Prison Architect Update 6 has been released! And we have brand new game prototypes to show you.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZL4NCrgMhYA

TWO BRAND NEW GAME PROTOTYPES
Introducing 'Scanner Sombre' and 'Wrong Wire'

Skip forward to 22 minutes into the video, to see us demonstrate two of our (potentially) upcoming games. These are prototypes we have been developing in secret until now, and will form the basis of whatever comes next after Prison Architect. Please keep in mind that whilst we intend to continue supporting Prison Architect with updates for a very long time, we also intend to make new games, just as we have always done.

We are interested in your thoughts on the new games. Please go here to vote on your favourite:
http://www.introversion.co.uk/vote


PRISON ARCHITECT

= Seasons and Weather
- The game will now move through the seasons, with the outdoor temperature varying based on the time of year.
- Various weather patterns can occur during the game, varying based on the current season.
- Overcast
- Rain
- Torrential rain (Special event, rare)
- Snow and frost
- Heatwave (special event, rare)

- Prisoners needs will be affected by the weather when they are outdoors. Getting rained on will spike their
comfort, clothing and warmth needs.

- Prisoners left outside in extremely cold conditions (for example in an outdoor solitary confinement cage)
can now die of exposure.

- Weather is DISABLED by default in all prisons, and can be enabled when creating a new map.
Alternatively, use the new "Map Settings" screen in the Extras menu.


= Map Settings
You can now adjust the settings of your prison from a new screen called "Map Settings", found in the Extras menu.
This screen lets you enable certain options that may not have been enabled (or even available) when you first created the map.
Nb. You can enable these options, but you cannot disable them once enabled.

Available options:
- Enable Gangs
- Enable Events
- Enable Weather


= Job Prioritisation
- You can now mark any job as a high priority. Simple hold control and either
left click or left drag a selection to mark jobs. Available workers (who aren't
already on a high priority job) will stop what they are doing and be assigned
to the high priority job.

- If no workers are available, high priority jobs will take precedence when the
workers become available. A small icon in the lower right of a visible job shows
if it is marked as a high priority job.

- You can remove the high priority marking on jobs by holding control and either
right clicking or dragging a selection.

- Hovering over an in progress job will now highlight the entity working on it,
showing a red line leading to the worker responsible for the job.

- Pressing F while highlighting an in progress job will cause the camera to follow
the working entity and keep the highlight active.


= Performance Work (continued)
Further performance gains were made this month through several different approaches to optimisation.

- More systems moved to overlap with Render().
- Optimisations to the visible object list builder.
- Singly linked lists mostly replaced with arrays (FastList).
- Avoid copying of containers where possible.
- NeedSystem optimised.


= Bug Fixes
Temperature and lightmap system corruption bug fixed.

- 0010618: [Gameplay] Temperature next to fire is in the negatives
- 0010625: [Gameplay] Temperature drops instantly even in areas that should be producing heat


Stay up to date:
Subscribe to our Blog
Subscribe to our Youtube channel
Follow us on Twitter
Join our mailing list
Follow our twitch.tv livestream - we sometimes code live on twitch

Prison Architect Update 6 has been released! And we have brand new game prototypes to show you.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZL4NCrgMhYA

TWO BRAND NEW GAME PROTOTYPES
Introducing 'Scanner Sombre' and 'Wrong Wire'

Skip forward to 22 minutes into the video, to see us demonstrate two of our (potentially) upcoming games. These are prototypes we have been developing in secret until now, and will form the basis of whatever comes next after Prison Architect. Please keep in mind that whilst we intend to continue supporting Prison Architect with updates for a very long time, we also intend to make new games, just as we have always done.

We are interested in your thoughts on the new games. Please go here to vote on your favourite:
http://www.introversion.co.uk/vote


PRISON ARCHITECT

= Seasons and Weather
- The game will now move through the seasons, with the outdoor temperature varying based on the time of year.
- Various weather patterns can occur during the game, varying based on the current season.
- Overcast
- Rain
- Torrential rain (Special event, rare)
- Snow and frost
- Heatwave (special event, rare)

- Prisoners needs will be affected by the weather when they are outdoors. Getting rained on will spike their
comfort, clothing and warmth needs.

