[Devs, read this] Prison Officer mode - How I'd make it work.

[NMT-001]

Prison Officer mode. Just about everybody's heard or talked about it, just about everybody wants it, too. As for how it'd work, here's my take on how I'd make it all work.

Only prisons you have completed as an inmate (Custom, Default, it doesn't matter) can be played as an officer. Your bed is in the guard barracks, as you'd expect. Every time you get beaten up, you are sent there, instead of the infirmary. (Additionally after being beaten up, there's a chance you may be missing your uniform, baton (If in MinSec or MedSec prisons) or both. There will be a wardrobe and weapon cabinet added to the guard barracks, so you can replace both). At Lights Out, you can either patrol the prison to watch for potential Escapists, or skip the night and cut to Morning Rollcall (As well as eliminate any fatigue you have). If you skip the night though and there was an attempted escapist that night, you'll know about it. After you have shook down the target cells at the end of the Evening Rollcall, you will be given $50 for your shift.

You have no Heat meter in officer mode, for obvious reasons. Instead, all the inmates do. You can mouse over an inmate to view their heat, and only target those with 90% or higher. If it falls below that, you can continue pursuing for another couple of seconds, before being unable to do so.

(I should also add that your speed will be reduced. Players in inmate mode have faster speed than every other NPC, minus the Jeep. Officer mode reverts that difference.)

You have unconditional access through the prison, meaning you can go through any door (Red, Green, Yellow, even Silver. You will be prevented from leaving the boundaries of the map, though) and do not even need fake or real keys to get around.

After each Rollcall, you will be assigned to shake down the cells of those targeted for searching. You can only search the desks of those who were named (The page for the crafting journal will be replaced with a quick note of those named for a shakedown, if you forget). You can also remove bed sheets put up on cell bars you've been sent to search, by simply right-clicking on them. If an inmate floods a toilet in a cell, you will be able to sweep the entire cell, similar to a shakedown.

Additionally for each Rollcall, you can suggest to the head officer (The one who leads Rollcall and announces shakedowns) a name for him to declare at Rollcall, giving you valid reason to search that inmate's cell. You can only suggest the same inmate, three Rollcalls in a row. Any more than that, and the head officer will decline your suggestion (Although random chance may still make him declare the name anyway, but don't bet on it).

If you find Contraband, you earn money equal to 50% of its base value (Or 50% of its total value, if a compound item like a Shovel). For example, a Roll of Duct Tape at base value (Base value being the price given from an inmate with 50/100 opinion to you) is worth $30. You will get $15 for finding and confiscating it. Finding a set of Flimsy Cutters however, would give you around $60-something, because it will give you half the base value of Duct Tape, and half the value of the two Files used to make it (Basically the full base value of one File). You need only pick up contraband to confiscate it and it will not appear in your inventory (Like taking an item from an inmate for another inmate's favour). Picking up items that are considered legal (Even compound ones like a Poster) will not give you any money. You can also only pick up legal items that are lying around. Contraband can be grabbed from wherever it is, be it on the ground, on an inmate, in a desk, etc.

Officers and Inmates still maintain opinions of you. Inmates with a low opinion of you may wait until they have a heavy damaging weapon (Such as a Hammer or a Glass Shank) before attacking you. Officers with a low opinion of you will not attack you, but may not come to your aid, if you're being attacked (Unless they really don't like the attacking inmate, either).

Regardless of opinion, there is a 5% chance on easier prisons that an inmate will attack you with a cup of hot chocolate. This chance can escalate as high as 33% for harder prisons.

If you find an inmate or officer tied up, you can release them by right-clicking on them. At that point, they will identify who tied them up. That inmate will be in hostile mode, until Lights Out, or when beaten up. Whichever comes first. Beating up the inmate responsible, will boost the inmate or officer victim's opinion somewhat.

Inmates will no longer have favors or items for sale for you, nor will you be allowed to give them anything. Instead, this will be recycled for other officers. Officers can sell you food of any type (Cooked Food, Bar of Chocolate, Burrito (San Pancho, only)) to keep you going through the day for low prices. Officer favors are significantly different from Inmate favors. They will never ask you to target another officer, for one. Second, they may either ask you to get them a snack (Food of any type, but only food can be given) for a quick pick-me-up, beat up an inmate as payback for a previous beatdown they sustained (Said inmate must be doing something hostile before you can attack, however), or ask you to shake down a specific inmate's cell for one reason or another (Most of the time, you will need to suggest the inmate's name to the head officer, unless it's the head officer asking, at which point you can do it at any time). Declining a favor will reduce their opinion of you, though not as much as declining an inmate's favor would, in inmate mode.

