Spells available from NPC mage shopkeepers

[A Handsome Stranger]

Another problem this Newbie has experienced:

I visited several town mage shopkeepers, and they all had exactly the same spell scrolls in-stock: each had every single spell of Circles 1-3, and nothing else.

OSI NPCs had varying stock of all Circles 1-7 (but any one vendor's stock was consistent over resets): the lower the Circle, the greater number of different spells the shopkeeper possessed; if you ran all over Britannia, you were virtually guaranteed to find all spells of Circles 1-4, hopefully also 5, and a hodgepodge of 6 & 7 (6, 7 & 8 you could fill from player-vendors, if you could find them, and/or hope to fill-out 6 & 7 with "lucky" NPC replacement respawns, over time).

A very-kind player helped me out of my personal dilemma: I believe it was The Admirable Black of AoS (forgive me if it wasn't! I've gotten some other players/toons mixed-up since my arrival ...); whomever it was, I was permitted to add a small collection of essential Circle 4-7s, and the kind fellow didn't even charge me! That was a lot of help!

Anyway, IMHO, the current situation is hard on new players, and something might want to be done.

I'm just a Stranger.

[Jack]

I believe the high level scrolls you may be recalling from OSI were scrolls that were actually sold by players. Aside from my personal recollection of mage vendors only stocking low level scrolls, I've checked the demo and found that vendors sell circles 1-4.

Though you are right, mage vendors here only sell 1-3. I will update this to include the additional circle.

[A Handsome Stranger]

Thanks, Jack, for a timely reply.

I am hesitant to argue with the demo and, of course, my personal recollections are nearly 20 years ago, now. However, I remember all the trouble I went through on OSI, trying to fill spellbooks before I levelled my own scribe, and now I am tempted to point-out that the demo was never intended for end-game-style play, merely for introductory play: certain functionalities may have been "truncated"; do you have any means of disassembling and analysing the related code (if I am on the right track, there might be code there that is "remarked out", or otherwise de-activated, or there might be a tattle-tale inactive remnant of excised script ...)?

Player-sold scrolls were rather obvious, as even multiple scrolls of exactly the same spell were listed in multiple quantities of one, rather than in a single listing of multiple quantity, as happens with any vendor's natural stock.

Now, I do not wish my remarks to be taken out of context, or in any exaggerated context: the mage shopkeepers did not have lots and lots of spells above 3rd Circle and, unless player-made, never had any Circle 8. So far as I can recall, a mage shopkeeper's natural stock might have 1x Circle 7 (in quantity), and might have 1x-2x Circle 6, while probably had 1x-3x Circle 5 and 2x-3x Circle 4, plus a mix of Circles 1-3. These numbers I am providing can not be considered "hard" numbers: I am merely trying to "give a feel" for the overall condition that I am failing to perfectly remember; also, there would often be duplication in what spells were (not) available, and that would further confuse my recollections, as would any acquisitions of player-sold stuff (of course I can't remember which Circle 6s I bought that were shopkeeper-stock vs. player-sold!) ...

I know I have provided no concrete evidence: maybe I'll take a tour through The Wayback Machine and see if I can find any references in the Stratics pages.

Personally, here at LL, thanks to my kind benefactor and also to some very-generous wraiths/shades/spectres, my first spellbook now possesses a decent representation of the most-useful spells.

If I stumble across anything, that is actually tangible, that might shed more light upon this issue, I'll post it here.

Thanks again.

A Stranger

[Jack]

Unfortunately there's nothing in the demo to suggest otherwise. It should also be noted that, unless it changed recently, OSI is no different today - the basic shopkeep of a mage on OSI still only stocks low level spells. RunUO, by default, replicates this as seen here: https://github.com/brodock/runuo/blob/ma.../SBMage.cs

It's not impossible that at some point mages sold other circles than those, but I'd find it unlikely given the current evidence.

[A Handsome Stranger]

Oh, I certainly do not doubt you at all: in your first reply, you mentioned that demo-shopkeepers sell up to Circle 4, and that you intended to have LL mages updated.

My recollections are confused by time and whatever: it's funny how one can misremember some things.

Anyway, the inclusion of Circle 4 would certainly help any other new players (Greater Heal and Recall were the specific spells I wanted most, and I've got them).

Thanks again for looking into this.

A Stranger.

[Isis]

Vendors only sold 1-4, jack is correct when the higher lvl circles you saw were sold by players.

[Varak]

I remember hopping around the moongates trying to find a vendor with a recall scroll on OSI. Someone finally told me I needed to hit a player vendor to get them. Then I choked at the cost because I needed to buy 10 WHOLE SCROLLS when I only needed one, heh heh. So I hit the moongates again trying to find a player vendor that had just one.

All the being said, with age comes wisdom. When I start on a new shard, I usually hit the liches with a dexxer. I fill them as best I can which is usually dang near full across 2-4 books in a 2-4 hour period (no level 8's). In a couple weeks i'll have enough cash to start a treasure hunter, and i'll macro lockpicking up to 95 and hit the level 4 chests to fill out the level 8's and any empty 6 or 7 spells I might have missed on the first round of filling spell books.

what can I say, I'm cheap. I want the free stuff.