Contract Pack: Giving Aircraft a Purpose (GAP) 1.6.1 - Milestones, Air Flights, Coast Guard

[Evanitis]

I feel I'm only scratching the surface, but I'm totally loving the mod. I play career so it forces me to do stuff I normally wouldn't, and get rewarded for it. I was expecting relaxed plane flights, but on my first day, GAP got me to make a rover, a plane, a seaplane and a boat. Rescued a Kerbal from the ocean. It was so much fun after bringing dozens back from orbit in all my careers. And there will be sub and shuttle missions too? Jolly good.

The given tasks were interesting enough, but it's really hard for me to tell: the fact that your contracts have context is -so- awesome that I'd probably complete the dullest mission with a satisfied grin on my face. NPC Kerbals -telling- me stuff in popup windows? Yes please. Such a minor ignorable feature, yet it boosts immersion greatly. I never criticized the stock gibberish contract-descriptions - I even found some of it funny. But now I had to realize that just a little bit of writing can matter so much.

I couldn't finish the 'Join SSI' mission either. Probably I controled the rover with the NPC. Tried a few things, but it didn't occur to me that the driver should actually drive. Maybe it would worth a mention in the requirements list.

Edited January 5, 2016 by Evanitis

[linuxgurugamer]

6 hours ago, inigma said:

@linuxgurugamer @NathanKell Submitted to CKAN. https://github.com/KSP-CKAN/NetKAN/pull/2905 I hope I did it right. I tested the ckan meta install and it looks good.

It passed the checks, so looks like you are good to go

[*MajorTom*]

Great job!
Here's the idea - maybe you can add contracts:
1. building 1 polar, 1 desert, 1 underwater base?
2. transportation of cargo from ground / undersea bases or to bases? to fly somewhere, pick up something or return something (engine, drills, batteries or some sort of "box from mod")

[Ringkeeper]

*G* yes, the contracts are fun As i didn't find yet other planets interesting (too much time spend waiting for transfer windows etc) i like to fly and explore Kerbin.

[inigma]

4 hours ago, Evanitis said:

I feel I'm only scratching the surface, but I'm totally loving the mod. I play career so it forces me to do stuff I normally wouldn't, and get rewarded for it. I was expecting relaxed plane flights, but on my first day, GAP got me to make a rover, a plane, a seaplane and a boat. Rescued a Kerbal from the ocean. It was so much fun after bringing dozens back from orbit in all my careers. And there will be sub and shuttle missions too? Jolly good.

The given tasks were interesting enough, but it's really hard for me to tell: the fact that your contracts have context is -so- awesome that I'd probably complete the dullest mission with a satisfied grin on my face. NPC Kerbals -telling- me stuff in popup windows? Yes please. Such a minor ignorable feature, yet it boosts immersion greatly. I never criticized the stock gibberish contract-descriptions - I even found some of it funny. But now I had to realize that just a little bit of writing can matter so much.

I couldn't finish the 'Join SSI' mission either. Probably I controled the rover with the NPC. Tried a few things, but it didn't occur to me that the driver should actually drive. Maybe it would worth a mention in the requirements list.

Thanks for the review! Glad to hear you like the immersion. It's how I always wanted to play career, and never did because of it. Now I can. It's a start. I hope to add more dialogue where necessary, and pick out a good starting tech list to offer through SSI - giving the player the option to put money up front to acquire the basic tech to eventually build a car, boat, and eventually a wright type flyer through an SSI membership investment of funds. This bypasses the potential imbalance of players using different tech trees and avoids having GAP recommend one tree over another.

If you have suggestions for dialogue, post them here, or feel free to submit a GitHub pull request if you get it to work successfully in a contract.

You're the second person to report issues with completing the Join SSI contract. Can you post a screenshot of your craft and contract status showing where in the list it first is unable to complete? I'll see if I can duplicate. That, or if you post me a savegame and your mods used on the craft, I can test even faster. I raised https://github.com/inigmatus/GAP/issues/98 to test.

2 hours ago, *MajorTom* said:

Great job!
Here's the idea - maybe you can add contracts:
1. building 1 polar, 1 desert, 1 underwater base?
2. transportation of cargo from ground / undersea bases or to bases? to fly somewhere, pick up something or return something (engine, drills, batteries or some sort of "box from mod")

GAP 2.0 DEVNOTES https://github.com/inigmatus/GAP/blob/master/DEVNOTES.txt has Bases and cargo drops. Should be right in line with some of your ideas here.  Underwater EVAs are not possible... unless someone comes up with a buoyancy mod for Kerbals so they don't float up.

