Giving up on 'staff needs' until fixed

[megan31917]

I give up. I think I've pretty much tried everything to get my guards happy & fed and it's impossible. No matter the size of the prison or how many guards I have, usually 95% work up to the critical level of being furious they can't get their food needs met. Why they can't (or won't) eat is beyond me. The other 5% of guards eat just fine. I've seen snipers, dog handlers, armed guards & regular guards go eat & it's not a problem. Why the vast majority won't eat drives me crazy. I even gave an extra break just in case they didn't have enough time, but no -the critical level remains. There's plenty of food, so why won't they eat? Also -as I've played my one prison for a long time, I've noticed no one cleans up the trays in the staff canteen. No matter how many cooks, garbage bins, or sinks are available, the trays remain on the tables. It's such a good idea to have the staff needs, but too frustrating to try & play with them on. I'm starting to wonder if my guads will start a riot because they're hungry! LOL When you click on any of them, their status is always 'pissed off' -it's kinda funny at this point. Oh well...I hope a fix comes soon.

[~That Goddamn Trans Rights Panda]

yes the clean trays problem needs addressing. normal serving tables get 40+ clean trays at a time. but the problem with staff serving tables is the cooks bring.. 2 serving trays. 5 serving trays. 1 single tray. 9 trays.

so that's only how many guards can eat at a time.

more sinks closer to the staff canteens help a lot. i'm sure this'll be fixed in next update.

[Jaunitta 🌸]

I tried 2 different methods, one for staff canteen ( zoned) with toilets and the usual benches etc, guards only used the toilets and cooks would supply the prison food,
and the other was a large restroom with a serving tray, the rest rooms work, included toilets etc couches radio, but the food icons are are wrong they become lights and when a guard picks it up it becomes 3 crates of sandwhiches, so in each there is a bug, this is with a prison of 500 prisoners, tested it out again with a small prison of 50, put the staffroom right on the edge of the road and the icons work. Seems to me the larger the prison the less the workers supply the food brought in for the guards snipers etc.
And when they do the food has the wrong icons, even in small prisons when there is more than one Restroom. So as a result when using canteens the guards stay hungry. And restrooms have to be on the edge of the road. Not good update so far, love the idea however. On average my guards are completely happy except for some that are hungry. What I did was put the break time to full, and 4 times a day, that way they can go whenever they can since they will just use the loo and then go to back to work even on a break.
I think the problem is that guards are eating in a lounge chair rather than a canteen table.

[Squirrel Lord]

Hello,
Please explain this staff needs part? I had no idea this was in the game. What would be a good set up to try and regulate this? Do they need their own canteen and should i room it as staffroom? Also, where do we set up the break schedules for staff? Thanks for your suggestions.

[Lantea]

Originally posted by CySky:

Hello,
Please explain this staff needs part? I had no idea this was in the game. What would be a good set up to try and regulate this? Do they need their own canteen and should i room it as staffroom? Also, where do we set up the break schedules for staff? Thanks for your suggestions.

all here

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mAmjOQJ0LTw

[Squirrel Lord]

Thanks for the info!

[Jaunitta 🌸]

It's not in the game, Steam offered it as an update just a couple of weeks ago DEC, to see if you have it when you open Steam
If you have it open Steam and the list of Games is on the left, do you see Prison Architect Beta?
Right click it then click on View Downloadable Content> see the tabs at the top>click on Betas>Select the Beta you would like to opt into>use the scroll bar expand it and click on the Beta not the v2 preview the other one, cause I have already done this I cant remember what it was called, but once you click on that Beta tester in the list Prison Architect will show downloading this new update for Dec
Once it’s done
close out steam/close it on the taskbar as well, then open it again now you’ll see Prison Architect Beta in the list
Play the game or start a new game>
Now open the reports and look in Needs on teh left side, you should see Prisoner Needs and at the top Staff needs next to it.
Click on that you will then see how there needs are being met/ open Policy on the left tab here you can change the break times and length.
First understand that these needs only apply to guards/Dog Handlers and Armed Guards so build a staffroom add a serving Table from the Objects menu, when you add this it converts it to this new Needs, also add a toilet or 2 when you look at the staff needs they have 2, one is loo and one is food.
It has a few bugs when adding this to a large Prison already built and the current staffrooms seem to get messed with this new staff room. So any old staff room need to have that staff room taken off as if like me I built all my staffrooms 4 x 4 which is too small to add a serving table to. so it’s better to build a new one.
Otherwise the Guards will go to any staffroom but will starve after a while so you can add toilets to these.
These new staffrooms with a serving table get the food from outside.
If you build a Canteen and zone it staff only it seems the cooks provide the prison mush so this is another bug.
Building close to the Security rooms Guard rooms places where these staff are and where guards go seems to work.. Keep it near the road as the workers deliver the food stuff.
I also have weather so it's gets grey when raining and snows etc and heaters have to added with hot water. Mod content can be found in teh Steam Consol.

