We don't need no tour guide.

[Raideur Ng]

Tourist Contracts are also huge reputation bonuses. I consider them the least obnoxious contracts that you can routinely strap additional objectives onto. Flying around the globe to record temperatures for a decent paycheck can go blankity blank itself. Same with testing the Twin Boar on a sub orbital flight over the Mun. Who even DOES that?

[samstarman5]

19 hours ago, Draco T stand-up guy said:

In 1.05 I had the service bay:

1. Blow up on me thus releasing the passenger cabin to free-fall
2. Definitely cause me to flip at least once
3. Blow up on me thus releasing the heat-shield which caused the rest of the ship to blow up

I've used 80% of a full heat-shield coming back from Mun once or twice.

The drogues didn't save me from burning up although the capsule had flipped while still hot I survived that bit. The flip causes the craft to become more aero-dynamic and thus reach the ground faster. I pretty much double tapped the space bar.

• 1000m Drogues available - Tap!!!
• 500m Mains risky but available - Tap!!!
• 10m Safe landing Speed!!!!

Have you thought of not coming in so steep?  Because everything here says you like to come straight down.  Including your service bay blowing up, but that might also be due to you overpacking it, having parts poking out in one direction or another.

1 hour ago, Raideur Ng said:

Tourist Contracts are also huge reputation bonuses. I consider them the least obnoxious contracts that you can routinely strap additional objectives onto. Flying around the globe to record temperatures for a decent paycheck can go blankity blank itself. Same with testing the Twin Boar on a sub orbital flight over the Mun. Who even DOES that?

Kerbals.

[quasarrgames]

I LOVE tourism contracts! They're an awesome way to get loads of funds early on. The trick comes in getting loads of them to the same destination. In my career mode i accepted contracts to bring fourteen tourists to suborbit. And with this baby:

it was a breeze. Even with a pilot, i was making 80k a flight. Great for career 

[Draco T stand-up guy]

12 minutes ago, samstarman5 said:

Have you thought of not coming in so steep?  Because everything here says you like to come straight down.  Including your service bay blowing up, but that might also be due to you overpacking it, having parts poking out in one direction or another.

I learned not to come in to steep in my first game

 

[KerbMav]

I would do them more often and for longer into a save, if they would join the line up of new kerbonaut candidates afterwards - retaining their experience points for maybe a higher price.

As of now these contracts require strange contraptions with the parts available in the beginning.
Later I aim for larger crews on longer trips, so my ships are already quite big without extra passengers tagging along.

The cash - although quite decent - is not enough an incentive for me to keep a long lived tourist program usually.

[Mystique]

I'm using tourist contracts to finance orbital rescue missions, This way I get some quick kerbucks + pick up free staff along the way. Though I only find it worthy before going out of Kerbin system, after that I pick only most "juicy" contracts that don't waste much real time and allow construction of huge science collectors.

Hope that with updated contract system I'll finally stop getting those "part testing' contracts, they're really stupid, what's the fun of getting to x speed and y altitude to just start some engine or stage a decoupler and go home, really?

[Jarin]

On 4/27/2016 at 11:02 PM, Alshain said:

@Draco T stand-up guy Well if it requires drouges, it has the same problem of being way too late in the tech tree.

Drogues are the same tier as the crew cabin now. You can unlock it without leaving the ground. Which is good, because with the wonky drag physics, they're often necessary. (they're also in the new tutorial)

[Curveball Anders]

I usually spend way much more time building and testing 'optimal' vehicles to shuttle tourists around than actually flying them.

It's normally a professionally crewed (if that's possible with a Kerbals) so I can snag some experience for the crew at the same time.

[Octa]

I wish there were some passenger payload capsules that fit the style of the 2 command pods and actually look like they're part of a re-entry capable capsule. I don't like to let the tourists sit in a cockpit with controls ("look, but don't touch!") and the plane passenger pods look kinda weird on a rocket.

[N_Molson]

I use tourists to "fill the holes" when extra seats are available. Typically, if I send a Kerbollo-like spacecraft to the Mun with a light 1-kerbal lander, there is an extra seat for Munar orbit. The pilot performs the munar expedition while another guy remains in orbit to manoeuver the spacecraft if necessary, and also to make sure the tourist doesn't eats all the snacks.

That's a way to make flights a bit less expensive, if not profitable.

[lude]

Since the stock cockpits are very heavy, if you don't have enough weight below them they will flip so the heavier side goes retrograde, this is especially happening if you use FAR due to the extra forces it adds to torque and other vectors

also I like the tourist missions, especially the grand tourism pack ones

trying to build nice SSTO that go very fast to desired places is enough fun for me ^^

 

-- edit --

like why some people have bad experiences or good experiences with service bays, it all depends on how heavy that spot will be, I also like to tightly pack them with heavy batteries and stuff but if it's rather light and you have a 4-5 ton cabin on top, that can end really bad

 

this is really great, I think the lawn dart example fits it best

Edited April 28, 2016 by lude