Family needs, something I'm missing?

[Terrible Norwegian Gaming]

Hei guys

So I got my sweet planned out prison now, but seem to have lots of riots even if I'm very nice to give them free time, and all kinds of stuff to entertain them.

One of the highest needs is family needs. And I dont get how that is? I got a lot of phones in the yards and common rooms, as well as two big visitation rooms, and to top it off two mail rooms 6x6 so they get their mail. Am I missing something? Even with 4 hour freetime at the evening it still got almost 100 prisoners who are in the red on this (same with hygiene, seem they are too lazy to shower and get clean clothes, but I see other possible factors on that one)

Tips would be nice, started to just use free fire for the satisfaction of seeing the rioting prisoners die

[Jet City Gambler]

I find it helps to put everything they need in the canteen -- phones, bathrooms, showers, prayer mats, radios, exercise benches, etc. Then schedule 2-hour meal times so they can take care of everything at once.

[Marisola]

Are they using the phones and visitation rooms? Is mail getting delivered?

If they aren't, you probably have a pathing issue - somewhere is either coded the wrong color on the way, or the room itself is. Or you may have put a door at the same time as a wall and a rare but reproducible glitch where a door and wall go up at the same time prevents them from going IN the rooms. Post a screen shot of your prison!

[Terrible Norwegian Gaming]

Originally posted by Seola:

Are they using the phones and visitation rooms? Is mail getting delivered?

If they aren't, you probably have a pathing issue - somewhere is either coded the wrong color on the way, or the room itself is. Or you may have put a door at the same time as a wall and a rare but reproducible glitch where a door and wall go up at the same time prevents them from going IN the rooms. Post a screen shot of your prison!

Yeah, its all being used. It just seem to always be around 100 prisoners who complain. If they are in fact not ever using it, then it cant be a pathing issue, since the rest of the prisoners are using the stuff (got 400 prisoners, all living in identical cell blocks)

[Marisola]

Are all cell blocks clear of pathing? I've had two cell blocks cut off by accident by a wayward door once, but identical otherwise.

Are there enough visitation tables? Is the room always full when they use it? Same with phones, how many do you have? Spread in both the yard and common room? (I don't generally "cheat" so to speak by sticking everything in the canteen or yard, so if you prefer that way, try adding more that way.)

Around 400 prisoners, I usually have at least two 3-hour blocks of free time, accommodating 20+ tables in each of two visitation rooms. Visitors are coming in fast enough? If they are too far from the visitation room upon entry, they don't get inside it before time is up long enough to go down. Same with yard/phone time.

[Terrible Norwegian Gaming]

Originally posted by Seola:

Are all cell blocks clear of pathing? I've had two cell blocks cut off by accident by a wayward door once, but identical otherwise.

Are there enough visitation tables? Is the room always full when they use it? Same with phones, how many do you have? Spread in both the yard and common room? (I don't generally "cheat" so to speak by sticking everything in the canteen or yard, so if you prefer that way, try adding more that way.)

Around 400 prisoners, I usually have at least two 3-hour blocks of free time, accommodating 20+ tables in each of two visitation rooms. Visitors are coming in fast enough? If they are too far from the visitation room upon entry, they don't get inside it before time is up long enough to go down. Same with yard/phone time.

Yes, they are all clear of pathing, they can move everywhere as far as I can see. I got two visitation rooms with 7 each (I know its not that many for now 400 prisoners, but I make up for it with phones), got 83 phones spread out between yards and common rooms (got two big yards connected to 4 cell blocks each who has majority of the phones). Visitation is really easy to get to, and they rather have to wait for the prisoners, not the other way around.

I feel from answering this that I should add more visitation tables to the rooms and see how that goes :)

[Marisola]

Originally posted by Ghost Hunter:

Originally posted by Seola:

Are all cell blocks clear of pathing? I've had two cell blocks cut off by accident by a wayward door once, but identical otherwise.

Are there enough visitation tables? Is the room always full when they use it? Same with phones, how many do you have? Spread in both the yard and common room? (I don't generally "cheat" so to speak by sticking everything in the canteen or yard, so if you prefer that way, try adding more that way.)

Around 400 prisoners, I usually have at least two 3-hour blocks of free time, accommodating 20+ tables in each of two visitation rooms. Visitors are coming in fast enough? If they are too far from the visitation room upon entry, they don't get inside it before time is up long enough to go down. Same with yard/phone time.

Yes, they are all clear of pathing, they can move everywhere as far as I can see. I got two visitation rooms with 7 each (I know its not that many for now 400 prisoners, but I make up for it with phones), got 83 phones spread out between yards and common rooms (got two big yards connected to 4 cell blocks each who has majority of the phones). Visitation is really easy to get to, and they rather have to wait for the prisoners, not the other way around.

I feel from answering this that I should add more visitation tables to the rooms and see how that goes :)

Yep, more visitation tables. If someone has family on site, they will attempt to fill that onsite and will generally not use phone or mail for that day. If they happen to repeat family over several days, then they can go raging. Let us know how it goes and if it's solved!

