Item ID and NPC (in-town) Vendors

[SighelmofWyrmgard]

Something that was true on OSI shards summer/fall '98 (and would still be true in T2A, unless it appears as patched-out in any of the patch notes):

If an in-town NPC vendor had been sold any magic item, you could perform Item ID on the item's image in the "vendor buy" GUMP; back in '98-'99, I used to regularly use this facility to hunt-down ID wands/staves, MR jewelry, and magic armor/weapons.

This does not presently function on UOSA; yesterday, I purchased Plate Sleeves of Fortification from Dembe (near West Britain Bank), only guessing the item's identity by the price demanded; I was correct, but did not know until I was able to perform Item ID after the purchase.

At present, I can only offer my recollections as evidence; also, pertaining to this matter, the sleeves I bought from Dembe were described, in the GUMP, only as "plate sleeves", instead of "magic plate sleeves" as they were described on vendors on OSI in-era.

SS

[Derrick]

I don't belive it was ever possible to target something in an NPC vendor trade window. The price was certainly reflective of the value of the item though.

You can definately perform Item ID on "Player Vendors" though. Could that be the source of the memory?

[Derrick]

My error. Yes you can target in a buy window, you just don't get the target icon.

When targeting an item in the window with item ID, you get the "Target cannot be seen" message. I will attempt to fix this.

Thanks much!

[SighelmofWyrmgard]

I must say that was a quick fix!

Thanks, Derrick, I scooped up an ID staff and several Power weapons tonight.

SS

[Derrick]

My pleasure

This is a pretty obscure feature, a category that we pride ourselves on paying attention to.

Thanks much, again, for bringing this up.

[SighelmofWyrmgard]

The only thing that is not %100 spot-on is that the descriptions in the GUMP are still of the style, "a whatever" instead of, "a magic whatever"; the items are still easily recognisable in spite of this, because of their singularity.

One aspect of social error-accuracy that I can now fully attest to: the quality of items dropped around the bank, or sold to NPC vendors (I especially love the abandoned wares I find at any shopkeeper; as these items almost-always prove to be "unused", it's clear to me that the Player was unaware he'd taken the item to the wrong shopkeeper [i.e. Invul Studded Gloves on the floor at Dembe's]; also metal items a trifle battered [and, so, unsellable] that my smith simply whacks once with a hammer to restore) ...

In the words of Nelson Muntz, "Haw Haw!"

Thanks again.

SS

[nightshark]

The only thing that is not %100 spot-on is that the descriptions in the GUMP are still of the style, "a whatever" instead of, "a magic whatever"; the items are still easily recognisable in spite of this, because of their singularity.

One aspect of social error-accuracy that I can now fully attest to: the quality of items dropped around the bank, or sold to NPC vendors (I especially love the abandoned wares I find at any shopkeeper; as these items almost-always prove to be "unused", it's clear to me that the Player was unaware he'd taken the item to the wrong shopkeeper [i.e. Invul Studded Gloves on the floor at Dembe's]; also metal items a trifle battered [and, so, unsellable] that my smith simply whacks once with a hammer to restore) ...

In the words of Nelson Muntz, "Haw Haw!"

Thanks again.

SS

not era accurate at all... i occasionally drop silvers or vanqs on the ground because i know
1) it'll be too much of a hassle to sell
2) i'll never use it

90% of the stuff i get that isn't a force+ halberd/kryss/etc just ends up on the ground by minoc bank. if someone picks it up and finds a use for it, all the better.

[SVrider]

90% of the stuff i get that isn't a force+ halberd/kryss/etc just ends up on the ground by minoc bank. if someone picks it up and finds a use for it, all the better.

i hear trinsic has a great banking establishment & would suggest you relocate where you do business

[Gray Wolf]

The only thing that is not %100 spot-on is that the descriptions in the GUMP are still of the style, "a whatever" instead of, "a magic whatever"; the items are still easily recognisable in spite of this, because of their singularity.

One aspect of social error-accuracy that I can now fully attest to: the quality of items dropped around the bank, or sold to NPC vendors (I especially love the abandoned wares I find at any shopkeeper; as these items almost-always prove to be "unused", it's clear to me that the Player was unaware he'd taken the item to the wrong shopkeeper [i.e. Invul Studded Gloves on the floor at Dembe's]; also metal items a trifle battered [and, so, unsellable] that my smith simply whacks once with a hammer to restore) ...

In the words of Nelson Muntz, "Haw Haw!"

Thanks again.

SS

not era accurate at all... i occasionally drop silvers or vanqs on the ground because i know
1) it'll be too much of a hassle to sell
2) i'll never use it

90% of the stuff i get that isn't a force+ halberd/kryss/etc just ends up on the ground by minoc bank. if someone picks it up and finds a use for it, all the better.

