Prisonscape Alpha - thread

[Haba]

Important serious question regarding the inventory system PekkaK

Can you hoop it?

 

[PekkaK]

Important serious question regarding the inventory system PekkaK

Can you hoop it?

This is the default storage space for contraband before you find better spots inside the prison. To answer your question: you kind of have to.

 

[Haba]

So what stat determines how many inventory slots you have?

 

[PekkaK]

So what stat determines how many inventory slots you have?

All of them. Strength determines how much you can jam in, Agility makes places more spacious and Intelligence helps you do some planning with the actual stuffing.

 

[PekkaK]

There's been plenty of progress! Quests involving voodoo dolls, sperm, transsexuals, weddings, orgies, krokodil and much more. Also the new combat system is becoming everything that the general RPGCodex population hates. Also, David has been churning out lots of cool animations:

 

[PekkaK]

I wrote a blog post about our combat-system rehaul:

http://www.prisonscape.com/blog/?p=790

 

[PekkaK]

Updated version:

Which one do you prefer, this or the previous one?

 

[Modron]

Updated version:

Which one do you prefer, this or the previous one?

I like how this one looks and how the health bars are better separated, but the absence of the turn order is a loss. Would I be wrong in thinking you would be retooling that to fit the black border above?

 

[GarlandExCon]

Coronavirus silver lining might be you guys get this done LOL

 

[Drowed]

Yeah, just flip it and put it there. (And flip the heads too, obviously.)

 

[PekkaK]

I like this how this one looks and how the better separation of enemy versus allied health bars, but the absence of the turn order is a loss. Would I be wrong in thinking you would be retooling that to fit the black border above?

That was actually the plan, we just hadn't implemented it yet.

Here's how it looks now:

Coronavirus silver lining might be you guys get this done LOL

The real question is, will there be any players left after it's run its course?

 

[V_K]

I like this how this one looks and how the better separation of enemy versus allied health bars, but the absence of the turn order is a loss. Would I be wrong in thinking you would be retooling that to fit the black border above?

That was actually the plan, we just hadn't implemented it yet.

Here's how it looks now:

Coronavirus silver lining might be you guys get this done LOL

The real question is, will there be any players left after it's run its course?

Can you flip the enemies' faces on the UI so that they'd look the other way? It's just with such abstract graphics, everyone being human and wearing the same clothes, it gets rather hard to distinguish friend from foe.

 

[Haba]

Yeah, flip the icons to show the correct facing direction, makes it hella better.

 

[PekkaK]

Much better, eh?

 

[PekkaK]

Now we have more icons - are they clear enough, i.e. can you tell what type of attack each icon represents? The pixel area for designing these is quite small (20x20)!

Spoiler

From top left:
1st row: jab, hook, uppercut, overhead punch, combo
2nd: kick, knee, front kick, roundhouse kick

 

[PekkaK]

Just finished all the pre-beta quests for Prisonscape. Currently the game has 79 quests which are roughly divided to three factions (Aryan Brotherhood (Mexican Mafia quests are lumped together with these), Black Guerrilla Family and Neutrals. Many of them still need some flesh around the bones, mainly C&C stuff and skill/stat checks. The game also has an extensive gossip system that allows the player to gain information about other inmates and guards. This information gathering is necessary for completing many of the game's quests.

 

[PekkaK]

I've been playing around with the game's economy, and boy it's a tricky one. Currently it works like this:

• The basic currency in the game is postage stamps
• The game has a trading menu where the player can buy basic stuff like toothbrushes, razors, some food and crafting items, etc. The currency for this is the stamps
• Then there are "hot" items, like drugs and weapons. They can be obtained as rewards from quests and from loot. They can be exchanged to stamps but they can't be purchased with stamps
• This creates two systems with infinite currency (stamps) and finite currency (quest rewards and loot)
• Trading through chat interaction with other NPC's happens quite rarely, and is mostly limited to quest items and rewards. This is because we try not to expand the scope of the game too much at this point

The open questions with this system are as follows:

• Should the loot system be somehow limited so that it doesn't make the finite currency infinite (i.e. is loot farming possible and should it be? does it break both of the economies? does this even matter?)
• Is there a loss of "hot", finite items from shakedowns and thievery?
• The game has a pickpocketing skill - how could this be applied to the economy (e.g. making stealing available in the trading menu, stealing of quest items from NPC's so that the game doesn't "break", and so on)

Please give us feedback on this, and if you know a game with superb trading system/economy that's not super complex and bloated, let us know.

