I don't know C++, what can I do to help development?

[Born_tobe_Mild]

The only languages I know are Java and Python. While Cataclysm is written in C++, I still want to help the project maybe a little more than throwing together crappy .json items that are 90% copy / pasted. Is there any area of the game I could contribute to?

[Malkeus]

Modding can be done with lua as well. I think that’s pretty similar to java?
Also, I don’t know c++, but I’ve still managed to contribute on that end with simple fixes. Having knowledge of a couple languages would give you an advantage there.

[pisskop]

Notepad is about practice.

dive in and try to find evident links between the code and the gameplay.

just look over the variables and imagine what they change

[jcd]

I only knew python but i stilll have managed to contribute with c++ code a little.
Most important thing would be to decide on a thing to tackle, then find out and read the codebase for it.
Once you understand how it works, you got half the work done, bc you should now have a plan on the algorithmical how-to.
Only after that you got to really work with c++, and this may be easy/mid/hard depending on what you want to do. The rest of the codebase, google and the other devs are your friends though, and working on cata is a nice way to learn c++.

PS. Although i got to complain on how hard some things can be when you are used to python. I mean c’mon, i should be able to return any data type, however i want, right???

[Coolthulhu]

You can try editing JSONS:

[ul][li]Balancing weapons[/li]
[li]Fixing typos[/li]
[li]Adding new items/recipes[/li]
[li]Buffing weak monsters[/li][/ul]

etc.

[kevin.granade]

If you have working knowledge of java i dont think you’ll find c++ incredibly hard to work with.
That aside looking through the issues and pointing out ones that are fixed or obsolete is very helpful.

[alRashid]

[quote=“Coolthulhu, post:5, topic:11272”]You can try editing JSONS:

[ul][li]Balancing weapons[/li]
[li]Fixing typos[/li]
[li]Adding new items/recipes[/li]
[li]Buffing weak monsters[/li][/ul]

etc.[/quote]

He did mention that he doesn’t just “want to add crappy copy/pasted items with JSON”.

That said, we certainly have room for more variations on maps, which are also simple JSON files. I got a job recently that has me learning Visual Basic and C#, but the only languages I really worked with in school were Python and Java, and all… Eightish of the small contributions I’ve made to the game are maps. They’re not works of art like the Necropolis, but they did certainly help me feel more immersed when dealing with electronics stores (The one I made actually has more than one room!) and grocery stores (ATMs! Well-defined sections! A cart corral!), and I feel that the houses I added are at least more pleasant to deal with on average than the procedurally-generated square ones with doors hidden behind bureaus and front hallways full of unused closets where you need to go through one bedroom to get to another.

So if you’re willing to dedicate yourself to a small project of some sort, look into learning some C++. Java is a C-family language in terms of syntax, so it won’t seem too foreign, and it’ll probably be healthy for you as a programmer to learn about manual memory management.
If you’re just looking for something smaller and don’t wanna work with compiling crap, work with the JSON or LUA files. Make some maps, tweak some stats, rework some recipes.
Or if you don’t really want to code at all, just help curate the git and make sure we have issues in line.

[Coolthulhu]

He did mention that he doesn’t just “want to add crappy copy/pasted items with JSON”.

Balancing items/critters/martial arts isn’t just copypasting. It’s more about precise tuning than bulk copy.

[i2amroy]

If you have working knowledge of java i dont think you’ll find c++ incredibly hard to work with.

Yeah, Java and C++ are very similar in many of their more commonly used aspects. Honestly I feel that they are similar enough that in most cases you should be able to jump right in on addressing some of the easier issues while just keeping the documentation over at cplusplus.com open and googling the occasional thing that you don’t understand.

[Born_tobe_Mild]

[quote=“alRashid, post:7, topic:11272”][quote=“Coolthulhu, post:5, topic:11272”]You can try editing JSONS:

[ul][li]Balancing weapons[/li]
[li]Fixing typos[/li]
[li]Adding new items/recipes[/li]
[li]Buffing weak monsters[/li][/ul]

etc.[/quote]

He did mention that he doesn’t just “want to add crappy copy/pasted items with JSON”.

That said, we certainly have room for more variations on maps, which are also simple JSON files. I got a job recently that has me learning Visual Basic and C#, but the only languages I really worked with in school were Python and Java, and all… Eightish of the small contributions I’ve made to the game are maps. They’re not works of art like the Necropolis, but they did certainly help me feel more immersed when dealing with electronics stores (The one I made actually has more than one room!) and grocery stores (ATMs! Well-defined sections! A cart corral!), and I feel that the houses I added are at least more pleasant to deal with on average than the procedurally-generated square ones with doors hidden behind bureaus and front hallways full of unused closets where you need to go through one bedroom to get to another.

So if you’re willing to dedicate yourself to a small project of some sort, look into learning some C++. Java is a C-family language in terms of syntax, so it won’t seem too foreign, and it’ll probably be healthy for you as a programmer to learn about manual memory management.
If you’re just looking for something smaller and don’t wanna work with compiling crap, work with the JSON or LUA files. Make some maps, tweak some stats, rework some recipes.
Or if you don’t really want to code at all, just help curate the git and make sure we have issues in line.[/quote]
I attempted to create a building actually, I was getting strange errors involving formatting causing it to throw an error when loading into the game with it, I even attempted copy/pasting another building’s .JSON contents into it and the error was still thrown. I wish I could give any more information about that problem but I lost the file, as I was working on it at school, and, well, we all know the “top notch” quality of school computers.