Platinum. Planarite. Inscribed Sourcestones. Plaques. Marks. Greater Marks. Special Event Currency…
Rift has a boggling number of currencies — far more than I have ever seen in any game, MMO or otherwise — and up until this point, each has had a serious flaw. At a certain point, each becomes mostly obsolete, continuing to accumulate, but with little, if anything, left to buy with it.
With the Rift 1.7 patch on the horizon though, it looks like Trion is finally beginning to address this problem. In the most recent PTS Set (#2), Trion has added new sinks for almost every currency. Those thousands of expert dungeon plaques you had saved up, or the hundreds of raid marks that sat in your vault collecting virtual dust can now be traded in for planar attunement xp. This is a perfect sink. The gains from PA levels are extremely incremental, but desirable enough to be worth something, and it will remain something that players will continue to be able to benefit by purchasing for a long time to come. [If you are interested, current exchange rates on the PTS are included at the bottom of this article.]
There remains one glaring exception, however: Platinum. Sure, there are plenty of fixed, one time gold sinks. Mounts of all shapes and sizes to suit your fancy abound across Telara. You can also buy extra role slots, which certainly have a drastic effect on your character’s overall versatility in the game, and 1.7 is even bringing a sixth slot for purchase — thank Thedeor! Still, there comes a point when there’s just not much left to purchase and the pile of platinum starts to grow ever larger, daily by daily.
While I find it mildly entertaining to marvel at the new record amount of platinum in my bank whenever I reach a new milestone of a thousand, it highlights a problem. Despite the fact that my character has attained a great deal of wealth, there’s really not much benefit to it. There are only so many consumables to buy — and basically all of those are from other players.
The result? Buying power among the player base continues to steadily rise without plateau, and platinum as a resource continues to dwindle in value. Yes, we can trade it in higher quantities amongst ourselves, but there just isn’t enough sinks taking money out of the economy compared to the rate at which it is being added. Ember Island only exacerbated this dilemma by taking quest rewards up to a whole new level.
What we need is a new currency sink for platinum — something more than a one time, fixed cost like an extra role slot. While the notion of being able to buy experience with a resource that is tradable might not be palatable, there are plenty of other options. More powerful potion/weaponstone recipes that require expensive vendor bought components, for instance, would be an excellent solution, but it wouldn’t necessarily have to be something that increased a character’s power. Consumable vanity items that turn your character into this or that, make weapons sparkle, temporarily increase mounted speed, or just otherwise did something “cool” would probably fly off their digital shelves, so to speak. And who wouldn’t plunk down a chunk of change on some experience booting vials, even if they weren’t quite as good as the veteran reward vials?
Bottom line is we need something to do with our gold. But, that’s just one dwarf’s opinion. In the meantime, I guess I will go admire my ever growing hoard. Hey, ladies, do you think this massive pile of coin brings out the sparkle in my eyes?
Addendum:
These are the new currency exchange rates currently on PTS in Set #2, so they are, of course, subject to change before going live.
| Currency | Reward | Available From |
|---|---|---|
| Planarite x12,000 | Pure Crystallized Insight (50k exp) | Planar Voucher Vendor |
| Inscribed Sourcestones x20 | Eternal Crystallized Insight (100k exp) | Planar Voucher Vendor |
| Expert Plaques x30 | Eternal Crystallized Insight (100k exp) | Consecrated Relics Vendor |
| Marks of Ascension x6 | Eternal Crystallized Insight (100k exp) | Major Relic Vendor |
| Artisan Marks x500 | Master Craftman’s Mark | Specialty Crafting Goods Vendor |
| Favor x15,000 | Reinforced Crystallized Insight (100k exp) | Girdoom in Meridian or Templar Zim in Sanctum |
