[Suggestion] Inmate interactions and characters

[Semtexian]

We know gangs are probably making it into the game, but I'd like to see certain inmates develop into other roles, like the pushers, the junkies, the gamblers, the basketball guys, the workout guys, etc. Then we can see others interact with them and to give the game some randomness, partly to make some adversity but also to give it some flavor. Seeing only gang behavior might get stale after a while.

Examples:
-A certain group of inmates may decide to continually harass and beat up another one. Not really gang stuff, just bullying. Perhaps he could become someone's bitch... IsBitch=true
-A guy that works in the workshop has the connect to make weapons, so others go to him to get their shivs
-Drug dealer types that others go to get their fix (side effect of prisoners becoming more violent)
-Junkies that become kind of lethargic, sick and eventually need to get medical help
-Gamblers that take over common rooms
-Other less impactful behaviors: sports guys, workout guys, prayer or religious groups, etc

So ways to combat against the bad ones could be guard patrols and cell inspections. Junkies can be helped in rehab clinics. But to give it a bit more challenge, the offenders could be protected by having influence with gangs. Sending guards or searches might not work all the time or only stops them temporarily (sent to solitary). If left unchecked their influence might grow too much to handle effectively, and some kind of lockdown scenario might have to happen to fix things. Another general way to curb this might be to limit free time, but then that effects everyone's need for recreation, hygiene, or exercise.

Just some initial thoughts for now, but we can think up other scenarios here

[Semtexian]

To add to that, you might not even really need to or want to stop these things from happening depending on how hard the game will be. It could be more of just the emergent behavior novelty aspect of it. Like in the bitch scenario, we could see him eventually bringing food to his tormentors in their cells. Funny stuff like that

[wfuller]

+1

There was a time when I thought they actually had put such personalities in game... In my case a bit of a lazy guy. I had a prisoner who constantly argued & caused fights due to not having enough recreation. It turns out that it was simply due to missing out on all of his free time, as after every meal pretty much he was put into lockdown! Every free time slot he spent in his cell. I only realised this after putting a TV into his room.

But yes, I completely agree that prisoner personalities could be a great addition. Perhaps to find out what the prisoner is like, they would need a talk with the psychiatrist. Maybe the psychiatrist could bring each prisoner in over time, or it could be part of the 'induction' process.

[madcow]

I like this idea, and also the idea of making them actually visit the psychiatrist to learn those sort of details about a prisoner rather than it just automatically happening if you have one.

You could have sort of flags like aggressive or passive (or maybe an aggressive scale from 1-10 to have it more gradual), and then inmate interactions come from that. And then throw gangs into the mix and you could get cool dynamics in how gangs form and interact. For instance some gangs might have more aggressive members in it, whereas others are more passive, which would be completely emergent rather than preplanned, or others might be two people "gangs" of an aggressive and a passive member.

[madcow]

I hate to double post, but the more I thought about my "aggressiveness meter" the more I like it actually. If it was a scale from 1-10, it would need a gaussian distribution (aka, most people are 5 or 6. A few 4 & 7's, very rare to get anything more but still possible). The inmates with higher aggression are more likely to get into fights, push the other inmates around (limited seating? Get out of my seat, I'm bigger than you), and so on. That's not to say less aggressive inmates are docile, as they're getting pushed around more, they'll reach a point where they can't take it anymore and go berserk.

Another interesting mechanic that could come of this is if you have a super aggressive character in a gang. It would be very easy to get him mad, resulting in the whole gang getting mad, and in turn sparking a riot. So you might decide to give that super aggressive character special treatment, a bigger cell, better arrangements, a tv, etc... which sure you could do, which has interesting ethical questions of basically catering to a prison mob boss. This isn't some coded in function either, I was more thinking of how it would be a sort of emergent behavior if there was code related to gangs and aggressiveness - it's possible this sort of behavior wouldn't happen, but it would be damn cool to see it and similar things organically pop up.

[frasercarter]

I like this, this is good, this makes sense, then you can also separate the more dangerous criminals from the more easier to manage !!!!


+10 for this idea.

[RMJ1984]

Yeah stuff shouldn all happen instantly, its a good point that they should visit the psykiatrist first so you learn about them, that also adds yet another aspect of deciding how many of those rooms you want. and ofcourse being able to hire from a selection of people like in Theme hospital, so you can choose the expensive but better one, or maybe you are low and cash and have to settle with the not quite as good psykiatrist.

[praguepride]

I had an idea that I think would be interesting:


Basically prisoners would have "roles" that they play. These wouldn't be formal roles like "dishwasher" but more like informal classifications about how they fit into the prison environment.

There are 5 that I thought of but it should be easy to think of more:

1) Troublemakers - they love to cause trouble. You set up a rule and they'll just try and break it
2) Squealers - if you can keep them alive and happy they'll become your best friends
3) Fixers - black market operators that wheel and deal in contraband
4) Psychos - they just want to cause pain. Different from trouble makers in that trouble makers will start fights to cause trouble but won't necessarily go for serious injuries while psychos want a string of bodies
5) Masterminds - the brains behind the operation. They will rarely get caught for anything but they'll be the real source behind your troubles.


What I think would be interesting is that if these roles were hidden from the player. You would have to guess based upon their actions like if an inmate is constantly hurting others then he might be a psycho, if he's neck deep in the black market he might be a fixer. If the other inmates seem to hATE him for no apparant reason he might be a squealer etc. etc.

THEN once the player THINKS he knows what role an inmate is he can assign them a role. This is an informal role to indicate how the staff treats that inmate. Squealers should be protected, Fixers should be searched, Psychos need to be medicated, Trouble Makers need to be observed, and everyone needs to be alert around a mastermind.

The upside is that if you correctly label an inmate, they become easier to deal with. If you do it incorrectly, then they become more difficult as they become unhappy due to their mistreament and the staff ends up wasting their time.

[stelly]

I love this idea, also have to keep rival gangs apart as well due to fighting and what not... but on the other hand serial killers are loners, but sometimes will join gangs in prision but I think that this should make them more dangerous...

I was also thinking that prisioners should be scared of different people or more likely to hurt people, for example, serial killer who is very unhinged most of them will stay clear, but say a bad cop or pedo they will go out of their way to hurt....

Stelly

[madcow]

I would add that beyond just having to guess a role, sending them to a psychologist for X amount of time ought to be able to determine it. You still have to guess to some degree as there are far more prisoners than there are psychologists.

[Reaper Black]

There are 5 that I thought of but it should be easy to think of more:

1) Troublemakers - they love to cause trouble. You set up a rule and they'll just try and break it
2) Squealers - if you can keep them alive and happy they'll become your best friends
3) Fixers - black market operators that wheel and deal in contraband
4) Psychos - they just want to cause pain. Different from trouble makers in that trouble makers will start fights to cause trouble but won't necessarily go for serious injuries while psychos want a string of bodies
5) Masterminds - the brains behind the operation. They will rarely get caught for anything but they'll be the real source behind your troubles.

How's about:

6) Runners - Always looking for the way out. Likes to steal spoons to start their tunnel projects.

[Playergamer]

I think you should know who the squealers are. Other then the squealers, you shouldn't know the roles.

[Saranis]

I think you should know who the squealers are. Other then the squealers, you shouldn't know the roles.

Wouldn't be a very good rat if you didnt know who they were as the authorities.

[BreadMurderer]

I like the topics discussed in this thread.

squealers could also clear up the FoW a wee bit so that would be a bonus to security staff...