INTERPLANETARY Contract Offers Before I've Managed A Second Kerbal To Orbit? Really?

[Srpadget]

I'm still early in career. I've had ONE, count it, kerballed orbital mission (Valentina has been to orbit and back, but Jeb hasn't yet). I started getting space-tourist contracts. Okay, that's fine, not sure I want to trust a tourist to survive reentry until after that little heat-shield bug has been stomped, but the game doesn't know that. I'll hang on to them and maybe accept them later.

Okay, there's LOTS of tourist contracts. Good to know. I start rejecting them in order to find something a bit less potentially-lethal, like testing an Ant engine during a suborbital lob.

Then I start looking at the later ones a bit more closely. They're all looking for Grand Tours of the Kerbin system: Kerbin orbit, Mun flyby, MINMUS orbit. Really? I've barely managed to "escape the surly bonds of Kerbin, reach out, and touch the face of the Kraken" at all, and I've got wannabe tourists begging for Mun and Minmus trips? Okay, whatever. It's not like that's going to be SO hard...at least once I've got the VAB and launchpad upgraded so I'm not restricted to 18 tons and 30 parts (and the aforementioned heatshield bug is fixed). And the early-game contracts pay SO generously, that building upgrades are vastly less grindy than in 0.90.

So I launch a probe toward Mun to fulfil the "Mun flyby" record-keeper contract (I assume that's a built-in standard progression contract, like 0.90's R&D Department "Explore (next world)" mission contract?), and once it's on its way I launch a probe to a specified orbit. Check contracts, intending to grab up a couple of the Kerbal-rescue offers that have cropped up, and I see a new two-star contract: temperature survey of ... POL?? WHAT?? Okay, that's freaky. Reject it. I need to send Valentina to Mun and Minmus LONG before I'm going to think about interplanetary (not to mention it's still Day 1 in this save, so the Jool window doesn't open for, like, forever).

And it gets replaced with a "Science from the surface of Pol" contract offer. POL? AGAIN?

Aw geez. This is going to be like the endless spamming of "test TT-70 radial decoupler flying/landed/flying/suborbit/flying/splashed/flying/dangit-test-this-decoupler-SOMEPLACE-I-won't-leave-you-alone-until-you-do" contracts in repeating sequence, isn't it? Only... POL? My very highest tech right now is OX-Stat solar panels powering an Octo probe core mounted on a FL-T400 1.5 meter tank, and the game is obsessing about getting me out to the JOOL system...!

So have others seen this? Is it an actual balance issue with the contract-offer code? Or is it just me, and I'm the random victim of a couple highly-unlikely random-number results?

[SkyRender]

The Pol thing actually got figured out! If you do any science around the Flag Pole at KSC, it gets registered as Pol. I like to think that the Kerbals got confused about the difference between a Pole and Pol, and started putting out requests for Pol because they really wanted to know more about that flag pole.

[Enorats]

I hit the Mun and Minmus (have survey satellites, orbital labs, and surface labs - pretty much maxed out the tree already, as those just keep churning out science nonstop) and for some reason I've got like 7-8 contracts for Pol on the list next. One for explore Ike and one for a wheeled outpost on Duna, but that's about it.

Some of the contracts really don't make the slightest bit of sense. Take ore from Duna to Ike. Why would I EVER want to do that? Suborbital Sun orbits?

[MalfunctionM1Ke]

The Pol thing actually got figured out! If you do any science around the Flag Pole at KSC, it gets registered as Pol. I like to think that the Kerbals got confused about the difference between a Pole and Pol, and started putting out requests for Pol because they really wanted to know more about that flag pole.

Aaaaah so thats where that contract came from. I already wondered because i barely managed to go to the Mun :D

[zekes]

The Pol thing actually got figured out! If you do any science around the Flag Pole at KSC, it gets registered as Pol. I like to think that the Kerbals got confused about the difference between a Pole and Pol, and started putting out requests for Pol because they really wanted to know more about that flag pole.

Just when I thought Squad was done with the easter eggs.... This one is good.

[Enorats]

I wonder if tourism contracts work with the flag pole too.. suborbital flight over Pol.. pod filled with tourists dangling from the flag pole by its parachute

[LostOblivion]

Kennedy asked the US to go to the moon before they had made orbit, just after Alan Shepard made it into space on a suborbital trajectory. Perhaps these little green men (and now women) are even bolder? :-)

[Arsonide]

Yes, this issue has been fixed. There is a workaround for you if you are comfortable modifying your save file, go down to the ProgressTracking section and remove Pol from it. Then don't science the flagpole again. Enjoy.

[WOODY01]

I am having the opposite problem. I keep getting the tourist, rescue, test and survey somewhere on Kerbin contracts. Nothing for the Mun or anywhere else except to take tourist there. Was enjoying some of the challenges with certain contracts I did the Mun funded by other completing some of them. Now I think it would be nice to start getting contracts not requiring me to take 1-5 Kerbals for a vacation.

Right now I am doing stuff I really do not want to do to get funds, go to the Mun or Mimus to do what I want, then back to piling some tourist on a rocket or doing surveys on Kerbin to fund my next mission.

I have been declining contracts like crazy waiting for something to pop up to at least plant a flag somewhere.

[Superfluous J]

IIRC this will also happen if you do anything at the poles. Doesn't matter the planet.

[falconek]

This bug existed in 0.90 and maybe even before, and I even posted it to Squads bug tracker, but still not fixed.

[Cdr_Zeta]

Hello,

WOW what is it with 'POL' and 'POLES' ?? I guess I will keep my Kerbalnauts warm when they explore....I hope this gets resolved in the patch; the whole purpose is to go to cold places...maybe contracts need major look see...

Zeta

[Superfluous J]

It's just that for each moon, they check for that string in a list. If it shows up, they figure you're ready for it. If there was a pile of junk out back the VAB that had its own biome named "Pile of turboprops" then as soon as you visited it, you'd start getting Bop contracts.

[Srpadget]

It's true this popped up right after I snagged some science at the astronaut complex and flagpole. This bug's been around since they introduced the KSC surface biomes? I guess that means I never did any science at the flagpole all through 0.90...?

I must say though, "pole" = Pol"? that has GOT to be the CUTEST bug I have seen in forever! :-D

[KerbMav]

So either rework the routine or rename Pol to Poll?

Or check for " pol " instead of just "pol".

And " pol." " pol," " pol!" ...

And "Pol " at the beginning of a sentence ...

This is really quite hard!

Edited April 30, 2015 by KerbMav