- Prisoners left outside in extremely cold conditions (for example in an outdoor solitary confinement cage)
can now die of exposure.

- Weather is DISABLED by default in all prisons, and can be enabled when creating a new map.
Alternatively, use the new "Map Settings" screen in the Extras menu.


= Map Settings
You can now adjust the settings of your prison from a new screen called "Map Settings", found in the Extras menu.
This screen lets you enable certain options that may not have been enabled (or even available) when you first created the map.
Nb. You can enable these options, but you cannot disable them once enabled.

Available options:
- Enable Gangs
- Enable Events
- Enable Weather


= Job Prioritisation
- You can now mark any job as a high priority. Simple hold control and either
left click or left drag a selection to mark jobs. Available workers (who aren't
already on a high priority job) will stop what they are doing and be assigned
to the high priority job.

- If no workers are available, high priority jobs will take precedence when the
workers become available. A small icon in the lower right of a visible job shows
if it is marked as a high priority job.

- You can remove the high priority marking on jobs by holding control and either
right clicking or dragging a selection.

- Hovering over an in progress job will now highlight the entity working on it,
showing a red line leading to the worker responsible for the job.

- Pressing F while highlighting an in progress job will cause the camera to follow
the working entity and keep the highlight active.


= Performance Work (continued)
Further performance gains were made this month through several different approaches to optimisation.

- More systems moved to overlap with Render().
- Optimisations to the visible object list builder.
- Singly linked lists mostly replaced with arrays (FastList).
- Avoid copying of containers where possible.
- NeedSystem optimised.


= Bug Fixes
Temperature and lightmap system corruption bug fixed.

- 0010618: [Gameplay] Temperature next to fire is in the negatives
- 0010625: [Gameplay] Temperature drops instantly even in areas that should be producing heat


Stay up to date:
Subscribe to our Blog
Subscribe to our Youtube channel
Follow us on Twitter
Join our mailing list
Follow our twitch.tv livestream - we sometimes code live on twitch

Having read the feedback, we think that we made the hot water pipes too fiddly for many players by requiring every shower head to be wired up to warm water to avert a riot of frigid prisoners.

We've now changed the system so that a hot shower is an optional luxury and gives a benefit to prisoners' well-being if you feel generous enough to provide it.

Changes:
- If a shower head is connected to hot water, this will benefit prisoner's warmth and comfort needs. Cold showers no longer cause frigid effect.
- Hot water range increased.
- Hot water makes sinks work faster.

Having read the feedback, we think that we made the hot water pipes too fiddly for many players by requiring every shower head to be wired up to warm water to avert a riot of frigid prisoners.

We've now changed the system so that a hot shower is an optional luxury and gives a benefit to prisoners' well-being if you feel generous enough to provide it.

Changes:
- If a shower head is connected to hot water, this will benefit prisoner's warmth and comfort needs. Cold showers no longer cause frigid effect.
- Hot water range increased.
- Hot water makes sinks work faster.

Update 5 has been released!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3jNtSckFvk

Performance optimisations

We focussed on performance this month, and achieved a speed boost of at least 50%.
This work is ongoing.

- Now defaulting to the VS2015 build, with the old VS2008 build still
available for Safe mode (Prison Architect Safe Mode.exe). This gives
a good speed improvement over the VS2008 version.

- Asynchronous job search system. Instead of synchronously looking for a job,
workers, guards, prisoners, doctors now place a request for a new job in a
queue. This queue is processed during render phase of the game loop so
shouldn't take up any time during the main game loop.

- Speed up rendering of the Feed Prisoners Objective. This was particularly
slow when their were a lot of hungry prisoners.

- Rebuild the indoor/outdoor shadow mask only when a cell changes its material
or indoor/outdoor status.


Thermodynamics (continued)

- New pipe type in the utilities view: Hot water pipes
These operate on a seperate layer to the existing pipes, and can be overlaid without conflict.

- New utility: Hot water boiler
Requires a large pipe connection of cold water, and a direct electrical connection
You can run hot water pipes from this boiler in any direction.
Nb. Water will lose heat the further it gets from the boiler.

