SeventhSentinel
In charge of way less than you might think
Administrator
Sonic Team Junior
Kart Krew™️
No matter what problems you encounter in your modding journey, it can be frustrating to wait for someone to come along and lend a hand. People aren't always around to help (and there's not much you can do about that), but there are some things you can do to improve your chances of getting help sooner.
The first thing you can do is check the wiki. This is especially important if you're just getting started with modding. All the information you could ever need about how each linedef action works is there, for example; you just have to take the initiative to search for them. (Pro tip: you can often save time by scrolling down to the Linedef Special Info box and expanding it. It will contain details about what the lower, middle, and upper texture fields do for each linedef type, for example.) If the wiki doesn't have the information you're looking for, you might find something helpful in the Guides section of Addons & More. If you're still stumped, that's your cue to make a thread here...
...Which brings me to my second tip: make sure your thread title is informative. Titles like "a question" or "please help" are extremely vague. Even titles like "Zone Builder problem" aren't very informative. Using titles like these makes it more likely for people to skip over your thread, preventing you from getting help. Use specific and descriptive titles instead!
Consider the viewpoint of someone who might provide help. When they read a title like "SLADE isn't working," they might think "SLADE not working could mean any number of issues...I'll just pick another thread." But if the title was more specific, like "SLADE is drawing graphics in black & white," they might think, "oh, that's a quick fix, you just have to change a couple of drop-down menus. I'll go respond to that." (Not every help thread is this simple, but you get the point.)
Other good thread titles might look like this:
Thirdly, and arguably most importantly: if the problem you're having is related to code (whether it's Lua or source code), you should always include the exact error that your code is causing. If you can copy and paste the error, do so! If you can't, try saving an image of it -- you can press F8 to save a screenshot ingame, or use the snip tool in Windows (quickly accessed by pressing the Windows key + Shift + P) for everything else. If no error appears, your best bet is probably to find srb2win.rpt (or another such log generated by whatever editor you're using) and attach it to your thread.
Lastly: be patient! Don't expect someone to show up to help right away -- everyone in the community has all kinds of stuff going on, so it could be a few days or much longer before someone responds to your thread, if anyone responds. I wish I could say every help thread gets resolved, but I'd be lying if I did -- sometimes an issue is just too weird or obscure for anyone to help with.
If all else fails, your best bet is probably to ask for help on the SRB2 Discord server. Some experienced modders are consistently online there, but they may not always check this forum.
That's all I've got. I wish you the best of luck on your modding journey, and I hope you find answers to your modding problems in short order.
The first thing you can do is check the wiki. This is especially important if you're just getting started with modding. All the information you could ever need about how each linedef action works is there, for example; you just have to take the initiative to search for them. (Pro tip: you can often save time by scrolling down to the Linedef Special Info box and expanding it. It will contain details about what the lower, middle, and upper texture fields do for each linedef type, for example.) If the wiki doesn't have the information you're looking for, you might find something helpful in the Guides section of Addons & More. If you're still stumped, that's your cue to make a thread here...
...Which brings me to my second tip: make sure your thread title is informative. Titles like "a question" or "please help" are extremely vague. Even titles like "Zone Builder problem" aren't very informative. Using titles like these makes it more likely for people to skip over your thread, preventing you from getting help. Use specific and descriptive titles instead!
Consider the viewpoint of someone who might provide help. When they read a title like "SLADE isn't working," they might think "SLADE not working could mean any number of issues...I'll just pick another thread." But if the title was more specific, like "SLADE is drawing graphics in black & white," they might think, "oh, that's a quick fix, you just have to change a couple of drop-down menus. I'll go respond to that." (Not every help thread is this simple, but you get the point.)
Other good thread titles might look like this:
- My custom textures appear in Zone Builder but not in-game
- How do I fix my sprites being drawn in the wrong place?
- Music not looping correctly
- Game crashes when I test my map
- Why does my Lua give me a syntax error?
- Zone Builder refuses to install correctly
Thirdly, and arguably most importantly: if the problem you're having is related to code (whether it's Lua or source code), you should always include the exact error that your code is causing. If you can copy and paste the error, do so! If you can't, try saving an image of it -- you can press F8 to save a screenshot ingame, or use the snip tool in Windows (quickly accessed by pressing the Windows key + Shift + P) for everything else. If no error appears, your best bet is probably to find srb2win.rpt (or another such log generated by whatever editor you're using) and attach it to your thread.
Lastly: be patient! Don't expect someone to show up to help right away -- everyone in the community has all kinds of stuff going on, so it could be a few days or much longer before someone responds to your thread, if anyone responds. I wish I could say every help thread gets resolved, but I'd be lying if I did -- sometimes an issue is just too weird or obscure for anyone to help with.
If all else fails, your best bet is probably to ask for help on the SRB2 Discord server. Some experienced modders are consistently online there, but they may not always check this forum.
That's all I've got. I wish you the best of luck on your modding journey, and I hope you find answers to your modding problems in short order.
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