Some suggested changes for Accuracy!

[Psilo]

They were to mage vendors what heating stands are to alchemist npc's. Stuff people look at but never buy.

Exactly, I remember the heating stands too!

[chris kennon]

I have no empirical evidence to offer here, but for the record, I remember plain crystal balls dropping from liches all the time. Mage vendors sold them for relatively cheap. Giving any item to an NPC would increase your karma, and I believe it was based on the value of the item. At no point in time since I started playing UO do I remember plain crystal balls ever being a rare item.

That said, I played UO for the first time on akanigit's account in October 1999, so this was toward the end of the T2A era.

It wasn't based on the item at all from what I recall. A common trick any good thief worth his weight used was to give 1 piece of gold at a time to a npc over and over again to get his karma back to neutral 100 gold worth would more than do it and I remember plain crystal balls dropping off liches as well.

[Psilo]

Derrick, what do you have to say about this?

I don't know if we have proof, but so many UO players remember this.

1. Crystal balls drop off liches and were sold at mage shop from a blue robed mage vendor.
2. Heating stands were sold by red robed alchemist vendor.

[Derrick]

Alchemists sell heating stands on UOSA.

I agree with crystal balls dropping on Lichs, I don't recall either of them being sold in shops myself. I just booted up Demo to check there, and neither were sold in shops pre-t2a as default wares anyway.

I think possibly the ones for sale in shops were sold into the vendors inventories. Alchemists do buy and sell heating stands on UOSA, mages should possibly be buying crystal balls.

Update: Pre-T2A mage shopkeeps wouldn't buy crystal balls either

[Psilo]

Derrick, I think we need to stop trusting the demo so much.

I know 100% sure that crystal balls can "be on" mage vendors.

Now whether the item was sold to the vendor or just being stocked automatically I am not sure.

Now I see again why it's a bad idea to put so much trust into the UO demo. It's not completely right, as proven right here in my mind.

I remember crystal balls SO MUCH, I used to be a newbie in 1998 and always saw them on the mage NPC inventory and wondered what their significance was.

[Batlin]

Interesting readings:

http://groups.google.nl/group/rec.games ... stal+balls

> what are crystal balls for?
In certain areas of certain dungeons, a crystal ball will tell you what
was recently said in that area. Why you would want to know what was said
in a dungeon, I do not know.

http://groups.google.nl/group/rec.games ... stal+balls

For any avid liche hunter, you may find yourself in possession of a
large number of crystal balls. Of course, at present they are
absolutely useless, but I have a suggession for a possible use for them
in the future.

http://groups.google.nl/group/rec.games ... stal+balls

After I killed my first liche and collected the crystal ball, I seemed to be
able to cast spells better. I noticed it (even if it was just luck and not
the case) and continue to carry a crystal ball to this day.

I remeber a couple months back crystal balls used to show what was last said in
an area... don't know if they do so now, but ya might try...

http://groups.google.nl/group/rec.games ... balls+mage

I dunno where did the other posters got their ideas from, but in the old
days (patch 10 or 11), if you use a crystal ball in the dungeon near a
permanent crystal ball (like the one on 3rd level Despise) you can either
hear the last conversation spoken near there or see the phase of the moons
(for teleporting or gating purposes). Of course, all this information may
have been rendered outdated the moment they are patched. Now I used them
to decor the tables in my house. Used to have 15 of them, until the
thieves broken into and removed everything.

I looked for posts saying people bought them from vendors. I could find none, I'll keep searching.

[Sandro]

I remember double clicking crystal balls and having parts of conversations being displayed.

Nice find.

[Batlin]

Here's another one, I like that quote:
http://groups.google.nl/group/rec.games ... 1948726044

Now, it's as useless as a crystal ball from a lich.

[Psilo]

As long as crystal balls are attainable that's all I really want to push, in proving that they existed off at least just liches.

That way a crystal ball can be used to decorate or cast spells on, ect.

They shouldn't be rare.

[dren]

T2A-Era Specific Details

Crystal balls are supposed to drop from Liches.

Regular Crystal balls should be sold, but not be bought back by NPCs.

Yes, there were some Crystal balls with different functionality like displaying the last 5 lines of text. However, the crystal balls sold from NPCs in town and the ones that dropped from Liches did not have that functionality. Crystal balls dropping from Liches was not common, but more rare. Crystal balls were indeed common though everyone had one.

[Azile]

Absolutely they dropped on lichees. Was annoying unsellable junk. Mage vendor sold the same crystal balls.

This was summer of 99 and earlier.

Similar, mobs dropped backpacks and bags with some of their junk inside etc. Was also until I quit playing they did this, late summer of 99. I was surprised at how few bags dropped for me playing this shard...none...

[nightshark]

idk why people are saying you can use them to cast spells on. you can target anything with an offensive spell. i target a random item in my house with the spell poison when i'm gaining meditation. this was always the case on osi, nothing special about crystal balls in that regard.

[Azile]

The crystal balls also remind me of communication crystals. But not sure if they were still in game during T2a or was prior and removed when I first played. Perhaps they are in uosa and I have not found one yet.

[Jill Stihl]

The crystal balls also remind me of communication crystals. But not sure if they were still in game during T2a or was prior and removed when I first played. Perhaps they are in uosa and I have not found one yet.

Jeweller's shops sell comm crystals.