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Prison Architect Update 27 fixes the problems caused by teleporting food

prison architect alpha 27 introversion
Julian Benson

Published:

Prison Architect 

Prison Architect’s food was in crisis, chefs didn’t know where to put it, prisoners didn’t know where to go to eat it, Introversion thought they could fix it by giving food the ability to teleport but what they did was open up a quantum rift which players exploited to their gain.

Update 26 did nothing but cause trouble. With Update 27, Introversion think they’ve fixed it.

Food doesn’t become a problem till you’re trying to feed hundreds of prisoners. In small scale prisons you need only on kitchen and one canteen. It’s clear to the AI chefs where they go to cook food and where they put the food once its ready.

In a large prison you can’t get away with only one canteen. You need multiple kitchens, multiple canteens, squads of chefs, a feeding schedule for prisoners to know when and where they must go to eat. The AI gets confused, doesn’t know where to take it, and everyone gets unhappy. In Prison Architect, when the AI gets unhappy it starts a riot.

Prison Architects food problems have been around for awhile but in last month’s update Introversion said they’d fixed it. Instead of chefs needing to knowing where to put food they just made it and stored it. Food left the kitchen and arrived in the canteen by teleporting when a prisoner requested it. It solved the problem for everyone in the prison.

Then players found a way to exploit it.

Kitchens are dangerous places in Prison Architect, they’re full of sharp implements which can be used to hurt people and they’re usually near the canteens which are where riots tend to start. As such chefs are an expensive commodity and frequently need replacing.

Players found they could make a kitchen offsite in a safe place and have a team of chefs cooking food that was then teleported all over the prison, never putting them at risk.

Update 27 is here to solve the problem and plug the exploit.

The new logistics system automatically maps which canteen prisoners will use based on their security clearance and their schedule. This means chefs now know how many people are going to be going to a canteen, when, and how much the need to cook. You can still have too few chefs and too small kitchens, meaning there isn’t enough food prepared, but they will never cook too much food.

Introversion’s Chris Delay and Mark Morris go into greater detail in this video:

That’s not all that’s changed in update 27. You can now wiretap the communal phones to track down if a prisoner has contraband and report prisoners who have offensive bios.

The full change log’s pasted into the next page.

CHANGES

= New food Supply & Demand system

  • All cell blocks are now assigned a specific canteen to eat in, permitting accurate demand calculation per canteen

  • All kitchens are assigned specific canteens, such that every kitchen serves at least one canteen, and all canteens are served by at least one kitchen

  • A new button in Deployment/Logistics can be used to manually override these assignments

  • This new system permits accurate calculations of supply and demand in all canteens.

  • Hover the mouse over the Canteen supply/demand icon, to see a breakdown of the calculated demand per hour.

  • All prisoners will now eat at meal times, not just the very hungry ones.

  • Some prisoners will leave wasted food behind if they are not that hungry.

  • “Ingredient Teleporting” from alpha 26 has been removed

  • Chefs will now cook whatever ingredients are available in their kitchen, rather than requiring specific ingredient types

  • If cooked food is available in a canteen but there are no serving trays, a stack of serving trays will be instant-purchased

= Reform program scheduler

  • Advanced players can now click the “Edit Schedule” button to manually set the times and locations of all Reform Programs

  • Programs set manually will be ‘pinned’ in place, and will not be moved by the auto-scheduler

  • New programs can be created by clicking in the schedule

  • Right click on programs to cancel them

  • Existing reform programs screen now moves camera to current assigned room when mousing over

  • Reverted back to old style colour scheme : Yellow = prisoner on way, Green = attending class

= Phone Tap object

  • Built in a security room and connected via wires to phone booths

  • Manned by a Guard

  • Allows you to listen in to prisoner phone calls, revealing their Reputation, and arranged contraband throw-ins.

  • Cctv research renamed to Surveillance, and includes cctv equipment and phone monitoring

= Names In The Game : Report offensive entry button

  • All entries in the Names in the game list now have a “Report” button

  • Click on this button if you feel the bio is offensive and should be removed from the game.

  • The number of clicks on any entry is recorded in our database, and we will review all reported entries and remove them as appropriate.

= Game balance

  • Reputations rebalanced : Legendary, Volatile, Deadly are all less likely

  • Contraband smuggling via deliveries has been halved

  • Prisoners needs now start at zero

= Other changes and fixes

  • Deployment/Jobs screen now shows staff-only work rooms as grey instead of green.

    • Assigning prisoners to work in those rooms will produce a flashing red warning message saying “STAFF ONLY”

  • Render change : Different wall types no longer blend wierdly, eg fences, perimeter walls

  • New Reputation :

    • Skilled Fighter. Can sometimes disarm an opponent during a fight.

    • Expert Fighter. Can sometimes take a weapon from his opponent during a fight.

  • Fixed : Markers continuously popping up over Guards during fights

  • Many language typos and fixes. Thanks to RGeezy911 for doing this work.

  • Fixed : Blackscreen bug with certain Intel GMA cards

= BUG FIXES

  • 0004332: [AI & Behaviour] Issues with Chef AI (Chris) – resolved.

  • 0004274: [Control & User Interface] AA Program – ‘Removes’ spelling mistake. (RGeezy911) – resolved.

  • 0002272: [Gameplay] Inconsistent naming – Cook or Chef (RGeezy911) – resolved.

  • 0004139: [Control & User Interface] Failure Condition: Bankrupt – Disastrous spelled wrong (RGeezy911) – resolved.

  • 0002305: [Other] CEO phonecall (RGeezy911) – resolved.

  • 0001647: [Other] Shears item name misspelled as “Sheers” (RGeezy911) – resolved.

  • 0000783: [Other] spelling mistakes in Language File (RGeezy911) – resolved.

  • 0000476: [Control & User Interface] Maintenance is misspelled in Bureaucracy screen, elsewhere (RGeezy911) – resolved.

  • 0000073: [Other] Missing apostrophe in CEO dialogue (RGeezy911) – resolved.

  • 0002681: [Control & User Interface] Typos: In descriptions of CCTV cameras and Holding Cell (RGeezy911) – resolved.

  • 0005187: [Control & User Interface] Possible misspelling in Grant description (RGeezy911) – resolved.

  • 0006688: [Graphics] Black Screen with game running the the background (works fine in Alpha 25) (John) – resolved.

  • 0005835: [AI & Behaviour] Piles of dirty clothing not being dealt with (lim_ak) – resolved.

  • 0006824: [Gameplay] rubble needs to be repaired (lim_ak) – resolved.

  • 0006823: [Gameplay] Water pump continues to supply water after being dismantled (lim_ak) – resolved.

  • 0003579: [AI & Behaviour] Guard Dogs get stuck at the entrance of Kennels (John) – resolved.

  • 0006033: [Graphics] Flashing power symbols after foundations are bulldozed with lights installed. (John) – resolved.

  • 0004767: [Graphics] Single Electric Cable Invisible (lim_ak) – resolved.

Former deputy editor Julian loves strategy games like Into the Breach, and cruel management games like Frostpunk, which thankfully isn't reflective of his management style.