Hello Citizens, Shortly after prison was introduced in Alpha 3.9.0 (2020), I made a Spectrum post airing concerns with the way the prison was implemented, it's bugs and the way that the law system sent players to prison. The post (which has unfortunately since been deleted apparently), was pleasantly productive and lead to Luke Pressley @PickledAtRandom helping to push some changes and get some bugs squashed. This included reducing the timer (eventually) from 13 hours to 6, removing the proximity based 'send to prison' mechanic (if you died while a BH was nearby - even at GH, you'd go to prison no matter what, even if you just fell down the stairs) and instead implemented the hidden combat timer, the ability to transfer merits, as well as adding the O2 missions (3.10) to add a bit more variety other than just mining. I'd like to preface this post by adding that I have always been excited about the idea of prison gameplay, since Luke's "Locked Up" presentation at Cit Con 2019. The ideas discussed in the presentation really highlighted the depth that CIG intended to take criminal gameplay. If you haven't watched it, I would recommend watching it to better understand CIG's intent for prison gameplay before passionately commenting below: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=99Z7tXKEOwk I'm also sure that I'm not alone in thinking that the location and atmosphere of Klescher is incredible and that the escape, while challenging at first, is a fun experience. I would also like to highlight that what I'm discussing here is not specifically regarding PVP, it is criminal gameplay as a whole, whether it be PVE or PVP. With that out of the way, I would like to begin with a quote from Luke in the presentation (3:50); "it's going to take time, testing, it's going to take your guys' feedback and lots of iteration to ensure that prisons feel both fair and offers enough options to keep players engaged." So, with this quote in mind I'd like to discuss the current state of prison two years later, and the options that players now have in prison, since it's implementation. Klescher was initially implemented with just mining as a way to earn merits to leave, and it's escape route. As previously mentioned, O2 missions were added the following patch. In alpha 3.11 CIG added a keypad to the fan at the start of escape route. In 3.13 CIG added and additional hole to the stairs at the end of the escape route (I call this the Berks hole) and in 3.17 CIG added laser trip mines to the end of the escape route as well as a new size 10 turret and missile launchers outside of the prison. In 3.17, player choice to leave prison legitimately is; mining, O2 missions and logging out of the game and going to bed. This has not changed in 2 years. On average, it takes me 10-15 minutes to leave prison (when my character isn't bugged, which is most of the time - read the bugs section), which doesn't sound too bad. But when the O2 missions consist of running, running, running and more running, in an area with incredibly poor traversal (please CIG, we shouldn't be able to sprint like this in low G), I would argue that this is not very engaging. But what about mining? One of the things that I love about this game but more importantly, it's community, is it's diversity. CIG should be proud of that. Star Citizen attracts people from games like EVE Online, Elite: Dangerous, DCS World, Euro/American Truck Simulator, Dayz, Rust, Ark: Survival Evolved, Escape from Tarkov and Arma, to name a few names that I've seen thrown around. These games are mostly all very different and I think this really highlights how different people choose to play Star Citizen for different reasons. Some people want survival, some people want flight sim, some people want industry, some people want FPS mil sim, some people want universe and some people want arenas. So what about mining? Not everyone finds mining enjoyable. And this is why Luke, in his presentation mentions offering enough options to keep players engaged. In the presentation, Luke discusses the variety of reasons why a player may actually want to go to prison, such as to meet a mission giver and earn reputation. Also discussed were some of the tasks that players would be able to take part in to earn merits, such as; prison odd-jobs, putting down violent inmates to receive a bounty, providing hired-muscle for players or NPCs, performing assassinations for other inmates. As someone who enjoys combat, these seem like far more engaging tasks than what we have now. Please CIG, give us more variety. Bugs Star Citizen has a lot of em, and that's fine. However, when bugs become game breaking and those game breaking bugs aren't fixed for 2 years, I believe this to be an issue. Remember that keypad on the fan I mentioned earlier? Due to a bug, this keypad can only be used once per server. After that it breaks and the fan can only be traversed by using a console command to reduce the client framerate to 1 and then smash the player character at the fan until they eventually clip through. This bug has been around since the keypad was introduced and attempts were once made by CIG to fix it, but it is still broken 2 years later: https://issue-council.robertsspaceindustries.com/projects/STAR-CITIZEN/issues/STARC-40111 Another longstanding bug is spawning in prison with either no mobiglass, head and multitool, which means I can't accept the O2 missions or mine, or I spawn with no undersuit and helmet which means I can't go to the mines at all. These bugs have also existed since prison was implemented and yet to be fixed. To make matters worse, they can often only be fixed via a character reset which is currently limited to once every 12 hours so I currently can't play for 12 hours (no character re-customisation doesn't fix it for everyone): https://issue-council.robertsspaceindustries.com/projects/STAR-CITIZEN/issues/STARC-20001 & https://issue-council.robertsspaceindustries.com/projects/STAR-CITIZEN/issues/STARC-37552 These two bugs are the most persistent that have yet to be fixed, but we also have some new fun bugs. Such as being sent back to prison after escaping, no matter how you die (https://issue-council.robertsspaceindustries.com/projects/STAR-CITIZEN/issues/STARC-18789) and being sent back to prison after legitimately serving your sentence (https://issue-council.robertsspaceindustries.com/projects/STAR-CITIZEN/issues/STARC-24318). The Takeaway CIG's intention for prison is not to punish badly behaving players, but to extend criminal gameplay and unfortunately it is not only lacking, but for some, entirely game breaking. I strongly implore CIG to dedicate some time to create a few more missions that offer more variety (let me beat up some NPC prisoners in the mines or maybe create a small trading loop for those who like trading) and to get these longstanding and game breaking bugs fixed. I understand that CIG's focus is S42, but two years is a long time to leave a mechanic that is often forced on players abandoned. Thanks for taking the time to read.