[Suggestion] VIP - Very Important Prisoners

[RabidZombie]

To bring a little variety in the prisoners, it might be nice to get special prisoners of interest. They could be given to you by grants (or by the RNG god), and offer bonuses for as long as they are healthy and extra penalties for being injured/dying/escaping. This wouldn't be dissimilar from the emergencies from Theme Hospital. It provides an extra challenge and an appropriate risk/reward to go with it.

Some could even have special attributes, such as increase violence/proficiency at fighting/charisma.

Some ideas:

The Arrested Developer - Ex properly developer who was involved building this very prison. Arrested for some light treason.

The Magician - Entering the prison as a publicity stunt. Tries to escape. (Can conjure up keys/pick locks - super proficient at escaping and remaining undetected.)

The dictator - Arrested for war crimes. (Is extremely charismatic.)

Psychopath - Extremely violent.

Boxer - Extremely proficient at fighting.

The snitch - Feeds information to the guards. Extremely uncharismatic, and often targeted by violence.

etc

[diametric]

The Arrested Developer - Ex properly developer who was involved building this very prison. Arrested for some light treason.

Oh you!

Should add more references too. Like, Charles Hanson, etc.

[Illanair]

Great suggestions - I love em.

Risking delving into some uncomfortable themes, people such as pedophiles are known (stereotype anyway) to be very unpopular among the other inmates in prisons. No need for "magic or high end financial" crimes to make twists on the "regular" inmate.

[RabidZombie]

Great suggestions - I love em.

Risking delving into some uncomfortable themes, people such as pedophiles are known (stereotype anyway) to be very unpopular among the other inmates in prisons. No need for "magic or high end financial" crimes to make twists on the "regular" inmate.

Indeed. Was unsure if IV were willing to take on those themes, but there is definitely room for taking on that.

[RMJ1984]

haha i definitely like this a lot, it sounds very much like what Bullfrog would add if they were still a company and was making this game.

its stuff like this that spices up a game.

[askiba]

Can I just say I love the Magician idea? IV, if you're reading... this would be a cool random easter egg. One in every thousand prisoners rare or similiar, maybe even just once per created game, with a message upon his arrival (like the CEO messages?). If you prevent his escape you get cash or something, if he does you get penalty points for having an easily escapeable prison? Hm.

[hurrimark]

Good ideas.

How about also:

- former FBI agent
- Mob Boss
- former judge/policeman/prison guard e.t.c
- celebrity's (fake i assume due to legal issues)
- gangsters son
- former priest

[Spacedad]

The escape artist - Carefully plans, orchestrates, and executes a plan of escape. They may manipulate other inmates to this effect, or wait for an opportunity to arise to get one more piece of the puzzle to break themselves (and possibly other inmates helping them) out. For example, their plan might be to use another inmate to instigate a riot as cover so the player doesn't notice them sneaking into the drain system. With tools they acquired and hid away over the course of their time at the prison at various opporunities.

Such inmates would be very calculating and an exception in their AI to other inmates. The player should be encouraged to keep a close eye on their inmates to prevent him from executing his plan.

Also, an inmate should generally not be identified as an escape artist - this should be hidden from the player. Careful observation of inmate behavior should make the player suspicious of an escape artist's actions, and sometimes their criminal record could lead a player to suspect someone of being an escape artist. (But not always.)


Anyway, this would make for a nice 'cat and mouse' feel to the game. The player is encouraged then to scrutinize and observe their individual inmates and assess them, because any one of them could be a prison-breaking genius about to execute his master plan. I could see players being continually antagonized by a few recurring escape artists who present periodic problems in the prison - as saboteurs and manipulators.


FOR A REVERSAL: I would like to see a scenario in the game where you the prison architect are actually trying to HELP an escape artist escape for whatever reason by creating cover for him and giving him the tools he needs to get out and do it without getting caught. (Preferably someone who may actually be innocent of their crime, but justice dealt them a bad hand.) Limiting the player's ability to manipulate the prison for this scenario would be good to that end.

[lordtijger]

nice idea, would love it
might make the game more interesting too

[Kolchak]

I think I've discussed this elsewhere, and I'm generally in favour of VIPs. I'd especially like to see a Mr Bridger (Italian Job) style prisoner - maybe an imprisoned banker or mob boss - who must be treated with respect and appeased by the Warden. Failure would result in mass rioting or breakouts (he has influence over the population) or an external rescue attempt (by his associates), or Govt. fines (influence over govt.)

[killerx243]

The VIP prisoners could just be regular prisoners that get randomly assigned one of the special tags, no need to come up with a bunch of fake celebrities.

[henke37]

Part of the flair is that they do look different. It provides some spice to an otherwise boring thing.

I think that this is best left for the campaign. The campaign gets excused in having gimmicks that doesn't remain fun for the billionth time.

[bradinvancouver]

To extend the end-game of PA, perhaps increase the chances of getting a special prisoner the longer your prison has gone without incident? This would almost guarantee you'd end up needing to make a super prison to house supervillians. Eventually the prison would burst, resetting your "without incident" counter, and putting you back on normal prisoners for a while.

[OnkelGunther]

I wanted to suggest this as well!