Draft:Identification

Omega 0.90.4

Identification determines what an item is and, with full identification, reveals its individual condition. In Omega, recognizing a type and knowing a particular copy's properties are different achievements. A potion already labelled potion of healing can still have an unknown curse. Identification reveals that condition; it does not cure the curse or improve the item.

This page covers Omega 0.90.4. The potion and scroll indexes compare individual effects; the identification scroll is one of several ways to learn about them.

What a name tells you

The game can display three levels of information:

Information available	What the item label shows	What remains uncertain
Appearance only	The item's outward description, or a label you have supplied	Its actual type and individual properties
Recognized type	The ordinary type name	This copy's blessing or curse, enchantment, charges and loss of magical function
Fully identified copy	Blessed or cursed wording where applicable, the appropriate name, a disenchantment label where applicable, and equipment enchantment or staff charges	The numerical strength of blessing is not displayed; the label is not a complete explanation of the item's rules

Type recognition spreads to other copies, but full identification belongs to the particular item or stack. Recognizing one healing potion does not reveal the condition of every healing potion you later find. A fully identified cursed copy can also use a different name: the cursed form of a healing potion is described as a potion of disruption.

Ordinary identification treats food differently: it reveals the food's name without giving it the full identification state used for equipment. This can distinguish the actual food type, but it is not an all-properties inspection.

Appearances and personal labels

New games shuffle the appearances of scrolls, potions, sticks, boots, cloaks and rings. The two potion-shaped artifacts also receive potion appearances. An inscription or bottle description remembered from a previous game is therefore not a reliable identification. Conversely, an ordinary weapon's familiar appearance does not establish its enchantment or curse status.

Use C to label an unrecognized accessible item when you have an observation to record. This is a note, not formal identification: calling a bottle "healing?" does not teach the game that it is healing, reveal its curse or make a shop pay its fully identified value. The option to name similar items updates the name used for future copies, but other copies already in existence can retain their earlier labels.

Ways to identify

Accessible inventory means the equipment, hands, shoulders and belt slots offered by the item-selection prompt. It includes carried items that are not in use. Backpack contents are separate: move a target into accessible inventory before using a single-item identification.

Method	Scope	Cost or limitation
Uncursed scroll of identification	One selected accessible item	Consumes a scroll. Food receives its name-only identification; other targets receive full identification and teach their type.
Blessed identification scroll	All accessible items and backpack contents	Consumes a scroll. The same food exception applies.
Identification spell	One selected accessible item	Base cost 10 mana; current research improvements and lunar conditions can change the actual cost. You must know the spell and be able to cast it.
Thieves' Guild appraisal	One accessible item, or all carried items	Nighttime only. 50 Au per billed item for a nonmember, 5 Au for a member; see the billing rules below.
Jane's guide to treasure	Type names throughout one randomly selected category: scrolls, ordinary potions, cloaks, boots, rings or sticks	Does not fully identify every copy's properties. The potion category does not include the two potion-shaped artifacts.
Buy from Julie's or Knight's Pawn Shop	The purchased stock item is fully identified	Pay the quoted purchase price. The pawn shop can stock cursed items, whose condition is visible: inspect the label before buying.

These methods differ in scope even when they reveal the same item name. In particular, Jane's broad type knowledge complements a blessed identification scroll rather than replacing its inspection of individual properties.

The Collegium Magii teaches identification when promoting a Novice to Student, at 400 College experience. Joining alone does not immediately award the spell. Ordinary spell learning can provide another route, but a spell research attempt does not guarantee this particular result. Fear prevents casting; reading scrolls is prevented by fear or blindness.

Appraisal and cancellation

You need not join the Thieves' Guild to use its appraisal service. Visit at night, choose c, then i for one item or the all-possessions option. Nighttime is 21:00 through 06:59.

The bulk fee counts each accessible inventory entry and backpack entry that is not fully identified, with a minimum charge of one item. It counts a stack as one entry, not one charge per unit in that stack. Food remains below the full-identification state after this service and can be billed again on a later bulk appraisal. Review the quote instead of assuming that recognizing every type makes the service free.

Prepare your target before paying. The single-item fee is deducted before the selection prompt, so cancelling it does not refund the fee. Likewise, cancelling an identification spell's target does not return spent mana, and cancelling the target after reading an uncursed identification scroll still consumes the scroll. Cancelling the initial choice of which scroll to read is different: that does not consume one.

Learning by use

An effect can suggest an identity without formally teaching its type. Automatic recognition depends on the particular item and sometimes on its curse state:

Example	Recognition after use	Practical consequence
Healing potion	The noncursed effect teaches the type; the cursed effect does not	Knowing that this bottle had a harmful effect and knowing its formal type are different results.
Regeneration potion	Its effect does not teach the type	You can observe a benefit while another copy still has its appearance label.
Sleep potion	Teaches the type after applying sleep	Successful recognition does not make testing it safe.

These examples are not a universal rule for all potions. Consult the individual article before treating a message, a lack of visible change or an unfamiliar name as decisive evidence.

Reading and drinking spend the selected item after applying its effect. Putting unidentified equipment into use can expose you to a curse that prevents normal removal. When you already have a dependable weapon or healing supply, paying to inspect an uncertain replacement avoids risking the working equipment or consuming the only copy merely to learn about it.

What forgetting removes

A cursed identification scroll, also called a scroll of forgetfulness, clears the individual identification of accessible possessions and the shared type knowledge for those items. It does not erase the individual identification of backpack copies, or automatically forget unrelated types with no accessible copy.

This distinction matters when several copies exist. A fully identified potion in your backpack remains fully identified. An unrecognized backpack copy of the same type can lose the benefit of shared type knowledge when an accessible copy causes that type to be forgotten. Moving an item into the backpack is therefore not a general promise that every kind of knowledge about it is protected.

Identification and sale value

Appraisal can be an investment before selling, but it is not always profitable. Both the buyer's rate and your individual item's identification state affect the result.

For most items, the valuation used by buyers is:

Individual knowledge	Valuation before the buyer's rate
Appearance only	One tenth of the item's full value
Type name only	Half the type's base value
Fully identified	The item's full value, including the applicable enchantment, charges and blessing adjustments

The miscellaneous-item class uses a different rule: 1 Au when unrecognized, and its base value when its name is known. These are valuation inputs, not the final offers. Knight's Pawn Shop normally offers half the valuation; the Thieves' Guild fence offers two thirds and refuses cursed goods. Fractions are truncated by the game's integer arithmetic.

Full value starts with the item's base value. For a stick, add base value times charges divided by 20. Then a nonnegative enchantment adds the current value times enchantment divided by 4; a negative enchantment divides that value by the absolute enchantment. Positive blessing doubles the result. Miscellaneous items retain their base value. This explains why two copies with the same type name can deserve different prices, and why merely learning a name is not equivalent to fully appraising valuable enchanted equipment.

Compare the likely increase in the offer with the appraisal fee, especially as a nonmember. A cheap single item may not repay 50 Au; several units in one stack can make the same per-entry fee more worthwhile. A blessed identification scroll is attractive for a haul containing several unknown equipment pieces or emergency consumables. Do not postpone an immediately useful identification solely to maximize a future batch: knowing whether your only escape or healing item is safe can matter more than its resale value.