Base stations on wheels

[oktav]

I just send a base on Minmus for a mission to send a station (on wheels) on the surface; it landed perfectly and works like a cham, using a mixture or landing legs and landing gears.

The problem is that the mission is not mark as accomplisehd as the landing gears are apparently not recognized as wheels.. but to access "wheels" I need at least 300 science points and I just started scratching the 160 science points level.

I guessed I could use the landing gears as for all I knew you can only get mission you should be able to do with your current technological level or am I wrong?

Edited May 5, 2015 by oktav
Answered

[Juicy]

You can often get missions that involve parts that are "next in line" in your science unlocks. Especially if your science progress consists of varied tiers between the different categories. A common tactic people use, is researching for all the science parts (mostly on the bottom rows of the tech tree), which also unlocks several wheels, build a rover with a TON of scanning equipment, and then make a trip around the space station doing research on each building and some other small areas, the Kerbin grasslands, the nearby shore, and finally drive their rover into the sea and scan that too.

[Arsonide]

If you are trying to use the small gear bay, there is an issue with it's collider preventing this objective from triggering. Any other wheel will work.

[oktav]

thanks, yes, this is the problem.. darn...

If you are trying to use the small gear bay, there is an issue with it's collider preventing this objective from triggering. Any other wheel will work.

[Arsonide]

thanks, yes, this is the problem.. darn...

If you hit Alt-F12, and go to Contracts, Active, you can hit the "Com" button to forcibly complete the contract. I don't think it would count as cheating at this point.

[ChrisD]

I have just done the exact same thing and landed a base on the Mun to satisfy the 'on wheels' criteria.

It was a horribly designed base, underpowered and overweight but it was too big to fail! I'd invested to much time into it to delete it and start again! To get it on the surface in one piece took every single m/s of delta-v available plus every ounce of mono-prop used as secondary retro-rockets!

I used the Force Complete and I'm not ashamed. Actually I'm a little ashamed of the station design, but I've learned a thing or two!

[Jaeleth]

Instead of forced complete, use frequent game saves. Anyway, in career mode, even playing in hard mode, you should always costumize play mode and allow quick saves, not only because of player mistakes, sometimes silly mistakes, but which happen because we are only one person taking care of multiple missions at the same time and, in real life, there's a whole crew just to handle one tiny sattelite of probe ( of course, with a lot more things to be concearned of than in ksp, but that's another story ); but also because the software has glitches, and it is quite distressful to loose a lot of time and game-money to a glitch...

specially when flying to the Mun, which is close, or Minmus. For farther targets you'll be stuck anyway since you'll be doing a lot other missions while enroute. My suggestion is, always fly with backup hardware, extra fuel, etc... I saved long duration missions, more than once, by having a "go around" alternative in my pocket.

and, if you have "just enough resources" to complete that elusive contract then... Do not take the contract! In real life those are the tasks that give you fame and glory, yes, but in ksp they will not get you fame and glory and will increase your risk factor just too much.