- All radiators now require a hot water connection to function

- Showers can take cold water or hot water.
When supplied with hot water, showers will also reduce a prisoner's Warmth need
When supplied only with cold water will apply a Frigid effect, which acts as a kind of short-term surpression
while also spiking their Warmth and comfort needs.


3d mode has been discovered

This update we have improved 3d mode with new shapes, new shaders operating on all objects, and better wall geometry.
3d mode remains very experimental.

Known bug: The mouse position is wrong when using graphics/Supersampling.
Known bug: Long pauses caused by geometry changing, eg wall construction/demolition


BUG FIXES

- Thermodynamic map to use 16 bit number type to represent the temperature
instead of 8 bit. This fixes a bug with fire showing negative temperatures.

- 0010610: [Graphics] entire screen is black and white boxes

Update 5 has been released!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3jNtSckFvk

Performance optimisations

We focussed on performance this month, and achieved a speed boost of at least 50%.
This work is ongoing.

- Now defaulting to the VS2015 build, with the old VS2008 build still
available for Safe mode (Prison Architect Safe Mode.exe). This gives
a good speed improvement over the VS2008 version.

- Asynchronous job search system. Instead of synchronously looking for a job,
workers, guards, prisoners, doctors now place a request for a new job in a
queue. This queue is processed during render phase of the game loop so
shouldn't take up any time during the main game loop.

- Speed up rendering of the Feed Prisoners Objective. This was particularly
slow when their were a lot of hungry prisoners.

- Rebuild the indoor/outdoor shadow mask only when a cell changes its material
or indoor/outdoor status.


Thermodynamics (continued)

- New pipe type in the utilities view: Hot water pipes
These operate on a seperate layer to the existing pipes, and can be overlaid without conflict.

- New utility: Hot water boiler
Requires a large pipe connection of cold water, and a direct electrical connection
You can run hot water pipes from this boiler in any direction.
Nb. Water will lose heat the further it gets from the boiler.

- All radiators now require a hot water connection to function

- Showers can take cold water or hot water.
When supplied with hot water, showers will also reduce a prisoner's Warmth need
When supplied only with cold water will apply a Frigid effect, which acts as a kind of short-term surpression
while also spiking their Warmth and comfort needs.


3d mode has been discovered

This update we have improved 3d mode with new shapes, new shaders operating on all objects, and better wall geometry.
3d mode remains very experimental.

Known bug: The mouse position is wrong when using graphics/Supersampling.
Known bug: Long pauses caused by geometry changing, eg wall construction/demolition


BUG FIXES

- Thermodynamic map to use 16 bit number type to represent the temperature
instead of 8 bit. This fixes a bug with fire showing negative temperatures.

- 0010610: [Graphics] entire screen is black and white boxes

Update 4 has been released!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XOqQv4_piL0

New features for this month:

= Thermodynamics
The game now models the ambient temperature of the world, and it's effect on your prisoners.
The outdoor temperature will vary during the day, and turn cold at night
The temperature of your indoor areas will be affected by this. Indoor areas near doors and windows will lose heat fast.
Certain existing objects generate lots of heat : Cookers (when in use), power stations, water pumps

- New toolbar button under Logistics : Temperature. Visualises the temperature of all areas of your prison
- Prisoners now have a Warmth need. This need increases when they are cold.
- They will protest if cold for too long, and eventually cause trouble.

- If prisoners are too hot for too long (for example working in a hot kitchen) they will develop a status effect "Overheating"
This makes them more likely to cause trouble

- New item : Radiator. Build these around your prison to warm up the indoors when required.


= Quick Build menu
The old "Clone" toolbar item has been replaced with a new "Quick Build" menu, with more options.
You can now pick from a set of template rooms, and stamp them dowm in your prison.
All neccesary foundations will be built (if required), and the area will be cleared of walls and objects.
Then your workmen will build all the walls and objects required.
The room type will be automatically assigned.
You can rotate a quick build room using R or middle mouse click.

