Mood penalties for too luxurious jails

[UrbanBourbon]

Colonists should get increasing mood penalties if the difference between theirs and the prisoners' living conditions is too great. The greater the difference, the greater the penalty. After all, honest hard-working people tend to get upset if prisoners get pampered while they themselves struggle with everyday life. But how to execute this? I can think of two ways.

1) The game could take the beauty value of all the inhabited jail squares (jails with owned beds or sleeping spots) and compare it against the beauty value of all bedroom squares. Or...

2) The game should just check the prisoners' mood, and if it's outrageously higher than that of colonists' (average), the colonists would receive a mood penalty. Although then the penalty itself shouldn't start a spiral of ever-increasing mood difference.

Also, if we choose to compare moods, then I suppose first we'd have to limit the warden speech bonus, since wardens can practically buff the prisoner mood to max all by themselves. Finally, the effect should take time to kick in, both in good and in bad, and it should be slow to change, because for example if the colony is attacked, and bedrooms get damaged, then that might instantly trigger the negative mood effect, too.

[Valdemar FIN]

Sure, because colonists are totally incapable of thinking strategically, or are they?

[ITypedThis]

Meh. I think the first suggestion is the only one that could really work.

After all, if the warden's speech bonus is limited, and the prison can't be too nice, then how could we recruit tribals and stuff?

[UrbanBourbon]

It's not true to state that "prison can't be too nice". A slightly more truthful statement would be "prison shouldn't be excessively nicer than the living conditions of your colonists". Of course you would still be free to arrange your prison to be as luxurious as you want it to be, and should it be absurdly decorated, the resulting mood penalty to your colonists wouldn't have to be crippling. Eventually you would be able to decorate your prison to the maximum without any mood penalty to anyone, because by that point you would've already provided your own colonists with their own luxurious personal quarters. Should you absolutely insist spoiling your prisoners while mostly disregarding your colonists, you would still be able to do so, just not without additional penalty.

As for wardens, their effect should be toned down to a slower rate, meaning not necessarily limit it by the amount, but by the rate of mood increase. I see now that capping the effect would prevent recruitment of some prisoners, but it might be another discussion whether all captives should be recruitable at all (just by talking)... Then again, the mood bonuses from various decorations could be tweaked up to counter the lesser effect of speech. Or perhaps only the wardens with the highest Social skill, combined with luxurious jailing conditions, might persuade even the most stubborn prisoners?