Oct 19, 2019

Psych Ward: Warden's Edition Announcement

Prison Architect - DavyDavy

Greetings, Wardens!

Today, we announced the new DLC for the PC version of Prison Architect - Psych Ward: Warden’s Edition!

While Psych Ward has been available for consoles since 2017, Psych Ward: Warden’s Edition includes additional content not available in Psych Ward’s console release and will launch alongside a free content update to the base game.

You can check the announcement trailer here: https://youtu.be/DVlRTCVtpoM
The new DLC will enhance the game’s existing gameplay mechanics and will give you new interesting ways to experience Prison Architect. It will also introduce unpredictable inmates with new behaviors, add additional management features, and will give you more ways to customize your prison. It also expands on the features of the console edition and adds an additional warden, padded solitary cells, padded floors Psychiatrist office upgrades, Orderly staff and more.

New features breakdown:

Plead Insanity: Criminally insane inmates are unpredictable, require special care, and have their own Reputation traits for you to consider when building your prison. Let them co-exist with the general population or lock them away in a padded cell, how you manage their needs is up to you!
Shrinks: Any prison holding the criminally insane needs a team of Psychiatrists and trained Orderlies to keep everything under control. These valuable prison staff can sedate rowdy prisoners or pull out the straitjackets when things get too rough.
Doctor’s Note: Provide counseling to the criminally insane with the new Psychiatrist’s Office and new consultation Programs. Improve their sessions by upgrading the office with leather sofas, medicine cabinets, Rorschach tests, and more.
Good Behavior: Your inmates now have a wide range of behaviors players will need to manage. They start out harmless, but if left untreated, they can turn violent or attempt to escape.
It’s Gone Viral: Treat your regular inmates with care. Subjecting your inmates to excessive suppression or punishment can cause them to turn criminally insane.
Extra Padding: Psych Ward: Warden’s Edition adds padded cells and padded floors along with a bundle of other new objects, floors, and wall types to customize your prison. Now you can easily build a dedicated wing for the criminally insane.
Tools of the Trade: Additional contraband, including Adrenaline Shots, Fountain Pens (Shanks), and Gold Pocket Watches, can be stolen by your prisoners, or by you in Escape Mode.

And… Did you SEA this? https://youtu.be/-c2XAXjxE3I

Oct 19, 2019

Prison Architect's console-exclusive DLC is coming to PC

Prison Architect

Prison Architect's Psych Ward DLC is leaving the confines of consoles and finally coming to PC, letting wardens run their own highly questionable prison for the "criminally insane" in November.

Psych Ward introduces a new type of prisoner, along with new facilities and ways to deal with misbehaving inmates. These criminally insane inmates all have the potential to become dangerous and violent if not treated, because apparently mental illness means you're only a couple of bad days away from going on a rampage. Other inmates can also loose their cool and join the ranks of the criminally insane if you treat them poorly.

The DLC does introduce some potentially interesting management wrinkles, especially if you have a mixed prison with different kinds of inmates, as you'll need to create new schedules for them so prisoners who don't get along, or those with behavioural problems, don't end up hanging out in the same place. Its representation of mental illness, however, leaves a great deal to be desired.

The PC version comes with some exclusive additions, like padded solitary cells, a new warden, psychiatrist office upgrades, orderlies and more.

Psych Ward: Warden's Edition is due out on November 21. Developer Double Eleven also teased another expansion that's expected out next year, a teaser for which you can watch below.

Sep 24, 2019

The Slammer Hotfix 1.02

Prison Architect - DavyDavy

Wall Lights now auto-connect to power, like standard lights.
New menu filters (e.g., A-Z) will now save the filter settings used, per menu.
Need levels for Supermax prisoners will now show correctly in the Needs menu.
Supermax prisoners will no longer steal a large number of keys.
Snipers will no longer fire in fully automatic mode after firing warning shots in Escape Mode.
Pavilions and Sniper towers now provide Warmth.
Guards posted to Pavilions now go to staff room/staff canteen when on their break.
When patrolling the Pavilions, Guard speed is now slightly faster than Patrolling Guards.
Fixed an issue that caused guards getting stuck when unassigned from a Guard Pavilion.
Armed Guards will no longer leave their pavillions when loading a save file.
Pavillions are now displaying properly for both the Host and the Client in Multiplayer.
Guards will not attempt to enter an already assigned Pavilion.
Dead guards in a Pavilion will no longer patrol.
Guards stationed on Pavilion can no longer be reached, damaged or killed by inmates on the ground. Additionally, if the guard goes after the attacking prisoner, they exit the Pavilion and return when the attacker is subdued
Fixed an issue where inmates had stopped taking books from the Library, preventing them from fulfilling their Literacy need.
Requiring unsupported libraries will no longer crash the game on Linux.
Fixed an issue that caused parts of the player's plans to disappear when the foundations were being built.
Windowed Borderless option is now corrected to same output as Monitor full-screen resolution.
Fixed an issue that caused guards getting stuck when going on a break to a staff room or a staff canteen.
Fixed an issue that caused some items to stretch when moved.
Road Barriers can no longer be rotated vertically.

Changelog:
25/09/2019:
"Wall Lights and Street Lamps now auto-connect to power, like standard lights." was changed to "Wall Lights now auto-connect to power, like standard lights."

Sep 17, 2019

"The Slammer" Update is Now Live!

