Prison Architect Alpha 19 is finally out, and it comes with a massive overhaul of the finance system.
Originally, and up until last month’s Alpha 18 build of Prison Architect, the finance system was pretty broken. Any payments made to your prison would be received at midnight. You would go on a spending spree and then have to sit and wait for 21 in-game hours for your next cash boost. Introversion has recognised this, and set about changing what was the biggest issue in the game.
The first change is in prison exports; you can now build an export area, similar to the garbage and delivery areas of old. This area will be filled with any goods your prisoners produce to be loaded onto trucks for sale; this gives a more even cash-flow to the game, and effectively spreads the fun of spending cash throughout your work day.
The second change is even bigger. The Prison Grant system has been overhauled. You can now take a lot more grants, which basically work as mini-quests, earning you a lot more money. In keeping with fixing the game, you can no longer accept all of the grants at once. You are now limited to two grants at a time, unless your accountant feels creative, and you unlock the upgrade for a third grant.
Speaking of creative accounting, your prison is a company. As a company, Prison Architect Inc., you pay corporation tax at a whopping 30% of your profit going to the government. If your accountant is well trained enough this can be decreased to 15%, and eventually 1%, allowing you to make the big bucks without fear of the government. As Andrew Ryan one said, “Is man not entitled to the sweat of his brow?”
The final massive change refers to you as a company. Like all companies, your interest is in profits, and two good ways to make money quickly are getting a bank loan and selling shares. You can now take out loans which start small, but can increase with your credit rating if you make your hourly repayments. You can now also sell up to 50% of your prison at 10% of your prison value at a time. The single repurcussion of this at the moment is that when you come to sell your prison, you will only get the percentage of the prison you own back on your sale. If you own 50% of your $3 million prison, you will only get $1.5 million back to put towards your next prison.
The full change-list can be found, as always, on the Introversion blog
Nic Bunce
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