Guide to contributing to the wiki
Foreword
Welcome to contributing to the Yogstation Wiki - we're happy to have you here. This wiki would not be possible to maintain without the help and dedication of players and staff alike. In a game as complex as Space Station 13, having an up to date wiki is critical to properly enjoy it. Thank you for taking your time.
Getting Started
Your account
As a first order of business, in order to edit pages, a wiki-account is required. Just ask on #wiki-and-mentor on discord; Our wiki staffers will gladly assist you in getting started.
We welcome all contributors and assume good faith for all edits made, so there are very few protected pages. Wiki Administrators do however patrol changelogs to correct small errors and combat intentional misinforming edits, so please be mindful and be ready to explain your edits if it raises a red flag. The best way to prevent misunderstandings is adding proper summaries for all your edits. Once you've received your account, don't be afraid to jump in and start correcting and adding to pages.
Wikicode
Wikicode is the syntax used by all Wikipedias, including this one. It is not hard to pick up: Don't hesitate to read our internal guide or the wikipedias official article. The syntax and options might seem daunting at first, but remember that you can edit allmost all articles with this 5 minute crash course:
| Most used wikicodes | ||
|---|---|---|
| Formatting | Code | Example |
| Bold | Quite a '''bold''' move, Mr Bond |
Quite a bold move, Mr Bond |
| Italic | Do you ''really'' want that drink? |
Do you really want that drink? |
| Italic & bold | No! '''''Please'''''! NO! |
No! Please! NO! |
| Sections | = Level 1 = == Level 2 == === Level 3 === ==== Level 4 ==== ===== Level 5 ===== |
|
| Link (Internal) | Check [[Wikicode]] or [[Wikicode|click here fore more]] |
Check Wikicode or click here fore more |
| Link (External) | http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:Wiki_markup |
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:Wiki_markup |
| Link (External, Custom) | [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:Wiki_markup click me] |
click me |
| List (Unordered) | * Talk shit * Get hit |
|
| List (Ordered) | # Stop # Drop # Roll |
|
Wikicode is what salt is for food. Of course you can cook without salt, but well-prepared foods and texts are clearly more enjoyable. Instead of having a page be a long meandering paragraph, Wikicode allows information to be broken up and changed in appearance for greater clarity, such as the section headings shown in this guide.
It is allright if you really don't want to deal with wikicode. You can still help by writing and correcting texts and have the wiki staffers add the formatting later. Just add something like TODO - NEEDS FORMATTING in your edit-summary to make it easier to detect.
Questions?
There are a few concepts that drive Wiki functionality, and this guide will attempt to touch on the very basics that you'll need to get in and get going. If you have questions regarding more advanced topics, you are allways welcome to ask in the above mentioned #wiki-and-mentor channel.
What needs doing?
The Yogstation Wiki is an utterly massive project, and the active wiki staff team is small, comparatively. Most everywhere you look there is out-of-date information, duplicate guides, broken links, unintelligible references. The Wiki Team attempts to keep core pages up to date and patrolled, but there are many pages on the periphery in dire need of attention.
A good place to start is by analyzing your strengths and the completeness of your knowledge within the context of Space Station 13, and then attempting to revise or update material relevant to that. If you are a person who plays Roboticist every round, then take a moment to look over the Roboticist page and verify the information there - add tips and tricks that you've picked up; publish a new guide page for some advanced facet of the position - in short, play to your strengths when editing and contributing, otherwise information can be left worse off than when it started.
Content revisions
Once you are done reviewing your favorite articles / randomly browsing the wiki, check tis list of pages which need revisions: Category:Needs revision. Revision flags on Jobs or Guides tend to take highest priority, as these are the pages utilized the most by Wiki visitors.
As a recommendation, if you wish to work on a page uninterrupted and not worry about other users editing the same thing while you are working, you can mirror the page in to your personal sandbox area or anywhere in your own pages. This will create a "localized" copy that you can change unfettered by interference by others.
Additionally, if you are revising a page, PLEASE put a summary in the Summary section of your editing window towards the bottom of the page. This will help Wiki Administrators immensely when patrolling new page edits.
Mark articles
Whenever you find a page that needs some work you can't do / you want to do later, make sure to mark it. Marking an article will not only insert a nice obvious note, it will temporarily add the page to a category. These categories serve as todo-lists, which is very convenient. As long as you don't mark every single page in existence, this alone will be helpful.
