Maintainer Meeting (30 April 2022)

===

Info

Any decisions taken in these notes may no longer be applicable.

Time: 30 April 2022 18:00 UTC

Attendees:
Vera
Silver
ShadowCommander
PJB
Sloth
moony
mirrorcult
Acruid
DrSmugleaf

Removing RobustUnitTest or RobustServerSim | metalgearsloth

  • Discord message
  • Actual unit tests shouldn’t be inheriting, everything else should be an integration test
  • If prototype loading was faster we could remove both
  • Is Acruid in the meeting

Answer:

  • We have like four ways to start engine and run tests.
  • We have NO CLUE what each of these do, we should probably gather some info and list it out so we can make a more informed decision?
  • Come back to this after we actually know what each does
  • Acruid came:
    • Server simulation can spawn entities
    • It’s the bare minimum required for that, any extras such as prototypes, components and systems need to be added automatically.

Long term map maintenance tools | moony

  • Discord message
  • Fixing the mapping merge driver
    • Rewrite it atop the testing framework?
  • Automated YAML and entity migrations

Answer:

  • when someone codes it
  • BYOND is better than us
    • BYOND’s map editor asks you for new paths (like entity prototype IDs) for missing things
    • tbh this goes for a lot of things about mapping rn
  • Entity UID consistency system on map is broken right now, needs fixing
    • 1 entity getting changed -> ungabunga change go brr SO TRUE BESTEI
  • Migrations are like scripts more than like prototypes. Does it make sense to keep them in the prototypes folder?
    • For complex C# based ones it’d be necessary for them to remain compiled in?

Write down the main purpose of each interaction hotkey | ShadowCommander

  • Discord message
  • For contributors to decide on which hotkey to use when implementing a feature.
  • Remove overlap between left click/E | PJB

Answer:

  • Tooltip show alt uses
    • Somewhat unusual for 2D games?
      • Starbound apparently has it though
    • Show icons and
  • Remove overlap between left click/E. Force people to learn E
    • Give indication that you can use E to click on the thing. Otherwise people will not realize it exists.
      • Candidate: https://youtu.be/d6GtGbI-now keyboard spritesheet
        • Has no Cyrillic support
          • Can add ourselves
      • Other links:
        • https://thoseawesomeguys.com/prompts/
        • https://www.gameuidatabase.com/index.php?&scrn=907
        • https://kenney.nl/assets/input-prompts-pixel-16
  • Forced Tutorial™ to teach interactions
  • Show the thing you’re looking at too, optionally.

Hotkeys:

  • Use(Left click)
    • Interaction involving hands
  • ActivateItemInWorld(E)
    • Open UI
      • If there’s a secondary activate, then put that in the UI
  • AltActivateItemInWorld(Alt)
    • Specify which interaction it should run instead of automatically picking the first verb
  • ActivateItemInHand(Z)

Guidelines for balance discussions and code of conduct | moony

Results

  • GitHub discussions usually get bad.
  • They spam the #github channel reee.
  • Should we move those discussions to somewhere else?
    • The official forums aren’t great for that.
    • Discord threads are an option, but they’re not great for week-long discussions.
      • discord community server forums someday
      • Some people don’t want to join the Discord for these discussions, they might be put off by that.
    • Moderate GitHub better?
    • Use GitHub discussions? (Although they suck)

Planet maps, should maps be able to be grids | Vera

  • Discord message
  • It would allow for tiles to be placed anywhere (needs refactors)
  • This would be sane opt-in default grids
  • Allows for planet maps if changes are made to:
    • Parallax
    • Default atmos empty tile behavior (being worked on)
    • Adding a component for a map to handle gravity.
  • Probably useful for other games, including OpenDream.

Results

  • When sloth codes it
  • We are supposed to be able to have maps as grids already but it’s broken
  • Allows for global grids from Byond
  • Causes some crashes if you mix map and grid component

Deprecate GridId and MapId in favor of EntityUid | Vera

Results:

  • YES
  • Ask Acruid, he has a plan :focus:

Maps submodule | moony

  • Discord message
  • Keep only 4-5 core maps in the main repo
  • Lets us introduce new maps without assuming that they will be in forever
  • We can give mappers like Emisse write access to the repo
  • Allows easier rotation of maps and possibly encouraging people to try out bolder things with map design

Results:

