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I think I will be skipping pol096 altogether on my shard.

I've had my 096 scripts for ages now and was at the point of using them on the shard but....
* The 097 core appears to be waiting for the distro to be be released at the same time, so it looks like 097 core is not going to be released just yet. Fair enough.
* There is still a bugfix pending for 096 AND 097 in the wings - ie they appear to have similar bugs for the features I use.
* Converting from 096 to 097 was really easy (95% of the work is in the use vitalsl; and use attributes; and use containers; lines.) Even doing this manually was only about 5 hours work. I had already removed the deprecated functions so that wasn't a slowdown at all.
* I don't see any serious problems emerging with 097 - problems are with features I am not using yet.
* I am sick of converting Austin's 097 scripts back to 096 so I can use them
* I really like the config directory idea for holding the cfg files.
* I REALLY like the use of the log directory for storing all logs.
* Ctrl-Shift being handled by the core is just so cool.
* I don't really want to upgrade the shard to 096 and then do it again a short time later to 097.
* I am no value to the devs if I am not using pol097.
* The only script I had to re-write (well write actually) was .unloadall since in 097 it no longer exists as an inbuilt dot command.

So, overall it really did seem logical for me to skip 096 completely on my shard.

What are others thinking - 097 now or wait?

I have already converted to 0.97 on my shard.
*coughs*
I even found myself using the += operator in my scripts.

I am slowly converting to the Distro system/geography for my shard. It has been a slow process though. I am trying to create "bridges" for the old scripts (those that are written for the old POL geography) to function until I can rewrite them. The new attributes/skill gain system has been the biggest hurdle. Well, that and the brain_ai and gumps systems. So many of my NPCs AI is written old style I might have to run the two AI systems simultaneously.

But to answer your question, yes I am POL 0.97 compliant. I was glad I converted because eCompile found some MoveCharacter and MoveItem calls I had missed.

POL096 has been a huge challenge for me at best but its not only served my shard well, it has really taught me a ton about scripting POL and the things I've done wrong. I have a scriptbase thats basically completely shot and now rewriting the entire shard myself on POL097, its not only turned into an endurance challenge but also I'm sure blindly writing scripts without a chance to test them will test my patience in the future when the shard does finally boot. But overall, going into 096 last year I feel was a success and well worth it. And I'm hoping for the same with 097 too.