Despite Prison Architect being released many moons ago the development team is still working hard on new updates and features, making them officially awesome.
One such update released yesterday and brought with it a brand new temperature system that requires you to keep your inmates warm, but not too warm or they might get disgruntled, as well as a quick-build option and a couple of other features. Here's the developer video going over all the changes and the full patch notes:
= 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
- [Gameplay] Escape mode: Revive prisoners
- [Gameplay] Fill to capacity improvement
- [AI & Behaviour] Prisoners can work and get paid even when job room is invalid
- [AI & Behaviour] Mail delivered to solitary cell after inmate has left
- [AI & Behaviour] Prisoners do not use weight-benches
- [Performance] Snipers in Guard Towers cause major lag.
- [AI & Behaviour] Doctors get stuck while attempting to heal
- [Gameplay] Saved game, crashes at same spot
- [AI & Behaviour] Wrong delivered mail.
If you're a fan of management/simulation games and you're wondering whether its worth giving Prison Architect a try the answer is yes, absolutely.
Beyond simply being a fun game its also updated monthly and with great modding support (including Steam Workshop integration) its very hard to find much to complain about Prison Architect.