More Prison Tycoon notes
Okay, I’ve figured out one or two more mechanisms for this game.
Staff building:
Land use office 1/2/3: When you create the level 1 land office, you get access to an adjacent lot for prison construction. Presumably levels 2 and 3 give you more land.
Clerical office 1/2/3: The level 1 clerical office reduces your maintenance costs by 50%. Since maintenance costs appear to be equal to the original cost of construction for each turn, this is a pretty hefty savings! Level 2 reduces costs by 66%, and level 3 by 75%. Supposedly an existing office is required to build the next level, but due to a programming bug you can delete the offices once they have been built and still keep the maintenance savings.
Small guardroom: This provides you with one guard who will patrol the prison. A guardroom is cheaper than a guard tower, but provides less surveillance (if there is such a thing).
Maintenance room: This provides you with one repair guy.
Visitor’s reception: Although you can build a reception area and even a visitor’s center, I don’t think there is any code in place for this to do anything. I’m sure the original design had some mechanism involving visitors, but the feature got cut.
Staff rooms: Another feature that seems to have been yanked, as none of the staff ever make use of the staff rooms (maintenance always stays at 100%).
Health services building:
Hospital: Each hospital provides you with a medic who will wander around the prison. Injured prisoners will sometimes use one of the beds, but this is rare.
Therapy rooms: Each therapy room provides you with a counselor who will wander around the prison. Prisoners will sometimes visit the therapists if they aren’t busy with other things.
Services building:
Library, classroom, laundry, theater: Prisoners will go there, but serves no clear purpose.
Chapel: Each chapel provides one chaplain who will wander around the prison.
So some of these areas provide units which wander around the prison yard. I think they are supposed to autonomously perform their duties as needed, but I’ve noticed a large disparity when there are, for example, two medics: one of them will be ranked with a number of “jobs”, but the other has done zero.
An amusing thing about these units is that their animated behaviors are rather strange if not deranged. I think they are canned animations used by the developers to test certain features, and were supposed to be replaced before the game’s release.
If you select one of the units, you can click the green “do your job” button.
Handyman: He fixes whatever needs maintenance.
Guard: The guard will approach a prisoner and proceed to clobber them with a nightstick, the prisoner will fall to the ground. The prisoner will then be “happy”, meaning the action has satisfied some character need.
Medic: The medic will approach a prisoner who will fall to the ground (and a medical beep will sound). The medic then hammers at the prisoner’s leg a few times. This somehow heals the prisoner, and they can leave “happy”. (It is far less sexual than this description may sound.)
Counselor: The counselor plays some sort of juvenile trickery, waving his hand and then slapping the prisoner. The counselor then sobs, and slaps the prisoner again. This leaves the prisoner “happy”.
Chaplain: It’s a Catholic prison, and the chaplain blesses the prisoners, making them “happy”.
Prisoner moods:
I found a list of moods in the language.xml data file. The order of moods, from good to bad, are:
VERY HAPPY
HAPPY
QUITE HAPPY
QUITE PASSIVE
PASSIVE
VERY PASSIVE
QUITE BORED
BORED
VERY BORED
QUITE ANGRY
ANGRY
VERY ANGRY
There are three special moods:
HUNGRY
INJURED
BADLY INJURED
I just downloaded the demo thats suppose to be 60 minutes playing time but ended up being 10 minutes as when i put it on pause to use the restroom it locked up and when i rebooted it said my trial had expired… So i didnt accomplish anything but get a few buildings placed and thats it..
Game looked amusing but after reading your comments above i doubt i will pay the $20 for the full release …..
What do you have to do to start to receive inmates? I setup the prison and it says that since I have no cells setup that I cant get any prisoners. PLEASE HELP!!!!!!!!!!!
Jason, click the dorm building and then click the build icon. Instead of buildings there is now bunk beds and furniture to put in the building. Once the furniture is in and you have an excercise yard et.- the prisoners will slowly arrive on the bus.
