[0.90.0] Fine Print vSTOCK'D - BETA RELEASE!!! (December 15)

[Arsonide]

so this is pretty awesome but i'm having some real trouble with one of the types of contracts -- the space station one. specifically, i can't get the second item (Build a new orbital station that has power generation, an antenna and a free docking port) to check off. at first i thought it might be because i was using non-stock solar panels and antennae, so i tried with stock and still no luck. the remaining three are all OK.

ideas?

You need a docking port that is currently in the "ready" state as of now. (Not already attached to something.) The intention of that requirement was that people create stations to be future proof, so after the contract is over they can reuse them. Apparently shielded docking ports have an issue with that, but any other will do.

Now, must be going, I've got an asteroid to capture then send into a solar escape trajectory.

Please let me know how this goes, I tested retrieval into orbit, but I never managed to get one on escape from the sun. The code is sound, I'm just not that good. Please take note of the note on that objective, I added it in the last patch to prevent an exploit. Retrieval only works on asteroids that are discovered and tracked after the contract is accepted.

Edited July 29, 2014 by Arsonide

[Proply]

Neat mod! A suggestion for a mission type I have been thinking about is space tourism. I envisage this mission being offered after you have planted your first flag on a particular body, something along the lines of:

-"Bigwig Kerman wants to take a nice relaxing holiday to Duna"

-Transport Bigwig Kerman to the surface of Duna and go EVA on the surface

-Full payment on recovery on Kerbin

Ideally I would make it so that Bigwig cannot control any vessel he is in (so that you have to bring a pilot - this is tourism after all!). Perhaps this could be more easily achieved by having a requirement Bigwig be transported in a "luxury" hitchhiker canister. This would thus require a larger lander than the usual 1-man (kerbal) lander can jobs, making it a more challenging objective!

[antgeth]

You need a docking port that is currently in the "ready" state as of now. (Not already attached to something.) The intention of that requirement was that people create stations to be future proof, so after the contract is over they can reuse them. Apparently shielded docking ports have an issue with that, but any other will do.

yeah, i had two free docking ports...

Edited July 29, 2014 by antgeth
can type english goodly

[Arsonide]

yeah, i had two free docking ports...

Did some quick testing of this, you sir have found a bug, congratulations. Apparently the state is A: weird, and B: can kill the contract off if you put two docking ports on your ship in the right pattern. I'll get right on it. For reference, I need to ask two questions.

For the moment I was actually able to mess with the docking port (dock it to things) and complete the objective, but that's not the intention.

Was your ship launched after the date the contract was accepted? What kind of docking port was it? Modded?

Edited July 29, 2014 by Arsonide

[antgeth]

Was your ship launched after the date the contract was accepted? What kind of docking port was it? Modded?

I had two standard medium-size clamp-o-trons attached via radial attachment points. I also tried it with just one of them, attached directly to the top of the ship. Yes, it was launched after contract acceptance.

[Apollo13]

I also had an issue with the "Build a station orbiting Minmus". The first ship placed a Cupola and Hitchhiker part around Minmus, with 5 free docking ports and antenna and power. So far so good. The second rocket brought the Research Lab, which I attached to a free port.

The contract just went away. There was no indication that the contract was completed, and I was not paid. I found the contract in the Archives as Completed. I completed the contract before its due date.

Edited July 29, 2014 by Apollo13

[Arsonide]

I also had an issue with the "Build a station orbiting Minmus". The first ship placed a Cupola and Hitchhiker part around Minmus, with 5 free docking ports and antenna and power. So far so good. The second rocket brought the Research Lab, which I attached to a free port.

The contract just went away. there was no indication that the contract was completed, and I was not paid. I could not find the contract in the Archives either. I completed the contract before its due date.

I think I've traced it to a null reference error within Squad's own docking module code. Whenever a null reference happens contracts tend to poof or do mysterious things. Of course, since it's in Squad's code I'm not sure what I can do other than change the requirements around a bit to not care whether you have docking ports or not. If it comes to that, I'll do it, but I'm going to keep playing with it.

NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object

at ModuleDockingNode.<SetupFSM>m__14F (.KFSMState st) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0

at KerbalFSM.updateFSM (KFSMUpdateMode mode) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0

at KerbalFSM.UpdateFSM () [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0

at ModuleDockingNode.Update () [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0

[Poryy]

Downloading right now. Let's see how hard I can break it by adding new planets.

[enneract]

I have almost exclusively aerial survey missions offered. No part tests, no rescues, no flags or exploration... just aerial surveys.

[Arsonide]

I have almost exclusively aerial survey missions offered. No part tests, no rescues, no flags or exploration... just aerial surveys.

The system that chooses which contracts to pick was not modified. I am not sure why it loves aerial surveys, but it might have to do with the fact that they're at the front of the alphabet. It's on my list, I'll throw a dice roll on it or something. Meanwhile I think for station missions I'll just require a docking module period, and not an "open" docking module, to circumvent this bug.

[Arsonide]

I just added support for MKS/OKS power systems to facilities, and antennae from AntennaRange and Remotech. Does anybody have a list of the module names for all of the power generators in Interstellar?

EDIT: I got it, nevermind. Now is the time to start throwing module names of power systems/antennae/docking ports/wheels from your favorite mods if you want them detected. Module names, not part names.