 

[V_K]

• The game has a trading menu where the player can buy basic stuff like toothbrushes, razors, some food and crafting items, etc. The currency for this is the stamps

• Then there are "hot" items, like drugs and weapons. They can be obtained as rewards from quests and from loot. They can be exchanged to stamps but they can't be purchased with stamps

I get the logic, but I think that this could lead to a situation where by mid-game stamps become completely irrelevant.

 

[PekkaK]

• The game has a trading menu where the player can buy basic stuff like toothbrushes, razors, some food and crafting items, etc. The currency for this is the stamps

• Then there are "hot" items, like drugs and weapons. They can be obtained as rewards from quests and from loot. They can be exchanged to stamps but they can't be purchased with stamps

I get the logic, but I think that this could lead to a situation where by mid-game stamps become completely irrelevant.

I thought about this, too. Maybe some quests could still have the possibility to use stamps for completing quest objectives. For example, there's a quest where you have to acquire a book from an old Jewish Mafia hitman. There are several ways of getting the book, which currently include

• Attack the man and his son. They are very challenging opponents
• Plant drugs to his cell and call a shakedown. The man is taken to the SHU, his personal belongings stay in his locker and you can go and pick the lock and get the book
• If you are doing a "merchant" style of play, you can just acquire enough stamps to buy the book

This would still keep the stamp collection relevant. Also, the basic stuff you can buy are also used for crafting weapons and/or drugs, and these items can be lost in various ways (weapons break easily during battle, shakedowns, theft), whereas stamps are a bit more safe.

 

[PekkaK]

I'm pretty sure that promoting on Reddit is a waste of time.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

I've known a few people who have been in federal prison and the general response to that question has been you just stick with your own race. As far as I know, this has less to do with individuals being racist than there being a large portion of the inmate population being racist therefore it creates a lot less problems.
GarlandExCon thoughts?

 

[GarlandExCon]

In prison and jail, federal or otherwise, people often divide themselves around racial lines. The higher the security level, the more this is true. Even at the federal lows you go in the chow hall and people segregate themselves by race. In higher security institutions, you can't even sit with people of a different race sometimes. You have to sit with your "homeboys" and more specifically your homeboys from your own race. These are your people who are also from wherever you're from. In the feds it's broken down by state and in state prisons by city or county.

In prison, it's natural to band together for protection and support and when you do this the easiest way to do it is via commonality.

This can mean homeboys, gangs, religion in some cases and, yes, race.

Gangs are also usually divided along racial lines. I mean, how many white members of the Bloods are there? How many black members of the Latin Kings? How many Asians do you see in the Aryan Brotherhood?

So, yes, it often means you'd have scenarios like the one from the game.

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

 

[PekkaK]

In prison and jail, federal or otherwise, people often divide themselves around racial lines. The higher the security level, the more this is true. Even at the federal lows you go in the chow hall and people segregate themselves by race. In higher security institutions, you can't even sit with people of a different race sometimes. You have to sit with your "homeboys" and more specifically your homeboys from your own race. These are your people who are also from wherever you're from. In the feds it's broken down by state and in state prisons by city or county.

In prison, it's natural to band together for protection and support and when you do this the easiest way to do it is via commonality.

This can mean homeboys, gangs, religion in some cases and, yes, race.

Gangs are also usually divided along racial lines. I mean, how many white members of the Bloods are there? How many black members of the Latin Kings? How many Asians do you see in the Aryan Brotherhood?

So, yes, it often means you'd have scenarios like the one from the game.

Can you remember any cases where for example hispanic/latino or white person has been a member of say, Black Guerrilla Family? Is there any kind of "supporting member" system in place? This is kind of related to the game, as the player can do some "hustles" for the Blacks and also for the Mexicans (as Mexican Mafia is in alliance with the Aryans).

 

[GarlandExCon]

I can't, but Black Guerrilla wasn't active where I did my time. We did have members of the Nation is Islam and they were all black, although white people could join.

I also knew a white guy who was a Latin King.

But doing hustles for people who are in other gangs is actually common place. Even rival gangs can find common ground if it's mutual beneficial.

BTW, let me know about that thing we talked about