When tagging articles, make sure to use ~~~~ wherever possible, since this will automatically insert your post-details like this: Helpful Herbert (talk) 23:30, 24 April 2020 (UTC).
| Category | When to mark | How to mark (insert anywhere in the article) |
|---|---|---|
| Category:Candidate for deletion | Article is not needed anymore | {{Delete|to set an example|~~~~}}
|
| Category:NPA | The article Needs Pictures Added | {{NPA}}
|
| Category:Citation needed | Rarely used, as this wiki doesn't have a very academic style | {{Citation needed}}
|
| Category:Needs_revision | Something is wrong, needs to be checked, rewritten or any other kind of work like formatting | {{Needs revision
|reason=Full review required
|user=~~~~
}}
|
| Category:Needs_critical_revision | Large rewrites needed | {{Needs critical revision
|reason = The guide on this page is out of date.
|user = ~~~~
}}
|
| Category:Stub | For articles without content / barebones strucutre. | {{Stub|to set an example|~~~~}}
|
| Category:Outdated images | Image is outdated | {{Outdated}}
|
| Example: Needs revision | |||
|---|---|---|---|
|
| Example: Flag for deletion | ||
|---|---|---|
|
New pages
New content is constantly being added to Space Station 13, which requires new tutorials and guides and information. Before you begin a new page, please search thoroughly and completely for an existing or similar page to avoid creating duplicate guides or pages. If you can't find it or anything related to it, you are clear to start a page yourself! This can be done simply by plugging in the title of the page you would like to create in the Search Bar in the top right - if nothing is found in the Wiki databanks, you will be prompted to create a new page under that title; this will generate a blank page that you can begin formatting and filling in with your information. It is highly recommended that you first assess the type of page you are trying to make, i.e. is it a new guide? is it a new job? and then navigate to pages that exist within that same familial typing and copy the formatting over to your new page. This will save you a lot of work in the end, as well as standardize the formatting across your new page and existing ones of the same type.
Give Me Moar
Still not enough huh? Well here we go: Category:WikiCoordination is a used as an internal starting-point for coordinating things in need of doing. At this point you might want to have a talk with the wiki staff about coordinating your efforts with them. Other useful links include:
Guidelines
As often in life, what you do is as important as how you do it. These are not enforced rules, but use your best judgment (or preferably just ask) when to divert from these suggestions.
Edits
Every time you save your edit a commit is made. This commit will be reviewed by administrators. To make their lives easier try not to split your changes into dozens of separate commits but do them all in one go. Another thing that really helps is adding a summary (aka 'Comment') and make proper use of the minor edit option. Both will tell the administrator what to look for when checking the edit. Stating your intention as well, can prevent misunderstandings like: Rephrased foreword for increased readability.
New Pages
Avoid duplicates by thoroughly searching in the wiki and asking if need be. Try to following the existing naming schemes including capitalization. Here is an example, if you were to write a guide of how to walk properly:
- Bad: Walk
- A bit closer: How to Walk
- Almost there: Guide to walking
- Good: Guide to Walking
Jokes
Some pages are intended to be entertaining, but when writing guides, please remember that a new player might not realize that something is a joke or sarcasm and will instead take it at face value. For more practical guides, less jokes are better. Where it is more discretionary, please think about where jokes fit and where they don't, and if you are updating someone else's joke, think whether yours is actually funnier.
Private pages / sandboxes
It is considered rude to change anything on another users private page without prior explicit permission. If you like someones draft you can copy and edit it in your sandbox.
To use your sandbox use Special:MyPage/Sandbox to be redirected to your own sandbox. You can create as many private sandboxes as you want. Just create an article in the appropriate namespace like: https://wiki.yogstation.net/wiki/User:YourUserName/YourSandboxName
Categories
You can put articles into categores by inserting the appropriate command like [[Category:Guides]]. This should be done at the bottom of the page. Please refrain from creating new categories or editing article-categories without talking about it with the wiki-staff first. This is necessary for categories to be consistent.
Terminology
Try to be consistent with any terminology and ask for clarification if need be:
- Use tick instead of cycle
Images
Images should have transparent background and be in the .png or .gif format. For location- and map-related images see HERE. When uploading images extracted from gamefiles it can be helpful to comment the source and the content like:
Extracted from icons/obj/storage.dmi Evidence bag
The content is especially useful if the image name is not intuitive.
Do not upload duplicate files. Update them instead. When uploading new versions of images it can take a while for them to get cached by the wiki. There is no need for repeated uploads. This can take quite a while.