  • Every submodule makes it harder for new people
  • Requires keeping the main/map repo in sync with changes
    • If an item is changed then the maps need to be changed
  • If someone needs map write access give them write access to content
  • No submodule for maps

Icon for the launcher | mirrorcult

Results:

  • Maybe do it similar to the auth website https://central.spacestation14.io/web/
    • How does this fit into the icon in the task bar
      • Who knows
  • When someone inkscapes it
  • When one of us uses the Patreon money for it?
  • Can be a modified SS14 logo
  • YES BUT WE DO NOT KNOW THE DESIGN

Making fake lag the default in local development | metalgearsloth

  • Discord message
  • Helps spot prediction issues
  • Makes people other than just senior contributors consider it
  • Prevents the game feeling like shit to play with high ping
  • We can LARP as Australians or Argentinians during local development

Results:

  • Yes
  • Make it 150ms
    • With 20ms randomness, but the client might not handle it well yet
    • 0.01% packet loss
  • We need to be able to diff component states

Quickstart script for repo setup | moony

  • Discord message
  • Also attempts to open the repo in your IDE of choice
  • Probably a Python script targeting only Windows users to allow people that have no interest in fully developing the game (mappers and spriters) to get the game up and running.

Results:

  • Make a script to build without Visual Studio (Saves a few GB of disk space and RAM for mappers)
    • Script needs .NET 6
    • msbuild
  • We need a tutorial on how to clone and build the project from command line for mappers
    • We can provide a script for this, to have an up-to-date build to map with

Species/roles whitelist | metalgearsloth

  • Discord message
  • Would we ever actually have it on an official server
    • (no) | moony
  • Generalize whitelists so it’s easy to add new ones | moony
    • Specify in YAML which whitelist to use

Results:

  • Implement it
  • Generalize whitelists
  • We won’t have it on an official LRP server

Issue templates and enforcing good issue writing | moony

Results:

  • We need an issue template on engine
  • Improve the content issue template
  • Figure out a better template
    • Description:
    • Reproduction:
    • Screenshots:

The identity / entity LOC problem | mirrorcult

  • Discord message
  • What did mirror mean by this
  • Need to separate metadata name and display name

Results:

  • Don’t have it in engine, add a layer in content that gets used
  • We can have an analyzer for people to not use EntitySystem.Name(EntityUid) where necessary

What’s necessary for MRP | moony

Results:

  • BE ABLE TO CHANGE THE RULES

What do we want out of in-game species | moony

  • Discord message
  • SS14 has made it a lot easier to add and maintain new playable species
    • The biggest hurdle is sprites, but humanoid ones are fine
  • What should we do when for example someone wants to add a sentient cloud of bees:
    • What’s acceptable for a round-start species?
    • What’s acceptable for a mid-round species? (Events, something you can turn yourself into with enough work)
    • Situational/event species (skeletons on roundstart on Halloween)

Results:

  • Round start: have them be sufficiently different that you play different than a human

    • The goal is to make it different enough that LRP players play them differently.
    • Slimes should be made more interesting
    • Lizards aren’t there
      • Make them cold-blooded
      • More carnivorous
    • Dwarves are a debug species, can be removed
    • Vox are good but effort
      • ok tbh vox would probably still need a bit more mechanically to set them apart imo
    • Can it be too different? (Plasmemes)
      • Pain in the ass
      • If the rest of the game needs to be designed around it (the map has to change) it is too different

  • Mid-round: SKELETONS, needs to be unique, well-designed, the bar is lower than for round-start

  • Situational/event species: Lower bar than mid-round, needs to be funny

    • Needs a way to prevent round start species after event

  • Literally this entire answer has been “it has to be interesting” smh.

Should we implement map standard tests | moony

  • Discord message
  • Examples:
  • Enforcing a maximum light budget within an area.
  • Making sure each job in the job list has a spawnpoint.
  • Forbidding certain objects from being placed in a map (i.e. finally making sure nobody maps the cursed locker for a laugh)
  • Ensuring that no spawnpoints will instantly kill you.
  • Potentially abusing the pathfinder a bit to check that it’s possible for each job to make it to their spawnpoint from arrivals? This might help avert “whoops you can’t exit arrivals/your office” bugs. But I think the pathfinder’s ability to understand access isn’t functional atm.
  • Duplicate structures (pipes, wires, and full-tile structures having more than one of themself on the same tile)
  • Power continuity tests (mapper places test points and can either check in-game or have a test yell if there’s a break)

Results:

  • We need a better way to review maps.