Edited July 29, 2014 by Arsonide

[nismobg]

Arsonide great mod, Im amazed by the speed you pull new contracts , but there is the BUT.... The default in flight stock panel/gui for contracts is killing the whole idea behind doing contract on the go, do you think there is a way you can improve it? Like make the panel bigger maybe even draggable around , min/maximize etc? There is just no space to stack a lot of contracts in it. Which makes it very annoying when you have to scroll and look for the contracts.

[Dielos]

Arsonide great mod, Im amazed by the speed you pull new contracts , but there is the BUT.... The default in flight stock panel/gui for contracts is killing the whole idea behind doing contract on the go, do you think there is a way you can improve it? Like make the panel bigger maybe even draggable around , min/maximize etc? There is just no space to stack a lot of contracts in it. Which makes it very annoying when you have to scroll and look for the contracts.

I think you can minimize each individual contract in that panel and reduce it's length. Not perfect, but might help.

[Dielos]

Arsonide, I'm getting spammed with aerial surveys too. I completed the first stock non procedural contracts, and since then I only get aerial surveys and one ore two launch pad part testings. No orbit science nor Mun contracts. I think the aerial surveys are blocking the others? I'm actually stuck and will be broke soon... Maybe reducing the chance of these contracts might help?

I know that you're planning on changing the aerial surveys to use the rover code and cluster the way points closer. Any ETA on that? I accepted two low altitude aerial surveys to test them, but all way points are on the other side of the planet. I don't even have wings yet! I could complete them with sub orbital rockets, but that is highly inefficient money wise, and I'm already almost broke.

Anyway, great mod and keep adding cool contracts! I'm considering uninstalling it though, so I can get normal contracts back until next update.

[tygoo7]

Arsonide, I'm getting spammed with aerial surveys too. I completed the first stock non procedural contracts, and since then I only get aerial surveys and one ore two launch pad part testings. No orbit science nor Mun contracts. I think the aerial surveys are blocking the others? I'm actually stuck and will be broke soon... Maybe reducing the chance of these contracts might help?

I know that you're planning on changing the aerial surveys to use the rover code and cluster the way points closer. Any ETA on that? I accepted two low altitude aerial surveys to test them, but all way points are on the other side of the planet. I don't even have wings yet! I could complete them with sub orbital rockets, but that is highly inefficient money wise, and I'm already almost broke.

Anyway, great mod and keep adding cool contracts! I'm considering uninstalling it though, so I can get normal contracts back until next update.

Same here, my whole Mission Control is almost all aerial surveys.

[Arsonide]

Got this puppy working, needs some more work to actually make it point the right way though.

Any ETA on that?

If all goes well tomorrow, it may be tomorrow night. I can't make promises, except a promise that I'm putting a lot of work into getting it out.

Edited July 29, 2014 by Arsonide

[Dielos]

Got this puppy working, needs some more work to actually make it point the right way though.

Way to go! Looking really good...

If all goes well tomorrow, it may be tomorrow night. I can't make promises, except a promise that I'm putting a lot of work into getting it out.

Thanks for the update on the update! Take your time, and thanks even more for the hard work!

[Arsonide]

I just figured out how to lock them down. What's a good max number of any particular contract do you think? Four is what I chose, but is that too high?

Right now I have it set to:

1 station

1 base

2 arm

4 rover

4 aerial

Set in that order because the more difficult/lucrative missions should be rarer. Those are max numbers, there might be less on the board as stock contracts fill up.

Edited July 29, 2014 by Arsonide

[Dielos]

Sounds good. I do fear after my last tests that there is a fixed max of contracts that are being offered, and that having too many contracts from your mod might lock others out. Are your numbers there implying that there could be up to 12 contracts from your mod at any time on the control center?

[Arsonide]

There could be, but at the very least they'd be varied, and the system rarely doesn't put any stock missions in there, at least in my testing.

[Dielos]

Good with me then! I''ll happily test this!

[LordFjord]

I just figured out how to lock them down. What's a good max number of any particular contract do you think? Four is what I chose, but is that too high?

Right now I have it set to:

1 station

1 base

2 arm

4 rover

4 aerial

Set in that order because the more difficult/lucrative missions should be rarer. Those are max numbers, there might be less on the board as stock contracts fill up.

4 would be almost too much in my opinion. The contracts are randomized more than enough so it is unlikely that there are several ones of the same contract type that you can accomplish in a single mission (thinking about several aerial or rover missions here). Of course one can try, but I would prefer having a wide variety of missions, also without locking out the existing ones by Squad, though I do not know the contract generation process.

Is there anything like a manager for contract generation? From looking at FinePrint's sources, I can only see newly defined contracts. I assume squad's backend takes a random one on generation to fill up the list.

Maybe limit contracts to max one per difficulty level?

Suggestions/ideas:

- for station contracts, additional goal: Create a new fuel depot with at least x/y LFO/momoprop amount and a few docking ports. Rewards based on location and amount of fuel stored there, similar to habitat modules and kerbals on board. Add Xenon to fuel types if Ion tech is researched. This could give the station a practical "after-mission" use.

Big thanks for making this mod, really enjoying it

[Maxwell Fern]

I usually tend to wait for mods to be smoothed out, but this one is too tempting.

Expect a thorough feedback

[Burkitt]

I'm trying an asteroid recovery mission, but the "Have an asteroid in tow" part of the contract won't complete, even though I definitely didn't start tracking it until after accepting the contract.

I've quicksaved and quickloaded a few times during the mission, so I'm wondering if that's causing issues, as it did previously with rovers?

[dlrk]

Is there a way to trigger a particular contract offer? I'm looking to get one for a Kerbin station