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=829560631
Staff Needs
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=829562491

Policy I am building a new prison here using the Planning tool at the bottom tabs far right here you can draw walls/items paths etc where you might build a real wall onto. Costs nothing. Planning is great way to layout your new prison or test the layout first, just close any intake of prisoners while you play around with it.
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=829563211
There is lots very good Mods like I got the Recycle which is great as it adds the Greenhouse to the games, the food grown in the greenhouse and gardens get exported and make money. Some of it ends up in the kitchens.
I have a solution to feeding the guards and their food doesnt get delivered often enough,, use the SPAWN tab, last tab on the bottom right> and drop the meals next to the serving table the cooks/workers will pick it up and drop it on to the serving tray, very cool. Do the same with trays.
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=829687188
cheers

[Jimbabwe]

I know right!! With over 600 prisoners and 200 guards this is getting out of hand.
160 of them are ALWAYS PISSED because the cooks just STAND THERE and bring 5 clean trays every hour. I have 160 cooks and the prisoner canteens are always filled with clean trays but the staff canteen is always empty.
Is there a way to turn off staff needs in the save file or what not?

Edit: I changed staff needs to "false" and restarted the game.... not changing it back to true until it's fixed

[~That Goddamn Trans Rights Panda]

I love staff needs but the clean tray problem is mildly annoying in large prisons. They released an update today which balances the guards out a little but it doesn't solve the root cause.

However if you search workshop there's a mod called 'staff canteen tweaked' or 'staff food tweaked' something like that. This has solved all clean tray problems for me. Give it a try.

[Jaunitta 🌸]

Agree it is really cool mod However stopped using the staff canteen and only re- built staffrooms with a servery and toilets in a current game with over 500 prisoners.,. Using the Spawn I dropped the staff meals into the Storeroom the workers refilled the staffrooms that are away from the edge of the road. You need more workers to carry this out.
Staff meals dont needs trays as they come in complete this is the bug with whole staff meals thing, the game engine hasnt been scripted to recognise these trays should be dumped.
With staff canteen ( canteen with staff only) the cooks again put trays in here and when time is permitted and you have enough cooks they will pick them up. I found the dirty quick way to make the cooks get the trays from staff canteen, go to logistics and take off the black staff only, turns it back to canteen, the cooks immediately go get the trays, after doing this a few times the game learns and I dont have to change it back and forth anymore.
I have many small staffrooms just with toilets satisifies the guards need to go to the toilet.

[TrainswithNick]

Originally posted by XxXxVxXxX:

Edit: I changed staff needs to "false" and restarted the game.... not changing it back to true until it's fixed

Can you tell me how to do this please, I am having major issues as well and I don't want to restart my prison in order to use mods, I've put too many hours into this save already.

[Jaunitta 🌸]

Just disable the mod.
I make a backup of all my games saves to a USB 4tb drive.
Murgh's Mod vending machines fixes it, you can put them in staff rooms with a servery or just in staff canteens, in the prisoner canteens, common rooms out in the field where the prisoners work out, I put the orange juicer with 2 tables the staff love them it really cool as you see the oranges getting juiced, prisoners drink it. Build several cold room add an airconditioner connect the inner circute board to the fans and done correctly the fans spin. and the workers fill it with the vending stuff, no need to build onside of the ride anymore.
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=850195869

[egore.pl]

It looks like the ONE serving table is "active" at given time.

I like small facilities, so in 50 inmates/30 guards one, all worked well with one staff canteen.

...up to the moment when i placed the second serving table in other small staff room in far corner.
Staff canteen refused to work, serving table in other staffroom became the only operational.

New table removed - everything back to previous state.

Simply I can't imagine how it can work in large prison with one place to feed guards in whole area.
My advice: not to use it until fixed, if you don want to see your guards travelling the whole map to one point.

(EDIT: later it shown that it is connected, by amount of food boxes delivered, with number of guards. Over 100 guards second servery started to be supplied by workers, and i was able to make second staff canteen elsewhere, SO, in big prisons you will not experience the issue).


