# Contributing to Bitburner

## In General
The game is made better because the community as a whole speaks up about
ways to improve the game. Here's some of the ways you can make your voice
heard:
 - [Discord](https://discordapp.com)
   There is a dedicated Discord instance set up for more free-form chats
   between all members of the community. Regular players, heavy scripters,
   Bitburner contributors, and everyone in between can be found on the
   server.
 - [Github Issues](https://github.com/danielyxie/bitburner/issues)
   Although the term "issues" can have a negative connotation, they are a
   means of communicating with the community. A new Issue can be a
   interesting new feature that you feel would improve the game. It could be
   an unexpected behavior within the game. Or because the game is about
   scripting perhaps there is something that is conflicting with the
   browser's Javascript interaction. So please do not be afraid to open a
   [new issue](https://github.com/danielyxie/bitburner/issues/new).

## Reporting Bugs
The recommended method for reporting a bug is by opening a
[Github Issue](https://github.com/danielyxie/bitburner/issues).

Alternatively, you can post a bug by creating a post on the
[game's subreddit](https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitburner/).

Before submitting a bug report, please check to make sure the bug has not
already been reported as an [Issue](https://github.com/danielyxie/bitburner/issues).

#### How to Submit a Good Bug Report

  * **Use a clear and descriptive title** for the issue
  * **State your browser, your browser's version, and your computer's OS**
  * **Attach your save file**, if you think it would help solve the issue
  * **Provide instructions on how to reproduce the bug** in as much detail
    as possible. If you cannot reliably reproduce the bug, then just try
    your best to explain what was happening when the bug occurred
  * **Provide any scripts** that triggered the bug if the issue is Netscript-related
  * **Open your browser's Dev Console and report any error-related output**
    that may be printed there. The Dev Console can be opened on most modern
    browsers by pressing F12

## As a Developer
Anyone is welcome to contribute to Bitburner code. However, please read
the [license](https://github.com/danielyxie/bitburner/blob/dev/license.txt)
and the [readme](https://github.com/danielyxie/bitburner/blob/dev/README.md)
before doing so.

To contribute to Bitburner code, you will need to have
[NodeJS](https://nodejs.org) installed. When installing NodeJS, a utility
called `npm` is installed as well.

#### What are you Allowed to Contribute?
Not all code contributions will be accepted. The safest way to ensure
that you don't waste time working on something that gets rejected is to
run your idea(s)/plan(s) past [danielyxie](https://github.com/danielyxie) first.
You can contact him through:

  * Github
  * Discord
  * [Reddit](https://www.reddit.com/user/chapt3r/)

Otherwise, here are some general guidelines for determining what types of
changes are okay to contribute:

##### Contributions that Will Most Likely Be Accepted
* Bug Fixes
* Quality-of-Life Changes
  * Adding a new, commonly-requested Netscript function
  * Fixing or improving UI elements
  * Adding game settings/options
  * Adding a new Terminal command
* Code Refactors that conform to good/standard practices

##### Contributions that will not be Accepted without prior approval
* Changes that directly affect the game's balance
* New gameplay mechanics

#### Submitting a Pull Request
When submitting a pull request with your code contributions, please abide by
the following rules:

 - Work in a branch forked from `dev` to isolate the new code
 - Ensure you have latest from the [game's main
   repository](danielyxie/bitburner@dev)
 - Rebase your branch if necessary
 - Run the game locally to test out your changes
 - When submitting the pull request, make sure that the base fork is
   _danielyxie/bitburner_ and the base is _dev_.
 - If your changes affect the game's UI, attach some screenshots or GIFs showing
   the changes to the UI
 - If your changes affect Netscript, provide some
   scripts that can be used to test the Netscript changes.
 - Ensure you have run `npm run lint` to make sure your changes conform to the
   rules enforced across the code base. The command will fail if any of the
   linters find a violation.
 - Do not check in any bundled files (`dist\*.bundle.js`) or the `index.html`
   in the root of the repository. These will be updated as part of official
   releases.

## As a Documentor
To contribute to and view your changes to the BitBurner documentation, you will
need to have Python installed, along with [Sphinx](http://www.sphinx-doc.org).

Before submitting your code for a pull request, please try to follow these
rules:
 - Work in a branch forked from `dev` to isolate the new code
 - Ensure you have latest from the [game's main
   repository](danielyxie/bitburner@dev)
 - Rebase your branch if necessary
 - When submitting the pull request, make sure that the base fork is
   _danielyxie/bitburner_ and the base is _dev_.
 - Do not check in any generated files under `doc\`. The documentation is built
   automatically by ReadTheDocs.
