Because of some recent discussion in the Discordance server I feel I must, once again, explain the two Distros we have to offer.

The Classic Distro has the look and feel of the older POL Distros, pre-096, with custom gumps for the various crafting systems. It is there for those who like the look of those systems. It is a basic server script set without any bells and whistles, especially no class system. I have incorporate the newer attributes system into it. So anyone used to the attributes system created by Austin will feel at home. The POL Distro was always intended to be a basic working set of scripts, skills, commands etc that someone could build upon and the Classic is no exception.

The Modern Distro is an attempt to bring some of the newer OSI features to POL. It has a unified crafting gump across all skills. Plus, as they are implemented in the Core features such as the AoS status gump modifiers. As it is a work in progress it may, and probably does, have more bugs than the Classic Distro.

I do not care which one a person wishes to use. I recommend the Classic Distro because I believe it is more stable.

I would like to open a discussion about consolidating down to 1 distro.
If its a stability thing then obviously we can work on the modern distro to try and get it stable.
As for look/feel and style we could work towards interchangable packages that would allow for people to customise their installations based off the 1 distro base.
I've started work on some stuff for the modern distro to try and make this a potential reality, but then i got side tracked by adding a feature i want to the core to be able to complete the package i'm writing.

I feel that offering two "supported" distro's just lends to splitting resources and time, as well as increasing confusion, hence you creating this forum post.

I've started doing a file compare between the two distro's to try and see any obvious deviations.

As I posted in Discordance, if you, or someone wants to do it I have no complaints.

The reason I created this post was to remind the community of the purpose of the two Distros. At this time I don't think there is much of a problem with dividing resources because right now we only have two individuals working with the Classic Distro.

I need to apologize. I have been ambiguous about the development road maps for the two Distros.

The Classic Distro is, at its centre, the 095 Distro converted to run under the current Core, POL 100 at the time this post was made. It is, for the most part, pre AoS script set. It is feature complete as far as I am concerned. Unless I get an itch to add to it, no new features will be added by me. Its development path is now just in maintenance mode. That means mostly only bug fixes will be committed to the repository. If there is some "script breaking change" made to the POL 100 Core then any scripts that need to be modified will be. There are no promises once POL 100 becomes final and is out of beta.

If someone wants to create a new custom feature or package for the Classic Distro then they should post their script or package in Contributed Scripts & Packages with the text " for the Classic Distro" appended to the end of their description in the subject line of their post. Also, include in your post detailed instructions explaining how to install your script or package.

Thanks to Kloede/Damien for fixing some bugs and to JohnnyB for helping me discover issues whilst I was helping him. He would ask me some question and I, in answering the question, would find some bug in a script. The moral of that story is that you never know when you are helping with a project.

The Modern Distro is, for now, in active development. This means that I, and hopefully others, will be adding to it to try to get the game mechanics and features as close to the AoS expansion as possible. Of course bug fixes and things such as spelling corrections and changes to scripts that need to be made, due to additions to the POL 100 Core that break the current scripts, will be posted to the repository. Once the goal of the AoS feature set has been accomplished, it will be determined whether to continue updating it to include features beyond the AoS expansion. Please note that some post AoS features may already be included, mostly in the items category thanks to ThisIsMe. Also, note that due to certain limitations in the POL Core, not all AoS features may be implemented. We may also include some High Seas support but that is yet to be determined.

If someone wants to create a new custom feature or package for the Modern Distro then they should post their script or package in Contributed Scripts & Packages with the text " for the Modern Distro" appended to the end of their description in the subject line of their post. Also, include in your post detailed instructions explaining how to install your script or package.

I hope this clarifies any confusion that I may have caused by my ambiguity about the two Distros.