Project Gorgon is adding its VIP subscription with today's patch, bringing perks to those who decide to pony up the montly fee for the indie MMO.
The subscription model, which was something the team at Elder Game talked about having in its initial Kickstarter, is being implemented with today's patch, bringing subscriber benefits to those who decide to pay for it. The monthly subscription is optional, meaning you don't need it to play Project Gorgon, though those who do buy the sub will see some added benefits like more inventory slots, the ability to train skills when offline, and more.
The team behind Project Gorgon describe it as "kind of like becoming a Patreon patron" in their post to the Steam community describing the VIP details.
"Monday's game-patch will launch the Project: Gorgon VIP Membership program! This program gives players extra benefits while they are a VIP member. The intent is to give players another way to support the game's development while getting useful benefits for doing so -- kind of like becoming a Patreon patron. "
The VIP packages break out into monthly, quarterly semi-annually and by the year starting at $11.99 for a month. If you bundle, you'll save, such as getting a "31% discount" should you decide to pay annually. While VIP time isn't transferrable, you can obtain VIP Tokens in game from "various sources" to net 30 days of VIP time on your character.
Project Gorgon's developers also talk about how the VIP subscription interacts with the different backer packages and that VIP time, stating that Steam subscriptions are "counted first."
"When using up your VIP membership time, Steam subscriptions are counted first. While you have a subscription, you are not using time from any backer packages or VIP tokens that you may have claimed. That VIP time will be applied if your subscription lapses."
As for what your VIP time gets you in Project Gorgon, you'll see additional character slots, more inventory slots per character, as well as access to a skill, Autodidacticism, which allows you to keep training skills while you're offline (think EVE Online, only you're paying for the privilege instead of it just being how skills train).
Another of the perks included seems to be a character sheet which shows all your character info, such as your stats, you can download separately, as well as combat logs, inventory dumps and more. The team is also adding more perks as development continues, including potentially giving subscribers access to custom chat colors, emotes and more.
Elder Game also addressed the Autodidacticism skill, stating that they are eager to ensure that this new way to train skills doesn't give VIP subscribers a huge gameplay edge over non-VIPs. As such, they feel they have made it with enough limitations, such as the skill training rate being slow, as well as the fact that the auto-train skill also needs to be trained itself. This means you can't train a skill that is higher level than your Autodidacticism skill. To train a skill offline, you'll need to grab a book in-game (either from an NPC or make one yourself through the new Non-Fiction writing skill) and start a hangout timer. The skills will train, slowly, while you're offline, until you log back in. The books themselves will also lose durability, meaning you'll have to source a new book once its used up.
You can check out the full post on the Steam Community site. In addition to the VIP perks rolling out, today's patch also replaces the Animation System's code, as well as adds new aniations, performance optimizations and the art of interpretive dance.