Available quick build rooms:
- Basic Cell
- Solitary Cell
- Luxury Cell
- Shared Cell
- Office

Nb. Clone is now available in the Quick Build menu and no longer needs to be researched.


= New prison sharing options

- A new option in the Extras menu 'Most Popular Prisons' lets you view the most popular Steam Workshop prisons
You can choose to view the most popular over the last week/month/year/all time
Play the prison instantly by clicking Play

- We are now bundling 10 of the best community made prisons with all versions of the game.
These are designed for times when you have no internet connection, or are not running the Steam build (so no workshop access)


- You can now attach a Phone Tap to the Secure vistation booths added in Update 3.
This will give you more intelligence on contraband, escapes etc.


- New Translations:
Ukranian, Bulgarian, Traditional Chinese


= BUG FIXES
- 0010454: [Gameplay] Escape mode: Revive prisoners
- 0010333: [Gameplay] Fill to capacity improvement
- 0010588: [AI & Behaviour] Prisoners can work and get paid even when job room is invalid
- 0009100: [AI & Behaviour] Mail delivered to solitary cell after inmate has left
- 0010566: [AI & Behaviour] Prisoners do not use weight-benches
- 0010500: [Performance] Snipers in Guard Towers cause major lag.
- 0010567: [AI & Behaviour] Doctors get stuck while attempting to heal
- 0010539: [Gameplay] Saved game, crashes at same spot
- 0010519: [AI & Behaviour] Wrong delivered mail.


Stay up to date:
Subscribe to our Blog
Subscribe to our Youtube channel
Follow us on Twitter
Join our mailing list
Follow our twitch.tv livestream - we sometimes code live on twitch

Update 4 has been released!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XOqQv4_piL0

New features for this month:

= Thermodynamics
The game now models the ambient temperature of the world, and it's effect on your prisoners.
The outdoor temperature will vary during the day, and turn cold at night
The temperature of your indoor areas will be affected by this. Indoor areas near doors and windows will lose heat fast.
Certain existing objects generate lots of heat : Cookers (when in use), power stations, water pumps

- New toolbar button under Logistics : Temperature. Visualises the temperature of all areas of your prison
- Prisoners now have a Warmth need. This need increases when they are cold.
- They will protest if cold for too long, and eventually cause trouble.

- If prisoners are too hot for too long (for example working in a hot kitchen) they will develop a status effect "Overheating"
This makes them more likely to cause trouble

- New item : Radiator. Build these around your prison to warm up the indoors when required.


= Quick Build menu
The old "Clone" toolbar item has been replaced with a new "Quick Build" menu, with more options.
You can now pick from a set of template rooms, and stamp them dowm in your prison.
All neccesary foundations will be built (if required), and the area will be cleared of walls and objects.
Then your workmen will build all the walls and objects required.
The room type will be automatically assigned.
You can rotate a quick build room using R or middle mouse click.

Available quick build rooms:
- Basic Cell
- Solitary Cell
- Luxury Cell
- Shared Cell
- Office

Nb. Clone is now available in the Quick Build menu and no longer needs to be researched.


= New prison sharing options

- A new option in the Extras menu 'Most Popular Prisons' lets you view the most popular Steam Workshop prisons
You can choose to view the most popular over the last week/month/year/all time
Play the prison instantly by clicking Play

- We are now bundling 10 of the best community made prisons with all versions of the game.
These are designed for times when you have no internet connection, or are not running the Steam build (so no workshop access)


- You can now attach a Phone Tap to the Secure vistation booths added in Update 3.
This will give you more intelligence on contraband, escapes etc.


- New Translations:
Ukranian, Bulgarian, Traditional Chinese


= BUG FIXES
- 0010454: [Gameplay] Escape mode: Revive prisoners
- 0010333: [Gameplay] Fill to capacity improvement
- 0010588: [AI & Behaviour] Prisoners can work and get paid even when job room is invalid
- 0009100: [AI & Behaviour] Mail delivered to solitary cell after inmate has left
- 0010566: [AI & Behaviour] Prisoners do not use weight-benches
- 0010500: [Performance] Snipers in Guard Towers cause major lag.
- 0010567: [AI & Behaviour] Doctors get stuck while attempting to heal
- 0010539: [Gameplay] Saved game, crashes at same spot
- 0010519: [AI & Behaviour] Wrong delivered mail.


