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[Graknorke]

Well, looking at Paolo's games, it seems like they intent to tell a message to the player by showing them it, rather than having the player draw a conclusion from meaningful mechanics. Noticed it particularly in 'Unmanned', that there were single "correct" branches in conversations, and you would get a medal for following those because you did a good/bad thing.

[nenjin]

Well the maxim for writers is "show, don't tell."

What would it be for simulators? "Enable, don't show?"

[Vattic]

nenjin I don't fully understand your complaint. I don't think he is arguing for a specific left leaning message to be delivered through the game, but instead for a more nuanced simulation in specific areas. Complaints/suggestions include:
- more unhappiness feedback besides frequent rioting.
- a downside to solitary confinement.
- rehabilitation.
- more interaction with the outside world.
- alternate viable options besides turning your prison into a factory.

Most of these have been confirmed by the devs in the video response.

[nenjin]

Partly it's the tone. It's kind of accusatory in places, as though his expectation is that show casing these things should have been a point of development from the outset. Like "The lack of emphasis on drug sentencing is a glaring oversight." (Not actual quote.) Well, no, it's not a glaring oversight. It's just not fleshed out in the alpha build.

It's his seeming desire for atrocities to be up on display that makes me think he's not seeing the idea of a simulation as a whole. You don't start a simulation by going "Ok, how do I make hunger strikes happen." You spend a year and a half building an environment where something like that has context. Which is what Introversion has done.

It's basically a journalist who has spent probably 8 hours on a game, probably not read the forums or listened to developer commentary, getting a little breathless because he wants to address a larger social issue. He doesn't hate the game and they don't hate his review. Tonally though, I have problems with it and I'd question if it comes down to his own perception of what's most important. (i.e, the message not the game or having a great sandbox.) Maybe he was playing an older build before policies, but if not, it tells me he didn't really pay very close attention to the game. I don't expect him to know as much someone playing since Alpha 1, but I'd expect him to know and have played a bit more before he structured and spiced his article the way he did. An interesting review would have been "Prison Architect vis-a-vis the American Prison System" with "Prison Architect of course is still in Alpha" at the end of every couple of paragraphs. But it's not. And as Chris and Mark point out, his one-sided view from the American standpoint (funny because the writer isn't American and should be well aware other kinds of prisons are out there) makes for a lop-sided perspective. Then again, when it comes to social justice, much like the media, good news doesn't get written about as much as bad news.

[Vattic]

I would agree his tone is accusatory and even combative. The things he mentions are those that would jump out for a left-wing player. Considering the praise he gave the game and the quote bellow I figured it was deliberately written in a passionate style.

Not at the end of every couple of paragraphs, but he does mention it's alpha quite a few times and also lays out his reasons for posting.

One of the reasons developers pre-release games is to create a community around their titles and involve players in the development process. After hearing concerns about the very existence of a prison simulator, I decided to play it extensively and to start a conversation (in the comment section below) about the political and ethical implications of the game.

Also, unlike myself, he doesn't seem to think it's set in the states as he says it's set in a nation modelled after the USA.

I can understand your position better now.

Edit to add: I'm glad it's not set in UK prisons. The main reason being that at even a hint of gang activity all the suspected members get split up across the country. Looking forward to gang interactions.

[Rez]

o/t: Welcome to gawker journalism friends.

[woose1]

For some reason I can't get any sheet metal imported. After building a workshop and setting prisoners to work there no sheet metal gets delivered and they just end up hanging out in the workshop and then eventually stabbing each other to death with powertools out of boredom. Anyone else getting this?

[Zangi]

For some reason I can't get any sheet metal imported. After building a workshop and setting prisoners to work there no sheet metal gets delivered and they just end up hanging out in the workshop and then eventually stabbing each other to death with powertools out of boredom. Anyone else getting this?

The delivery/storage area, are they restricted?  That is where the sheet metal end up going.

[woose1]

For some reason I can't get any sheet metal imported. After building a workshop and setting prisoners to work there no sheet metal gets delivered and they just end up hanging out in the workshop and then eventually stabbing each other to death with powertools out of boredom. Anyone else getting this?

The delivery/storage area, are they restricted?  That is where the sheet metal end up going.

Nope. They're behind jail doors but I have guards set right near them. The trucks just aren't coming with any sheet metal in them. Wood logs getting turned into wood planks works fine but for some reason they won't import any metal whatsoever. I'll try with a new prison and see if I get the same result.

[PanH]

It's possible that they'll work on wood before making metal thingies. I'd try getting rid of all your logs.

[woose1]

It's possible that they'll work on wood before making metal thingies. I'd try getting rid of all your logs.

