MadSnailDisease Coder Application

[MadSnailDisease]

Byond ID:
madsnaildisease
Age:
15 (birthday is June 19)
Gender:
M
How would you define yourself? (Coder, Mapper, Spriter):
Coder beyond any shadow of a doubt
If Coder, what languages?
DM, Java, C++, and a hair of HTML and Python
[EDIT] For reference, the HTML is enough to make a semi shitty website, and the Python is really only enough to to extremely basic things like math and printing to console. Also, I do not know any of the CSS or JavaScript that normally comes with knowing how to use HTML correctly
On to of that, I recently learned a little C# for use in Unity, although I suck at it. [/EDIT]
Any previous experience developing with SS13?
Yes, tons. I was head dev for NEStation before and after its rebirth (it's dead now). I WAS doing some work for a new server a while ago, but that has drifted into nothingness and now I aimlessly code.
Proof of any previous or current work:
These first two are untested and unfinished because all the placeholder sprites I tried to make were flat out terrible so I couldn't test anything, but the idea is there. Also I couldn't map to make it because I am bad at mapping (take my word for it)
https://github.com/Valencia-arch-projec ... ch1/pull/4
https://github.com/Valencia-arch-projec ... ailDisease

These next were actually put into use. It's mainly some semi-easy to make makeshift weapons.
https://github.com/MadSnailDisease/NESt ... ailDisease

If you want it here are some screencaps of a little java work I've done. It deals with some calculus to identify the location of points bouncing around ellipsese. I had to abandon it because of rounding errors (rip)
http://prntscr.com/9k27d8
http://prntscr.com/9k27ji
http://prntscr.com/9k27s3

[EDIT] The edit about C# from earlier was a for experimenting with 3 dimensional ray-casting from any distance. It was somewhat successful but is purely theoretical. If you're curious, the way it works is by taking the thetas from a point to the mouse location. It then creates two equations for planes in 3-space so if you every want to see, for example, you are shooting a gun with instantaneous ravel time for the bullet, then you can check to see if a certain target is on the line. Granted, creating an actual projectile that travels is more reliable, but this any just reduces the communication between my shitty hosting and a friend, since there is no difference between server side and client side code. Should you do it the projectile way, you will have crap-tons of hit box problems because the client and server will both be simulating he projectile, but with the client guaranteed to be a few milliseconds behind, meaning that if you put hit reg on client side you will have the target getting hit by things they should've have been hit by on their screen, and if you out it on server side, thins that look like they should have hit will no hit. Sorry if I rambled a little.[/EDIT]

If you are too lazy/don't know code then here it is summed up:
7,700+ total lines of added content in DM (not including the 16,500 git recognizes because it was before I standardized my line endings) across 20+ commits, 2 servers, and 6 branches
Extensive work with LINDA (Paracode's atmos code), including but not limited to adding water systems and a power source
Some work in balancing weapons so things aren't overpowered.
[EDIT] Work in other languages which is mainly theoretical math but has some applications in game, although some are not applicable for SS13 [/EDIT]
How well do you know Git?
Pretty well. I have worked with it in two fashions: with local clones from a personal fork and with branches on the main repo with local clones directly there. The former of these I found was a lot easier to use (as well as preserving upstream a lot better), but I am willing to learn/adapt.
Your primary job is server development, not policing the server. You may be given Moderator-level of access but you should *not* be invoking any administrative actions unless there are no moderators or Admins online. Do you understand? (Yes/No)
Yes. The likelihood that I will be on the server in the first place is low to none. I am really just looking for something to code for instead of little personal projects that have no purpose.
Anything else you'd like to add?
I am aware of the fact that the age requirement is 16, but I would like to think that my work and experience somewhat speaks for itself. In addition, I have no problem in waiting 6 months exactly as of 10 days ago. Part of the purpose of this application is to see how much more I will have to do to get accepted when I do turn 16.

EDIT: Little bit late on the edit, but I can probably get recommendations from Davikhale, Verbose Lucidity, and maybe even from some old NE staff I have contact with.

EDITS:

1/22/16
Since I have come back multiple times to edit and add to my application, all future edits of mine will be listed here with the date on which they were added.

1/25/16
-removed-

1/27/16
Removed snarky note about getting feedback created on 1/25/16

1/28/16
So I have been bored out of my mind for the past week. I've been snowed up in my house for most of it and won't have access to my desktop until mid to late Sunday. At that point, I'll either make up a small thing to code and time myself or dig up some old project and polish it as an example. Excuse me if I have been rude this past week, as I have been going FUCKING INSANE being in my house 24/7. A man can only rewatch firefly so many times...

2/5/16
I have had a really hectic couple of weeks, and a lot of my scheduling has been fucked around with; Sunday, possibly Monday, I will have time to work out a prototype anything.