Besides:
No matter if it is a staff canteen, or serving table and table&benches set placed in staffroom, works exactly the same way. Food delivered from outside, by workman, in the same crates as shop deliveries, clean trays delivered by cook from kitchen.
Dirty trays from my distant corner were delivered to sink by guards, I thought " how nice of them"...
It looks like the only difference - when it is "staff canteen", cooks take dirty trays aback, when "staffroom" - guards take the duty of piling trays and, ocasionally, one takes them out to kitchen"s sink at end of his break.
For me it is cleaner solution, cooks are busy and do it less often, i"m not sure if not only when they clean the inmates' canteen.

If food is supported from the kitchen, not the outside, it means that it works
as a plain canteen. Remember to check in "deployment" tab if it is still selected as "staff only" (black) area, because every messing with "rooms" or changing the walls, every change in shape, can remove the selection.

[Jaunitta 🌸]

I have a prison of 500 and 300 guards and the staffroom or canteen works fine, it takes time for the workers to bring the goods, I have setup the break times to 3 hours 4 times a day, they have 2 needs, they need to take a toilet break and they need a food break, build lots of small staffroom with no servery and add 2 toilets to them add toilets to all staffrooms or canteens to meet both needs. Installing Murph's mod Vending machines resolved it and I have 4 or 5 large staff rooms use only canteens for prisoners, lots of small staff room for kitchen staff and workers, doctors, only security use have the staff needs.. http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=875094745

Do you cheats enablled? I have and it gives you the spawn menu where you can add food trays/ Do you see spawn on the base bottom tabs? See my screenshot
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=829687188

[Berlusconi]

Originally posted by megan31917:

I give up. I think I've pretty much tried everything to get my guards happy & fed and it's impossible. No matter the size of the prison or how many guards I have, usually 95% work up to the critical level of being furious they can't get their food needs met. Why they can't (or won't) eat is beyond me. The other 5% of guards eat just fine. I've seen snipers, dog handlers, armed guards & regular guards go eat & it's not a problem. Why the vast majority won't eat drives me crazy. I even gave an extra break just in case they didn't have enough time, but no -the critical level remains. There's plenty of food, so why won't they eat? Also -as I've played my one prison for a long time, I've noticed no one cleans up the trays in the staff canteen. No matter how many cooks, garbage bins, or sinks are available, the trays remain on the tables. It's such a good idea to have the staff needs, but too frustrating to try & play with them on. I'm starting to wonder if my guads will start a riot because they're hungry! LOL When you click on any of them, their status is always '♥♥♥♥♥♥ off' -it's kinda funny at this point. Oh well...I hope a fix comes soon.

Do you use staff canteens?

[Jaunitta 🌸]

I have both, canteen with staff zoned and mostly staffrooms
If none are eating> what tme settings in your staff needs for breaks.They will eat if you allocated the breaks.Open Needs for staff then policies, just for a while make it 24 hours so they are perminently on breaks. They will still do their job but will have On a Break all the time.
I have my breaks set at 90 minutes 4 times a day.
The first staffroom is really large and is on the side fo the road.
I used to have probs as well now I use the spawn.
I nolonger play it without Murph's vending machines which added a cold room and I use the Spawn to fill the cold room with oranges vending food and staff food. The workers take this and constantly fill the staffrooms and staff canteens.
A video of a new game I started for you to see how my mods and staff needs working really good
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B_pCHuuvChcrOTlwdHFUYlVMUzA

The kitchen staff do not cleanup staff canteens, usually the guards will remove the plates to a bin if there or take it tot he kitchens nearest.
Put a rubbish bin in each staff room with a servery. Put a TV and plants if you have the mods. I have vending machines as well radio /TV/bookshelf toilet x 2- a drink machine orange juice and couches
If you create a canteen for staff do you set the zone for staff only?
The Janitor will clean it the workers will fill the servery.
they fixed the guides killing prisoners when too angry.
If they get to angry give them more time to rest.
I have numerous mods installed . The recycling is great as the gardners grow food from the waste from the kitchens and inturn put it back as staff food.Gardens become a source of income and study for prisoners.
Checkout the link I provided back up for all Murph's mods.
I also show the Spawn screen.

Staff needs fixes
http://forums.introversion.co.uk/viewtopic.php?t=60364

Scroll backup this conversation to see the links for Murph's mods etc