Prison Architect - Azure

Changelog

Deployment Overhaul:
- Deployment context presentation and visuals improved. Now you can see your prison!
- You can now assign Armed Guards and Dog Handlers to patrols and zones.
- You can now have 2 different intersecting patrol routes.
- Patrol routes and zones can now be prioritized, to ensure your most important areas are manned first.
New Items, Floors, Walls
- New Walls & Doors: Yutani Wall (Sci Fi), Visitor's Door, Secure Door (with a flap to deliver food trays to prisoners inside a cell), coloured Fence Gates.
- New Floors: Mud, Grate, and Solaco (Sci Fi - goes great with the Yutani Wall).
- New Objects: Table (Small) Bench (Small), Bleachers, Bush, Trees (Snowy Conifer, Palm), Lights (Flood Light, Street Light, Wall Light), Shower Pillar, Ironing Board (Small), Office Chair, Door Mat.
- New furniture such as new chairs, short benches, short tables will fulfill room requirements.
- New Jungle plot and Snowbound plot options added, to start a new prison on.
- New Guard Pavillion towers are unlocked for players who sign up for a Paradox account.
Keyboard hot-keys added for cycling through options in in-game item menus ([Z] and [X]), and for closing menus ([C]).
Rotations for more of the existing objects and furniture that didn't have them (Workshop Saw, Press, Roadgate, Ironing Board, Altar, Bench).
New Moving/Relocating Objects feature. Just double-click an object, re-position, and a Worker will do the rest.
Staff and Dog names added.
New Bureaucracy researched option. When starting a new game, you can begin with everything researched.
Additional x10 game speed button.
Filters and sort-by options added to the Objects menu.
Metal detector searches now search both the inmate and the box they’re carrying.
New context-sensitive quick “Add Doors” function, to any wall. Just double-click on a solid wall.
Prison cleanliness mutator option "Reduce Dirt Build Up".
Security Camera artwork now indicate the direction they're pointing.
New quick menu links from the top HUD bar. Clicking on 'Danger', 'Days', 'Balance', Guards, etc. all launch various UIs.
Clone tool region increased in size.
Added code that will allow modders to specify menu sprites for any of their objects, enabling modders to attach any image to an object.
The Mutators (menu) can now be accessed and adjusted mid-game. This is handy for players who wish to turn off/on Mutators in other player's prisons.
Added Hedge rounded end pieces, and improved all hedges to look better with shadows and when doors are built on them.
Ability to search for Objects via a specific room, in the Objects menu text box. E.g. type "Yard" to filter and show all Yard objects.
"New!" yellow star icons now display for any newly added features.
Prisoners & Staff can now be seen by CCTV cameras in Warden Mode.
Logistics context presentation and visuals improved. Now you can see your prison.
Fixed an issue where the Water Boiler was not connecting to water pipes (due it being damaged or moved).
If you fire staff while the game is paused, only the first staff member that was clicked on will now be fired.
Guards/Snipers in Guard Towers are now protected from the weather/rain (as if they were indoors).
At shower time prisoners will now correctly prioritize communal shower rooms, before cuing to use another prisoner’s cell shower.
The tooltip instruction for the Room Clearing functioning has been added to the Rooms Tooltip.
When building Quick Rooms, Cell doors are now kept open until the room is completed, to allow workers to enter and finish the room.
Doors are moved from the Objects menu and into the "Walls & Doors" menu.
Fix: Moving electrical utility items will now spawn new wires.
Fix: The correct Warden sprite shows in the staff reports screen.
Fix: Certain advanced items are now counted in a Grant's requirements (e.g. Visitor booths instead of Tables).
Snipers now carry Jail Keys, enabling them to get around the prison and into the Armory easier.
The Bookshelf now caters to the prisoner's "Literacy" Need a bit. A green zone displays its area-of-effect.
Guards operating certain stations will not participate (leave their station) in prison searches or Shakedowns.
Guards will now open doors for separated dogs. If for example the dog's handler is killed.
Added a Borderless Fullscreen Mode option, which is also changeable via the PDX Launcher.
The Main Menu now included a page system for our dev updates. Allowing us to keep previous/older updates, and tell you all about the latest additions and improvements.
Added a Screen Display option for players with multiple monitors, which is also hooked into the PDX Launcher.
New screenshot mode available as a game option, in the Options Menu. Toggle On/Off by holding [H] and pressing [Enter].
Fixed an issue where sprinklers were showing healing animation when triggered.
Added support for PDX Launcher on startup
- Paradox Interactive's custom launcher is a simple tool that allows you to easily play any Paradox games or resume your latest save game. It's also allowing us to showcase new content, new updates, or other important messages about Prison Architect!

Jul 17, 2019

Prison Architect, Nex Machina and Shantae: Half-Genie Hero headline the Humble Very Positive Bundle 3

Prison Architect

A group of seven games highly praised by the Steam community are available for cheap as part of the Humble Very Positive Bundle 3.

Featuring a range of diverse and interesting titles worth over 100, you can be sure you'll find something of quality here based on the recommendations of other players. In fairness, if I only got the phenomenal Nex Machina for less than 10 I'd be more than thrilled!

Before I get too far ahead of myself, though, let's start at the first tier. The Humble Very Positive Bundle 3 starts at just 80p for psychological horror Distraint 2, tough roguelite Unexplored and atmospheric point-and-click adventure Rusty Lake Paradise. I've not seen much of these three games myself, but for less than a quid I'm willing to give them a go.