I'm at the point where I need to train an "advanced" type of minion. Great! So I build an armory, set up some cages, capture a maid, and build an interrogation chair.

And then...?

Nothing.

Right-clicking the maid, selecting "interrogate" and then clicking the interrogation chair does nothing.
Using the time-clock to add a bunch of minions to the room and repeating^ does nothing.
Releasing, then re-capturing and repeating^^ does nothing.

What's worse, when I released the maid and she ran around my lair, she triggered several of my carefully laid-out poison gas traps... only to dash past them before they could deploy. Yeesh.

Really not liking the game right now. What am I doing wrong?

To interrogate someone, you click the interrogate icon, then right click on the interrogation device. Left clicking cancels the action.

If this doesn't work, something is buggy. Hope this helps!

It does sometimes take a couple of seconds for someone to do the job, this is not instant. One of your "yellow" minions will do it, because they are the only ones who can learn a new job.

I had stupid minions walk past a cell a couple of times, while somone from the other side of the base came all the way down for interrogation :)

Okay, I've got it now, thanks!

Anyway, I've tried like a half-dozen new games (with the German guy) and each one uses the same island. Is there no random generation or sandbox mode to play with? I feel like this mountain is too small for my ideal Evil Base.

There's a second island later in the game. No random generation or sandbox mode at all, sorry.

There is a Plannar.
Island 1: http://www.evilbastard.org/slight/egmaploader1.php
Island 2: http://www.evilbastard.org/slight/egmaploader2.php

There can get a feeling for the size. The second base and also the first are plenty IMHO. I never let any enemy get too far into my base anyway.

Yeah that second base has tons of room to do build lots of everything and still more room for lots of traps, plus of course more traps and topside shacks and casinos on the outside. I think I spent about 2 hours with the game on pause once I got to the second island just so I could plan everything properly... ;)