I am the twisted firestarter!

[LLv34 Flanker]

S!

Noted some issues with AI behaviour and fire last night. Prisoners set the canteen on fire and I followed what would happen. What did happen was that the guard AI went in there one by one to die in the fire while trying to get out handcuffed prisoners or unconscious guards. Also the pathfinding of AI was truly abysmal, it tried to go through the fire even there was a path that was not burning and was even shorter. When AI finally reached the victim, it did not backtrack or use shortest route, but took a totally random path, again through fire even a fully clear path was next to it. Needless to say the amount of guards diminished fast. Cooks and workers did clear the building fast.

To add to the features of the AI. I watched the fire spread to adjacent buildings, including the Staffroom, infirmary and shrink's office. Even the staffroom was ablaze the tired AI went in there to rest, and of course died. Infirmary, the doctor just walked around and made no efforts to leave the room or evacuate patients when fire spread = again dead people. Shrink office. Same thing. The psychologist just wandered around the office when it was ablaze without even trying to escape.

The fire caused also problems with the job queue. Because the AI has it's own list it want's to do, it gets stuck in a loop if it can not go and do what was on the list. Saw cooks running forth and back between the other canteen/kitchen I had and the burning one. They tried to clean the tables that were in fire! Because the job was too dangerous = they just stood there between attempts to enter the burning inferno. Same applied to the workers, they just did not know what to do, but did not enter the fire.

The fire finally settled and started to clear up the rubble. For some reason workers stubbornly wanted to repair equipment even I had chosen Dump. I only chose repair to items that were slightly damaged, and even then they dumped them! The logic was a bit strange.

Then I chose to bulldoze the burned parts that would be too costly to rebuild. Again the worker AI "shined", it had no clear pattern how to do it, just picked a part here and there carrying rubble to trashbags far away, even one was just next to him etc. There is no clear logic in what they do. Sometimes they chose to wander off to do some random things and then back to clearing the rubble.

Then the dead bodies. Because I had no morgue, the bodies were just lying there all over the place with pickup waiting outside the prison. Usually guards take their fallen comrades to the pickup, but now they just let them be there. Prisoner and worker bodies remained on the ground, nobody cleared them even I tried to order worker/guard. No morgue = no body pickup?

The list of AI features could go on, as it is the most irritating thing at the moment with the game. Everything else is top notch, but the AI drives me nuts. Like their IQ is barely above required level to breathe and eat.

[Mendacious Calamity]

tl;dr: There's some AI bugs

;)

BTW in my experience guards will move corpses to the pickup without a morgue. Mind you, I observed this in a 'prison' that had zero buildings, just a warden, 5 guards, and 80 prisoners standing in handcuffs in the delivery zone, starving to death :D

Maybe once you build buildings you need a morgue.

[LLv34 Flanker]

S!

Could be. Kind of strange bodies won't be hauled out by either workers/guards or picked up by the ambulances outside.

[Mendacious Calamity]

Whole game is buggy and gets buggier the longer you play any given prison, I find. I only play every now and then, not much fun trying to enjoy a game that keeps falling over ;)

[LLv34 Flanker]

S!

I have noticed the same, the longer you play the wonkier it gets. AI routines need an overhaul for starters. Other areas of the game seem to work quite fine.