Alpha 9 Thoughts

[Causeless]

Just making this thread, half to inform people that Alpha 9 is out (usually I don't realise until a few days later).

The new mechanics are amazing!

[Stellar]

where's changelog? not in a wiki.

[Parker22]

Changelog is in the blog


Nice big update, lots to get through. I skipped 8 so have to get back on it

Cheers

[flatlander]

I love the new updates. Too bad I have no time to play games right now.... ><

[City Builder]

where's changelog? not in a wiki.

The following was in the email for the full change list.

= Employment
Prisoners can now perform different jobs during a new 'Work' regime activity
Create employment opportunities with the new 'Jobs' button in the Deployment screen
Prisoners not employed during the 'Work' regime treat it as 'Free Time'
Currently available prisoner jobs : Laundry, Cooking, Cleaning, Workshop
Note: The rooms must be accessable, ie Prisoners can't cook if the kitchen is Staff Only
Note: Eventually you will pick who can work, but for now every prisoner is permitted to work

= Laundry
New rooms and objects have been added to support creation of a Laundry service within your prison
Clean prisoner uniforms are distributed around the prison in Laundry Baskets
Dirty uniforms are collected up and brought back to the Laundry room, where they are washed in machines
Prisoners now get undressed in their cells before Shower Time, and return to their cell after to re-dress
They will change into a clean uniform if one is available, leaving behind their dirty uniform for laundry.
Prisoners now have a 'Clothing' need that reflects how clean their clothes are
Note: Clean prison uniforms will be stored on any table space, or on the floor, in the Laundry

= Workshops
You can now create workshops and use them to convert cheap raw materials into trinkets of value
Raw sheet metal will be dropped off in your workshops
Your Prisoners will use the circular saw and hydraulic press to manufacture car number plates
These will be sold at midnight for a profit
Note: Sheet metal and License plates will be stored on the floor in the workshop.
Build tables if you prefer your rooms to be tidy

= Families and Visitation
All Prisoners now have various family members, listed in their Rap Sheet. Some prisoners have no family.
Family members will want to visit an inmate from time to time
You can now create a visitation room, and visitors will start to arrive every day (8am - 8pm)
Prisoners can also take visits from their lawyer
Note: All bios from old save games will be re-generated to support this

= Cleaning
- Prisoners can now help out with the cleaning of your prison
- New room : Cleaning Cupboard. This is required to assign Prisoners to the cleaning job.
- Janitors and Prisoners will now clean inside individual jail cells, so long as the cell is open to them
- The rendering of decay has been improved - eg muddy floors, dirty shower cubicles, overgrown pathways etc
- Surfaces will now Decay 50% slower than before


- Food Ingredients will now be stored on the kitchen floor if there is no available fridge space

- Older prisoners now have older faces, and are less likely to be incarcerated for certain crimes like Joyriding etc

- Fences now visually join onto walls better

- Electrical cable and water pipes now come in stacks to prevent flooding your deliveries area

- Fixed: Workshops no longer award you money per square.

- Fixed: The deployment system would not always update correctly, leading to a single grey sector

- Fixed: Crash bug in planning mode when drawing off the edge of the map

- Fixed: Dead staff members will no longer be paid a daily wage

- Fixed: The game would not render correctly on Windows Vista or higher when non-standard desktop DPI settings were used

- Fixed: Prisoners under lockdown in their cells would sometimes leave their cell to go to lunch/yard etc,
only to be chased down immediately by guards and returned

[City Builder]

So, it was interesting to play again. I haven't played in a couple versions now.

My prison ended in disaster. I don't know what happened, whether it was a planned attack by a prisoner or a random gas main line explosion or what but all of a sudden the corridor was on fire, then walls were crumbling around the fire while we waited on the two fire engines arrived.

Of course then I had to discover that the firemen are dumb as stumps on their own and can't enter the prison without my direct control. By this point I had lost about 9 cells. Finally figured that one out and directed the 2 squads of firemen into the prison proper to start putting out the fire.

