IDEAS Currency System For Prisoners? Prisoner Heirachy?

[AtDeathSide]

hey i love this game so far but i dont know if this has been mentioned before but what about adding in a currency system for the prisoners, for instance if they go to work in the workspace or out on "Field Trips or Excursions" to pick up litter or something they can get money which they can either buy things like posters or upgrades for their cell or use the money to buy weapons off other inmates, a feature like setting a guard location to only one spot to man a door is an absolutely great idea that other members have put forward, i would also like to mention about a pirsoner heirachy system, eg prisoners who rat on other prisoners gets a better cell but is beaten up alot by other inmates and prisoners can move up the "level" eg "Low Risk" Prisoners who try and escape get moved into "High Risk" and the possibility of including "gangs" or "groups" would be fantastic

[christopher1006]

It'd be interesting to see different forms of currency for different things. If it's something you've allowed and they can pay for it and they want it they'll use money that you've given them to get it, maybe it's at some shop on the prison grounds or a bus that comes through once a week. If it's something that's restricted like a gun or they can't pay for like a poster then they start searching for the guy in the prison who runs the black market to see what they have to do for or give to him to obtain the items they want. That'd allow for seemingly odd behaviors of normally quiet prisoners to throw you off while playing. I think something like the gaurd stays by door will be implemented for whatever update Chris decides to have it to where gaurds must open the door for people going through it.

[AtDeathSide]

yea i totally agree like a guard outside for solitary because there is a bug that prisoners seem to get stuck just inside that doors i dont want them to escape so i would of thougth that a guard would take the prisoner back to their cell because i mark these doors as staff only

[bluestrike15]

You mean like a Commissary?

[AtDeathSide]

yes but one that is a legit prison one operated by guards or a new sprite and the other is a black market operation done by one of the prisoners

[ryacko]

traditionally the prison black market is run by cigarettes

[FireAce]

"traditionally the prison black market is run by cigarettes"

Well to be more real its not just cigarettes, prisons markets is run by cigarettes alone but by barter and trade. In real life prisoners can work jobs and make a small source of income but they never get to see the money in cash. Most get a type of credit given to them under there accounts to use, barter and trade is use for any valued goods to trade with others for items or services.

I like the ideal of having some kind of Commissary that prisoners get to work at if approved and can used to buy items. I think we should have not just person search's but room search's for overload of high value trading goods and weapon search's.

[orangetayo]

Gangs will likely be an element in the finished game. In an onscreen demonstration of the game, the developer brought up a debug screen briefly and among other possible tidbits of info one of the debug items mentioned gangs, so they're definitely thinking about it.

[111none]

Gangs will likely be an element in the finished game. In an onscreen demonstration of the game, the developer brought up a debug screen briefly and among other possible tidbits of info one of the debug items mentioned gangs, so they're definitely thinking about it.

they are not implemented correctly

Code: Select all

set_gang_id 1

Any ideas?

[phoenixca]

Last I heard, they most certainly are thinking about gangs, but they haven't figured-out a good way to go about it. I can see where they're coming from...it's hard to even think of how one would make these groups emerge from the simulation dynamically in a way that makes some amount of sense, without going totally down the Sims rabbit-hole and implementing ever more complex interactions between prisoners. With so many actors running around, simulations like that can get exponentially complicated...and then things go boom.

[ChaserGrey]

I like the ideal of having some kind of Commissary that prisoners get to work at if approved and can used to buy items. I think we should have not just person search's but room search's for overload of high value trading goods and weapon search's.

I was just thinking this as well. Have a Commissary where the prisoners can buy little things for their cells, snacks that make them happy for a while, call home, that sort of thing. It gives you an effective carrot to offer them and the possibility of a long-term punishment: you don't seem to be able to lock someone down for more than a couple hours, but you could take commissary privileges for quite some time. Gives you another management tool.

[furrot]

Anyone interested in prison economies should give this a read:

[PDF]The Economic Organisation of a P.O.W. Camp

It's probably one of the most interesting essays I've ever read. It does a good job of demonstrating how little inefficiencies with distribution, like giving cigarettes to non-smokers causes the creation a market so that goods can be more appropriately allocated. What is also neat is that since everyones primary "need" was still freedom a secondary purpose of the market was to consolidate influence on the guards so they could be bribed.

In terms of PA I think there could be an interesting system where prisoners are given three goods each week and each prisoner has a preference for them. Then we just give them the ability to trade for things they like for varying numbers of other goods and we've got ourselves an economy. I guess we'd need ways them to consume the goods as well such smoking during yard time.