Trion Adds Even More Patron Rewards To RIFT

Trion have been on the receiving end of quite a bit of hate recently due to changes in business model. Today's news probably won't help. It was recently announced that RIFT would be receiving new Patron rewards. These rewards include an "immunity to Soul Vitality loss," a 50% discount on Auction House fees and commissions, the ability to stack charges in Dungeons, Instant Adventures, and Warfronts, "accumulating rest experience," and the ability to pick and choose which Dungeons and Warfronts you want to queue for.

The RIFT team explains the changes as such.

Why now?
The beginning of a new year is an excellent time to review all the benefits provided in game for our loyal Patrons, as well as our overall development strategy.
What should we offer to Patrons? How is the game being played today, how are our development revenues doing, and what have we learned over the last year to make RIFT better for all players?

Rest XP, stacking charges, and the system for queuing for Warfronts and Dungeons are all things that have existed since RIFT was a subscription game. These were untouched when we converted to Free to Play. When any company takes the monumental step of converting a game to Free to Play, they make your best guess at what benefits should be provided for Patrons and non-Patrons, and then adjust over time as you review behavior and data.

Ultimately, all three of these systems fall under the category of convenience.
- Rest XP gives you a boost in leveling speed.
- Stacking Dungeon, Warfront and Instant Adventure charges allow you to delay using them until you're good and ready.
- The ability to choose specific queues for Warfronts and Dungeons allows you to pick the exact content you want to do, when you want to do it.

These are of course beneficial and convenient, but not necessary in order to play RIFT. Therefore, they are the sort of thing we believe should be reserved for Patrons. When we reviewed RIFT as a whole this year, we identified this as an area we had overlooked previously.
On a side note, any non-patron can group with a Patron friend, who can then select specific queues for the group. In this way, a Patron provides benefits to those around them.

Overall, the team "[anticipates] that [the new Patron rewards] [will] create more opportunities for playing together for all players." They make sure to note that you can still maintain Patron status for free using REX.