Um Security Rating is supposed to increase but I can’t get to Med Security. Been playing for 15 (game) years with 100% prison rating and 89 Min security Prisoners………Fences? Towers? and How?
how do you get the prisoners to work in the shops????
to make them go to work you have to make sure they are happy. they also have to be full.
how do you delete this game
The most important thing if you wanna reach max level you need to build a lot of guardtowers and guard rooms.
I am having trouble finding how to add beds to housing, food tables to mess hall, work to the factory, etc. Basically, I put up a building and it is empty inside, and I can’t find any instruction in the manual about how to add the things it needs! Please help? Thanks.
Tree – After taking the roof off the building, just select the trowel, also known as the “build” button. This brings up the available options to add to your building. Happy New Year.
i have a pretty sweet prison.. maxed out.. anyways when new prisioners come theyre not allocated to a cell.. i have no clue what that is.. i click on the prisoners and i do see the cell with an x through it.. how can i allocate them to their cell???
how do u allocate the prisoners to a cell.. it keeps telling me theyre not allocated to a cell
good info at http://prisontycoon.blogspot.com/
> Jason, click the dorm building and then click
> the build icon. Instead of buildings there is
> now bunk beds and furniture to put in the
> building. Once the furniture is in and you
> have an excercise yard et.- the prisoners will
> slowly arrive on the bus.
Hello,
I did exactly as you describe in building the dorm, putting in bunk beds and future. I also build an excercise yard. I added a place for them to eat.
I stil get the message: I have no cells and prisoners can’t arrive.
I know I can’t have cells at level 1 but I have bunks. What gives?
Hi,
I want to reach the next security level (Med),
but I can’t build building with this security level. How can I reach the security level 2?
Great reading, keep up the great posts.
Peace, JiggaDigga
This game blows. No instructions no nothing. Gameplay is crap and music is soooo annoying.
This game is unrealistic but fun. I have had this game a couple days now, and am up to max security. I’ve built my death row and recieved 3 inmates for it. The problem is, once they come through the sally port gate, you can’t move them. So, how do I get the to the death house?
Are there executions in this game? I see that you can build an electric chair and an execution chamber, but can they actually be used?
I can’t seem to get any staff into my factory. What am I doing wrong? I have happy inmates but no administration in the factory so I can’t move the inmates over there. Thanks.
I noticed there was what looked like a manual at the beginning of the game the first time I brought it up. How do I get to that again? And how do you level up? Merely putting up more towers or are fences and walls involed?
How do you rotate the damn buildings??????
How do you get inmates for death row ounce you bought it and how do you use it on them?
I’ve got an excellent prision in all respects, but can’t increase my security – is this automatic? What am I supposed to do with walls and fences? Grrr…
This game is great I am up to 250 prisoners ande have max sec. To move the camra anglehold down the ctrl key and move the mouse around till you get the view you want. right click to turn the buildings around.
There are cheats for Prison Tycoon. While in game play press the enter key and then type the word sleepworker you will not see what you are typing but it will activate for the cheat codes. After you have typed that then just type in the code you want
X-changes your security levels
F4- makes your prisoners happy
F8- makes them hungry
F7 makes them angry
F6-makes them board
F5-makes then passive
6 makes time go super fast
m is the code to get more money
m is the code to get more money
can the execution rooms really be used?
i own prison tycoon, but this game is so hard, i get a decent prison, then ma money start running out erybody start fighting, then i cant change the camera, i cant build nothing extra cuz i have no money!!!!!!!!
Could someone please explain (it detail) what the requirements are to be upgraded to higher security levels? I have build towers, guard rooms, etc. and my 90 prisoner prison is still low security. HELP! Thanks!!
John S, I want to know too. I have a very large low level security prison and can’t seem to raise the security level either. I am raking in the cash on my factory, the fights are low to none, the rehabilitation rate is insanely awesome, I got guards up the yin yang and I just can’t get the stupid security level to raise. WHAT GIVES!?!?!