2/10/16
I now also have limited knowledge of 2016 AutoCAD. My skill in it won't really affect any or kin DM I do, but I figured it was worth mentioning. I have been using it to 3D print airfoils and propellers for a plane I am making wth a friend. For that project I also did extensive research into selig catalogue airfoils (airfoils for Reynolds numbers under 500,000) in order to find an optimal airfoil for our use. This is just to give you an idea of how much I would be dedicated to working on development.

In addition, I haven't been happy with any of my ideas for a prototype, and since CM is closed source, I can't fix any bugs locally as an example, so I figure I will wait until given a test.

3/8/16
While I have been waiting for occurrences of the bug I mentioned in the comment, I have been working on a sorting algorithm in Java, but it is not done yet since I am having troubles with my indexing of ArrayLists. I will post them in an update when I finish, which should not be more than a week from now. Be warned, it is SUPER fast but highly inefficient if the things to short are widely spaced in values.

[Adjective]

Dear @MadSnailDisease,

I have no actual say in who gets hired or fired or what-else. But, this is your first post and your account is old, but unused. Please make yourself more known on the forums and in the Colonial Marines Community for a positive vote from me. Additionally, as you already know, you do not meet the sixteen years of age requirement for Colonial Marines staff.

Sincerely,

@Vrai(Adjective)

-1

[MadSnailDisease]

Dear @MadSnailDisease,

I have no actual say in who gets hired or fired or what-else. But, this is your first post and your account is old, but unused. Please make yourself more known on the forums and in the Colonial Marines Community for a positive vote from me. Additionally, as you already know, you do not meet the sixteen years of age requirement for Colonial Marines staff.

Sincerely,

@Vrai(Adjective)

-1

Like I said, I understand the -1 because of my age. I also said that I am really just looking for something to code for. I chose CM because after having looked at many other server's, CM seems like the only one that has active development.

On another note, I have definitely posted on the forums before, although it was a while ago. I am sure I made a player complaint after I was kidnapped and turned into a monkey.

[MadSnailDisease]

I just realized why my account is so old/unused. When CM split from NE way back when I was on NE staff, and I guess you guys kept the credentials so all of my activity was on your old forums. I have a bunch of PMs from over a year ago, but no records of posts or topics.

[MadSnailDisease]

Bump. Is it just me or do people not like looking at coder apps?

[MadSnailDisease]

*sigh* bump.

For a time frame reference of how much code work I do, since posting this I have recreationally coded mincraft (EDIT: *minesweeper, I very badly mistyped there), utilized a CAS in the ellipse code (still doesn't work for starting points that aren't focii due to like 13 trillion iterations murdering the Eclipse), and fooled around with some geometry code for DM. The last is mainly some stuff that will get you the contents of various shapes on the map (its actually really simple).

Last bump got me 25 views and no replies, hopefully this one will be better.

[Adjective]

Please understand that Heads and Hosts tend to be extremely busy and that applications can take lengthy periods of time. "Bumping" reflects negatively when your application is actually reviewed. Remember that patience is the key.

Thanks!

-Vrai

[MadSnailDisease]

Yes, sorry. It was just that I had seen other applications recieve a decent amount feedback, and the bump was mainly for feedback from the community. That being said I am going to keep my mouth shut until someone actually replies.

[Abbysynth]

What skill level would you say your coding is at? I am especially critical of a 15 year old who claims to be a programmer. No offense. What exactly were you hoping to work on? How creative would you say you are? Don't assume an answer is going to be the correct one, just be honest.

[MadSnailDisease]

Well I'll start at the water system I coded. The set up and ideas for how it operated were 100% me. As you'll see from the Valencia arch repo, it was only me and davikhale on the project. The case is the same with the fusion reactor, although granted I do not have a ton of experience with the power systems, and I am disappointed I never got to test it out. For the reactor, I actually spent a long time researching types of fusion used in experimental reactors, found a simple yet effective method, and did my best to emulate what would happen in real life. Since it was never tested, I can almost guarantee it doesn't work; nobody's perfect. Moving on the the makeshift weapons. Those were thought up in a NEStation staff meeting, and I couldn't tell you who had what idea as they just kinda formed in the brainstorming.
I have decent experience with bug fixing as well. The space pod patch was some god awful code to start with, but I had it working within one or two days of the bug being reported. Normally I can identify the cause of a bug in an afternoon and have a working idea of how to fix it by that night. All that's left is the coding. I have also been browsing through the bugs topics for CM, and I am confident I could fix at least 90% of them.

If you want me to elaborate the on some of the projects, I would be glad to. As I said in the application, I can get recommendations from davikhale, Verbose Lucidity, hate9, and maybe a few other staff I am still in contact with. Davik actually tried to get me on the apocalyptic dev team whe NE failed, but they were going under at the same time. There was talk of a code base change (which I also have experience with from NE), but it never happened, to my knowledge.