Stay up to date:
Subscribe to our Blog
Subscribe to our Youtube channel
Follow us on Twitter
Join our mailing list
Follow our twitch.tv livestream - we sometimes code live on twitch

Prison Architect Update 3 has been released! Here is our video demonstrating the new features:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bsfyfGNiAYg

This month we start with a special demo of the console build of the game, showing off the completely redesigned interface.

Our new features:

Guard Towers + Snipers
You can now build guard towers around your prison for an extra level of security, intimidation, and force.

- New entity type : Snipers
Hired from the staff menu.
These guys will equip themselves with a scoped sniper rifle from the armoury, if you have one.
They will then take turns manning the guard towers you have built.

- Snipers will project 'Suppression' to all prisoners within their line of sight.

- Rules of engagement
When snipers see trouble occuring, they will fire warning shots.
If three warning shots are ignored, they will shoot to kill.
If you have enabled "Freefire" they will always shoot to kill, without warning.
They will also shoot to kill if they see an escaping prisoner already outside the prison secure zone.


Secure Visitation Booths
You can now build secure visitation booths in your visitation room if you choose, instead of the usual tables.
A secure visitation booth has a glass panel that seperates the inmate from the family member, and they use a phone to talk.

- No contraband can be imported through a totally secure visitation room
- However the inmates family needs will not be satisfied nearly as well
- Nb. There must be a complete seperation of visitors and inmates for a room to be considered secure.


Female Names-in-the-game
If you are a Name in the Game customer, you can now update your bio and create a female prisoner if you wish.
Go to http://www.prison-architect.com/register to do this.


Mod API updates
Scripted interface buttons now correctly pass click callbacks to the script that created them.
This allows scripts to add interactions to other objects in the game world.


- Dormitories of 40 or more squares will now get their own sector for the purposes of guard deployment and security zoning


New Translations
Japanese


Bug Fixes
- Fixed: 2x3 Dormitories with a bunkbed will now correctly accept 2 prisoners

- 0010359: [AI & Behaviour] Doctors not treating during Virus Outbreak Event
- 0010445: [AI & Behaviour] Overdosed prisoners put in solitary instead of infirmary
- 0010477: [Gameplay] Intake System brings in wrong amounts of certain levels of prisoners
- 0010333: [Gameplay] Fill to capacity improvement
- 0010438: [Control & User Interface] CI window shows two % signs rather than one
- 0010352: [AI & Behaviour] Nasty change in the priority of the job assignment
- 0010461: [Gameplay] Contraband scan cooldown causing problems
- 0010459: [Control & User Interface] Suspicion percentage is displayed twice
- 0006604: [Control & User Interface] Double billing of reform programs
- 0010437: [AI & Behaviour] Multiple mailrooms do not work
- 0010480: [Gameplay] Intake not calculated properly
- 0008937: [Control & User Interface] Carpentry Apprenticeship
- 0010452: [Gameplay] Dormitories and adjacent rooms counts as one room
- 0010322: [Gameplay] Prisoners not being taken to Dormitories
- 0010298: [Gameplay] 2x3 dorms dont get extra prisoner space
- 0010472: [AI & Behaviour] Opened mail thrown throughout Holding Cell
- 0010453: [AI & Behaviour] Laundry taken from Dormitorys
- 0006883: [Mod System] Allow mods to augment the selected object popup
- 0010367: [AI & Behaviour] Prisoners get ReadBook status and freeze in place
- 0010417: [Control & User Interface] Policy screen in female prisons says "HIM"
- 0010471: [AI & Behaviour] Laundry Room uniforms in odd piles
- 0010095: [Performance] One specific prison that has updated across mutiple alphas is experincing 1sec freezing every 10sec
- 0010468: [AI & Behaviour] Shower Drainage Behaviour Issues
- 0010370: [Performance] Extreme low FPS with many idle prisoners.
- 0010348: [Other] Open mails spawning from my inmates


Stay up to date:
Subscribe to our Blog
Subscribe to our Youtube channel
Follow us on Twitter
Join our mailing list
Follow our twitch.tv livestream - we sometimes code live on twitch

Prison Architect Update 3 has been released! Here is our video demonstrating the new features:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bsfyfGNiAYg

This month we start with a special demo of the console build of the game, showing off the completely redesigned interface.

