Dev Blog: How Will the Upcoming Steam Integration Work?

[slartybartfastfree]

Will multiple gorgon accounts need multiple steam accounts and how easy or difficult will it be on steam to change from one account to another ? I am not familiar with the whole "steam" setup I just want to play gorgon , I understand I probably need to setup steam accounts on each of the pc's my family uses for gorgon but will I be able to switch between gorgon accounts or will I have to logout of steam then log back in onto another account , this may be problematic for muling

[Man With No Name]

What exactly would happen if I were to buy a package from the Gorgon Shop if I have already donated on Indiegogo?

[Crissa]

I assume it'll be one 'account' per Steam account, so if you already have to log out and into a different account name, you'd have to do this with Steam as well.

That's not so bad with Steam, it moves pretty quickly (I have to log out and into Steam on the PC since I share it with my spouse.) Since Steam holds the login on different computers separately, I don't have to log back into my Mac even if I've logged into the PC. So sharing or keeping a computer yours is not so bad with Steam.

If you want to share a game with another account on the same computer, you do have to log into that machine, share it to the other account, then log into that account and accept the sharing. It's a little awkward, but once set up, it's fine.

[Citan]

Will you still be able to buy the packages on the Gorgon Store after the Steam release? Will you be able to continue donating after Steam release, as well?

We don't have any reason to stop accepting donations, but at some point soon we need to stop accepting new purchases of the more expensive Gorgon Shop packages. I'm not sure the exact cutoff date. Probably right about the same time the two-week transition period ends.

I also wanted to mention that this is not to create artificial scarcity (the game is only going to beta, not launching, so why stop offering pre-launch bundles?). It's just for pragmatic reasons: the more expensive rewards involve a lot of hand-done bits, so it's best to do the work all at once, or as close to that as possible.

As an example, the packages that include a custom in-game title involve editing permanent data files for the game, and then carefully connecting that engine data to your in-game account after the next game-update. There's a lot of places where errors can creep in, so it's sanest to collect all the titles and do them at once, so we can test and debug better. (Plus another pass for scragglers and bugs we don't find in the first pass.)

But we may be able to offer other pre-launch packages with nice rewards that don't involve as much customization work on our parts. We haven't talked about that yet though.

What exactly would happen if I were to buy a package from the Gorgon Shop if I have already donated on Indiegogo?

Well, by default we'd expect you to be buying the new package for a separate account! If you wanted to upgrade an indiegogo package to a different Shop package, we can do that by hand if you email support@projectgorgon.com (expect it to take a few days to get back to you).

Will multiple gorgon accounts need multiple steam accounts and how easy or difficult will it be on steam to change from one account to another ?

Yes, each mule would need its own license of the game. And unfortunately it's a little bit slower to cross-account mule under Steam. You can't switch Steam accounts while the game is running, so you'd have to shut down the game, then switch accounts in Steam, then re-launch the game.

So personally I would hold off on buying extra copies of the game for mules. We're busy thinking about ways that the VIP package can make muling easier (for instance, by giving your account more character slots and a bigger shared-account-storage box). I think the VIP plan will be the easiest way to be a pack-rat in the future.

what sort of influx are you guys expecting and wha adjustments to the world are being made to be able to handle it (spawn rates, etc)

It's hard to predict, really, but I'm expecting a modest influx that hopefully gets bigger over time.

Back during the indiegogo campaign we had about 250% more players online than we do now. And while the game was still playable, the newbie experience was extremely cramped. That led to the complete rewrite of the newbie experience (the "newbie cave" became the "newbie island") and the addition of Serbule Hills as another low-level zone. So given that I'm not expecting a huge tidal wave of players on day one, I think we'll be fine now, and when we find new level ranges where things feel cramped, we can add new content during our regular updates.

As a backup, we have the ability to change outdoor spawn rates very easily, so if we get a surprise rush of players we'll speed up spawns with a quick reboot of the server.

I have backed you, so I will get the game, but has a launch price been finalized?

We're actually still discussing the exact final price, so please stay tuned!

[Tagamogi]

So personally I would hold off on buying extra copies of the game for mules. We're busy thinking about ways that the VIP package can make muling easier (for instance, by giving your account more character slots and a bigger shared-account-storage box). I think the VIP plan will be the easiest way to be a pack-rat in the future.

When would this part of the VIP package actually be available? Specifically, will it be available slightly before Steam is absolutely required, so we could transfer items from a not-paid-for mule account to a different account that is maxed out on character slots right now?

(This is not meant as a complaint to rush VIP features before they are ready; I've always known my mule habit would come to a bad end. I'm just trying to figure out if reshuffling my mule inventories to a different account is going to be a useful option for me.)

[INXS]

Can't recall which email address i've been using, does it matter if i buy a package using any email address?

[PezOfDoom]

How could I possibly panic, this is great to hear!

I'll be sure to help on the steam forums where I can with questions I'm sure people will have. You're baby is finally grown up...not graduated highschool yet, but at least they're in the running!

We all know this will come with people offering their critiques of the BETA as if it's a final product, so we should all be ready to leave reviews! I bet everyone at Elder Game, LLC is braced for it, but was as a community should be prepared as well.

Let us embrace ignorance with understanding and patience. Let us not hate people who want PG to be a free-to-play model, but rather explain the perks of a game which you purchase. Let us not explain how/why this should (or should not) be more like warcraft, but instead point out the joys of it's uniqueness.

And above all else, let us encourage people to explore the world and seek joy in it's discovery, rather than telling them exactly why they should only play a damage build using X and Y skills because everything else is inferior by 14.3 dps and only nubs who don't want group invites would choose to not wear chest armor for RP purposes.

[Tagamogi]

How could I possibly panic, this is great to hear!

I'll be sure to help on the steam forums where I can with questions I'm sure people will have. You're baby is finally grown up...not graduated highschool yet, but at least they're in the running!

We all know this will come with people offering their critiques of the alpha as if it's a final product, so we should all be ready to leave reviews! I'm sure everyone at Elder Game, LLC is braced for it, but was as a community should be prepared as well.

Let us embrace ignorance with understanding and patience. Let us not hate people who want PG to be a free-to-play model, but rather explain the perks of a game which you purchase. Let us not explain how/why this could should (or should not) be more like warcraft, but instead point out the joys of it's uniqueness.

And above all else, let us encourage people to explore the world and seek joy in it's discovery, rather than telling them exactly why they should only play a damage build using X and Y skills because everything else is inferior by 14.3 dps and only nubs who don't want group invites would choose to not wear chest armor for RP purposes.

Lovely post, thanks Monger!

I think I am going to panic though - I only have a couple weeks left to come up with an amazing Steam review that will make people want to rush out and buy the game. And it will need to be short enough that people actually read it. Sigh.

I'll definitely keep going back to your post for inspiration, so thanks again. ( And maybe it is time for me to get that spring fairy armor out of the bank, stats or no stats... )

[fellentier]

Congratulations on getting so far. I've always looked forward to this day and i'm so happy to see it so close to the steam release. Great job

[Cowinator]

MooOooOoo!