Edited January 5, 2016 by inigma

[Evanitis]

36 minutes ago, inigma said:

(...)pick out a good starting tech list to offer through SSI - giving the player the option to put money up front to acquire the basic tech to eventually build a car, boat, and eventually a wright type flyer through an SSI membership investment of funds. This bypasses the potential imbalance of players using different tech trees and avoids having GAP recommend one tree over another

I didn't try non-stock tech-trees before, but planes and boats can be built with -very- low-level tech too. You just need an elevon any steerable surface, the simplest fixed wheels and any engine. Even SRBs work if you don't want to land on a very specific spot. I'm pretty sure all semi-sane tech-trees have such parts around on the very beginning.

Though one thing irked me about the SSI mission... It requires a very specific wheel, and a pretty hi-tech one. I was hoping I could minimize doing the space-stuff when jumping into the mod... and probably I really could, but I didn't want to lower my rep by declining missions... or even timewarping forward until a Wright contract appears. But SSI was there from the beginning, and I didn't want it to expire... so I did a quick Mun sci-farming, spent almost all my funds on Sci-Center upgrade and unlocked rover tech. All is well, but I could have used a 15 sci wheel instead of the 300 sci one without breaking the 'spirit' of the 'challenge'. Also, as a result, the technologies granted by SSI were pretty redundant by the point I got them. At least they could have handed me a turboramjet... not to mention a rapier. Naw, it would have made the rest of the playtrough too easy. Junos and propellers are fun. I just feel that the company required a pretty serious investment from my part - and not exactly on the field they specialize in.

About the issue with the contract... I'll check later if I have the relevant savegame or if I can recreate the case. Will get back to you once I got to that.

Edited January 5, 2016 by Evanitis

[inigma]

13 minutes ago, Evanitis said:

I didn't try non-stock tech-trees before, but planes and boats can be built with -very- low-level tech too. You just need an elevon any steerable surface, the simplest fixed wheels and any engine. Even SRBs work if you don't want to land on a very specific spot. I'm pretty sure all semi-sane tech-trees have such parts around on the very beginning.

Though one thing irked me about the SSI mission... It requires a very specific wheel, and a pretty hi-tech one. I was hoping I could minimize doing the space-stuff when jumping into the mod... and probably I really could, but I didn't want to lower my rep by declining missions... or even timewarping forward until a Wright contract appears. But SSI was there from the beginning, and I didn't want it to expire... so I did a quick Mun sci-farming, spent almost all my funds on Sci-Center upgrade and unlocked rover tech. All is well, but I could have used a 15 sci wheel instead of the 300 sci one without breaking the 'spirit' of the 'challenge'. Also, as a result, the technologies granted by SSI were pretty redundant by the point I got them. At least they could have handed me a turboramjet... not to mention a rapier. Naw, it would have made the rest of the playtrough too easy. Junos and propellers are fun. I just feel that the company required a pretty serious investment from my part - and not exactly on the field they specialize in.

About the issue with the contract... I'll check later if I have the relevant savegame or if I can recreate the case. Will get back to you once I got to that.

Are you under the impression that you have to grind to the parts to accept the mission? I hope not. oy!

The point of the SSI contract is to give you the tech right on contract acceptance so you don't have to grind them, and completing the contract ensures you get to keep the tech afterward. I'm not sure which wheel to offer the player. I picked the smallest one, as it made the most sense in terms of golf car size crafts. You shouldn't have to grind to the tech to complete the mission. The mission can be completed as-is at tier level 0 starter game, since all the parts show up as experimental in your part list immediately upon acceptance. Let me know if I understand you, and if this make any sense. 

Edited January 5, 2016 by inigma

[Evanitis]

Ahh, got it. Somehow reading the contract didn't give me the impression that I'll get the required parts. I blame the stock KSP contract system that got me used to being tricked into sisyphean tasks if I don't read the fine-print.

PMing you the save btw.

[inigma]

55 minutes ago, Evanitis said:

Ahh, got it. Somehow reading the contract didn't give me the impression that I'll get the required parts. I blame the stock KSP contract system that got me used to being tricked into sisyphean tasks if I don't read the fine-print.

PMing you the save btw.

I've updated the contract description to read something like:

 

description =

Welcome to SSI Aerospace! We are an engineering cooperative focused on developing aerospace assets for use by the Kerbal Space Program. Based out of the Research & Development Facility at KSC, our partner companies include the Ford Carriage Company, Tesla Electrics, the Wright Bicycle Company, and my own company, Inigma Industries. I'm Inigma Kerman, founder of SSI, and I would like to extend an invitation to your organization to join us!

We've developed a number of technologies that we need delivered, along with myself, to the R&D Center for the next SSI Aerospace technology conference on time. If you do this for us, you will get immediate access to our experimental parts for use in your own endeavors.

