I thought about this before as well, and I am totally in favor of this idea if it could be enforced well.

Either lose time on the tail end of your 52(ish) years, or do some back breaking labor, buff your strength up a little bit, and "lose" this time in the middle of your 52 years.

Prison would be cool, working off your sentence could make it go faster...say youre imprisoned for one IRL week so an in game year and you spend one gaming session working it off. That wouldnt be so bad

That would have to some how be coded in. But practically not possible as you wouldn't want to waste your time taking them all the way to their home again. A person who is willing to be your slave/captive can just follow you and obey you themselves.

In what ever the prison system or judicial system, what ever the powers you're hoping they will have, Expect players to take advantage of it, not for dueling justice out. I don't like the idea of prisons, in the least, it would take a huge number of people to run effectively. For the most part, it isn't there to make the game more fun for deviant play-style it would just be there to be a detremement as a whole for player enjoyment.

Having the ability to work off your prison sentence, it's just forced labor for those that don't want to pay as much for the game. Death is natural own up to your mistakes. Don't try to just have a either shortened sentence by making prisons able to be escaped. Or just have people do remedial labor for their crimes. Which would then again, have to be enforced by players and NPCs which would be a new form of indentured servitude.

That's what this is, is a way to extend your playtime with your character, and no deviant would want to have a shorter lifespan, IF that means that they can still build attributes one way or another. Every action in this game rewards a player with experience, even if they don't get the product of their labor. Which probably wouldn't be the case because they are likely working on public projects, not private ones. They would just be doing what a functioning domain would normally be doing trying to make something out of their character. In this case they can say they chizzled that block of stone really nicely for that wall the count wants. (This would drive down the price for the masons unable to compete with prison labor, if people actually chose prison labor as an option.) You can't compete with free, this outprices any of the guilds that would be in the industry of making bricks, nails, generally anything that could have a person stay in one spot and craft the whole time. That's why I am against intendured servitude and/or prison labor.

While I get a great deal, other people will not be able to compete with me in the price I can get for making a building then selling it. So this isn't good for the economics of the game, generally.

So even if it was a good looking option. I am not for it just so a few players save a couple dollars on a huge mistake.

Posted By Gunghoe at 3:36 PM - Wed Nov 21 2018

In what ever the prison system or judicial system, what ever the powers you're hoping they will have, Expect players to take advantage of it, not for dueling justice out. I don't like the idea of prisons, in the least, it would take a huge number of people to run effectively. For the most part, it isn't there to make the game more fun for deviant play-style it would just be there to be a detremement as a whole for player enjoyment.
....

So even if it was a good looking option. I am not for it just so a few players save a couple dollars on a huge mistake.

I'm not saying take work from the local masons, what I am saying is more along the lines of, if there is road repair that needs done and no one in the area works on repairing roads, put some manual labor on it.

What is the difference between spending a week as an indentured servant and losing a weeks worth of soul at the tail end of your life?

If the player in question gets the choice of the matter, and there are people in charge of his sentence that can say yes he served it, or no he did not, what is the issue?

I don't think enough people will WANT to take the option to make the mechanic cost effective to create. No one wants to spend their time in game chipping rock or collecting trash. If given the choice of X amount of time or just death, I imagine most criminals will choose death.

We're not dealing with actors if this game is fun to enough people, we are talking about gamers.

How can prisons work?

The prison cant work if it is abusable by the ruling class. It should be used as a tool to facilitate the spirit loss levels determined by the developers (same way a highway facilitates a highway toll).

The player should be able to walk out of prison at any time they choose to by paying the spirit loss toll at the main gate OR choose to stay in prison for some time. THIS MEANS ITS IMPOSSIBLE FOR THE RULING CLASS TO ABUSE PRISONS AGAINST OTHER PLAYERS SINCE THEY CAN WALK OUT.

• INCENTIVE TO ROLE PLAY - The longer the player stays according to their sentence , the progressively more lenient the punishment would be. Incentivising for criminals to atleast stay for some time, unless you're impatient which is no problem and you can leave by paying the original toll.

