This is a brief guide to getting your server to start:
After you have downloaded and unpacked the server to your computer there are a few things you must do in order to get it up and running.
To begin with, there are some changes you will need to make to your sphere.ini file.
while there are a lot of settings in sphere.ini I am only covering the ones here that you need in order to start your server
Code:
[SPHERE]
// Name of your Sphere shard
ServName=MyShard
// The IP of your server, this will be 127.0.0.1 almost always
ServIP=127.0.0.1
// The port of your server, this is 2593 by default
ServPort=2593
This block of text does not usually need much editing, except for the ServName line to give your shard it's own identity.
If your server is running on a different port obviously that line will have to be edited also.
If you are using the sphere nightly builds the team does require you to add the line
AGREE=1
Somewhere under the [SPHERE] block, right under the text listed above is not a bad place to do it.
The purpose behind this is that the nightly builds obviously may have bugs in the build, that does not mean that they are not suitable for live servers, by inserting that line you are making clear that you understand that this is not a build that is officially considered "stable"
At the bottom of the sphere.ini file you will find the following block of text:
Code:
///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
//////// Connection Information
///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
//First line should be the name of your shard (this is what people see when they connect)
//Second line should be the IP of your shard (this is almost always 127.0.0.1)
//Third line should be the port of your shard (this should be whatever ServPort is set to)
//Uncomment next 3 lines below this if you have a router
//First line should be a name different than your shard name above this
//Second line should be your real/external IP (www.whatismyip.com)
//Third line should be the shard port (this should be whatever ServPort is set to)
[SERVERS]
MyShard
127.0.0.1
2593
[code]
If you are not behind a router this is fine, though you may wish to change your shard name here also.
If you ARE behind a router you need to do one of two things, either edit the block of text:
[code]
//External
//my.ip.goes.here
//2593
The ip you enter here would be your external one, if i doubt you can find it with something like
whatismyip.com
Though this is considered to be the "old" way of doing it and will result in 2 lines displaying on your server's login screen, the other method is to open the sphere_serv_triggers.scp file which is located in your scripts folder and insert your external IP there
Code:
// This function is called on server startup
[FUNCTION f_onserver_start]
serv.servip=my.ip.goes.here
Next you will find that sphere is
missing some files it needs to run. The reason behind this though not clear, I beleive is to make upgrading from version to version easier without the risk of overwriting said files.
However
You will need to create a folder called save.
Inside this folder you will need to create and save 5 files
sphereworld.scp
spheredata.scp
spherechars.scp
spheremultis.scp
spherestatics.scp
Each of these files should be empty except for the text [eof]
These files
MUST be saved as a .scp file in order to work, if saved as .txt you will receive errors from sphere saying that they were not found.
Next you will need to create a folder called accounts
Inside this folder you will need to create and save a file called
sphereaccu.scp
The same rules apply as to the files you previously created, though this one does not require the [eof] text.
You may also find that you need to download the libMySQL.dll file, which is available at the bottom of this page:
PreReleases
That is it for sphereserver, however to get your UO client to log into your shard you will have to either edit the login.cfg file in your UO folder so that it points to your server's address, or use a program like Razor or another loader which will allow you to switch the IP address you are connecting to without actually editing any game files.