John and curious others, I believe I’ve found something. After 40 prison years, I decided to install a few more prison watch towers. When I did that the security level increased to Med. Then when I upgraded all those towers to Med. watch towers, the security level upgraded again to High, then when I upgraded all those watch towers to High, the security level upgraded again to Max! It seems watch towers are the secret we’ve all been looking for. Seriously, install more than you want just to get the level to upgrade. I even tested this by tearing down a tower, and when I did, the security level decreased. There you go.. have fun!
A few other notes as I learn. My messege above is a little misleading in that once you’ve gotten to Med. security, you can’t just upgrade towers in order to get High security. Yes you do need to upgrade your towers, but you must also accommedate the Med. security prisoners by installing Med. security level hospital amenities. The secret is in the towers, but you must prepare for the next level as much as possible as well before you’ll be granted a higher security level. Keep that in mind and you should see Max level fairly quickly. Also, don’t forget to have a factory. With out one, you will not gain money fast enough if at all.
Ok, now I’m having trouble with unallocated prisoners. Almost every turn, I end up with prisoners that are unallocated and then when the next day comes they are escaped. I can’t figure out how to alocate prisoners that are not allocated. Can anyone tell me how to allocate prisoners that wont automatically allocate?
Help>>>>>> I just got this game, built 3 prisons and now can’t get any of them to load. Can someone tell me how PLEASE?????????
I just bought Prisoner Tycoon 2. I can’t seem to get any prisoners into my Jail! I think the problem is I can’t build beds in my dormitorium. How can I do this? PLEASE HELP!
When I click on the dorms, etc I don’t have the option to build. When I click on the dorm I can see the interior of the building but don’t have the build tool available. Any help?
There’s a Prison Tycoon 2 now?
I’m not sure if I can stomach spending $20 on another ValuSoft game.
Prison Tycoon 2: My Thoughts…
Meh, the jury is still out on Prison Tycoon 2. After one day of play, I’ve figured out all of the basics about building but keeping inmates happy? I started out on free mode and built what I thought was a pretty decent place…
Turns out it was hell. Fights breaking out all the time, doctors walking right by sick and injured inmates, inmates attacking doctors, injured doctors and janitors crawling around on all fours… I think you get the point.
Maybe I’m going about this all wrong. The thing is, I used to work at a small (200 man) medium security prison. There, the rule to follow was 50 inmates to 1 guard; the inmates did all of the cleaning, maintenance consisted of 2 staff members overseeing inmate workers. We never would have dreamed of actually hiring janitors. Yet, in this game you have to, and even then they are aren’t very good, with trash lying all over the dormitories and janitors walking right by it. Even clicking “do my job” doesn’t help much.
This game would have benefited greatly from allowing you to specify what you wanted someone to do, such as making that guard crawl his ass into the clinic to get patched up, instead of him aimlessly crawling about until his death; or making that hungry inmate go into the mess hall.
All of that, and my prison was rioting with a grand total of 14 inmates… nuff said.
The game feels rather unfinished, I found myself wondering things like; “hmm, is that kitchen supposed to be empty, or can I just not figure out how to make someone work in there?” Or, “Damn, that inmate is hurting bad, why isn’t he going to the clinic? Wait, that doctor just walked right by him! WTF!!!”
I am going to give this game the benefit of the doubt, and try it one more time, since some of the others above me have actually managed to create a successful prison; but then again, those posts were about the first installment, which might have actually worked like it was supposed to.
!!!Oh, and to the guys who can’t seem to get inmates into your prison; build the dorm building first, then click on it to get into interior mode, click the trowel icon to bring up build options and place beds. Be forewarned that while this might get the bus to bring a few inmates, you better have other amenities available or they won’t last long.!!!
Ok, just got back from another mis-attempt at this game. Its official: Prison Tycoon 2 is a broken game.
