[Suggestion] Multiple Levels and More!

[BionicBeans]

I think that this game could greatly benefit from the addition of multiple levels, ala Dwarf Fortress.

This would allow for a lot more traditional prison block designs, as many prison blocks have walls of cells stacked on top of each other with walkways and "courtyards" in the center. This would also allow for things such as shooting galleries (supposing that more guard content is added, which would be awesome).

Perhaps even basements could be dug which would be a good place for those generators and pumps, or perhaps even a dungeon of sorts!

How I would imagine this mechanic would work:

This would have to come in a major update, as it would require more mechanics and objects. You would need stairs (and maybe elevators) obviously. Guard rails would be a good idea, though perhaps they would automatically be built on edges (and perhaps people could be thrown over them. Wherever there is an opening between floors, you would be able to see through to the floors below, which could be tinted to show that it is a lower level.

Lastly, the piping and electricity would have to be altered a bit. since pipes and wires don't really take up a whole level, it could be assumed that they wer built in between floors, underneath wherever there is flooring. Like stair or elevator pieces, there could be vertical pieces to carry water and electricity between floors.

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This would be a big change to the game, and a good deal of work for the developers, but I believe it would create many more magnitudes of emergent gameplay. What do you think? Is it doable? Would it be a good addition? Are there more benefits or features of multi-story gameplay that would be awesome, but I hadn't thought of?

[a__gun]

Already suggested many times. Post on those threads instead of starting a new one

[mizipzor]

A search "multiple levels" returned four posts that didn't seem relevant (to me), nor did "shooting galleries". Also keep in mind that there is a forced delay between your searches to slow you down. Don't be so quick about dismissing posts, this is an inherit problem with forums and the main reason why we need a bug tracker asap where duplicates can be closed with a link to the original. The Dwarf Fortress forum is a perfect example of what happens. Do a search for a common question, get a hundred hits or so, start going through the hits and realize that the vast majority of them doesn't answer the question nor link to another thread just tells the user to STFU and search.

[frasercarter]

I personally think that the more topics over the same issue the better, as when the devs search for a topic they will see multiple hits over the same request...

just my 2 cents.

[mizipzor]

That's very true. I have no problem with duplicate threads, as I said they are inherit problems of a forum. My point is that we should avoid bringing the signal to noise ratio down to a level where most search results regarding a specific suggestion are posts where we tell each other to discuss it somewhere else.

[a__gun]

The best way to stop too many threads simply saying 'look somewhere else' is to not start that thread in the first place

[BionicBeans]

So back on topic, what do any of you actually think of what I presented here. Also, what would you try to make with multiple levels that you couldn't create with single levels?

[Saranis]

I think its a good idea, I don't know of a single prison thats only one floor. Jails, sure, but we are building a prison where people are going to be staying the rest of their prison sentence (or until they break free...) and the population is just going to keep going up and up. Why should our floor plan stay down?

If the game is indeed so heavily inspired by Dwarf Fortress like they say, multiple floors would be a given. I dont know of ANYONE who has ever built a 1 floor fortress in DF and succeeded for any length of time.

[Aatch]

I think its a good idea, I don't know of a single prison thats only one floor. Jails, sure, but we are building a prison where people are going to be staying the rest of their prison sentence (or until they break free...) and the population is just going to keep going up and up. Why should our floor plan stay down?

If the game is indeed so heavily inspired by Dwarf Fortress like they say, multiple floors would be a given. I dont know of ANYONE who has ever built a 1 floor fortress in DF and succeeded for any length of time.

Although there weren't always z-levels in DF... Just FYI.

[ElectricGlow]

I'd even love having just two levels - ground and basement. You could have a system of corridors for the staff to isolate them and the working parts of the prison from the prisoners themselves.

Probably the maximum would be five levels - B, G, 2, 3, and 4.

[Lorenzo666]

I think multiple levels would be nice, because with the combination of New Guard weapons and patrols, you could have them patrolling walkways (safe from the prisoners) and firing perhaps BeanBags at any rowdy Prisoners.

Could be cool eh?

[christopher1006]

I'd like to have multiple levels, higher security prisoners higher in the building. Hopefully they'll add munitions lethal and non-lethal so you shooting gallery idea would be a really usefull thing to have in a riot. It would be fun to see 10-15 gaurds raining lead into them as they tried to break into the armory or bust down the doors to freedom.

[City Builder]

I was just thinking of this tonight while playing. It sure would be nice to be able to just go up one level and see the next group of cell blocks instead of everything sprawling out, have it also be able to go up (at least to a certain amount of levels, I can't think of any 30 story prisons off the top of my head). And the way that the game is presented to the player seems that it would work very well with multiple story building.

+1

[frasercarter]

would be funny if whilst level 1 has your attention... level 2 is rioting and lighting fires in your prison... we would hope there is an alert system by then hehe

[paktsardines]

Okay, this might sound a little cynical, so apologies in advance for what is a serious question. Let's say you have a prison with 5 levels that you can switch between. How do you intend that to play any differently to having 5 separate saved games that you can switch between?

To me it seems to be a lot of effort for minimal impact on gameplay. But, please correct me. I suspect my vision is lacking.