    • Overlay to see wires and what’s powered at round-start.
    • Access overlay for doors, green for accessible red for not, able to be used as a ghost to audit access
      • Or list access levels above doors
      • Easy way to change access level for this so you don’t need to go back to the lobby

  • Yes:

    • Enforcing a maximum light budget within an area.
    • Making sure each job in the job list has a spawnpoint.
    • Forbidding certain objects from being placed in a map (i.e. finally making sure nobody maps the cursed locker for a laugh)
      • Don’t error, warning for relevant things
    • Duplicate structures (pipes, wires, and full-tile structures having more than one of themself on the same tile)
    • Seeing how fast power runs out on a map
    • Power continuity tests (mapper places test points and can either check in-game or have a test yell if there’s a break)
      • Makes sure there are no breaks in power lines

  • No:

    • Ensuring that no spawnpoints will instantly kill you.
      • Not automatic, we need to go through spawn points for quality control anyway
      • The arrivals shuttle fixes this.
      • Draw spawn points over everything
    • Potentially abusing the pathfinder a bit to check that it’s possible for each job to make it to their spawnpoint from arrivals? This might help avert “whoops you can’t exit arrivals/your office” bugs. But I think the pathfinder’s ability to understand access isn’t functional atm.
      • For access
      • Do it in manual review instead

  • When you code

Map quality control | PJB

  • Discord message
  • PJB says a bunch are bad
    • tremble
    • PJB ASMR (patreon exclusive)

Results:

  • Don’t rely on there not being player collisions when mapping
  • Porting 1:1 is fine on some maps (Delta) not on others (Atlas)
  • Common problems:
    • All staff halls were a mess, didn’t have visibility into the department or no desks, almost all the offices had a bedroom crammed into the office (waste of space, we don’t have enough for that on most maps).
    • Medbay lobby (except Pillar, where it was fine)
    • Too many lights (Pillar and Bagel specially)
  • Make sure there are enough disposal chutes

Do we keep asking question on maintainer meeting that end in “WYCI” | PJB

Results:

  • Yes, when there’s valuable input to be had, even if the result is WYCI we need to figure out if everyone wants it or if there are any downsides

Early Access Roadmap

  • emergency shuttle
    • auto shuttle movement
  • gamemodes/antags
    • dynamic | mirror
      • nuke ops
        • the nuke is done
        • does not work outside dynamic
      • lings?
        • needs DNA
      • blob | Remie
      • cult?
        • make it as good as vg for pjb
      • revs
        • we want a generic antag overlay system
        • loyalty implant
        • faction system
  • EL BODY SYSTEM | mirror
    • some refactors were done by mirror, still some left
    • surgery died in the war of 1992
  • Salvage proc gen | moony
  • body system but again
  • body system
  • Grid merging
  • Diagonal tiles | sloth
    • we have diagonal walls, tiles are harder
  • ENGINE EDITOR | PJB
    • could benefit from full state reload
  • movement refactor
    • Client side movement?
      • a smidgen
        • as a treat
        • acruid pls com bak
  • Tutorial
    • In game guides
      • Yes
      • Waiting on pretty labels
      • books/ebooks in pda
        • ebooks preloaded on pda for selected job
        • when rich text gets merged
          • ![](https://cdn.discordapp.com/emojis/933790288860815380.webp =40x)
  • oldchat + ui refactor | Jezithyr
    • we did it
  • combat rework (needs to be bikeshedded)
    • https://github.com/space-wizards/space-station-14/issues/3378
  • ghostrole bans | ShadowCommander
    • unify ghost roles prototype
  • Admin traitor/role menu
    • Assign people roles
    • Objectives UI
  • Job playtime requirements
    • Playtime tracking
    • Per role playtime tracking
  • experimental science
    • artifacts??!?!?
  • action ui refactor, like ss13 maybe | Jezithyr
  • any% maintainer | Jezithyr
  • Prototype composition | Paul
    • https://github.com/space-wizards/space-station-14/pull/7403
  • Server polls
  • Round Statistics
    • Log votes, which maps are played the most…
  • State mandated Xonotic matches
    • Please I have severe withdrawal symptoms

Crashes / Critical bugs: (when are we moving these to GitHub) => till next time

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