5.9 KiB
Classification
The intelligence layer over the wings you already build by hand.
You already build a minimum wing and a max block. You already put the psychopath behind steel and the teenage pickpocket behind a wooden door. Classification does not replace those walls, cells and locks — it answers the question vanilla never does: who belongs where. It reads the one shared record every part of the suite writes to and turns it into a single verdict, so the crime system, the search, the escape and the classifier all agree on how dangerous a pawn is, because they read the same number.
Grade drives everything downstream: search frequency, privileges, escape risk, and — critically — parole eligibility (Parole gates on grade).
The isolation toll of a max/solitary placement is Prisoner Realism's (good) sim. Corrections only decides the placement.
The tiers
Every held pawn falls into one of four security grades, low to high — the tiers you already build, named:
| Grade | Risk score | Reading |
|---|---|---|
| Minimum | below 0.35 | Barely a disposition, clean record. Open dorm, light watch. |
| Medium | 0.35 – 0.79 | A real record or a real nature. Proper cell, routine search. The parole ceiling. |
| Maximum | 0.80 – 1.49 | Repeat offender or proven flight risk. Steel, solitary door, frequent search. |
| Supermax | 1.5 and up | The headline cases. Escapes plus crimes plus a dark nature. Never let them near a wall. |
Note the ceiling at Medium: Parole will only consider a pawn graded Medium or below. Grade is therefore not just a placement hint — it is the gate a pawn has to fall back through before they can be released.
The risk score
Risk is a number from 0 to about 3: baseline disposition, plus everything on the record, minus reform earned. Each thing a prisoner has done adds a fixed amount:
| What it counts | Adds to risk | Why this weight |
|---|---|---|
| Nature (0 to 1) | nature × 0.5 | Disposition alone can carry a pawn to Medium (nature 0.7+), but never past it on its own. Character is a suspicion, not a conviction. |
| Each escape attempt | +0.35 | The heaviest per-event term. A pawn who runs is the one who ends up armed in your base. One attempt is worth nearly two crimes. |
| Each crime committed | +0.20 | The staple. Steady, cumulative. |
| Each time caught | +0.15 | Caught contraband is worse than merely suspected. |
| Each contraband item made | +0.10 | The lightest term — making a shiv is common; escaping with one is not. |
| Reform earned | up to −0.4 | The only thing that lowers the grade. At most −0.4, since reform caps at 1.0. |
The total is never allowed below zero.
Two facts fall out of the numbers, and both matter for how you play:
- Searching a prisoner does not raise their risk. Only finding something does — a search that turns up nothing costs the prisoner no grade. Search freely.
- Reform can shift at most 0.4 of risk. At full reform (1.0), the downgrade is −0.4. So a pawn whose record without reform already totals 1.2 or more can never fall to Medium (below 0.8) no matter how thoroughly they reform — and therefore can never be paroled. A prolific offender is a life sentence. You will hold them, work them, or execute them; you will not release them. This is a deliberate property of the weights, not an accident.
Worked example — grading a record
Bram, an Abrasive raider, has a nature of 0.20. He has three crimes, one escape attempt, was caught twice, made two shivs, and has not been reformed. Add it up:
| Source | Contribution |
|---|---|
| nature 0.20 × 0.5 | 0.100 |
| 1 escape × 0.35 | 0.350 (the headline) |
| 3 crimes × 0.20 | 0.600 |
| caught twice × 0.15 | 0.300 |
| 2 shivs × 0.10 | 0.200 |
| no reform | 0.000 |
| total | 1.550 → Supermax |
Now treat him. Say patient handling and good conduct lift his reform to 0.40. That subtracts 0.40 × 0.4 = 0.16, dropping his risk to 1.39 → Maximum. He falls a band.
But notice: his reform-less risk is 1.55, well above 1.2. Even at perfect reform (1.0) he lands at 1.55 − 0.40 = 1.15 — still Maximum. Bram is beyond parole for the rest of his life. His record decided that, not his disposition.
Contrast Cass, a Kind pickpocket whose gentle nature floors her nature term at 0. She has one crime, was caught once, no escapes, no contraband, no reform yet. Her risk is (1 × 0.20) + (1 × 0.15) = 0.35 → Medium, exactly on the line.
Give Cass the standard treatment up to reform 0.30. That subtracts 0.30 × 0.4 = 0.12, dropping her to 0.23 → Minimum. Cass is now Minimum, and — being Medium-or-below with reform at least 0.30 — paroleable. Same institution, two futures, and the record told you which was which before you had to guess.
How to play with grades
- Segregate by grade, not by vibe. Sort your cells to the four bands and put a pawn where their score, not your hunch, says. The whole suite reads the record; you can too.
- Escapes are the alarm. One escape attempt (+0.35) will jump a middling pawn a band. If a pawn crosses into Maximum after a break attempt, believe it — treat them as the flight risk the number says they are.
- A clean nature is not a clean record. A Kind pawn who has escaped twice still grades Maximum; disposition is only half the score.
- Watch the parole ceiling. If you intend to release someone, keep their reform-less risk under 1.2 — mostly that means limiting how deep their record gets before you start treating them. A pawn you let rack up escapes and catches has sentenced themselves.
- Reform is the only lever that lowers a grade. See Discipline & Reform for how to move it, and Parole for where the grade gate lands.
Part of the Institution suite for RimWorld 1.6: Core · Contraband · Policing · Corrections · Gangs · Ward.