ID Wands don't work on spellbooks (closed: is Era Accurate)

[Zelek Uther]

REPORTED ISSUE:
ID Wands don't work on spellbooks

ISSUE DETAILS:
A wand of identification, when used on a spellbook, does not show the number of spells in the spellbook.

ENVIRONMENT DETAILS:
Windows 7 (32 bit), 3GB RAM, UO Client Customized 5.0.8.3 (Patch 204), Razor v1.0.13.4

STEPS TO RECREATE:
Use a wand of identification on a spellbook. All you see is "spellbook".

EXPECTED RESULTS:
spellbook
64 Spells
(i.e. the same results as the Item Identification skill)

DATE REPORTED:
2011-10-27

STATUS:
Closed - this is Era Accurate (i.e. ID wands do not work on spellbooks).

DATE STATUS CHANGED:
2011-10-27

[Used Kotex]

Erh?

Spell book must need to be on a vendor for ID to work... <Assuming>.

[Used Kotex]

Erh?

Spell book must need to be on a vendor for ID to work... <Assuming>.

Just tested. Dropped spellbook on vendor. Used ID wand. Nothing. Still says "a Spellbook." No indication of spells contained.

[Zelek Uther]

Ok, I've done some research on this. It looks like ID wands are not meant to work on spell books!

From ID on spellbooks:

When you ID a spellbook it will tell you how many scrolls are in it. But only when you use ID skill.

No, the ID skill isn't suppose to tell you how many spells are in the book period. The only way you could tell a spellbook was full back then was by using that patricular skill though. However, the successful ID message would merely report a spellbook with X amount in price. A full spellbook would have a specific amount in the 3k'ish range(the actual price is documented on the '99 stratics site). I've never actually added it up but always heard rumors it was the price of the scrolls + book added together if you were to sell them to an npc. Have no idea if that was true or not though.

It obviously didn't work with ID wands since they don't appraise. Additionally, the appraisal accuracy varied depending on your item-id skill.

ID wands don't work on spell books - this is Era Accurate

From this thread on a 1999 newsgroup
(thanks to Kaivan for the link)

I noticed that an 'Item ID wand' merely says 'a spellbook'. You have to use the Item ID skill.

I think documenting this "bug" (which isn't a bug) may be helpful for anyone who was wondering why ID wands don't work on spellbooks.

"Bug" closed.

[Stuck]

No, the ID skill isn't suppose to tell you how many spells are in the book period. The only way you could tell a spellbook was full back then was by using that patricular skill though. However, the successful ID message would merely report a spellbook with X amount in price. A full spellbook would have a specific amount in the 3k'ish range(the actual price is documented on the '99 stratics site).

Yeah, that is exactly how it worked. I definitely remember spamming ID until I successfully used it on a spellbook I was skeptical of. If I remember correctly (and I might not), a full spellbook was around 3.4k or something.

[Kaivan]

Just to give some detailed information, the base internal value of a spellbook is 15 gold, and a full spellbook is valued at 2367 gold. The total value of the spellbook is it's base value plus the value of every scroll in the spellbook.

Note: This is not the vendor buy price/sell price for these items, but the base value, and the value that's reported by the Item ID skill.