I want to help!

[robotcentaur]

I am a game development pro, worked in the industry for literally 20 years, just got laid off after shipping, as is customary of the day.
In all honesty, DCSS is better then any game I have shipped and think its the best thing out there.
How can I help, gratis, just to keep making it greater and betterer.

Sam

[MyOtheHedgeFox]

Nice to see an enthusiastic fellow, Robotcentaur! =) However, neither Twelve nor I can give you a good answer in this respect: wait patiently for the answer from a user with an orange nickname. These are the people who make DCSS so awe-inspiring, and they and only they can give you a definite go or no-go.

[jpeg]

I'm not a dev anymore but let me just point you to the FAQ.

As a coder, you can help with bug fixes and patches for approved features. Even small UI improvements are always welcome, but well designed gods/species/spells also have a good chance of making it into the game. If you do consider doing anything major, it's generally best to ask beforehand, either here in the forum or on IRC (crawl-dev).

Have a look through the list of bugs or list of implementables according to the development wiki.

Thanks in advance!

[galehar]

This page is somewhat udpated with what folks are currently working on. Fixing bugs is also a great way to start contributing. It's guaranteed to be useful and a good way of getting familiar with the codebase.
You can also works on whatever you'd like to be improved. And it's always good to hang on ##crawl-dev to discuss stuff with the current active devs (many don't come around here much).

[robotcentaur]

Thank you all for the links to further information. Of course I know this is a 100% unpaid volunteer development effort but that is exactly why I want to help. It is pure and for the fun of it, why I entered the industry on the first place, resulting only in the best game possible. Since I am leaving paid game dev it is how I want to contribute my time and effort. Thanks!

[robotcentaur]

I'm not a dev anymore but let me just point you to the FAQ.

As a coder, you can help with bug fixes and patches for approved features. Even small UI improvements are always welcome, but well designed gods/species/spells also have a good chance of making it into the game. If you do consider doing anything major, it's generally best to ask beforehand, either here in the forum or on IRC (crawl-dev).

Have a look through the list of bugs or list of implementables according to the development wiki.

Thanks in advance!

And also the link to the suggestion WIKI was most helpful. Added a thought after playing today:
https://crawl.develz.org/wiki/doku.php? ... ayer_ghost
Please let me know if my formatting or process is improper in any way. Everyone wants to be a game designer, I will also look for other ways to help with vaults or descriptions or any other way my general game production / scripting but lack of coding can be put to good use.
Thanks again.

[MyOtheHedgeFox]

Did you link to https://crawl.develz.org/wiki/doku.php?id=dcss:brainstorm:monster:uniques:player_ghost ?
Could you please point out where exactly did you add data on the page? Perhaps the link is incorrect?

[robotcentaur]

Did you link to https://crawl.develz.org/wiki/doku.php?id=dcss:brainstorm:monster:uniques:player_ghost ?
Could you please point out where exactly did you add data on the page? Perhaps the link is incorrect?

Doh, I didn't add a sig to my addition. Added now.
The top suggestion of GHOST REWARDS.

[dpeg]

robotcentaur: Thanks for the offer to help!

Your ghost idea looks reasonable (sorry that I reply here and not on the wiki; I am really pressed for time). I would suggest to start with an extremely mild form of reward -- something like the identification of a single item. For flavour, the reward should come with an explanation. Here are some examples:

"The [adjective] potion, it ruined my gene pool." (potion of mutation now known)
"The [adjective] potion saved my life several times, but it was not enough." (potions of this type marked as "used by monster")

Perhaps there should also be a reason for why the guy who just talked about killing you now ("Death doesn't hurt. What you feel is life.") shares information with you:

"Perhaps you will indeed [win|prosper|succeed] where I [faltered|staggered|lost]. Let me tell you something:"

I think it would add a little flavour to our ghosts. Afterwards, we could think about other and/or better rewards. For example, full identification (i.e. you get to know all items the ghost character had discovered) could have an actual impact on the id game, which might be good or bad. I am a little reluctant as I am afraid of metagame effects.

[MyOtheHedgeFox]

"The [adjective] potion, it ruined my gene pool." (potion of mutation now known)

The [adjective] potion... it...
These French constructions look a bit odd in English, in my not so humble opinion. =) Pardon me for intrusion.

Actually, I think this must not give full identification. It should not identify things, it should mark them as "marked as [potion of something]", just like "used by monster". The ghost does not necessarily tell you something correctly. A worshipper of Xom might want a friend in the afterlife.