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Contributing

1.13 is a community project. There is no company behind it — every feature, bug fix, translation and documentation page exists because someone decided to pitch in. You do not need to be a programmer to help: good bug reports, data fixes and documentation edits are just as valuable as code.

This page explains where each kind of contribution goes. For an overview of the project's repositories and how releases are made, see the development overview.

Reporting bugs

A well-written bug report is the easiest and one of the most useful ways to contribute.

Before you report

  • If the problem is graphical (black screen, broken Alt+Tab, resolution issues) or the game won't start at all, work through the troubleshooting page first — most of those are configuration issues on modern Windows, not bugs.
  • If you can, test whether the bug still occurs on the current "Latest (unstable)" release. Fixes land there continuously, so your bug may already be solved.
  • Search the existing GitHub issues to see whether someone already reported it.

Where to report

Channel Best for
GitHub issues on 1dot13/source The primary bug tracker — anything reproducible
Bug reports board at the Bear's Pit forum Discussion-style reports, older versions, "is this a bug?" questions
The Bear's Pit Discord Quick questions before filing, help narrowing a problem down

What to include

The developers can only fix what they can reproduce. Include:

  • Your exact version. Press V on the tactical screen — an overlay shows the game version, difficulty, Bobby Ray settings, campaign progress and more. Quote the version string in your report. If you play a mod on top of 1.13, name it too.
  • Steps to reproduce. What you did, what you expected, what happened instead. The shorter and more reliable the reproduction, the better.
  • A savegame from just before the problem occurs, attached to the issue. For crashes and combat oddities this is usually the single most helpful thing you can provide.
  • Your setup, where relevant: operating system, resolution, and any Ja2_Options.INI or other INI settings you changed from the defaults.

One bug per issue

File separate issues for separate problems. A single issue that mixes a crash, a balance complaint and a typo is hard to track and tends to stay open forever.

Contributing code

The engine source lives at github.com/1dot13/source. Contributions follow the standard GitHub flow: fork the repository, make your change on a branch, and open a pull request.

Before you sink time into a feature or a large refactor, discuss it first on the Bear's Pit Discord. The developers hang out there, and a short conversation tells you whether the idea fits the project, whether someone is already working on it, and which part of the code to touch. This is also the advice the project's own README gives: if you want to know how to participate, or simply want to share your thoughts on a topic, join the Discord.

To get set up:

  • Building the source — Visual Studio 2019+, CMake presets, and how to debug against a working 1.13 installation.
  • Code overview — a tour of the source tree so you know where tactical, strategic, AI and UI code live.

If you have never made a pull request before, the community-maintained first-contributions guide walks through the fork-branch-PR cycle step by step.

Contributing game data

Not every fix needs C++. The game's data files — the Data-1.13 folder with its INI files and TableData XMLs — live in their own repository: github.com/1dot13/gamedir.

Item stat corrections, XML fixes, INI default changes and similar data work go there, using the same fork-and-pull-request flow as code. See XML files for how the TableData files are organized and how to edit them safely, and the modding overview for how the data layering works.

Translations

Translated game text and language-specific data live in github.com/1dot13/gamedir-languages. Releases are built per language, so keeping translations complete and current is an ongoing job — native speakers are always welcome. Ask on the Discord which languages currently need help and how the files are structured before you start.

Tools

The 1.13 organization also maintains tooling repositories:

Improvements to these follow the same GitHub pull-request flow.

Improving this documentation

This site is itself a community project, and it is deliberately easy to fix:

  • Small edits: every page has an edit (pencil) button at the top right. It takes you straight to the page's Markdown file on GitHub, where you can propose a change from your browser — GitHub forks the repository and opens a pull request for you.
  • Larger changes: the site lives at github.com/1dot13/documentation. It is built with MkDocs Material; pages are plain Markdown files under docs/.
  • Just reporting: if you spot an error but would rather not edit anything yourself, open an issue on 1dot13/documentation naming the page and what is wrong.

To preview your changes locally:

git clone https://github.com/1dot13/documentation
cd documentation
pip install -r requirements.txt
mkdocs serve

mkdocs serve starts a local web server (by default at http://127.0.0.1:8000) that rebuilds the site live as you edit, so you can check formatting, links and admonitions before opening a pull request.

Spotted something wrong?

Accuracy matters more than completeness here. If a page documents a setting name, hotkey or version detail incorrectly, a one-line fix via the edit button helps every future reader.

Community channels

Wherever you contribute, these are the places to talk to the people involved:

Channel What it's for
The Bear's Pit Discord Day-to-day development chat, quick questions, coordinating work
The Bear's Pit forum Long-form discussion, bug boards, mod release threads, twenty years of searchable history
GitHub: 1dot13 The code, data, translations, tools and this documentation

More community links and credits are collected on the links page.

Sources

  • README of github.com/1dot13/source — downloads, bug report channels, participation and Visual Studio setup
  • Jagged Alliance 2 v1.13 Starter Documentation (r8741 era), from github.com/1dot13/documentation — bug reporting FAQ, contribute section
  • JA2_113_Hotkeys.pdf (r9389, 2022) — the V version overlay
  • mkdocs.yml and requirements.txt of the 1dot13/documentation repository — edit button configuration and local preview requirements