Guide to adding new content to CDDA for first time modders

Game Talk The Lab
25

Getting your content merged in mainline

The process for getting your new content merged goes like this:

  1. Fork and clone the repo, develop your new content, test it.
  2. Use the web linter (http://dev.narc.ro/cataclysm/format.html) to make sure your JSON content matches CDDA’s JSON style (https://github.com/CleverRaven/Cataclysm-DDA/blob/master/doc/JSON_STYLE.md).
  3. Commit your changes and push them to your repo.
  4. Go to https://github.com/CleverRaven/Cataclysm-DDA/pulls and open a new pull request. Read the instructions in the pull request and format your summary line correctly.
  5. Wait an hour or so, and then review your pull request. If there’s a line toward the bottom that says “Some checks were not successful” then the automatic tests failed and your new content will not be added until the tests pass. There’s 3 lines below that, for “continuous-integration/travis-ci/pr”, “continuous-integration/appveyor/pr”, and “gorgon-ghprb” and all 3 have a “Details” link next to them. Find the tests that is failing, click on the “Details” link, and read every single word and link on that page until you find out why your test is failing. Then fix it and push a new set of changes.
  6. Repeat step 5 until your PR has a green check mark and a “All checks have passed” line.
  7. Wait some more. Possibly for 3-4 days.
  8. At some point, someone who isn’t a first time modder will review your PR and request that you make changes. Make them. There’s a slight chance that the reviewer is requesting a nonsense change, and if so, defend your content, but most likely they know more than you do and you should make the requested changes.
  9. Repeat steps 7 and 8 until no one is requesting any changes and at least a week has passed since you last updated.
  10. At this point - when your PR passes all tests, you’ve made all the requested changes, and you’ve waited at a week - and not sooner, if your PR hasn’t been merged, then you should get on the CDDA discord and ask what needs to be done to get your PR merged.
  11. At some point, your PR will be merged. Bask in the glory of contributing to CDDA, and then get started on your next PR.

I may have made the process of submitting a PR sound difficult, but the CDDA community is friendly and welcoming to new content. There’s just a process that you need to go through, because there are a lot more people who want to add new content than there are people who can review content for inclusion. Be patient, ask for advice, and soon you’ll have a “Great contributor” tag after your name on Discourse.

I hope this guide helps. Please PM me on the CDDA Discord, discourse.cataclysmdda.org, or https://www.reddit.com/r/cataclysmdda/ (I’m mlangsdorf just about everywhere) if you have questions or need some help.

4 Likes