[Terrible Norwegian Gaming]

Originally posted by Seola:

Originally posted by Ghost Hunter:

Yes, they are all clear of pathing, they can move everywhere as far as I can see. I got two visitation rooms with 7 each (I know its not that many for now 400 prisoners, but I make up for it with phones), got 83 phones spread out between yards and common rooms (got two big yards connected to 4 cell blocks each who has majority of the phones). Visitation is really easy to get to, and they rather have to wait for the prisoners, not the other way around.

I feel from answering this that I should add more visitation tables to the rooms and see how that goes :)

Yep, more visitation tables. If someone has family on site, they will attempt to fill that onsite and will generally not use phone or mail for that day. If they happen to repeat family over several days, then they can go raging. Let us know how it goes and if it's solved!

It has become better, but I think thats mostly thanks to me giving every cell a phone now. I doubled the visitation rooms, but now not even half the tables are filled with family members.

But at least it's not the problem anymore. Now I got all 3 gangs with leaders doing bananas on my prison xD Maby thats why not many families visit, 1/3 are gang members and I dont see many of them get visits

[__realAnthony__]

You need to have a Visitation room and phone booths in the yard and or cells

[Marisola]

Originally posted by Ghost Hunter:

Originally posted by Seola:

Yep, more visitation tables. If someone has family on site, they will attempt to fill that onsite and will generally not use phone or mail for that day. If they happen to repeat family over several days, then they can go raging. Let us know how it goes and if it's solved!

It has become better, but I think thats mostly thanks to me giving every cell a phone now. I doubled the visitation rooms, but now not even half the tables are filled with family members.

But at least it's not the problem anymore. Now I got all 3 gangs with leaders doing bananas on my prison xD Maby thats why not many families visit, 1/3 are gang members and I dont see many of them get visits

That's still definitely abnormal. If you post a screen shot, I might be able to pinpoint it better then. Is this your first bigger prison or just the first time this has happened?

[Myrador]

Phones in Canteen, Shower etc put them in EVERY area you send them to. They will only deal with the need if it gets critical. If its critical in the Canteen they get angry because they can't phone the Family.

You need to keep Gang Leaders and Lieutenants away from the rest of the Prison. Put them manually in another Security that u only use for them!
Can be Super Max or Minimum Sec it does not matter but put them in a seperate area with Luxury Cells and Canteen, Prayer Mats, Phone, Wheight Bench, Shower in the Cells so they are happy. If the get send to Solitary you send them to Permanent and imediately End Punishment that's how you skip the Punishment and your Prison does not Boil over.

[Marisola]

Originally posted by Myrador:

Phones in Canteen, Shower etc put them in EVERY area you send them to. They will only deal with the need if it gets critical. If its critical in the Canteen they get angry because they can't phone the Family.

You need to keep Gang Leaders and Lieutenants away from the rest of the Prison. Put them manually in another Security that u only use for them!
Can be Super Max or Minimum Sec it does not matter but put them in a seperate area with Luxury Cells and Canteen, Prayer Mats, Phone, Wheight Bench, Shower in the Cells so they are happy. If the get send to Solitary you send them to Permanent and imediately End Punishment that's how you skip the Punishment and your Prison does not Boil over.

I have never had phones anywhere but the yard and the common room. I never have riots for family needs. My visitation is right at the entrance while the yard is centered on the wing. I'm working towards the 1k prisoner achievement and with 700+ inmates, not a single riot related to family.

If you have to stick stuff in unrelated spots to quell a need, then you aren't making it available enough or the path is so long that they don't have time to quash their need during your worktime. Which is fine, some people play that way for sure, but it's absolutely not a requirement. Proper pathing, proper times open for free time, proper room size, etc.

All those will allow you to have the right things in the right places. The only thing in my canteen is tables and benches. I've never put anything else in there. Only my luxury cells have anything extra over a bed. The vast majority of my cells are bed and toilet only too.

[Marisola]

Here's my current setup:

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=838249090

[Myrador]

Originally posted by Seola:

If you have to stick stuff in unrelated spots to quell a need, then you aren't making it available enough or the path is so long that they don't have time to quash their need during your worktime.

If you can manage a Max Sec only prison with Gangs with 500 inmates this way i salute you!
I can't i need Phones in additional areas to keep the temperature at zero.
:)

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=838351450
this is my max only prison, you can see different secs because i manually select those after intake

[Marisola]

Originally posted by Myrador:

Originally posted by Seola:

If you have to stick stuff in unrelated spots to quell a need, then you aren't making it available enough or the path is so long that they don't have time to quash their need during your worktime.

If you can manage a Max Sec only prison with Gangs with 500 inmates this way i salute you!
I can't i need Phones in additional areas to keep the temperature at zero.
:)

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=838351450
this is my max only prison, you can see different secs because i manually select those after intake

HAHA, you can see on the side, I'm building Max now. I did the low/medium to support the rest even though I'd started with $1.5m from a sale. I'll post it back when I get it done. I've had normal/max only but found that it was easier to designate a prisoner minimum security as a snitch/ex-law then try to make a tiny subset of a prison that was out of whack and dealt with manual settings.