PA V1: Errors, bugs and some suggestions

[corblimeywimey]

I wanted to provide some feedback, hoping that it helps, but apparently the guidelines are very "no we don't want you to just go and do that".
I know Mantis exists, but I quite honestly can't go down that rabbit hole.

As I am the one who paid for the product instead of getting paid for it, I expect to be not just be allowed to report back errors, but to actually have that be found helpful, since I am investing my time for free to fix a product for others.

So here are some observations from playing the V1 first "full" release of Prison Archictect. Here is also me hoping this gets read by someone or does something or whatever:

Bugs/errors:
-Campaign, Mission 2, dialogue in the polaroid shower scene: "Don't come the saint" ??? I will assume it meant to be something like "Don't play the saint"
-Campaign, Mission 2, creating a common room for alcoholic group therapy is not enough; you need to also assign "work" for the program to start. This is unclear from the tutorial texts. You also need to assign two hours at once. If you assign only one hour at first, and then later add a second, it will not automatically start sessions. you must stop and re-start the program for it to work with 2 hours then.
-Medical bed description is wrong, reads: a place to hold your narcotics until prisoners steal them. Maybe intended for a drug cabinet? Or just plain weird.
-Prison labour assignment resets when you increase the same rooms size, you have to reassign workers to said room, e.g. cleaning crew to cleaning closet. It also seems to show the full room of what the 3x3 room marker is in in logistics view to be green, even if the room designation for the cleaning closet is only a fraction of it(as it does not require to be a closed off room, just 3x3 and indoors).
-Mission 3 (the one with the hostage and Riot police / Armed Guards, solitary confinement quest etc) had a bug where no matter how many guards I ordered into the security room or assigned to it, they would not use the CCTV console to monitor the cameras. I also hooked up remote controlled doors and actually had a guard operating the remote door control, yet that guard never opened a remote door despite the door being connected to an opening mechanism which was connected by wire to the door remote opener in the security room which was watched by a guard. Which, by the way, has got to be one of the most complicated and convoluted ways of managing "automatic" doors(i.e. is so much more work to set up I'd sooner manually deal with doors). And then is only a 1 tile door? I don't even know if I could put 2 next to each other and have that work. PA is very unclear on a lot of things that way.
-Same mission 3: Adding more cleaning closets will not work. You can only assign a crew to the first one you build. You will only complete that objective if it is made large enough. Multiple rooms will not allow quest completion. Not sure if "works as designed", since I can assign people to multiple kitchens.


Lacking features for UI / comfort:
-no mass selection of objects and moving them "locked" / in formation at once (for example tables in canteen)
-why can't I select a mis-placed item and rotate it after it has been placed? right now I need to dismantle it, then re-place it rotated after thats done
-no dependency display of objects, e.g. table in canteen has no shadows on either side for a bench to show it can be used from both sides(I would not have known its two-sided without the tutorial and I assume many objects have this issue..for example it would also seem some objects fore recreation do not get used in some rooms they can be placed in?)
-areas to be bulldozed dont get marked with anything to let me know what is going to be bulldozed and wall etc previews do not show during room placement mode
-sprinklers do not show a preview of the area of effect, I have no idea how well or wide they will work
-searching the cell of a prisoner that overdoses makes guards transport him to solitary first instead of taking him to medical assistance immediately.
-Why do I have to LMB click, can't I press space in the cutscene dialogues to accelerate / move forward in the cutscene?
-keyboard shortcuts for things like object deletion are needed, dito more precise group selection(shift/ctrl select), grouping, etc


General weirdness:
Lockable/unlockable Doors are a nightmare and guards will dilly-dally around next to them for forever sometimes and people stand next to them waiting forever while 50+ idle guards exist on the map without getting anything done. Pathfinding and door opening priorities seem to be horrible. Current workaround for me is forcing them always open.

[Brento666]

Heya,
I get your point on mantis. It shouldn't be up to us end users to enter/track/merge bugs, but introversion is just not a huge company. Obviously by now they should have key people on this job.

The campaign is very new, new PA stuff usually has some bugs... I tried escape mode yesterday, it is fun, but I also encountered 3 separate game breaking bugs in that 1 session;
-fog of war covering my active character(s) zone(s).
-character selection menu being rendered off screen.
-character at edge of grounds wasn't being detected as escaped.

Lucky that saving and reloading did allow me to recover from all 3 bugs and escape a little later on!


I'm sure the monthly updates will continue for now to fix issues, don't worry!

[corblimeywimey]

Thanks for replying.
I'm actually despite all of this slight clunkyness still quite happy with the V1 and I do expect Introversion to continue working on this game for quite a while longer.
I just wanted to help a bit. I do really like the game and its still immense potential.

As for Mantis, quite honestly, for things like the wrong dialogue, I'd sooner send them a corrected .lua / .txt file than work with the bugtracker itself.

[czar mohab]

had a bug where no matter how many guards I ordered into the security room or assigned to it, they would not use the CCTV console to monitor the cameras. I also hooked up remote controlled doors and actually had a guard operating the remote door control, yet that guard never opened a remote door despite the door being connected to an opening mechanism which was connected by wire to the door remote opener in the security room which was watched by a guard. Which, by the way, has got to be one of the most complicated and convoluted ways of managing "automatic" doors(i.e. is so much more work to set up I'd sooner manually deal with doors). And then is only a 1 tile door? I don't even know if I could put 2 next to each other and have that work. PA is very unclear on a lot of things that way.

When connecting these items, the first item you select is considered the controlling station and the next item or items is what is being controlled. So if you click on a CCTV Monitor (in connect mode), then a CCTV camera it will work and then monitor should soon be manned. If you have multiple cameras to connect, select the CCTV Monitor, then Shift+Click to connect the cameras. Method works also for door controller stations (manned, auto, pressure plates and servos - more on servos in a bit) connecting to servos and Phone Taps to Phones. I won't get in to logic circuits here, but there's plenty in the forums for learning about those.

Ex.: CCTV Monitor -> Camera, Phone Tap -> Phone, Pressure Plate -> Door Servo.

Servos can be set up as both a controller and a controlled object - that is, when the Door Control Station (whatever is telling the servo to actuate) tells a servo to actuate, it will actuate that servo and if there is a servo connected to it downstream, that servo will also actuate. I say actuate because the servo is set to "Open" when it receives an actuation signal by default, but can be set to "Close". I don't know if it is covered in the mission or not (haven't had any time for PA lately) but the Servos can be used on any door. Useless, however, on the basic wooden variety.

-no mass selection of objects and moving them "locked" / in formation at once (for example tables in canteen)

While a workaround, and likely not exactly ideal for the situation you describe, you can use the clone tool before you dismantle items to "move" them. Never personally tried to clone an area then dismantle the cloned area then place that clone somewhere else, so I don't fully know if that would work or not - I'm not sure when the "copy" portion of this "copy-paste" occurs.

Lockable/unlockable Doors are a nightmare and guards will dilly-dally around next to them for forever sometimes and people stand next to them waiting forever while 50+ idle guards exist on the map without getting anything done. Pathfinding and door opening priorities seem to be horrible. Current workaround for me is forcing them always open.

Guards stationed in a room should be getting the call to unlock the door(s) associated to that room first, followed by idle guards. Guards set to patrol a room will stick to their patrol and ignore doors unless their patrol route goes through the door, at which point they will only unlock the door as they pass through as part of their patrol. If nothing else, you can right-click to open doors in traffic jams. May need to tab-cycle down to the door if lots of pawns are in the way, though.

The Czar