# A couple of of questions regarding adding content
**URL:** https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/a-couple-of-of-questions-regarding-adding-content/19665
**Category:** The Lab
**Created:** [April 13, 2019, 7:29pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/a-couple-of-of-questions-regarding-adding-content/19665 "2019-04-13T19:29:41Z")
**Posts on this page:** 11
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@crazykiddeath](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/crazykiddeath)
#### Post date: [April 13, 2019, 7:29pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/a-couple-of-of-questions-regarding-adding-content/19665/1 "2019-04-13T19:29:41Z")
Is character.cpp something that a player has access to or can I only get it changed through a pull request? I think I’ve looked through every folder but haven’t been able to find it, I cant seem to find any .cpp files at all actually. (But I’m not putting past myself that I might of missed it)
And can I tag bionics so you can only install one or the other but not both at the same time?
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### Author:  [@anothersimulacrum](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/anothersimulacrum)
#### Post date: [April 13, 2019, 7:39pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/a-couple-of-of-questions-regarding-adding-content/19665/2 "2019-04-13T19:39:17Z")
You need to have a fork of the repository to be able to edit it, the source files are not shipped with the game.
In addition, once you edit it, for your changes to apply you need to recompile the game.
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### Author:  [@crazykiddeath](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/crazykiddeath)
#### Post date: [April 13, 2019, 7:45pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/a-couple-of-of-questions-regarding-adding-content/19665/3 "2019-04-13T19:45:19Z")
Thanks, I’ll see about the fork now. Do I need a program to compile it? Sorry for the amateur questions but I’m new to this. I’ve got the code I need thanks to mr\_sep but I’m at a bit of a loss on what to do with it.
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### Author:  [@anothersimulacrum](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/anothersimulacrum)
#### Post date: [April 13, 2019, 7:57pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/a-couple-of-of-questions-regarding-adding-content/19665/4 "2019-04-13T19:57:22Z")
Compiling: [compiling.md](https://github.com/CleverRaven/Cataclysm-DDA/blob/38a2ebcd9c0979e1b9e1b8e59caac09f7a984a33/COMPILING.md)
Forking and GitHub: [Guide for first time contributors](https://github.com/CleverRaven/Cataclysm-DDA/wiki/Guide-to-adding-new-content-to-CDDA-for-first-time-contributors) (this should have some good info on GitHub and git).
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### Author:  [@crazykiddeath](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/crazykiddeath)
#### Post date: [April 13, 2019, 8:01pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/a-couple-of-of-questions-regarding-adding-content/19665/5 "2019-04-13T20:01:58Z")
Thank you very much, I’ll start reading through that and see about getting Visual Studio
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### Author:  [@crazykiddeath](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/crazykiddeath)
#### Post date: [April 14, 2019, 8:52am UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/a-couple-of-of-questions-regarding-adding-content/19665/6 "2019-04-14T08:52:00Z")
Ok, I ended up trying MinGW. I followed the instructions as best I could but some of the files didn’t exactly match what was in the guide, I tried to go with the ones that looked like direct upgrades but it doesn’t seem to work. I’m kind of completely lost on what I’ve messed up 😵
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### Author:  [@monny](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/monny)
#### Post date: [April 14, 2019, 10:29am UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/a-couple-of-of-questions-regarding-adding-content/19665/7 "2019-04-14T10:29:28Z")
Do you need to recompile if you’re just changing JSON files? If not, how do you test? I’ve forked and cloned it to my desktop, but I’ve only ever used the launcher before so I have no real clue what I’m doing…
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### Author:  [@TheMurderUnicorn](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/TheMurderUnicorn)
#### Post date: [April 14, 2019, 10:39am UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/a-couple-of-of-questions-regarding-adding-content/19665/8 "2019-04-14T10:39:00Z")
You don’t need to compile when changing JSON files.
For testing JSON, just change what you want to change and restart the game. The only reason you’d need to compile for JSON is if you’d never compiled the game in the first place.
The changes will be available immediately, though it depends on what you’re editing. IE: If you change an item’s weight or a creature’s description, for example, it will be immediately apparent. But if you change a location, it won’t change an already explored location, it will only change new ones.
I recommend creating a mod folder just for testing your changes, then making a world that uses that mod, so everything is fresh and organized and that way you’re not changing core files.
EDIT: Make sure what you’re editing is in the same directory as whatever one you’re playing, since you use the launcher but also have downloaded from Github.
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### Author:  [@TheMurderUnicorn](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/TheMurderUnicorn)
#### Post date: [April 14, 2019, 10:46am UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/a-couple-of-of-questions-regarding-adding-content/19665/9 "2019-04-14T10:46:55Z")
I had a VERY hard time compiling for the first time, especially when I was trying to use Visual Studio. I hate VS and Microsoft is the devil.
I would recommend CodeBlocks. It comes with a compiler (that’s 11 compatible) and there’s a CBP (code blocks project) file in the main directory (CataclysmWin.cbp). Basically, all I had to do with CodeBlocks was start CB, open that project file, and hit ‘build’.
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### Author:  [@crazykiddeath](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/crazykiddeath)
#### Post date: [April 14, 2019, 10:52am UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/a-couple-of-of-questions-regarding-adding-content/19665/10 "2019-04-14T10:52:44Z")
Thanks! I’ll try that instead. I was a bit lost on what to do and I think the guide on github might be a bit outdated and/or you need some knowledge about coding to understand it (MinGW was the one I ended up going with).
All this for for like 4 lines of code 😰
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### Author:  [@crazykiddeath](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/crazykiddeath)
#### Post date: [April 14, 2019, 1:04pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/a-couple-of-of-questions-regarding-adding-content/19665/11 "2019-04-14T13:04:03Z")
“screams triumphantly in binary”
_I think I’m actually getting somewhere_