I've been recently keeping a list of suggestions, while playing the game. Every time I got an idea, I wrote it down so I could later propose them. Most of them, if not all are gameplay-related.
By the way, english is not my first language so you may find my writing funny.
Deployment zones :
When assigning deployment zones, I noticed that we should be able to assign several categories to a single zone. For example, setting up a workshop accessible by minsec and midsec while locked for maxsec/supermax.
Reputation system :
Each prison should have a reputation level and traits (e.g. small, big, high security, dangerous, safe, harsh....) influenced by its installations, staff and global behavior (e.g. number of guards per prisoner, death rate, misconduct rates, cell quality, number of CCTV). You could be asked by a CEO event to higher your prison reputation, or make it acquire a specific trait. Each death or escape would negatively impact your reputation, and early releases with no reoffending, or reformed prisoners would positively impact it.
Your lawyer, or a new staff member called "press assistant" or something similar would set up communication policies (hide death rates, allow or not press footages...) to influence your reputation.
A high reputation would give you more federal aid, while a too low reputation would cost you fines, or even be shutdown by an ONG.
Adding a "VIP" inmate category :
Ever heard of those celebrities being incarcerated ? I don't think they would fit in the midsec wing dealing cigs and coke. That's why they put them in special VIP quarters. VIP inmates would be brought in your prison by events and would require special treatment. Any VIP injured, or even killed would make the press run amok and severely damage your reputation.
Custom inmates categories :
Following the previous suggestion, we could go further by being able to set up our own inmates categories. I don't think it should be done by overwriting those existing, which would cause complications. But we could at least set up one or two custom categories.
Job list :
We are able to have a look at the jobs being done in our prison in the reports "jobs" tab. This could be improved by adding a sorting feature (e.g. show only guard jobs), and means to give priority levels to some jobs (like fixing the supermax wing main door before installing a TV in the minsec wing).
Jobs checklist, protocols :
We should be able to set up a checklist of different actions (e.g. search specific cells) to be executed when we click on a button.
In the same way, we could set up protocols (e.g. each prisoner passing by a marked zone should be searched, this would be useful for visitation room or workshop exit)
Select filters :
Implementing select filters (people only, objects only, utilities only) would improve the gameplay
Prisoners :
It would be good to add a "go to cell" button on prisoner sheets.
Also, PA lacks an efficient interface to easily sweep prisoners. As an example, the difficulty created by the virus event only comes from the fact that you have to manually select each prisoner to check his sickness and eventually assign them to permanent lockdown. Then you have to do it again several times to "de-lockdown" each no longer sick prisoner. Well, that could be easily done if we could display the inmates list, and be able to sort them given specific criteria (p.e. : checkboxes like "show midsec" "show PC", "show those in solitary", "show inmates with reoffending chance lower than X %"...)
Finally, the following individual punishments could be considered : "deny visitation privileges", "can not work in X", "can not use the phone"...
Improved clone feature :
The clone button allows us to temporarily save a particular room layout. Why not permanently save layouts ?
Sell stored objects :
It would be great if we could get rid of your storage content by selling it (with a discount) and not be forced to dump it.
That's it, I hope these are not too dumb.
Of course, I have no idea how difficult it would be to implement that kind of features. Maybe it's up to a code line changing for some, and a complete overhaul for others, so I'm open to any comments.