Ummm... don't happen to have a supremely accurate, indestructable silver kat of v you want to drop near me, do ya?

::: heads to minoc bank in a hurry :::

[Rammar]

At present, I can only offer my recollections as evidence; also, pertaining to this matter, the sleeves I bought from Dembe were described, in the GUMP, only as "plate sleeves", instead of "magic plate sleeves" as they were described on vendors on OSI in-era.

Yes, they should be labelled as "magic <whatever>", possibly "a magic <whatever>". This applied to both the buy and sell windows. I'm also pretty sure all buy/sell items were labelled in lowercase, not capitalized like they are here.

11 Jan 1998

Anybody know why the items in provisioner shops are sometimes mixed
up? Ex. sometimes it will show a leather tunic, and say it is magic
halberd next to it. Why does this happen sometimes? Thanks.

http://groups.google.com/group/rec.game ... 96d3e0ba33

8 Jun 2000

but bying such items in town for example at the provisioner it just says "a magic hammer" but not the exact properties and even if you bought the item you are not able to see about the properties. So what have i got to do?

http://groups.google.com/group/rec.game ... eea940b478

Also: any reason the ArmsLore/ItemID targeting wasn't applied to shopkeepers standard non-magical stock? Not really much reason for it besides accuracy, just wondered if it was an oversight.

[Derrick]

I'll try to get the names on these items displaying properly. Thanks!

[SighelmofWyrmgard]

Sorry for the pseudo-necro, but Derrick's fix seems to have been reversed, sometime in the last few years: items that are being resold by town shopkeepers are again inaccessible to inspection by Item ID; using the skill returns, "you can't see that".

SS

[Kaivan]

Given the posts in this thread, it seems as if it is still working exactly as it should be. According to Derrick's research and your most recent description, it was possible to target items in the vendor menu window, but you would actually be presented with the "You can't see that." message for doing so.

[SighelmofWyrmgard]

Kaivan,

I assure you that the skill did work on items assumed into the NPC's inventory, on OSI, in UOSA's target era: you will note that my OP points out that these items are not properly labelled (they should be, "a magic whatever", rather than just "a whatever"), which is corroborated by the information Rammar then supplied, subsequently.

It does not follow that I do correctly remember that these items were labelled, "magic", in-era, but then mis-remember (or, fraudulently attempt to misrepresent, here) the fact that these items could be Item-IDed from the vendor's sales-gump.

BTW, actually reviewing the Item-ID result itself did require a slightly-arcane procedure, which I also remember from era, and would be happy to PM to you as further proof that I am speaking both honestly and accurately (since you folks know how the code works: it would be unlikely for such an obscure detail to be fabrication); when Derrick first put in the fix, I immediately confirmed that it worked, and that it required that exact-same-obscure-procedure that I also remembered (I am saying, my confirmation-reply says, "thanks", not, "it still doesn't work" or, "it works but why do I have to ~ ...").

I concede that the existence of this facility isn't exactly "proven by the smoking gun" by my claims of memory and Rammar's evidence regarding the labelling issue, but I would like to ask after the proofs of its non-existence, of which I suspect there are exactly none.

I will send you a PM shortly. I would ask that you then apply Occam's Razor; otherwise, I'm not asking that this issue be redressed with any urgency.

SS

EDIT:

I just looked-up one of Rammar's references (https://groups.google.com/forum/#!msg/r ... rg05bJln8J); pay attention to responses posted by users, Lachney,

Magic Items in NPC Shopkeepers

Err, its so simple, just item id and click on the picture, you don't get
a targetting cursor but it works.. Hasn't anyone else noticed that?
--Kip Thorin

and, M. Ashton Smith,

Just use the item ID skill... The "crosshairs" will not appear when you move
them over the item, but it will work all the same.

SS

[Kaivan]

Kaivan,

I assure you that the skill did work on items assumed into the NPC's inventory, on OSI, in UOSA's target era: you will note that my OP points out that these items are not properly labelled (they should be, "a magic whatever", rather than just "a whatever"), which is corroborated by the information Rammar then supplied, subsequently.

I'm not saying that the naming issue isn't present, but that based on the information in this thread, it sounds as if Derrick had established that using the item identification skill on something in the trade window would return the message "You can't see that." Of course, the exact wording of his response might have meant that at the time that he responded items were currently returning the can't see message, and that it should work a different way, but that isn't what I take away from that reading, and I haven't done the research yet in order to cross reference that point. Either way, I wasn't clear on exactly what your issue was before now, but now I've got a clearer picture; items in trade windows should be targetable via item identification, and should return the proper information about the item.


Beyond that, I don't think that you're lying or anything, I'm just pointing out what I've seen here thus far in this thread. Since it seems as if there's still an issue, I'll check against the patch notes, demo, and live UOSA servers, and see if there's a discrepancy between that information and what we currently present.