How tough are gangs?

[WiseWoodrow]

Just a question, how powerful are gangs at the current state in the alpha? I want to enable them, but the alpha videos made it sort of clear that 'if you put gangs into your prison, they're going to fuck it up.
But how much of a challenge are they really? I have ~200 prisoners, 0 Legendary. (Not that I want them, they're quite OP - hence this topic asking about another feature being OP or not)

If I enable gangs in my pre-existing prison, (Because I'm too lazy to make another one,) will it just go to hell in a hand basket, or will it just be a bit of extra challenge?
I like the idea but don't want to be buttfucked.

[Skull Beef]

Not that tough (At least in mine) I have 500 prisoners and only a ratio of a about 9-5-4 in the various gang groups. They are tougher than normal prisoners and have started a riot but nothing I couldn't handle

[Mikeldiablo]

I think they become a problem when they get a leader. Otherwise, they can't make plays or anything like that. The fact that a gang is ferociously loyal to their leader also makes a problem, especially if he gets punished or killed.

[sonic_m]

The critical point is the leader: Whenever he is in lockdown or solitary, the whole prison (not just the gang members!) will go nuts.
Since gang leaders have to be legendary prisoners and legendary prisoners tend to misbehave the gang leaders will frequently face punishment.

[RJenkos]

And if the leader dies there will be an instant riot. Not that I've had that happen twice or anything.

[WiseWoodrow]

The critical point is the leader: Whenever he is in lockdown or solitary, the whole prison (not just the gang members!) will go nuts.
Since gang leaders have to be legendary prisoners and legendary prisoners tend to misbehave the gang leaders will frequently face punishment.

That actually seems really OP, and is probably why I won't be enabling it any time soon.
ANY time I ever get a legendary It tends to loop insanely - Gets in trouble, gets locked up, comes out of lockup, instantly goes ballistic due to needs -> repeat
Even if you build a room for your prisoner to cover as many needs as possible, Legendary prisoners have a tendency to hate your guts as soon as they get locked up.
It's ridiculous to really deal with them, and if the gangs go berserk during this?

Yeah, not happening. Prison Architect has a really difficult time balancing "easy" and "INSANE DIFFICULTY" apparently. Is a shame, I'd love to use this feature.

If I call in the riot guards, hire extra security, then just Armed-Guard force execute a gang leader, maybe I can deal. But I'm a bad legendary manager as is.

[Mikeldiablo]

I haven't even gotten a legendary in my own prisons. I think I would have to hope that he doesn't have stoical AND fearless as reputations. If he did, I would be doomed. If not, my armed guard who patrols the Death Row block just next to the Supermax block would help suppress him.

[Freebo]

I enabled it on one of my old saves with around 250 prisoners. I made 3 random prisoners leaders of each colour gang. A leader is one sure quick way to make gangs big, within a day they had all recruited around 15-20 members. within the following days they seem to reach a limit to their gang size of around 25 - 30 and didnt seem to get any bigger. I guess the limit is a percentage of your prison population as they dont get jobs so would be bad having no prisoners working!

Im not sure if it is because I retro added gangs to my prison but for over 150 days they simply took ownership of places like they are supposed to and gained money. No fighting no deaths nothing. I couldnt understand it! I then got bored of it and decided to play around with another of my prisons where they werent as well looked after and sure enough they started fighting and killing