General musing

[Hessen]

I struggle with games that can't be "beaten", in the context of PA I mean that for my entertainment needs to be fulfilled that I need to be able to build a working prison that I can just watch day after day without having to react to incidents constantly, or things going wrong, or things that always need doing.

Ultimately at the moment this is all ruined by the constant stream of prisoners, I can't build a big prison for 32 inmates and just let it run smoothly each day, because tomorrow there will be 40 inmates and my current "solution" isn't good enough.

[Nicotin]

There will be diffrent sandbox modes.

Right now we just have this, but I guess also your taste will be served.

[Stardog]

I struggle with games that can't be "beaten", in the context of PA I mean that for my entertainment needs to be fulfilled that I need to be able to build a working prison that I can just watch day after day without having to react to incidents constantly, or things going wrong, or things that always need doing.

Ultimately at the moment this is all ruined by the constant stream of prisoners, I can't build a big prison for 32 inmates and just let it run smoothly each day, because tomorrow there will be 40 inmates and my current "solution" isn't good enough.

This mode was probably put together quickly to give us something to do outside the tutorial and will surely change.

There are a few ways to block the arrival of prisoners I've read, such as moving the delivery designation indoors (I haven't tried this), or leaving the prisoners outside with handcuffs on.

[XmAkiNA]

I struggle with games that can't be "beaten", in the context of PA I mean that for my entertainment needs to be fulfilled that I need to be able to build a working prison that I can just watch day after day without having to react to incidents constantly, or things going wrong, or things that always need doing.

Ultimately at the moment this is all ruined by the constant stream of prisoners, I can't build a big prison for 32 inmates and just let it run smoothly each day, because tomorrow there will be 40 inmates and my current "solution" isn't good enough.

Presumably once the game has more grants (I found I need about 10k per 8 prisoners to cover everything) then you'll be able to reach a point where prisoners coming in will equal those going out, or have ways to specialise your prison so that the intake/release rate can be better managed, e.g. a low security short sentence prison (high in high out) or a maximum security with low in and low out.

[Illanair]

Yeah right now you can't "win" the sandbox - or even keep up. The prisoners will just keep flooding your prison until you either run out of space or money.

But as the saying goes "Beta is beta" - or rather alpha is alpha. It is mostly a tech demo now with a lot of the implemented features either broken or not fully functional. It'll need some work to make the sandbox "playable" in the game sense.

[XmAkiNA]

If you want to go all out on the sandbox, this is a handy thread

[crummett]

How does execution work? Can you kill off prisoners that way to make space?

[Illanair]

How does execution work? Can you kill off prisoners that way to make space?

I believe it is only a placeholder right now - you can't use it like in the intro scenario.

[crummett]

Ah ok. I'd imagine in the final version you'd have a certain amount who are up for the death penalty and execution results in +money and space for a new prisoner. You'd need to be limited to not being able to kill everyone though hahs

[a__gun]

Ah ok. I'd imagine in the final version you'd have a certain amount who are up for the death penalty and execution results in +money and space for a new prisoner. You'd need to be limited to not being able to kill everyone though hahs

Quite the contrary - I think it would be awesome to kill whoever you want, but in a clever subtle way; arrange 'accidents' or shoot them during an 'escape attempt' as in Shawshank. Maybe guards could bribe prisoners to do your bidding o.O.
On a side note, really want to be able to shake down a prisoners cell

[crummett]

Ah ok. I'd imagine in the final version you'd have a certain amount who are up for the death penalty and execution results in +money and space for a new prisoner. You'd need to be limited to not being able to kill everyone though hahs

Quite the contrary - I think it would be awesome to kill whoever you want, but in a clever subtle way; arrange 'accidents' or shoot them during an 'escape attempt' as in Shawshank. Maybe guards could bribe prisoners to do your bidding o.O.
On a side note, really want to be able to shake down a prisoners cell

ah yeah that would be awesome! I like the idea of a reverse kind of role where guards are doing devious things! There'd need to be a balance between cost/profit/benefit etc though

[gsuberland]

Perhaps you could have a prison reputation. The nastier you make your guards, the worse rep your prison gets, which has a knock-on effect to other things. For example, grants might require a rep above a certain level.

[thekev506]

The way I'd like to see prisoner intake work would be in 'buying' prisoners. You set a limit to how many prisoners you want and the govt send prisoners up to this limit over the course of a few days. Bumping your limit up would mean more prisoners arriving the following day, but the arrival numbers aren't stead - you could get 2 one day then 20 the next. You could also have separate limits for dangerous prisoners or death row inmates.

A way to stop this from making the game boring would be to add random events that could affect prisoner population limit without the user specifying it. Emergency transfers due to overcrowding at another prison, dangerous prisoners being moved to detach them from a gang, or on the flipside population decreases with no sign of increasing in the future forcing the player to lay off staff and economise.