Can I decrease the allowed margin of error for satellite contracts?

[Allocthonous]

I've been feeling lately like my satellite contracts are too permissive. For me, the fiddly maneuvering to match the specified orbit is the fun part of these, and the margin of error on the completion conditions is large enough that my target disappears and the contract ends before I get to the fine corrections. I've skimmed through the settings and physics config files, and I didn't see any way of decreasing this margin of error and making the requirements stricter. Does anybody know of a way to do this?

[Rocket In My Pocket]

In the Contracts folder in Gamedata there is a Contracts.cfg file.

I believe this is the section you are looking for, I have bolded/italicized the most relevant lines.

Best of luck!

Satellite // Satellite Deployment Contracts
    {
        MaximumAvailable = 9999 // The maximum amount of inactive satellite contracts in Mission Control
        MaximumActive = 9999 // The maximum amount of active satellite contracts that have been accepted
        AnimationDuration = 8 // How long it takes the orbit render animation to loop
        ContextualChance = 50 // The maximum chance for a satellite adjustment or network request
        ContextualAssets = 2 // The amount of satellites required on non-home planets to reach that chance
        ContextualHomeAssets = 4 // The amount of satellites required on the home planet to reach that chance
        NetworkMinimum = 3 // The minimum amount of satellites that are considered a network
        NetworkMaximum = 4 // The maximum amount of satellites that are considered a network
        MinimumDeviationWindow = 750 // The lowest that an altitude deviation can get at the periapsis
        TrivialDeviation = 7 // The percent difference allowed for altitude and relevant angles to trigger easy contracts
        SignificantDeviation = 5 // The percent difference allowed for altitude and relevant angles to trigger medium contracts
        ExceptionalDeviation = 3 // The percent difference allowed for altitude and relevant angles to trigger hard contracts
        TrivialAltitudeDifficulty = 0.2 // A ratio representing how eccentric orbits can get on easy contracts
        TrivialInclinationDifficulty = 0.2 // A ratio representing how inclined orbits can get on easy contracts
        SignificantAltitudeDifficulty = 0.4 // A ratio representing how eccentric orbits can get on medium contracts
        SignificantInclinationDifficulty = 0.4 // A ratio representing how inclined orbits can get on medium contracts
        ExceptionalAltitudeDifficulty = 0.8 // A ratio representing how eccentric orbits can get on hard contracts
        ExceptionalInclinationDifficulty = 0.8 // A ratio representing how inclined orbits can get on hard contracts
        PreferHome = True // Whether to utilize home override chances to prefer home satellites
        AllowSolar = True // Whether to allow satellite requests for solar orbits at all
        AllowEquatorial = True // Whether to allow equatorial orbits at all
        AllowPolar = True // Whether to allow polar orbits at all
        AllowSynchronous = True // Whether to allow synchronous orbits at all
        AllowStationary = True // Whether to allow stationary orbits at all
        AllowTundra = True // Whether to allow tundra orbits at all
        AllowKolniya = True // Whether to allow Molniya orbits at all
        Expiration
        {
            MinimumExpireDays = 1 // The minimum time in days the contract will remain in Mission Control before expiring
            MaximumExpireDays = 7 // The maximum time in days the contract will remain in Mission Control before expiring
            DeadlineDays = 2130 // How many days the player gets to complete the contract
        }
        Funds
        {
            BaseAdvance = 16000 // The base funds advance before planet and difficulty modifiers
            BaseReward = 41000 // The base funds completion reward before planet and difficulty modifiers
            BaseFailure = 0 // The base funds failure penalty before planet and difficulty modifiers
            HomeMultiplier = 2 // How much funds rewards are multiplied by on satellite requests at home
            PolarMultiplier = 1 // How much funds rewards are multiplied by on polar satellite requests
            SynchronousMultiplier = 1.1 // How much funds rewards are multiplied by on synchronous satellite requests
            StationaryMultiplier = 1.2 // How much funds rewards are multiplied by on stationary satellite requests
            TundraMultiplier = 1.2 // How much funds rewards are multiplied by on tundra satellite requests
            KolniyaMultiplier = 1.2 // How much funds rewards are multiplied by on Molniya satellite requests
        }
        Science
        {
            BaseReward = 0 // The base science completion reward before difficulty modifiers
            HomeMultiplier = 0.5 // How much science rewards are multiplied by on satellite requests at home
            PolarMultiplier = 1 // How much science rewards are multiplied by on polar satellite requests
            SynchronousMultiplier = 1.1 // How much science rewards are multiplied by on synchronous satellite requests
            StationaryMultiplier = 1.2 // How much science rewards are multiplied by on stationary satellite requests
            TundraMultiplier = 1.2 // How much science rewards are multiplied by on tundra satellite requests
            KolniyaMultiplier = 1.2 // How much science rewards are multiplied by on Molniya satellite requests
        }
        Reputation
        {
            BaseReward = 10 // The base reputation completion reward before difficulty modifiers
            BaseFailure = 5 // The base reputation failure penalty before difficulty modifiers
            HomeMultiplier = 1.25 // How much reputation rewards are multiplied by on satellite requests at home
            PolarMultiplier = 1 // How much reputation rewards are multiplied by on polar satellite requests
            SynchronousMultiplier = 1.1 // How much reputation rewards are multiplied by on synchronous satellite requests
            StationaryMultiplier = 1.2 // How much reputation rewards are multiplied by on stationary satellite requests
            TundraMultiplier = 1.2 // How much reputation rewards are multiplied by on tundra satellite requests
            KolniyaMultiplier = 1.2 // How much reputation rewards are multiplied by on Molniya satellite requests

Edited July 21, 2018 by Rocket In My Pocket

[bewing]

It's in your GameData/Squad/Contracts/Contracts.cfg file.

Look for Trivial, Significant, and Exceptional Deviation in the Satellite subsection. Those correspond to the number of stars. I think they are floating point values, actually -- even though they are set to integers. So you might be able to set them to 0.7, 0.5, 0.3.

For the inclination test, those values are taken in degrees. I don't remember how they are calculated exactly for the Ap/Pe/LAN values.