There should be a strategic overworld on top of the prison management gameplay.
The best analogy to this would be how The Sims have a "neighbourhood" view on top of their household simulator.
The problem
At the current state of the game, running a successful prison feels underwhelming. So you've finished using up all the available space in your local map, and then what? Furthermore, there's no real sense of objective to guide the player's actions. As the player maxes out their prison, there is nothing more to do that will reward the player and with a lack of purpose the game turns into a glorified aquarium simulator.
With those limitations in mind, I would like to propose a feature that would give players the following benefits:
- a sense of purpose
- a new dimension of gameplay
- in-game break from the tedium of managing a single prison
- a multiplier effect on total playtime, making it worth their money
The Possibilities
Imagine:
- Different regions with different requirements and prisoner demographics.
e.g. Ghettos overpopulated with hard-core drug gangs while the more well-off places have financial frauds and drunk celebrities that want comfy prisons. - Your unloaded prisons do not just sit there in your filesystem being irrelevant. They are still running in the overworld and generate revenue/interesting events
- Play against or visit AI-managed rival prison empires
- Change the global ecosystem by lobbying for benefits and special effects
A man can only dream...
