Platinum subscription
Platinum, also known as "Plat," is a subscription option that has its own dedicated game instance/server. It was intended to be for extremely dedicated roleplayers who wanted item droppage upon death and a smaller community. The world is similar to Prime, however, due to its pricing level much fewer people play there. Platinum also gets its own unique festivals and storylines, and often gets to beta test new system mechanics.
The current Platinum game instance is alive and well and enjoys an active player base with player driven storylines supported by our dedicated Gamemasters: GM Naionna, *GM Skhorne, GM Ubiq and GM Annanasi. Our dedicated GMs also craft storylines, original to Platinum, that take the game instance's unique history and characters into consideration.
- GM Skhorne, while never officially a platinum GM, did enrich our community by assisting in storylines and merchant events. Sadly he passed away in 2020 and is dearly missed.
Regardless of the original intentions upon its creation, there is no "Correct" way to play on the Platinum game server. It is home to players that enjoy roleplaying, hunting, the acquisition of items, crafters, and many other activities. The only incorrect way to play on the Platinum game server is the same as the Prime game server, please do not AFK script.
Note: Droppage on Decay is no longer a feature of the Platinum game instance and was removed on March 15, 2018 per Wyrom.
Pricing
The current pricing for a Platinum subscription is $49.95 per month, and allows for 16 character slots in Prime, as well as 30 character slots in Platinum.
In addition, a Platinum subscription receives 725 SimuCoins per month on your account's billing date and all Premium benefits.
However, a free trial to join Platinum for a month is available.
Community
The community consists of much fewer people, typically fewer than 40 on at any given time. Therefore most everyone knows most everyone else. Further this community tends to be very close knit, as many of the Prime player organizations are, however it encompasses virtually the whole world. This closeness is further assisted by the portal which will be described later.
Role Playing
Most players who have been in the game more than a year know the main RP roles of virtually everyone else. This can give a more stable RP environment where people can't drastically change from day to day. Further individual RP can be explored in great depth, especially during events, which will be explored later.
The primary difficulty with this smaller community is that there is not enough people of a given profession to adequately help players at all times. There are times when people cannot find any wizards at all to do any enchanting, empaths to heal when someone is wounded, bards to sing, rogues to pick, clerics to raise, etc.
Events
Events are somewhat different in Platinum. Platinum usually gets every event that Prime does as well as the occasional other event that is solely for Platinum. Platinum events that Prime also get are usually identical with only timeline and individual player RP differences. Further, events can be more personalized and involve a greater number of players per capita than prime. Even very low level characters have been directly involved in storylines.
However, some events can overrun Platinum when they are not tweaked just perfectly from the Prime event.
Merchant events are very special to Platinum. Whereas in Prime any one merchant is flooded with people of which only a fraction will be serviced, in Platinum it is very common, if not expected that everyone in the room will receive the services of a merchant. Merchants giving away limited release items still exist perhaps as often as in prime, however as there are fewer players vieing for them, players have a much greater individual chance of obtaining one of these coveted items than in Prime.
Portal
A Portal system exists beneath Wehnimer's Landing which allows people to travel across realms instantaneously for the price of 10,000 silvers for a 30-day ticket (1,000 silvers for any new characters first ticket). This portal has allowed the Platinum players to rescue each other so that decaying is not necessary. As there are so few players on at a time, it would be nearly impossible to rescue those in other realms in a reasonable time. Further this has allowed Platinum players to gather rapidly in the case of an event, especially invasions. The Portal system also allows people to hunt in distant locations but still congregate with others while they rest.
However, this portal has also led to a lack of use of other systems within Elanthia. While short range travel systems like the gold ring are still useful, long range systems of travel, such as the Sorcerer's Planar Shift (740), are less useful than in Prime. However they are still a good device for RP, especially as the price of chalk in Platinum is much lower.
Instructions for accessing the portal system in the Platinum Instance: The room below is where you may purchase a portal ticket. Your first ticket is 1,000 silvers and will be good for 30 days.
[Zephyr Hall, Transport Room - 20736] (u4002131) Gold-trimmed, dark green walls surround this small room that is little more than a spacious closet. Leaning up against one wall, a small table stands beside a curved mottled green doorway that leads out of the room. Nearby, a young attendant stands ready to serve. The focal point of the room is a swirling green and gold portal framed by an oval of wrought silver. Intricate foliage has been etched into the metal, the vines intertwining to form a complex lattice pattern. Obvious exits: none
Once you have purchased a ticket you may go through the portal and will arrive in the following room. You may read the sign in this room for directions to all of the major cities.
[Swirling Nexus, Transport Hub - 27622] (u4002910)
Warm wind rushes through the area in a constant cyclone, carrying with it the floral scents of each corner of Elanthia, all blending with the smell of ozone. Eight gently pointed alcoves, spaced like the points of a star, spread out from this center room, each one painted a different hue. A large black directional sign takes up residence in the center of the white marble floor, its bold white writing standing out against the dark background.
Obvious exits: north, northeast, east, southeast, south, southwest, west, northwest, down
>read sign
In the Common language, it reads:
West of the Dragonspine:
Icemule - North
Wehnimer's Landing - West
River's Rest - Northwest
Solhaven - Southwest
Kharam Dzu - South
Kraken's Fall - Down
East of the Dragonspine:
Ta'Illistim - Northeast
Ta'Vaalor - East
Zul Logoth - Southeast
Many players utilize a 3rd party program called LICH to faciliate playing Gemstone IV. The following is a script you may copy and paste into Wrayth to update the lich script "go2" to utilize the platinum portal system.
put ;go2 --typeahead=2 put ;go2 --delay=0 put ;go2 --get-silvers=on put ;go2 --get-return-trip-silvers=on put ;go2 --portals=on put ;go2 --ice-mode=auto
Economy
The economy of Platinum as compared to Prime is drastically different, on the much slower side. Decent to excellent items tend to stay with a player for very long periods of time. Further when these items do change hands it is usually only for another item(s). It is almost unheard of for greater than decent items to be traded for silver, and therefore silver has become almost worthless.
This "problem" with the economy has been brought up from time to time with no resolution to date.
GameMasters
Platinum only has access to GameMasters, there are no GameHosts. Potentially the GameMasters have a greater depth of knowledge to draw from, however there are fewer in number so ASSISTance may not be available as often.
However, the chance of personal attention given to Platinum players by GameMasters tends to be higher than in Prime.
Current Platinum Guru: GM Naionna
Resources
- Unofficial History Timeline (Platinum) (Timeline of events unique to the Platinum Instance)
- Cast of characters (Summary of Current Active Players and Storyline Involvement)
- Biographies of Platinum Player Characters
- Storylines Unique to the Platinum Instance
- Merchants' Bazaar - Information about service night and unlocks
- Platinum Monthly Raffles - Major raffles offered each month
- Platinum, on Play.net
- GSGuide Wiki
- Officials main folder
- Bye bye... DROPPAGE ON DECAY