If something hostile is reported, such as an inmate escaping or attacking an officer, a yellow arrow will appear and point in the direction of where the report came from (Just like the waypoint marker in inmate mode, when telling you to go to Rollcall or your job) along with a green exclamation point (Identical to the indicator that an NPC has a favor for you). Investigate it. You might catch an escapist in the act. Only inmates can report attempted escapes, while cameras can report both attacks and escape attempts (As well as an inmate being in a cell that is not his).

As you may know from being an inmate, you have ways of tricking the guards into thinking you're in bed, or you're one of them. As an officer, there are two subtle, but simple ways to see through these tricks. When a bed dummy is in an inmate's bed, it will look identical to that inmate, and even bear their name if they mouse over it. However, if you right-click on it, and it doesn't bring up that inmate's stats (Strength, Speed, etc.) then it's a bed dummy. You can enter the cell and try to remove it, just to make sure. At that point, you will have to find out where that inmate is and try to beat him up to prevent their escape attempt.

An inmate disguised as an officer will look identical to one. Again however, there will be a subtle, but simple way to identify an inmate in disguise from an actual officer. Mousing over their name (At this point, I'm tied between having their name in blue with "Officer" as a prefix or just having it as normal. For example, "Officer Cooper" written in blue, instead of just "Cooper" or just having it as "Cooper" and in the colour tied to his opinion of you, like red for a really bad opinion) will reveal to the careful eye, that they are an inmate in disguise. At that point, a beatdown is again the only way to prevent an escape attempt.

(In both conditions, the inmate will be considered hostile and can be subdued at will, instead of having to wait for him to do something hostile).

Upon finding evidence of an escape (A tunnel, dirt, wall block, vent cover, or a broken wall/fence/vent), you can select a unique item in your inventory, a whistle and use it on the evidence. This will alert all available officers to the scene, and they will start tracing it all back to the inmate responsible. You may alternatively continue following the trail in the hopes of catching the escapist in the act. For example, if it's a tunnel, you can enter it in an attempt to find the escapist inside. If you do find him in there, you will have to beat him up, to stop the escape attempt. Basically, use a whistle to summon all available officers to aid in the capture, or if you don't think you have the time to wait for them to show up (Or you're feeling strong enough to do it yourself), or you know exactly who the escapist is and where they could be, you can attempt to locate and bring down the escapist yourself.

You are not able to remove posters from walls, unless you "witness" the hole in, the wall. To "witness" a hole in a wall, you must be within a four or five tile radius of the hole when it's exposed, at which point you will be able to pull down the poster. Same applies for fake wall blocks, fences, vent covers, etc.

(I should probably mention that in your inventory, you will have the whistle, a Flashlight with infinite use, for patrolling during Lights Out, and four remaining slots that you can store food in. You will automatically have a uniform and baton (Stun Rod, if in a MaxSec prison) equipped on your person at all times, and they cannot be removed by your hand)

From time to time, the prison will enter a lockdown, either because multiple officers are down and/or have been tied up, or because someone missed Rollcall (In the latter case, a message will appear, stating that an inmate (Addressed by name, eg "Walder") was not present for Rollcall). The Inmate(s) responsible for triggering the lockdown will be in hostile mode for the duration of it, meaning you can beat them up to prevent the escape attempt. The only exception to this rule, is if the inmate is still inside the main prison area. In this case, using the whistle on that inmate will release the lockdown, and the day will continue as normal. (The inmate will likely still get beat down due to guard heat, but whatever).

If it's an attempted prison takeover, the inmate(s) responsible will automatically target you when they find you. If you get beat up in the attempt, the game will roll probabilities depending on the amount of remaining officers versus the inmate(s) attempting the takeover. For example, if there are four officers remaining after you get beat down, and there are two inmates attempting the takeover, there will be a 33% chance the inmates will be successful. If there is one officer left and three inmates attempting the takeover, there will be a 75% chance the inmates will be successful, etc. etc. The outcome is rolled, and if the takeover fails, you will return to your bed in the barracks. If the takeover succeeds, the inmate(s) will be considered to have escaped.

