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Challenge Blog: The Second Chance Prison Challenge
AlHollandiyah
Posts: 1,121 Member
The Second Chance Prison Challenge
This blog will be where I regularly post about the progress of my Second Chance Prison challenge. It is a personal twist of the one made by The Sim Supply, most of all because I didn't like all the fighting going on between his warden and the inmates. IMHO a warden needs to keep a professional attitude towards the people that are under their care, and that will show up in the rules that I've written in this challenge topic.
Here are the details of what I have chosen so far:
First of all about the prison. I have chosen to make a male prison, because after the 100 baby challenge I really liked a change of game. I am using twistedmexi's Full House mod and I have built myself a prison capable of holding 32 prisoners, which will be a household of 34 sims including my 2 wardens. Therefore I also choose the 64x64 Windenburg Island lot because the extra space it offers will come in very handy. For rehabilitation I use the 'normal' set of rules of 1 skill to 10 and 24 hours of good behaviour because I think handling 34 sims will be hard enough.
I have also decided I want to make full use of the 5 colors of unlocked uniforms that came with GTW, so I made 5 ranks for the prisoners, where they can deserve special permissions if they do well:
I am also trying to keep my prisoners to some kind of simple schedule to keep everything going smooth. I wake them all up at 6:00, have them freshen up (toilet/shower) and then take them to the canteen for breakfast. After they ate that they are taken to the skill area where they can choose from a number of activities (chess, fitness, painting and woodworking) and I leave them to roam that section. This is partially because I want to see what skill they are naturally interested in, and partially because it is just not do-able to constantly tell that much sims what to do. This section also has a toilet area they can visit when needed. They can obviously also decide to just 'hang around' and talk, but that won't get them free any time soon.
At around 16:00 they are taken to the yard while the wardens start preparing dinner for everyone. I am planning to also include some gardening activities, but I'm kind of waiting for an inmate who takes a liking to that. Around 18:00 they are taken to the canteen to eat dinner. The canteen has plenty of tables for everyone to choose with whom they want to sit, as it has 16 picknick tables for 32 inmates. After dinner they are free to 'roam' that section of the prison which includes another toilet area, and also a lounge area and computer area for inmates that have earned permissions for it. Around 22:00 they are locked up in their cell and the day is over.
To allow for easy management of the doors within the sections I made a club for each of the ranks, all of them headed by the wardens, so they are never removed due to it's last member leaving. By setting all the door locks within sections to the prisoners that have access to them I can easily add a prisoner to their new rank and I don't have to (un)lock the doors for each individual. I do NOT use clubs for ANYTHING else, because I don't want any unfair advantages by getting a lot of club points. To make this system work I use the More Clubs Per Sim mod (allowing the wardens to head all of them) and the GT More Then 8 Club Members mod to make sure I can have all fishies in the same club.
Last of all, I found out that moving around a large group of sims by unlocking/relocking the door is a big pain, and having them teleport by the vanilla teleport system is an even bigger pain. Because you can easily be waiting 30 sim minutes triple checking who decided not to TP, who was sitting down at the moment the bubble activated, glitching out, and so on and so on. So I also added the Teleport Any Sim mod, which adds a 'modded' statue that you put down, and then you click the statue to choose what sim to teleport replacing it. It also includes a script that makes them stop whatever they are doing, so the TP is instant.
Only 1 problem left: How to keep the prisoner's fun level up without breaking with the general prison theme????
I also have all of these recommended mods / custom content to make the challenge work better:
This blog will be where I regularly post about the progress of my Second Chance Prison challenge. It is a personal twist of the one made by The Sim Supply, most of all because I didn't like all the fighting going on between his warden and the inmates. IMHO a warden needs to keep a professional attitude towards the people that are under their care, and that will show up in the rules that I've written in this challenge topic.
Here are the details of what I have chosen so far:
First of all about the prison. I have chosen to make a male prison, because after the 100 baby challenge I really liked a change of game. I am using twistedmexi's Full House mod and I have built myself a prison capable of holding 32 prisoners, which will be a household of 34 sims including my 2 wardens. Therefore I also choose the 64x64 Windenburg Island lot because the extra space it offers will come in very handy. For rehabilitation I use the 'normal' set of rules of 1 skill to 10 and 24 hours of good behaviour because I think handling 34 sims will be hard enough.