 

synopsis =

Accept this contract to join SSI Aerospace as a partner, and gain immediate access to our experimental parts. To solidfy the deal (and keep the parts we give you upon acceptance of this contract), simply deliver Inigma Kerman to the R&D center along with a our experimental parts, on time.
  

 notes = Accepting this contract is optional and not required to play GAP contracts. With this deal, SSI will profit from your development ingenuity, and you get immediate access to our tech!

 

 

Let me know if this sounds more clear. I hope that helps others! I'll roll out this fix when 1.0 goes Gold. I hope to give Beta at least a week for flesh outs like this. I've also updated the OP to be more clear too in a new To Get Started section.

Edited January 5, 2016 by inigma

[Melfice]

20 hours ago, inigma said:

Great! Let me know what you find out in your testing. I might just try SXT myself tonight when I get a chance.

Just had a look.
Pure stock (Tier 0 + unlocked through contract) seems to work just fine.

Very odd.

[inigma]

4 minutes ago, Melfice said:

Just had a look.
Pure stock (Tier 0 + unlocked through contract) seems to work just fine.

Very odd.

Thanks for checking in. I've raised https://github.com/inigmatus/GAP/issues/98 to see if I can nail down what may be happening between you and another player experiencing the issue. If you find out anything futher in your testing, let me know! 

Edited January 5, 2016 by inigma

[Zwolff]

This looks really nice. Do you have to start a new career save for this to work, or is it possible to get the Join SSI mission to appear in an already started career save.

[inigma]

8 minutes ago, Zwolff said:

This looks really nice. Do you have to start a new career save for this to work, or is it possible to get the Join SSI mission to appear in an already started career save.

You can add this pack at anytime to any career, new or existing.  Join SSI is optional, and does not affect when other contracts will appear. It only gives parts. If you don't have any one of the parts researched, it will show up.

[Zwolff]

4 hours ago, inigma said:

You can add this pack at anytime to any career, new or existing.  Join SSI is optional, and does not affect when other contracts will appear. It only gives parts. If you don't have any one of the parts researched, it will show up.

I managed to figure out that I had to time warp some to get different contracts. But the only thing I got, except for the usual stock contracts for stations around Laythe and so on, was one from SSI Aerospace. However, that one was for planting a flag on the Mun, and not a mission to give planes a purpose. Does it make a difference that I have played quite a bit on this save, and have everything on the tech tree?

[inigma]

38 minutes ago, Zwolff said:

I managed to figure out that I had to time warp some to get different contracts. But the only thing I got, except for the usual stock contracts for stations around Laythe and so on, was one from SSI Aerospace. However, that one was for planting a flag on the Mun, and not a mission to give planes a purpose. Does it make a difference that I have played quite a bit on this save, and have everything on the tech tree?

No. I forgot to add a specific mission restriction thingy to only have those agencies use GAP contracts. It's fixed for 1.0 Gold. I will probably release the fix tonight or tomorrow.

[MatterBeam]

Will this work in x6.4 kerbal solar system, or in more complex Solar Systems, such as RSS?

[inigma]

1 minute ago, TruthQuark said:

Will this work in x6.4 kerbal solar system, or in more complex Solar Systems, such as RSS?

It should. I've never tested it. Try it and let me know, please! There really should be no issues doing so. I designed GAP contracts with RSS compatibility in mind.

Edited January 6, 2016 by inigma

[MatterBeam]

2 minutes ago, inigma said:

It should. I've never tested it. Try it and let me know, please! There really should be no issues doing so. I designed GAP contracts with RSS compatibility in mind.

I'm starting an x6.4 career for 1.0.5 and I'll keep you updated.

 

PS: Good job on everything you've done!

[inigma]

@Melfice and @Evanitis thanks to your reports (and Evanitis your save file) I fixed the Join SSI contract for gold release.  Apparently the small cubic strut snuck in on the second parts list that runs after getting to the conference center waypoint. If you have a vessel with no cubic strut it wont complete. the player has no way of knowing. doh. I removed the requirement for gold release. completing will only require battery, small rover wheels, and command seat. so embarassing i should prob release the fix tonight before CKAN gets ahold of GAP.

 

Update: 1.0.1 released below... 

Edited January 6, 2016 by inigma

[inigma]

Contract Pack: Giving Aircraft a Purpose (GAP) 1.0.1 Beta

 inigmatus released this 6 minutes ago

Requires Contract Configurator 1.9.2.1 or higher fromhttps://github.com/jrossignol/ContractConfigurator/releases

Total Career Contracts Available: 34

1/5/16 1.0.1 Beta

• fixed Join SSI Aerospace not allowing completion if craft does not have cubic struts (thanks Evanitis)
• added switch to prevent agencies from getting random KSP contracts (thanks nightingale)
• fixed typos in contracts (thanks skykooler)

Edited January 6, 2016 by inigma

[Melfice]

2 hours ago, inigma said:

Apparently the small cubic strut snuck in on the second parts list that runs after getting to the conference center waypoint.