Reporting evidence of an escapist will give you $100. Taking down the escapist directly after finding evidence will give you $150. (An escapist is automatically revealed, if you find contraband in their desk during a shakedown, a tunnel, dirt, broken wall/fence/vent, etc.) In addition, the escapist will be in the SHU for a whole 24 hours from the next Morning Rollcall (Example, if the escapist is caught at 02:45 on day 14, they will be let out of the SHU at 08:00 (Or 09:00 if it's a MaxSec prison) on day 15. If they are caught at 16:21 on day 20, they will be let out of the SHU at 08:00 (Again, or 09:00 if MaxSec) on day 22). They will be automatically accounted for in all group events such as Shower or Exercise (Their job will be forfeited upon capture). The number of active escapists at any time will be limited. For example on easy prisons, there may only ever be one active escapist at a time. They may also make mistakes, such as leaving contraband in their desk or not hiding evidence easily. On harder prisons however, there may be multiple escapists (Likely no more than three at most) at any time and they may be more careful about hiding evidence.

If an inmate successfully escapes the prison, you will receive a message (Either from the game, or the Warden. Probably the Warden) and the game will end, giving you a score of how well you did (Days played, contraband found, escapists captured, etc.) for the duration.





So...that's pretty much how I'd make Officer mode work, if I could call the shots. What are your thoughts on that? Leave comments below, saying what you like, don't like or maybe some of your own ideas and if I like them enough, I may work them into this.

[marto]

I think that these are amazing ideas and I would genuinely want to play it. Of course, this would require a ridiculous amount of work from the dev, but I'm sure Chris could handle it.

+Support

[NMT-001]

I'm glad that these ideas are being considered decent at the least. Assures me that I'm not just spouting an abnormally huge amount of drivel that nobody would care about.

As for the Devs, they actually just released another prison, Alcatraz (So much for Irongate being the spin-off of that) so I imagine they want some time to cool off, first. But hell, maybe they might consider this sometime...

[Ataxylon]

Sounds pretty awesome, I'd love to play something like this.

[marto]

Yep, Irongate = actually English confirmed

[NMT-001]

Couple tweaks here and there and a thing about finding hostages (Inmates or Officers tied up).

[Qball]

Well done paragraph sir, +Support. (Put devs read this in the title)

[Qball]

I Think the next update they are working on is either giving the paperclip a use (for a lockpick) or multiplayer

[NMT-001]

Originally posted by qballking4:

Well done paragraph sir, +Support. (Put devs read this in the title)

Done.

[Saria]

Hmm, my one question is would the Irongate stun batons make that prison too easy? Otherwise this is very well thought out. It might be good for a multiplayer mode too, inmates vs. guards.

[BakaTsundere]

I like it. It may get boring after a while in singleplayer, but it'd be a brilliant MP idea.

+Support

[NMT-001]

Originally posted by Saria:

Hmm, my one question is would the Irongate stun batons make that prison too easy? Otherwise this is very well thought out. It might be good for a multiplayer mode too, inmates vs. guards.

To offset that, there would be multiple escapists active at once. Just because you shut one down doesn't mean no others may be working their way out as well.

Also, I'm declaring a 5% probability that an inmate will attack you with a cup of hot chocolate (That probability rises as high as 33% on the harder prisons) instead of a random weapon. That, plus opinion will be irrelevant, should they choose to do so. Adding that to the OP.

[Flip]

If it's in singleplayer - amezing idea

if it's in multiplayer - maybe some more anti-abuse idea's

but center perks should be very hard and HMP irongate very easy, in officer mode and when do you actually beat the game ?

[NMT-001]

Originally posted by Flip:

If it's in singleplayer - amezing idea

Specifically so.

Originally posted by Flip:

if it's in multiplayer - maybe some more anti-abuse idea's

Possibly so. I haven't put much thought into it as a multiplayer mode yet, mostly because there's not a lot to go on in that aspect, since it doesn't exist yet.

Originally posted by Flip:

but center perks should be very hard and HMP irongate very easy, in officer mode

Not so. Like I mentioned in that wall of text, on easier prisons like Center Perks and Stalag Flucht, escapists may make mistakes (Just like most of us did when we tried to escape) and leave a visible breadcrumb trail to them. On the harder prisons like San Pancho, there could be multiple escapists working at a time, and they may be more careful about hiding their evidence.

Originally posted by Flip:

and when do you actually beat the game ?

It's not so much something you CAN complete, in my eyes. It's more like an "Endurance" mode, where you see how long you can last and keep everybody in. Longer is better, etc.

[Flip]

Keeping prisinors in center perks is harder then keeping them in HMP irongate, I think they should switch it ;P

[Abelian]

I think that this is amazing and I appreciate that you took a lot of time to write this down!!!
Hope this gets added! +support