A Must Read Before Editing Any Distro's

[typhoonbot]

Hey everyone, this is mainly aimed at new peeps who plan on making Distro mods to their server.

firstly...What is a distro mod ?

A distro mod is when you modify / add to / change a default runUO script in any way.

I strongly suggest you back-up all distro files before editing them, and then, MOVE the distro file you are editing into a custom folder in your scripts folder called something like "Custom Distro Mods". Your compiler will still read the scripts properly when starting up your server, but with all the modified ones in one place, it will make it much, much easier for you to update your server to the newer versions of runUO at a later stage.

I built my entire server, editing Distro files left, right and center, using Version 2.0 RC1, now I cant upgrade because I don't have a track of all edited distro files, and it would simply be WAY to much effort to try and locate all the edits, and move them into the new distros of the updated version.

Also another very useful thing to do when editing distro's is add little commented notes to yourself (using the //) so you know that you edited it in that way, and give the date.

If you are adding in code into a distro, make a custom region for it using the:

#region <region name here>
#endregion

This will also make it a lot easier to find code that has been customarily added in

I really regret editing all my distros without making notes, or putting them into one folder, because I thought I would never want to update my version, and now I do - and I cannot due to it simply being so much work, it will not be worth it.

So, if all your distros are still unedited, and you wish to edit them, take the opportunity of doing it properly now, then you wont suffer later

Hope you all enjoy your new runUO server, and good luck to everyone!


PS: Maybe one of the mods can add this as a sticky to the New Join forum to encourage all new joiners to read it ?

Regards

Typhoonbot

[HellRazor]

Thanks Typhoonbot, this is good info for beginners, and its the way most people keep track of the files they have changed!

[Anti-Basic]

This thread will get buried here with other peoples threads (ironically some of which will be asking the very question that yours answers) Might wanna ask a mod if you could get it moved to the FAQ forum.