That's probably it then because in every case I had wood present. Just curious, which one is more profitable? Considering that wood requires an extra step (cutting down trees) I would assume wood planks sell for more but then again license plates require the press machine. Speaking of which they should really change the requirements for workshops to be just a saw machine instead of both the pressing machine and saw machine because if you chose to just use carpentry the other table just takes up space.

[ank]

It's possible that they'll work on wood before making metal thingies. I'd try getting rid of all your logs.

That's probably it then because in every case I had wood present. Just curious, which one is more profitable? Considering that wood requires an extra step (cutting down trees) I would assume wood planks sell for more but then again license plates require the press machine. Speaking of which they should really change the requirements for workshops to be just a saw machine instead of both the pressing machine and saw machine because if you chose to just use carpentry the other table just takes up space.

Wood is by far the most profitable. I haven't run the exact number, but all I know is that in my prison I get 5k for licence plates and 30k from wood each day.
Wood also only requires one work station.

[forsaken1111]

So Alpha 17 is out.

Trees take longer to grow and there is a new forestry zone where gardeners will automatically plant trees and trees fully grown will be autoharvested.

There are now armed guards.

[Tobel]

Patch day. Updated OP.

Changelog:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

= Armed guards
    You can now hire armed guards to patrol your prison, intimidate your inmates, and put down trouble
    You must research the Armoury first, and your armoury requires a weapons rack and one locker per armed guard on site
    Armed guards have a strong "Supression" effect on all prisoners near them, making the prisoners less likely to misbehave
    They can be instructed to follow a patrol from the Deployment screen
    They will only use lethal force if you give them permission - by clicking the "Weapons Free" emergency button
    They will always shout a warning first, unless a Prisoner is attacking a member of staff (guard, armed guard, administrator etc)
    They will also shoot on site any prisoner who is about to escape, without shouting a warning, so long as they have "Weapons Free"
    Note: Armed guards who genuinely fear for their lives may still shoot, even if you have not given them permission via "Weapons Free"
    Note: The Armoury must be very secure. Your most dangerous prisoners will attempt to raid it during a riot or mass escape event
   
= New Forestry zone
    Automates the process of growing trees for the purposes of felling them and using the wood
    Saplings will be planted automatically by Gardeners
    Fully grown trees will be felled, and the logs taken to Storage or your Workshop if you have one
    Trees now take much longer to grow to full size : 5 game-days on average
    Trees no longer scale up as they grow.  Instead there are three discreet sizes : Sapling, Young, and Old.
    You can no longer remove tree stumps. These will vanish over time after a tree has been felled.
    Note: The forestry will spend your money by ordering tree saplings automatically. Be sure you have enough
   
= Objects toolbar filtering
    The objects list was becoming too long to manage, and no longer fitted on a single screen
    A new filtering method hides any "room specific" objects unless you are looking at that type of room
    Eg the Cooker, Fridge and Sink will only appear in the list if you are looking at a Kitchen
    Note: You can press the + button to show the full objects list at any time

= Modding continued
    - materials.txt is now additively loaded
    - The mod loading screen now looks better and displays the mod name, author, screenshot and description during load
    - Added a "Find more mods (Steam Workshop)" button that opens the steam workshop
    - Renamed "Steam Workshop" to "Prison Sharing", and made it list prisons only (not mods)
    - Made Prison Sharing sort prisons by subscribed time (newest subscribed prisons at the top of the list)
    - Fixed manifest.txt files from being corrupted due to newline breaks in Steam file description. May require people to redownload the mod.

- You will now be asked "Are you sure" when purchasing neighbour plots of land (to prevent expensive mis-clicks)

- The Main Menu screens now scale correctly to high resolution / high DPI screens (eg Retina Mac at 2560x1600)

- Guards now target the nearest misbehaving prisoner during fights, rather than choosing one randomly from those in range

- When prisoners urinate or soil their suits (Bowel/Bladder need maxed out) there is now a corrisponding particle effect

- Fixed : Selling finished license plates or wood manually generated only half the correct sale price

- Fixed : Subscribing and unsubscribing to your own mod in Steam Workshop will no longer delete your mod from your hard drive

- Fixed : The scrollbar in the Staff and Prisoner list screens now works correctly

- Fixed : Prisoners can no longer tunnel under lakes

- Fixed : The contraband window sometimes massively overestimated the supply of contraband

- Fixed some subtle bugs in the Misconduct System, whereby misconduct attributed to prisoners who had long since left was still recorded

- Fixed : Sectorisation of the world could fail if you had a lake covering the top right of the map (All sectors marked as NO ACCESS)

[PanH]

Oh, armed guards. Nice.