Interested in playing Nost: Some questions

[anonn]

I played vanilla and when I saw Nost, I must say I got super hyped to play. I've seen the beginners guide and have seen responses that though it's technically illegal with blizz's terms how would they know (still uneasy). I have no prior experience on private wow servers, so I have a few additional questions before I consider firing it up:

1) I have read that the "realmlist.wtf" no longer exists and I can't find it in my actual wow folder, but when setting up this, is that done automatically?
2) Does the download/install create its own (new/separate) wow folder, with its own realmlist.wtf/WDB or will this somehow affect my retail settings (would prefer not to tamper with them)?
3) If question 2 is not separate - is there something special I need to do to be able to play both the wow retail (through the bnet launcher) and the private server separately (with maybe separate launchers)? Special Argument in realmlist that would allow this? Alternative methods?
4) How exactly do you clear your cache? (deleting the stuff inside? there are more branch folders within)

Any and all answers would be greatly appreciated, especially 1-3 in some detail (if possible). I am very interested, but I don't want to mess up retail to do so. Thank you

[konked]

The realmlist is hidden better in the newer versions but 1.12.1 realm list is just in the main folder.

1.12.1 client won't conflict with your current WoW they are completely separate games/folders.

Clearing cache is just deleting the WDB folder.

Hope that helps !

[AverageJoe]

konked's right.

1. The realmlist.wtf file has been removed from the more recent retail expansions (Not sure exactly which one but definitely from Cataclysm on up). I think this was due to Blizzard catching on about players modifying it to point their clients to private servers instead of retail servers so they integrated it into the core program and did away with the physical file. Doesn't matter though; as long as you can get your hands on a clean 1.12.1 client, it will have the file and modifying it is super easy. If you use the official Nostalrius client, it will already have the realmlist.wtf file set to the Nostalrius server and won't need to be changed, or at least I didn't have to change it when I installed.

2. Not sure about other 1.12.1 clients, but the official Nostalrius client will act as its own unique installer that will ask you where on your computer you'd like to install it to (The program is called "World of Warcraft Classic"). You can keep your current retail WoW installation as is and simply install the 1.12.1 client to another location on your computer. The two installations will not conflict with each other assuming you don't install the 1.12.1 client into your current retail WoW folder. The two will continue to operate independently; at worst, if you somehow did manage to get the Battle.net launcher to import or recognize your other 1.12.1 client, all it'll do is attempt to update it to the current patch (6.1). Then you simply uninstall and reinstall.

Nostlarius is my first private server as well and I've been playing just shy of two months with both retail WoW/Battle.net launcher and the 1.12.1 WoW client installed on my computer without any problems at all; I can still open Battle.net and play retail WoW or other Blizzard games and play 1.12.1 WoW independently of each other.

[anonn]

Thanks guys, that does help.