Article Quality
When revising and writing articles try to consider the following things:
| Correct Language | Check grammar / punctuation / typos. Basically make sure it feels like authentic english |
|---|---|
| Consistent Capitalisation | For recipes and lists of ingredients capitalize the first letter if it's a multiword statement (Lime juice), but if it's a proper name (Beepsky Smash / Quadruple Sec), capitalize both. For mixed ingredients only capitalize the actual item ("coil of Wire"). |
| Consistent language | Some articles are packed with humour, while others are rather technical. Both is perfectly fine. Try to stay compatible when editing articles. |
| Ressources | Check for broken / outdated images and links. Make sure the style of used icons is consistent. |
| Correctness | Making sure that anything stated is true and isn't outdated. Best checked by experienced players and reading the game-code. |
| Scope / Completeness | Anything described should either be complete, or it should be obvious that it isn't meant to be complete. The best example for the latter are things that are meant to be explored by the players. Best checked by experienced players, developers and reading the code. Remember, that guides are not meant to convert the reader into a ultrarobust powergaming machine by spoonfeeding optimized strategies. |
| Lore | While there is not fixed lore-concept, it does not hurt to provide slight lore-related hints once in a while. This can best be done for non-technical descriptions and whenever reasoning is given for things being how they are (besides 'science' / 'magic') |
| Design | Even the best article will feel boring without the proper use of icons and formatting. Proper Highlighting, templates and standard structures are to be used to increase readability without being excessive |
| Learning-Context | Make sure that basic guides stay basic. Guides should reveal their content by being read top to bottom without prior knowledge and link-jumping. They should still have structured sections that are good to look up for experienced players, too. |
Having someone proofread an article for a second opinion never hurt anyone.
Advanced Topics
The following guides should eventually be moved to separate articles to not overload this guide.
Guide to Writing and Revising a Guide
Always keep in mind what the guide pages on this Wiki are for. They are so new players can quickly glean relevant information about the role they have chosen, or been chosen for, or about mechanics of the game on the whole.
A good guide generally consists of:
- A brief introduction or overview of what the guide is going to be describing or accomplishing.
- A detailed run down of the various topics mentioned above, with sectioning and sub-sectioning for clarity and ease of access.
- Images and visual information where needed and appropriate.
- Reference links or further reading material to give a grasp of content adjacent or connected to the topic at hand - for example, the Cook job page has links to the Guide to Food and Guide to Drinks, as these are relevant.
- A conclusion which ties together all the above information and seeks to reiterate the material covered prior.
Poorly formatted or written guides can make it hard to convey relevant information and may be discouraging to newer players.
Extra tips:
- Keep your facts correct and as the primary focus.
- If you are writing a basic guide, keep it basic, and put the advanced topics on a separate page.
- Make use of formatting, tables, white space, headings, and other methods to draw attention and give direction to critical points of information
Images
What would articles be without proper icons of things like ingame-items.
If you have image files to attach, you can upload them via the Upload File link on the left toolbar (also accessed by Alt-Shift-U keyboard command), and then add them to the page they're intended for.
For item images, it is appreciated if the image has a blank background and is in the .gif or .png format.
For most ingame assets, the easiest way to add images of them is to download the source code, open the icons .dmi files and export images as .gif's or .png's from there.
Simple Icons
Here is a short guide of how to extract, upload and use icons:
- Download the source code
- Start the program Dream Maker (was installed with BYOND)
- Menu > File > Open Environment > your_path_to_the_code/yogstation.dme
- Navigate the filestructure on your left to your icon, for example icons\obj\hydroponics\harvest.dmi
- Rigclick your image on the right, for example firelemon > Export
- Make sure to save as *.png for normal icons and *.gif for animated icons
- Go to the Upload of the wiki
- Select your file and upload it. Make sure to leave a comment like "Extracted from icons/obj/.../xxx.dmi"
- Write down the name of your uploaded file. In this example File:Firemelon.png
- Go to the article you want to edit and insert your image with [[File:Firemelon.png]]
Animations of combined icons
Some icons are used together to create animations. Do this to combine them into an animated gif:
- Open the appropriate *.dmi like explained for simple icons. We will use icons/obj/hydroponics/growing.dmi as an example
- Select multiple images with Ctrl-Leftclick
- Rightclick > Combine > 1 direction (The other options are used for things like walking-animations for different directions)
- If the images are not in the right order: Rightclick > Edit Pixels/Movie
- Use Shift+Drag to swap the images on the bottom into your preferred order
- Exit the editing view via the Back-button (right bottom)
- Rightlick > Export > Safe as gif
- (optional) Revert the Image-combination with Rightclick > Split > Split animation frames
- To adjust the animation-speed of your gif you have to edit it. In this example we will be using https://ezgif.com/maker
- Upload your gif
- Change the delay of the frames (I usually go for 50)
- Set a tick at 'don't stack frames'
- Make and download the gif
- View it to make sure it works as needed
Auto extraction of icons
You can extract all icons of a *.dmi (as png) with this little python-tool: https://github.com/alexkar598/DMIExport/releases/tag/1.0.0 Animated icons will be extracted by frames as separate images.