I have also decided I want to make full use of the 5 colors of unlocked uniforms that came with GTW, so I made 5 ranks for the prisoners, where they can deserve special permissions if they do well:
- Orange: This is the Isolation rank. After coming out of 'the hole' a prisoner will keep this rank for 24 hours, and temporary loose all permissions they might have built up before that. After 24 hours of no repeat punishments they can get their old rank back.
- Yellow: This is the fish rank, or the rank for new prisoners. No special permissions, proof yourself first.
- Beige: This is the first rank with extras, it can be earned by having 1 skill at level 4 and includes access to the lounge room after dinner.
- White: This is the second rank with extras, it can be earned by having 1 skill at level 8 and includes access to the computer room after dinner.
- Blue: This is the release candidate rank, it can be earned by having 1 skill at level 10. After 24 hours of good behaviour within the blue rank a prisoner is considered rehabilitated.
I am also trying to keep my prisoners to some kind of simple schedule to keep everything going smooth. I wake them all up at 6:00, have them freshen up (toilet/shower) and then take them to the canteen for breakfast. After they ate that they are taken to the skill area where they can choose from a number of activities (chess, fitness, painting and woodworking) and I leave them to roam that section. This is partially because I want to see what skill they are naturally interested in, and partially because it is just not do-able to constantly tell that much sims what to do. This section also has a toilet area they can visit when needed. They can obviously also decide to just 'hang around' and talk, but that won't get them free any time soon.
At around 16:00 they are taken to the yard while the wardens start preparing dinner for everyone. I am planning to also include some gardening activities, but I'm kind of waiting for an inmate who takes a liking to that. Around 18:00 they are taken to the canteen to eat dinner. The canteen has plenty of tables for everyone to choose with whom they want to sit, as it has 16 picknick tables for 32 inmates. After dinner they are free to 'roam' that section of the prison which includes another toilet area, and also a lounge area and computer area for inmates that have earned permissions for it. Around 22:00 they are locked up in their cell and the day is over.
To allow for easy management of the doors within the sections I made a club for each of the ranks, all of them headed by the wardens, so they are never removed due to it's last member leaving. By setting all the door locks within sections to the prisoners that have access to them I can easily add a prisoner to their new rank and I don't have to (un)lock the doors for each individual. I do NOT use clubs for ANYTHING else, because I don't want any unfair advantages by getting a lot of club points. To make this system work I use the More Clubs Per Sim mod (allowing the wardens to head all of them) and the GT More Then 8 Club Members mod to make sure I can have all fishies in the same club.
Last of all, I found out that moving around a large group of sims by unlocking/relocking the door is a big pain, and having them teleport by the vanilla teleport system is an even bigger pain. Because you can easily be waiting 30 sim minutes triple checking who decided not to TP, who was sitting down at the moment the bubble activated, glitching out, and so on and so on. So I also added the Teleport Any Sim mod, which adds a 'modded' statue that you put down, and then you click the statue to choose what sim to teleport replacing it. It also includes a script that makes them stop whatever they are doing, so the TP is instant.
Only 1 problem left: How to keep the prisoner's fun level up without breaking with the general prison theme????
I also have all of these recommended mods / custom content to make the challenge work better:
- Teleport Any Sim Usefull for moving sims around to other areas and cells without constantly changing door locks.
- Unlocked CAS Parts Unlocks career outfits & more, including GTW Detective & Prisoners uniforms.
- No Autonomous Phone Actions What prison allows prisoners to have mobile phones anyway?
- Full Household Mod Make households of 24 or more sims.
- MC Command Center - Dresser Useful for getting new prisoners in to their clothes.
- GT More Then 8 Club Members If you use Clubs to walk your prisoners around, and have a larger household.
- More Clubs Per Sim Usefull for making your wardens head/member of all clubs, even if there are more then 3.
Post edited by AlHollandiyah on
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Comments
Here is a screenshot of both of them, in their uniforms:
Top side view, from the top down to the first floor:
This is still a work in progress, but it's coming along nicely! Any ideas of things missing, or generally to make it even better, are most welcome!
You know, I like that idea. But generally in prison, don't you see the gym equipment in the yard? So inmates can do something else then 'hang around' in yard time? If I put the gym in a room, what could I put in the yard?