Our new features:

Guard Towers + Snipers
You can now build guard towers around your prison for an extra level of security, intimidation, and force.

- New entity type : Snipers
Hired from the staff menu.
These guys will equip themselves with a scoped sniper rifle from the armoury, if you have one.
They will then take turns manning the guard towers you have built.

- Snipers will project 'Suppression' to all prisoners within their line of sight.

- Rules of engagement
When snipers see trouble occuring, they will fire warning shots.
If three warning shots are ignored, they will shoot to kill.
If you have enabled "Freefire" they will always shoot to kill, without warning.
They will also shoot to kill if they see an escaping prisoner already outside the prison secure zone.


Secure Visitation Booths
You can now build secure visitation booths in your visitation room if you choose, instead of the usual tables.
A secure visitation booth has a glass panel that seperates the inmate from the family member, and they use a phone to talk.

- No contraband can be imported through a totally secure visitation room
- However the inmates family needs will not be satisfied nearly as well
- Nb. There must be a complete seperation of visitors and inmates for a room to be considered secure.


Female Names-in-the-game
If you are a Name in the Game customer, you can now update your bio and create a female prisoner if you wish.
Go to http://www.prison-architect.com/register to do this.


Mod API updates
Scripted interface buttons now correctly pass click callbacks to the script that created them.
This allows scripts to add interactions to other objects in the game world.


- Dormitories of 40 or more squares will now get their own sector for the purposes of guard deployment and security zoning


New Translations
Japanese


Bug Fixes
- Fixed: 2x3 Dormitories with a bunkbed will now correctly accept 2 prisoners

- 0010359: [AI & Behaviour] Doctors not treating during Virus Outbreak Event
- 0010445: [AI & Behaviour] Overdosed prisoners put in solitary instead of infirmary
- 0010477: [Gameplay] Intake System brings in wrong amounts of certain levels of prisoners
- 0010333: [Gameplay] Fill to capacity improvement
- 0010438: [Control & User Interface] CI window shows two % signs rather than one
- 0010352: [AI & Behaviour] Nasty change in the priority of the job assignment
- 0010461: [Gameplay] Contraband scan cooldown causing problems
- 0010459: [Control & User Interface] Suspicion percentage is displayed twice
- 0006604: [Control & User Interface] Double billing of reform programs
- 0010437: [AI & Behaviour] Multiple mailrooms do not work
- 0010480: [Gameplay] Intake not calculated properly
- 0008937: [Control & User Interface] Carpentry Apprenticeship
- 0010452: [Gameplay] Dormitories and adjacent rooms counts as one room
- 0010322: [Gameplay] Prisoners not being taken to Dormitories
- 0010298: [Gameplay] 2x3 dorms dont get extra prisoner space
- 0010472: [AI & Behaviour] Opened mail thrown throughout Holding Cell
- 0010453: [AI & Behaviour] Laundry taken from Dormitorys
- 0006883: [Mod System] Allow mods to augment the selected object popup
- 0010367: [AI & Behaviour] Prisoners get ReadBook status and freeze in place
- 0010417: [Control & User Interface] Policy screen in female prisons says "HIM"
- 0010471: [AI & Behaviour] Laundry Room uniforms in odd piles
- 0010095: [Performance] One specific prison that has updated across mutiple alphas is experincing 1sec freezing every 10sec
- 0010468: [AI & Behaviour] Shower Drainage Behaviour Issues
- 0010370: [Performance] Extreme low FPS with many idle prisoners.
- 0010348: [Other] Open mails spawning from my inmates


Stay up to date:
Subscribe to our Blog
Subscribe to our Youtube channel
Follow us on Twitter
Join our mailing list
Follow our twitch.tv livestream - we sometimes code live on twitch