Is it normal to spend 90% of my time waiting?

[Userbla]

So I've been trying to enjoy this game, but I find myself spending most of my time waiting for more money, unable to do much else. When more money does come in, it's hardly enough to develop the prison at all. This gets boring very quickly as I spend most of my time staring at the clock.

I try to complete the grants and make my prison as efficient as possible (in terms of reducing costs), but the income per day and economy in this game seem to need a lot of work. This surprises me because we're on alpha 13 now and it was the same back in alpha 1.

Am I just bad at this game? Does anybody else experience this? How can I keep things interesting?

[Statisfaction]

For all my prisons I beeline Chief/Prison Labor and Foreman/Deployment ASAP to get a Workshop with at least 5 each of the saw/press using your initial grants. You'll still feel poor since you're probably building a lot of stuff, but it gives you much more breathing room

Don't worry too much about reducing costs (especially being stingy about security guards), since a safe prison means less riots during working hours. Once you get 10 each of saw/press I think you'll bring in close to 10k per day.

You can build it outdoors using just free fences to save money early on, too.

[mikeydsc]

in the beginning its really a race to get your workshop up as fast as possible and keep adding more saws and presses each day ....then start to expand other areas.

8 cells and a 10 person holding cell (10 beds) is good to start - skip laundry for a few days

[Andii]

I usually just go into the save file and give myself money. It's alpha so things arent balanced yet or simply haven't been put into the game (more grants).

I don't see it as "cheating" as I've played the game propperly when i first got it. But every alpha tends to break old prisons or add things that simply do not fit in old designs (i.e tunneling).

And having to play from square one again doesn't seem to appealing, as i enjoy the building aspect more.

So maybe try that for a while, change your intake value and mess around and see if you enjoy it more when you have the freedom to build what you like. You can always give yourself a little bit of money, not millions, if you think it would ruin the experience and want to still have a bit of a challenge.

[Maverick]

Originally posted by mikeydsc:

8 cells and a 10 person holding cell (10 beds) is good to start - skip laundry for a few days

15 cells gets the extra 10k. That goes a long way towards growing the workshop.

[Bamwich]

Originally posted by Maverick:

Originally posted by mikeydsc:

8 cells and a 10 person holding cell (10 beds) is good to start - skip laundry for a few days

15 cells gets the extra 10k. That goes a long way towards growing the workshop.

Not really. $10k is one saw and one press.
But that's all you really need to get things going. Then it's all about reinvesting and expanding.

[GC13]

Originally posted by chalked.up:

Not really. $10k is one saw and one press.
But that's all you really need to get things going. Then it's all about reinvesting and expanding.

Say what now? $10k is five saws and five presses (assuming you have the power; it's four and four plus a bit of extra power if you didn't).

[Bamwich]

Aren't they $5k a piece?

Meh. Whatevz. Brain isn't on yet.

[GC13]

No, it's a thousand a piece. The things have an absurdly short payoff period. Unlike a prisoner who needs almost two weeks to pay his cell off using his grant money (less the cost to feed him and secure him every day), those machines will pay themselves off (and then some) in two days. Even if they were five thousand dollars each, the workshop would be as money efficient as the prisoners operating them.

[Semnus]

yeah

[mikeydsc]

its why I do 8 and 10 (bigger holding cell with a few more beds say 15 to get roughly 20 - 23) to get roughly the first 20 you can assign to the workroom. After thats its kinda a waste to build anymore initially until you are ready to roll out the expansions. 20 prisoners on 10 saws and 10 presses makes you some quick initial cash. I also plan 8 to 10 metal detectors in my prison with almost 0 tunnel digging after. After this then laundry since it makes no money and it will take a few days before prisoners clothing needs are met.

[Maverick]

Originally posted by mikeydsc:

its why I do 8 and 10

Are you using the grants?

It's 20k seed and 10k on completion of *15* cells mikey.

[mikeydsc]

20k seed is 10 saws and 10 presses...its how i get all my items built so I have a full workshop. Alternatively buy 6x saws and 6x presses and then a power generator and a 3 caps to just run all this on its own power grid. Initially the workshop is most expensive, that is why I save that 20k grant money and do not even get the grant until I am ready to build the workshop. Seed money I get the other 3 grants to build and the 20k grant just for the workshop. If you dont take it while you do your initial building, you cant spend it by mistake kinda a safety valve from over building initially.

[Dr. Spaceman]

Have the workshop ready asap.. then your money troubles are no more!

Currently I'm at around 88 inmates, with a full workshop. I get around $3700 from prisoners + 5.2k a day from workshop. No cheats at all.

The key is not going crazy building too many cells (get your 15 to start for the extra 10k), and leave enough money to build a workshop with 3saws/3presses. Then slowly expand that and your cell block as the money rolls in. Also don't go crazy with guards, and I usually fire all of my workmen except for 4.

So even though the devs said the pricing isn't balanced, you can still manage nicely if you plan carefully.

[VanillaPCStrategy]

If you plan carefully when you start, and turn off prison intake until you have all the research done and everything built, you can set up a reasonable workshop before you even have 1 prisoner. So your first 8 can start working it. Then you can finish up the $20k in bonus grants (15 prisoners and 2 doctors) and basically at that point there's less waiting.

Just focus on expanding your workshop, while also meeting other needs as the population grows. But all those needs are met to keep your workshop operating and expanding.

For now the game is sandbox and there's plenty of time to poke around and watch your prisoners and guards interact... but little that is "required" during most of the time. Each night when the money comes in, assign your workers tasks to keep them busy until morning, and then poke around until the next night comes along.

[Shunyaku]

80%? Lucky.

I oft take 95% of my time waiting, with this inly circumvented by finding a way to start with a trillion dollars spending cash.

Even then though, much waiting. If I don't pace construction projects a single exersize yard can take 45 minutes real time to build.