I'm not new to playing Ultima Online, but I have always prefered playing on POL servers.

It seems like ZuluHotel is still pretty popular, but good luck finding any stable files to actually use.

Anyways, I'm tired of hunting around looking for good servers and trying out new servers that have crazy rules or ideas (such as no Moongates, No recalling, etc.). And I wanna look into starting my own server.

I seen there is a guide for starting a POL 097 server, but some of the instructions don't match the file locations with the current "downloadable" (newest) files.. and for someone new to starting their own server.. it makes it confussing & frustrating.

So if someone has a bit of time, could they write up an "updated" How to start.... for Dummies or something?

I know I know

Use this one

http://forums.polserver.com/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=1178

I believe this is the pol097 one you were talking about.

I used it for pol097, pol098 and pol099. The difference is that I wasn't using Distro 097 Scripts, but 097 Basic Files.

But I believe you could use the DIstr 097 Scripts, because I don't think eScript changed in a way that a 097 script would be incompatible with POL 099.

If you're having problems, try asking for help in that topic. But that topic is so full of questions, probably the problems you're having were already "solved" and answered there.

You'll need to learn how to program in eScript if you wanna build your own shard. Don't try to learn eScript by trying random things, which it seems is the way most people do. Read the guides.

The strange thing is that the doc page doesn't have a guide on installing POL, and making it work. eScript is documented, but POL itself isn't, except for the cfg files.