This time I tried what others have said; micromanage like a mofo, picking up and moving people where they need to be, no go. Although you can pick up that crawling on all fours, mortally wounded inmate and place him in the clinic, he won’t use it. Nor will the hungry inmate eat, even if you put him RIGHT AT the chow hall counter. To top it all off, you have to watch your “crack” staff more than the inmates. Your guards will beat down an inmate on just a whim. In turn, the inmates will beat down the doctors and janitors. Soon (after getting about 14 inmates) you have a medical department filled with half dead inmates and staff members, crawling around the clinic, but not getting help. Frustrated, I used cheats and built the largest medical building and staffed it with about 12 doctors, still was not enough…
Thats not even counting the hunger issue, inmates and staff alike, with a full hunger bar won’t eat. This isn’t like a real prison, where ALL the inmates eat at the same time, they can wander in and eat when they damn well feel like it, which isn’t often. Instead, they would rather go hungry and walk outside and punch out the doctor who just healed him 5 minutes ago.
Before giving up hope on this game, I came back one more time and tried pressing every button on the keyboard in the fruitless hopes that some “schedule planner” menu would appear and leave me saying “doh!, why didn’t I think of that before,” but it was all for naught, what you see is what you get, which isn’t much. This sucks because the concept of this game is awesome. Most games that are this bad I would have quit within 5 minutes, but I really wanted to like this game, kind of like a dog thats so ugly that its cute. Unfortunatly, this game is just too ugly to bear.
Concept and design: A
Gameplay and mechanics: F-
Final Verdict: Don’t bother
FOR YOU RETARDED CATS WHO DONT KNOW HOW TO PLAY READ THIS!!??! WTF use your brains and think. The main problem that you guys are having is not spreading out the buildings. i bet you your prison is a cluster fKKK. I enjoy this game it is excellent but extremely hard. I used to be a prison guard in san quentin and you really have to think hard in this game. Space out your buildings, and remember to keep it clean if not everyone will be sick. if your retarded and have no patience and want to beat the game in 2 weeks or so this game isnt for YOU! If you take it slow and think its great. Dont bother with other reviews, this is an excellent game;
The new Tycoon 2 has a whole bunch of extras: prison dogs, celebrity inmates, riot gear, etc. Awesome game
My buildings were not a “cluster fKKK.” They were spaced out fairly decently, with the yard, chow hall, and medical wing in fairly centralized locations. Admin and the guard buildings were spaced further away from the main buildings.
If the game were merely difficult, I would have no problem with it. My beef with the game, (if you were a prison guard, it should be your beef too) is the fact that you have little to no control. I don’t know how things were at San Quentin, but where I worked, if an inmate had anger problems, he was written up and locked in the SHU for a period. In this game, the guards just wander over and beat the inmate down for no reason, and this for some reason lowers the inmates anger. If this game was realistic, the officer would be immediatly fired for unnecessary use of force.
Like I said, control is non existant; you should be able to control officers schedules: ie. 0800 patrol chow hall, 1000 patrol dormitory A, 1200 lunch break, 1400 conduct perimeter patrol, etc. The same should go for inmates, and other staff members as well, there is no reason why we shouldn’t be able to click on the kitchen and set something like: 0530 B dorm breakfast chow, and with the click of a button have all of the B dorm inmates report to the dining hall to eat. This system should also go for medical purposes, and work details.
Thats boring you say? Setting schedules that everyone follows to the letter (barring isolated incidents, lockdowns, etc) are how prisons operate. Control is paramount; as you play the role of warden, you should be able to override pretty much anything within reason; ie: telling a guard with a high anger level to take a break in the staff room to cool down, or sending a troublesome inmate to a higher security level.
Sadly, none of these things are implemented, which makes the game a chore. Mr. Rockwall, if you have in fact created a highly successful prison on this game I would love to see pictures, or even a video if you use FRAPS, since I can’t seem to grasp this unweildy game.
But I am sure, that as a former prison guard yourself, you surely must agree with some of the things I mentioned.