Some things to add:
As is evident by the edits on my application, I never really stop reviewing and perfecting things until they go live.
Just to give you an idea of my work ethic, in the beginning of summer of '15, I was coding close to 5 hours a day since I had so much free time. I listened to monstercat nonstop (since I fucking hate silence), and to this day, there are a few songs that immediately give me flashbacks to coding. Namely Hero, by pegboard nerds.
If you want, which I honestly doubt, I can show you in a pm my PSAT scores for this year as well as AMC 8 and 10 (the latter I take again in eight hours). I can also list a few other extracurricular math, comp sci, and science related things, but won't for the sake of everyone's eyes.
Finally, Whether for better or for worse, I will stand by my opinion fiercely until proven wrong. I may get into heated debates and arguements, but it is not because I want to be right, it's because I want to be positive of the correct answer.

Thank you for considering my application, despite being under the standard age requirement.

Edit: forgot to say what I would work on. Primarily anything that I have specifically told to do should that happen. Secondarily fixing large bugs. In the back burner I would like to keep some content addition going between bug fixes, but depending on the state of the server I would be fine fixing more bugs.

Edit: forgot to add that I used to be in the hosts skype group after replacing verbose due to his toxicity. Am going to sleep now, no need to worry about more edits until tomorrow (*today)

[Adjective]

Deleted off topic posts.

[Abbysynth]

So you don't play CM at all? How did you hear about it?

[MadSnailDisease]

It's not that I don't play cm at all, it's just since I am 100% garbage at the game and I quite honestly am not that good at RP. I heard about over a year ago, back when CM was under NE. This is what gave rise to my forums account, which is one of the oldest I think there is. My credentials were most likely moved over when CM split. Although I don't play I lot, I have recently taken an interest in maintenance tech, just so I can set up the SM engine; it looks to me like the server is lacking in people who know how to set it up. Most recently I saw a gas mixture in the containment room of 94% oxygen, 6% photon, and no nitrogen. The core proceeded to detonate while no one stopped it.

[MadSnailDisease]

Alright, I ate figured out a good test to show my skills. Someone from Aurora recently told me about a bug of theirs which continuously teleports them to the location of a disposals unit that they just happened to walk by. The bug is not really recreaable and so far the only known in game fix is to full out delete the unit. I have already taken a look at the code and have a working theory for what is causing it. I am going to fix it for them and sho you what the problems were. Also, the bug has only occurred twice in 2 weeks, so it's that much more of a hassle to fix.

I'm honestly going to enjoy this.

UPDATE: I have been unable to recreate the bug, nor has it reoccurred on the server I am helping (it only happened twice, both of which were before I started), so I am putting this on hold for lack of results, and continuing an investigation into another project, which I can update on later.

[Minijar]

Although you don't play on the server hugely, I reckon you could be a huge help to Abby. It'd be nice to have an extra coder around so Abby isn't always chained up in the cellar coding.

+1

[MadSnailDisease]

Welp, the bug I mentioned earlier got resolved faster than I expected. I was fucking around, figured out how to induce it, and fixed it in like an hour. Tell me if you want specifics.

EDIT: I just checked and the entire time-frame was only a total of 85 minutes

EDIT: I am kinda proud of how I fixed the bug because I came up with a new method for myself on the spot. Instead trying to trace results to symptom procs to the origin of the bug, I just decided to use the handy-dandy profiler in short time spans to identify what proc were being called when the bug was in effect. This led to an embarrassingly simple, 1-line fix which just involved a quick loc check. This does not change the root cause of the bug, since that involves a rewrite of Move(), Bump() as well as potentially a couple of status conditions. This is to give you an idea of my ability to adapt to situations as needed.

P.S. Thanks Minijar for the +1

[MadSnailDisease]

I'm cautious to bump, but I was wondering where in the process my application is. Also, do you plan on waiting until I am 16? I ask because soon after I do I will be unavailable for like 2.5 months after which a few exceptions. I had originally planned to be accepted earlier, so it's possible you won't get anything from me for a while if you do wait.

[Allan1234]

This is horribley old and I don't understand why apop hasn't commented here.

Im sorry for the delay il push this onto apop/rahl asap.

[MadSnailDisease]

thanks!

[apophis775]

Sorry it's been so long, and that I've not responded to this.

So, Abby seems to have a bunch of faith in you. I don't remember you from the old NE days, but I'll talk to Davik and if he says your good, we'll bring you on as a coder.

[MadSnailDisease]

I messaged him on March 18th wanting to catch up with him, but he never responded. Looks like he hasn't been online in around 3 weeks, so idk if you'll be able to reach him. If you aren't, he thought I was good enough to work on a project with him after NE tanked a second/third time (whichever the permanent one was). I can provide proof of that on request.

[apophis775]

Which davik are you talking about?

[MadSnailDisease]

Davikhale. Head admin of NE for a while until it went down

[apophis775]

Ok, I knew Davik for a long time. Even after CM broke away, we still talked. Also, I see you in the host-offtopic so that's pretty much good enough for me.

PM me over the forums, and we'll start the process.