Beware: Make sure to review the results, as icon names can get mismatched.
Images of locations / maps
There are multiple ways to make proper images of locations and maps:
- DreamMaker:
- Select File (like _maps/RandomRuins/LavaRuins/lavaland_surface_ash_walker1.dmm )
- The view automatically switches from the File-tab to the Object-tab
- Overwrite all areas with area/space to get a better view
- If some things like no_lava are bothering you: Select all tiles > rightclick > Find replace in Selection to replace "no_lava" with ""
- Take screenshots
- https://fastdmm2.ss13.io/ Very useful if you intend to do multiple locations. You can pan the view with the middle mouse button or the arrow-keys.
- Load up the repo
- Make sure the repository is specified in the top textfield:
yogstation13/yogstation - Click on Open Github repository
- Choose the branch
masterand click on Ok - Wait for yogstation.dme to load. This might take a minute
- Make sure the repository is specified in the top textfield:
- Open the map file you want: File > Open > _maps > ...
- Set the settings you want to show on the left hand side by clicking on the eye-icons next to the nodes
- You can also ctrl + shift click on items to jump to them on the left panel
- Only have to do this step once since it saves your setting between the maps you load
- Disable Options > Frame Areas
- You will most likely want to disable a bunch of things to make adding transparency easier:
- /area
- /obj/effect/mapping_helpers/no_lava
- /turf/open/space
- Take screenshots
- Open screenshot in GIMP
- Layer-window >Rightclick on your layer > add alpha layer
- Colors > Color to Alpha
- Color: #444488
- Both sliders to 0
- Image > Trim to content
- (optional) Save (Ctrl + S)
- Export as png (Ctrl + Shift + E)
- Load up the repo
- Dream Daemon: Very tedious, but it will look better, since sprites for chasms etc. will properly connect.
- Start your local server
- Join with your BYOND client
- Tab Admin > Aghost to start ghosting (Shortcut: F5)
- Adjust your view
- Disable the ingame-ui
- Tab Admin > Stealth Mode to turn your ghost invisible
- Set Tab Ghost > View Range or Tab Special Verbs > Change View Range to increase your field of view
- Adjust the shadows by repeatedly clicking Tab Ghost > Toggle Darkness
- Go places or spawn in your maps / locations with Tab Debug > Map template - Place
- Take screenshots (Shortcut F2)
Images of people
Getting images of people is more difficult than for objects, since people consist of all kinds of parts. This means you need ingame-screenshots:
- Start a local server with Dream Daemon
- Join with your BYOND client
- (optional) Pick a jobs with the clothes you want for your screenshots
- (optional) Build a 3x3 of tables and climb on them. The best place to do this is the lockerroom near arrivals. The even background of the tables will make it so much easier to crop out the background later.
- Rightclick your mob > Your name > View Variables
- Use the "select option"-dropdownmenu to change your mobtype
- Set species
- Make cyborg
- Other options include "Make alien" and "Make slime"
- Use the "select option"-dropdownmenu to modify your body
- Modify bodypart
- Modify organs
- Make sure the area is well-lit
- Tab Admin > Secrets > Fix all lights
- Tab Admin > Secrets > Make all areas powered
- Take screenshots (Shortcut F2)
Checking the game-code
So somebody told you to "RTFM" or "do a code-dive"? Congratulations, you managed to either ask a rude person a really obvious question, or you breached into advanced territory. It is hard to find someone knowledgable of everything in the game, and even skilled players might have outdated information. The only way to be sure is to read the game-code. Yes code, like in programming. You don't need to be able to program yourself, but it really helps.
The easiest way to read the code is using the searchbar on github.
Contribution guides
| |
| General | Hosting a server, Setting up git, Guide to GitKraken, Downloading the source code, Guide to contributing to the game, Reporting issues, Game resources category, Guide to changelogs |
| Database (MySQL) | Setting up the database, MySQL |
| Coding | Understanding SS13 code, SS13 for experienced programmers, Text Formatting |
| Mapping | Guide to mapping, Room Structure, Map merger |
| Spriting | Guide to spriting |
| Wiki | Guide to contributing to the wiki, Wikicode, Styleguide |