I tried everything already suggested, and I cant get bunks or cells. I can raise the security level but thats it. Everytime I build a dorm I try to left click on the building and I just get the camera, I right click and get the stats of the building, I try then to click on the trowel again and I get another building. I’m getting extremely frustrated and my son is starting to laugh at me. (Hes 8!!!)
Can someone please walk me step by step through getting prisoners please?
Listen People!
It is true, this game is frustrating as all hell. In the beginning, I’d make this wonderful prison then it would quickly fill up and just as quickly I would run deeply into debt with no hope of ever turning it around. I finally realized that you just have to take it slow – build modestly, make sure prisoners are working, make sure things are well maintained, have plenty of social workers (more important than security, I’ve found), and soon enough you’ll have income and be able to expand and do more interesting things. If you realize things have gone horribly wrong just figure it out what happened and why and then start over. It will take a while as you’re always learning something new, but you will find yourself happily stuck to it for days.
Since cheats have been posted, I’ll post this:
- Keep dorms near amenities centers: prisoners wake up and quickly get bored. After boredom comes anger, and with anger comes fighting.
- Keep factories as close as possible to the mess hall. The best time to get prisoners to work is when they are happy, and eating makes them happy.
- Make sure there are amenities in the dorm rooms and that the prisoners can get out and move around. Vending machines are the most popular, but also the most expensive – but not as expensive as a prisoner dying, or being too busy fighting to go to work! And be mindful of overcrowding! I’ve never used anything larger than the 4 capacity bunk beds, and would make sure there is plenty of room for the prisoners as well as the ability for them all to get out. You might think they all have ample space, but click on the dorms in the mornings to make sure there are no brawls and that all the prisoners are occupied with one thing or another. Some may stand around chatting, some will use the dorm’s facilities, others will go somewhere else. Perfect.
- Be mindful of maintenance. The prisoners aren’t gentle with things, and they stop using something when the maintenance level falls into the 20’s. Replace it.
Again, much of the game comes from figuring out how to get the population up and productive and seeing what does what. You’ll find new ways of doing things as you get more money and freedom to experiment, but for now don’t use the cheats just play the game as best you can.
(For those who seem perpetually befuddled by not gettng any prisoners: Build a dorm, then left click on the building. You’ll then be viewing the overhead camera – now click on the trowel. Put some beds in. Now wait. Go build some other stuff, click the fast forward button. The prisoners don’t just magically appear, they are dropped off a couple of times a day and have to make their way to the dorms via the front gate.)
Personally I’ve yet to get to any higher than low security. I thought it might be inadequate funds, but I now have ~$11 million; I also imagined that it was lack of capacity but I presently have about 400 beds (but it seems that the low security population hovers around 200 max). I will try putting in more guard houses – Thanks for the advice.
The problem in this game is the lack of direct control, but it is also what makes it worth playing. You have to figure things out, watch the prisoners, be aware of what they’re feeling (and why they’re feelign that way) and pay attention to the messages.
Initially I was convinced this game was made by retards, but now I realize that it is a pretty decent and addictive game- Stop whining like bitches for christ sake and take a few minutes to figure it out!
Adding guard houses definately works to get to medium secuirty. I added about a dozen new ones and instantly hit med security.
Thanks again!
How do you keep the place clean. I had 3 staff buildings filled with the cleaning staff rooms.I had about 30 inmates and about 12-15 cleaning staff and the garbage still kept getting worse.
I dont get a trowel when I get to camera mode in the dorms. This is driving me crazy!!! How do I get to build indide the dorms?
There is no symbol on the lower left hand corner of the screen?
Maybe you need to re-install….
I have the same problem not being able to build anything. I’m not getting any trowel in my buildings either. All I get is the camera view, no option to even use the mouse. I can do all other function within the camera view. Can zoom, do other camera views, etc….just can’t add anything. I’ve re-installed the game and have checked for patches and updates. Will give it another shot, but may have just a bum copy.