One firemen was brutally attacked by a prisoner and knocked unconscience, others stood around with their hose in hand.

My accountant succumbed to smoke inhaliation as by this point the fire had spread through the canteen, holding cell, all the offices (except Security Chief Dan's office seemed to be saved, he must know the firechief).

Eventually the fire was extinguished but the damage was too great. We are now waiting on prison transport to move what's left alive of the prisoners to a new prison someplace else, Or maybe we'll just send them over to the fire house to stay with the firemen for a present on how (hard) the firemen worked to put out the fire. Yeah, yeah that's it.

[Orosian]

"Your Prisoners will use the circular saw and hydraulic press"

... What's the worst that could happen?

[Dosedmonkey]

Sounds good will give this a go later when I get a chance.

The news section in PA on steam should be updated, so people are aware the game auto updated.

[Ric666]

A really good looking patch.

Lots of new content & finally a real use for workshops


Question though for IV or anyone thats tested this already.

Does worktime still count as freetime for anyone not assigned to jobs?
I would assume so but would be nice to get confirmation.

[cueball909]

"Your Prisoners will use the circular saw and hydraulic press"

... What's the worst that could happen?

The devs have said that, for now, workshops are a free ride. You'll get money from the license plates and the prisoners can't kill each other with the table saws or anything like that. But in a future update there will likely be accidents and "accidents" as well as tools used for nefarious purposes (shanking and jailbreaks).

[Parker22]

A really good looking patch.

Lots of new content & finally a real use for workshops


Question though for IV or anyone thats tested this already.

Does worktime still count as freetime for anyone not assigned to jobs?
I would assume so but would be nice to get confirmation.

From what I can see, this is the case, yes.

I am changin all my free time to work time ATM. Because the prisoner selection is random, it should not matter too much

[Dosedmonkey]

Liking the update so far, very good amount of added content. Just building another prison from scratch to make the update last longer. I like the updated icons on the room panel and objects panel bottom left of interface too, much improved.

A really good looking patch.

Lots of new content & finally a real use for workshops


Question though for IV or anyone thats tested this already.

Does worktime still count as freetime for anyone not assigned to jobs?
I would assume so but would be nice to get confirmation.

Caveatgez as suggested the best thing.

[RMJ1984]

Definitely awesome.

I feel they need to work on stuff in the beginning, the way the game starts isnt that fun or exciting.

You have to wait 24 hours for prisoners, there should just be a button "Open Prison" something like that.

I still keep hoping for each update they will add mouse scroll, i hate using wasd to scroll, i mean even bullfrog games had this. come on introversion xD.

[City Builder]

"Your Prisoners will use the circular saw and hydraulic press"

... What's the worst that could happen?

The devs have said that, for now, workshops are a free ride. You'll get money from the license plates and the prisoners can't kill each other with the table saws or anything like that. But in a future update there will likely be accidents and "accidents" as well as tools used for nefarious purposes (shanking and jailbreaks).

I'm guessing English may not be your native language, in case it isn't...

I'm pretty sure the author meant it as a rhetorical question.

[Dosedmonkey]

Really good so far.

The visitor room is working fine for me, I place a jail door on the outside of the room, allowing access to the road. And a normal door on the inside of my room, allowing rapid access to the prison for prisoners.

HOWEVER...

I have a bug where none of the clothes are getting placed in laundry baskets, thus not picked up, because the prisoners refuse to do the work, qued in the job list.

In Regime, they have two hours in morning, and four hours in afternoon for Work, but they only treat it as free time. I have no other designated free time.

Have I done something wrong here?

See job list in screenshot...



UPDATE: My Regime set up....




ANOTHER UPDATE....

Issue solved, didn't realise this...

You need to assign them jobs through the deployment screen, just as you assign guards to sectors.