Example:
Energized / exercise equipment.
Focused / computer skills , reading, gardening or crafting etc.
Inspired / writing, painting or cooking.
Playful / practicing jokes etc (Too much fun can kill a Sim.)
Due to the mod I used that unlocked career clothes (the GTW Detective Uniform) they show up only if you enable CC. Try that and you should find them? You should not need to have the mod yourself, because it's just an unlocked GTW item, and not a copy-of. Assuming you have GTW that is....
On the top you see the stairs going to the 2nd floor with the cells and shower areas that are on the screenshots posted earlier. Next to that on the top and bottom are bathrooms for daytime use. The one on the top is linked to the dining area, and next to the dining area in the top corners will be a kitchen/bakery.
On the bottom next to the bathroom area will be the gym and next to that an area with computers, only for higher ranking inmates. The 4 smaller rooms in between on the sides will be for training skills. I am not sure if I will keep it at 4 smaller ones or will convert it into 2 or 3 bigger ones, that will depend on how much room / rooms I need.
With this all made so far I have uploaded the Prison Shell Building into the gallery, which you can find with my EA tag AlHollandiyah. Unlike with the household you shouldn't need to check CC to find it.
Now all I need to do is finish the rules, freerealestate this prison (as the government hired me to run their abandoned prison, on the condition that I furnish it myself) and get going!
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First Floor:
Each side is divided into 3 sections, each section has a hallway with doors to the several rooms that prisoners can access there, and each section also has a bathroom with 1 toilet for every 2 prisoners. The top section the dining/kitchen area, the side section is the activity area, and the bottom section is the sports/computer area for the higher ranking prisoners who have shown good behaviour and have earned some trust.
Second Floor:
On the bottom row there are 8 3x4 cells with windows for each gender, on the outside there are 2 2x5 separation cells without windows. The bathroom has 8 shower 'cells' in the middle and will have toilets on the side.
Only the (CC marked) household and the prison shell building. But the latter does show up on the website gallery if you disable "Maxis Curated" under Advanced, because I don't use any build/buy CC. I do have all the packs tho, so I am not sure which packs are used in the build. But that's easy to fix by replacing missing wallpapers e.d. with the ones you do own.
@AlHollandiyah Have you had an opportunity to play test this challenge yet?
Keep an eye on my gallery, I post WIP builds once in a while. The one currently on it is one I like very much as far as the cell department, but the bottom floor will be changed up pretty much as I don't like the current corridors. Having 22 prisoners does sound very hectic and I'm pretty sure I'm going to regret it, but having 22 spots doesn't mean I have to keep 22 around at all time. And hey, it's a challenge. I've seen my fair share of 8 sim households in the 100 baby challenge, so I want to up the notch a bit for myself.
I am probably going to test some of the stuff today, and iron out any bugs in the rules before I start for real. Do you have any points of which you think "you should really test that because I'm not sure if that works well enough"? I can't test each and every detail before officially starting the challenge, but should I encounter anything during the real challenge I will of course update the topic accordingly.
> @RecursiveAcronym Love your profile name. :+1:
Thanks so much! It's kinda a bit of lateral wordplay off my real name, but also when I looked it up the concept was so cool I couldn't resist using it.
> @AlHollandiyah said:
> Keep an eye on my gallery, I post WIP builds once in a while. The one currently on it is one I like very much as far as the cell department, but the bottom floor will be changed up pretty much as I don't like the current corridors. Having 22 prisoners does sound very hectic and I'm pretty sure I'm going to regret it, but having 22 spots doesn't mean I have to keep 22 around at all time. And hey, it's a challenge. I've seen my fair share of 8 sim households in the 100 baby challenge, so I want to up the notch a bit for myself.
I'll check on it from time to time. And I guess by the design of the challenge, it does kinda force you to start small based on what stuff you can afford, so at least you're transitioning in rather than jumping in headfirst, so that helps. But that does kinda raise the question: where do you get more money from? Like, you have the government stipend, but that's mainly to pay the bills, right? I guess you can sell all the stuff from the prisoners, but it kinda limits the skills you want to have, and it almost incentivizes you to keep high-level prisoners around to make more money, though that's mostly more of an issue with the optional challenge with two skills, I guess.