I should have added a screenshot of the Tier 0 stuff.
It did include a cubic strut, explaining why it did work.

Well then.

[Evanitis]

6 hours ago, inigma said:

I fixed the Join SSI contract for gold release.

Yay!

18 hours ago, inigma said:

I hope to add more dialogue where necessary, and pick out a good starting tech list to offer through SSI (...)

If you have suggestions for dialogue, post them here, or feel free to submit a GitHub pull request if you get it to work successfully in a contract.

Are you implying that you are considering more techs to be granted by SSI? Let me mention two parts that might fit.

Ore tanks: I noticed that submarine contracts appear very early. Now, I'm very inexperienced with those, but what I know is that the best (only?) ballast parts are kinda' inaccessible until a late tech-level... That won't stop me from trying to push subs under with engines.. but I don't know how viable that method is. Would granting ore tanks make these tasks too easy? Maybe just the small ones?

Cupola module: as far as I know, it's only merit is purely cosmetic: it has the best view from IVA. Though because it sits on a dead-end node along with forgetable parts, I rarely get it during career games. I believe it would fit SSI nicely.

 

About dialogs: I haven't got the slightest modding experience, but I write a lot. If that's what's missing, I could provide a lot of witty, kerbaly lines if you intend to spice things even more... but for that I'd need to know how specific those should be. I mean... would all Kerbals waiting to be rescued draw lines from the same pool? Or can the lines be different for example splashed down Kerbals and landed ones? (is a pool of sentences a possibility, or those should be fixed one-liners?)

Anyways, I bet writing is the part that needs the least effort, so I suppress my related questions until you express that you could use more lines.

 

16 hours ago, inigma said:

I've updated the contract description to (...) Let me know if this sounds more clear.

Yup, totally.

 

Another thing. I don't know if it's intentional or not, but I can complete the seaplane / boat tourism missions by just flying the most basic plane above the waypoints. Not that I can't use the extra cash, but I feel I'm skipping a serious hassle challenge by doing those tasks this way. Initial testing indicates that sea-landing is hard, and boats need serious patience. I'd give Jeb's two legs for a Shipyard Mod. Maybe I should Google one.

[vardicd]

My 2 cents:

This mod is amazing, has great potential. Love a lot of what you've done here. I have two, minor [basically cosmetic] issues that bug me.

1] the parts granted by the started mission, always show up in the VAB and SPH with the blue experimental background, and as I'm seriously OCD, this bugs me.

2] If you play this with Nereid's Final Fantasy mod, [which adds mission ribbons] the spawned kerbal from the first mission is listed as dead, once recovered.

I'm going to be watching the development of this mod. I'm very interested in what you do with this.

[inigma]

4 hours ago, vardicd said:

My 2 cents:

This mod is amazing, has great potential. Love a lot of what you've done here. I have two, minor [basically cosmetic] issues that bug me.

1] the parts granted by the started mission, always show up in the VAB and SPH with the blue experimental background, and as I'm seriously OCD, this bugs me.

2] If you play this with Nereid's Final Fantasy mod, [which adds mission ribbons] the spawned kerbal from the first mission is listed as dead, once recovered.

I'm going to be watching the development of this mod. I'm very interested in what you do with this.

the parts will turn regular color (lose their experimental status) when you research them normally via your tech tree.  I'll have a look at Final Fantasy mod.

 

@nightingale @Nereid any chance CC NewKerbal kerbals set to with add to roster = false, when being removed from the game after contract completion, would trigger KIA in Nereid's mod?  Contract in question is https://github.com/inigmatus/GAP/blob/master/SSI-Start.cfg

Edited January 6, 2016 by inigma

[maculator]

Looks promissing. And im glad my work helped. This is the best way it could have went for me. The contracts I made were the first I ever did, and it was also the first time I did "advanced coding" in my whole life. There is no way I could have gone more complex with my verry basic knowledge. All I know comes from the modulemanager and contractconfigurator wikis.

Thanks to nightingale I was able to get my pack together and thanks to the guys on the ckan irc I got it up there. 

And now thanks to you I dont have to worry about anything anymore. When ksp 1.1 comes out Ill give this pack a shot. 

Only one thing I would love to see is my agency somwhere in this pack. 

Cheers keep up the good work and thanks for making this.

Edited January 6, 2016 by maculator
im German with German autocorrect. :/