• If you keep going to prison, you increase your fame. Meaning players who grief by repeatedly murdering/destroying property in a short amount of time will become famous meaning they will endure higher spirit loss (both for the bail AND outside of prisons). -SO PEOPLE WONT GO TO PRISON ON PURPOSE.

  Just because prisons are fun doesnt mean people will be willing to grief. remember; the REAL PUNISHMENT is SPIRIT LOSS

Choosing not to building a prison for your county?

• Counties/settlements WILL be incentivised to build prisons if they already lack one, since without a prison you cant have a justice system. no spirit loss toll for crimes. On top of that if you also dont have a contract with any neighboring allies to transport your prisoners there, then pretty soon all your honest citizens would likely leave your city due to an abundance of crime. This also opens up the possibility for something akin to a pirate haven/criminal city...WHICH I THINK WOULD BE SO COOL! only question is how would the pirate king govern such a city without a justice system?

  a pirate king has the solution : Posted By Ersatz at 12:07 AM - Tue Apr 17 2018

I will never understand the need of some to nanny others to death.

Simply take his stuff, lop of his head (CDG), banish him from your city/county/duchy/kingdom and be done with it.

IDEAS FOR How prisons CAN be a fun gameplay experience

• prison is a great way to expand your network of known fellow criminals like in the real world, giving the AI more opportunities to weave together storylines because a LOT of people with SIMILAR INTERESTS AND SKILLS are in a CONTROLLED environment enabling the character to run into special quest opportunities from their cellmates through the prison system.

• IF there are libraries in prison, and after you run into a quest from stealing some notes from another prisoner about a certain treasure out there in elyria, since you're still inprison you can then do some research in the library about it, before you eventually decide to pay the toll and leave.

• prisons can be like it is in real life, not only do you get to network in game with other individuals that have similar interests, you also get to share knowledge/skills if you so choose, in exchange for smuggled items(?) if you so choose.

LIKE THE ORIGINAL POSTER POINTED OUT:

• The kingdom could use a contract to recruit them for their military/spy agency/community service depending on what skills the prisoner has giving the player an opportunity to get out of prison without spirit loss. BUT MAYBE BREAKING THIS 'SECOND CHANCE' CONTRACT THAT A PRISONER HAS WILLINGLY ACCEPTED WILL HAVE SEVERE SPIRIT LOSS CONSEQUENCES IF THEY GET CAUGHT It depends on the contract ----- will players be able to use contracts to manipulate spirit loss?

• The more times youve been into prison , the more famous/notorious you get meaning more spirit loss you endure outside of prisons AND more spirit loss you endure to quickly get out of prisons. This is something sbs may decide to implement to balance a player which keeps burning down villagers and yet is kept going free... (less griefing and more immersion)

• maybe prisons will give new opportunities for criminals with really high skills in lockpicking/sneak/disguises etc that will allow them to break out of prisons, easily compared to others, to get hired to intentionally get into prisons and break out important people and maintain a risky yet rewarding playstyle.

• Can you smuggle items into prisons? if so would you do it through the food supply? what would people smuggle in...lock-picks? would lock-picks be the equivalent of a currency? In real life it is cigarettes.

• Do the prisoners themselves have to cook food themselves? As you can see, there are endless possibilities to make something like this fun. Theres a lot of fiction and real life stories to be inspired by.

• Importantly, since dig/bury mechanics, and since everything is destructible. Trust me on this; prisons will be escapable but obviously it would take a lot of planning and maybe even help from the outside.

TLDR In conclusion

Any prisoners should be able to CHOOSE to leave WHENEVER they want by PAYING the SPIRIT ESSENCE they owe.

The longer you stay, the more lenient the punishment in spirit essence. Picture it like an invisible toll gate but you actually need to build a prison for it instead of a highway. The possibilities for gameplay experiences are endless...

HerbLord has some really great ideas in his post.

I feel as if many of the smaller hamlets/villages would be unable to have a prison - the people to build it, manage it, etc. In medieval times, most small settlements just had mob justice, so that could be a potentially boring solution to it for them.