, 2012 1:33 am

- Random external breakout attempts

- "death row" room type for death row cellblocks (probably coming, given the execution chamber and electric chair)

- Floodlights for outside use

- Another vote for gang affiliations and dogs.
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Postby xsuite » Sun Sep 30, 2012 2:17 am

1. The current method of prisoner intake is incredibly unrealistic. Ideally the bus full of prisoners should be led in a SINGLE FILE LINE. It's incredibly infuriating to see prisoners standing idle in the deliveries zone waiting to be escorted one by one.

2. Prison chaplain, and Chapel. Practically all prisons in IRL (at least in the civilized West) have these, and their effects on prisoner morale and psychological health is immense. I saw a Chaplain in the sample mission, I hope he is implemented as it can add a lot of depth.

3. Alternate forms of execution!! gas chamber, lethal injection, hanging, guillotine, hell, even firing squad if you want to simulate a military prison.

4. Seasons would be cool, but the only effect I could see it having on gameplay involves making sure the prison is heated in the winter, and cool in the summer. Maybe also some seasonal religious holidays too, the chaplain could facilitate thes holidays.

5. I think prisoners should no longer be dropped off at the deliveries room, and instead given their own room titled "prisoner intake" or something similar. Perhaps the trucks would only drop off prisoners here, allowing us to make the zone secure and prevent escapes before theyre taken into the complex.

6. Let us designate cellblocks. Maybe make them rooms, but that require a certain amount and type of room to be within it?

7. The ability to set different regimes to different cell blocks.

8. It would be awesome if we could choose which types of prisoners would go in different cllblocks. I'd want to house all the murdererstogether in a high security cellblock, and the thieves and hoodlums in a minimum security cellblock. THe high security cellblock would have a strict regime, while the minimum security cellblock would have a lax regime.


9. Could we PLEASE get a better way of assigning prisoners to their cells/cellblocks? Maybe a "Warden View" similar to Utilities view. In this view, all cells, holding cells, and solitaries are highlighted to stand out, and prisoner names/icons appear in the cell they inhabit. You can easily drag the prisoner name/icon to a new cell in a different cellblock.

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