SENTINEL Contract - What the hell?

[Sokar408]

I'll get straight to it; I have a contract which states the following 3 criteria;

• Have a SENTINEL Infrared Telescope on the vessel
•  Achieve Orbit around the Sun
• Detect 2 new comets

Now when I'm active in the vessel, I get checkmarks on the first 2 criteria. However even though I have discovered a lot more than 2 new comets at this point on the map, I always have to go to the tracking station to "track" them, and nothing happens.

What exactly am I suppose to do on these contracts?

[Vanamonde]

If I recall correctly, there's also a mandated orbit from which the satellite must detect the comets. Or is that only for the similar asteroid jobs? Other than that, the contract should be automatically considered complete when the requisite number of objects is detected with no further action from the player. Tracking is not part of the contract. Just detection. 

Edited January 7, 2021 by Vanamonde

[bewing]

Once you have the craft in place, you have to wait for many days. It doesn't matter how many other craft detect how many other asteroids or comets.

To complete the contract, the craft with the sentinel telescope on it has to detect the comets. You just have to wait. It will happen all by itself.

[Sokar408]

Just now, bewing said:

Once you have the craft in place, you have to wait for many days. It doesn't matter how many other craft detect how many other asteroids or comets.

To complete the contract, the craft with the sentinel telescope on it has to detect the comets. You just have to wait. It will happen all by itself.

So I have to set in the vessel, doing nothing but time warp?

[jimmymcgoochie]

4 minutes ago, Sokar408 said:

So I have to set in the vessel, doing nothing but time warp?

Exactly the opposite- just leave the sentinel sat in its orbit and do something else, they’re designed specifically to be left in the background to spot asteroids and now comets. I don’t know if having it as the active craft prevents it from spotting asteroids/comets but at best it’s wasting time that you could use for other missions.

[Sokar408]

Just now, jimmymcgoochie said:

Exactly the opposite- just leave the sentinel sat in its orbit and do something else, they’re designed specifically to be left in the background to spot asteroids and now comets. I don’t know if having it as the active craft prevents it from spotting asteroids/comets but at best it’s wasting time that you could use for other missions.

Interesting because I have tried to just time warping 10 years a head from the tracking station, and while dozens of comets has entered and left the tracking station, I'm still messing 2  comets on that contract

Oh well thanks for help guys

[king of nowhere]

i'm not sure, but i think you have to go in the tracking station, select the unidentified object spotted, and manually click to track it

[jimmymcgoochie]

@Sokar408 @king of nowhere I haven’t done a lot with 1.10, certainly not with sentinels tracking comets, but for spotting asteroids they generally have a specific orbit you need the sentinel telescope to be in e.g. inside Kerbin’s orbit, which is usually specified in the contract. Just parking the sentinels in that orbit and letting them do their job over time should mean the asteroids (or comets) will be spotted pretty quickly, unless there are some weird conditions about eccentricity or inclination to worry about.

You did turn on the sentinel telescope’s object tracking, right? And the probe with the telescope on it has control, power and a communications link back to Kerbin?

[18Watt]

I’ve found that if the satellite can’t communicate with KSC, the discovered items won’t complete.  So you need a giant antenna.  
 

A medium antenna will work, but only while the satellite is near Kerbin.   

[Sokar408]

42 minutes ago, jimmymcgoochie said:

@Sokar408 @king of nowhere I haven’t done a lot with 1.10, certainly not with sentinels tracking comets, but for spotting asteroids they generally have a specific orbit you need the sentinel telescope to be in e.g. inside Kerbin’s orbit, which is usually specified in the contract. Just parking the sentinels in that orbit and letting them do their job over time should mean the asteroids (or comets) will be spotted pretty quickly, unless there are some weird conditions about eccentricity or inclination to worry about.

You did turn on the sentinel telescope’s object tracking, right? And the probe with the telescope on it has control, power and a communications link back to Kerbin?

 

33 minutes ago, 18Watt said:

I’ve found that if the satellite can’t communicate with KSC, the discovered items won’t complete.  So you need a giant antenna.  
 

A medium antenna will work, but only while the satellite is near Kerbin.   

Yea it has communication, power and the telescope is activated. I can post a screencap tomorrow, when I get out of bed.

[vv3k70r]

15 hours ago, Sokar408 said:

What exactly am I suppose to do on these contracts?

It works previously, but since 1.11 update I didnt detect anything new, even asteroids. Suspicious.

[18Watt]

I just tested in 1.11, and the Sentinel asteroid and comet contracts are working fine, in stock at least.  Just to re-hash the requirements-

• Satellite must have electric power.
• Must have communication with KSC, check to make sure there's a green line from the satellite to KSC.
• Must reach required orbit for Asteroids.  (for Comets, just have to be in solar orbit)
• Must activate the Sentinel via the PAW, to scan for objects.
• Need to wait for the objects to be found.   You can be in control of the satellite, but that's not required.

Again, I'm on 1.11, a stock installation.   If you're pretty sure you have everything in order and it's still not completing, perhaps a mod is causing the problem?

edit:  I did just find something odd with Comet Sentinel contracts, see my post a few down.   

 

Edited January 6, 2021 by 18Watt
I was wrong!

[paul_c]

A while ago (in game time) I launched 4x Sentinel satellites with plenty of extra fuel for repositioning etc. All are a standard design and have big relay antennas on too - makes sense to have a relay or 4 "out there". Once they're in sun orbit, I basically interpret "detect xx asteriods" as "reposition xxxxx satellite to xxxxx orbit" - mostly the orbital changes have been mild. I've detected hundreds of asteroids but never any comets, I'll look at king of nowhere's suggestion but I've never had any joy from comets so nowadays ignore those contracts.

[18Watt]

I did notice something odd about the Sentinel Comet contracts.   I was not able to detect comets with existing satellites.   If I put a new satellite on (any) solar orbit, it found the comets just fine.

The comet contracts do not specify a new launch is required, and all the boxes are checked with existing satellites.   However, for some reason existing satellites would not complete comet contracts.   They do still work for asteroid contracts though.

Edit:  I am now trying to replicate this, to make a bug report.   And now my existing Sentinels are all finding Comets (and asteroids) with no problems!   The issue is real, I definitely observed it, but I haven't found a way to replicate it consistently.   If anyone finds a way to consistently replicate the issue with comet contracts and existing sentinels, please report.

Edited January 6, 2021 by 18Watt
Additional information

[Sokar408]

12 hours ago, 18Watt said:

I just tested in 1.11, and the Sentinel asteroid and comet contracts are working fine, in stock at least.  Just to re-hash the requirements-

• Satellite must have electric power.
• Must have communication with KSC, check to make sure there's a green line from the satellite to KSC.
• Must reach required orbit for Asteroids.  (for Comets, just have to be in solar orbit)
• Must activate the Sentinel via the PAW, to scan for objects.
• Need to wait for the objects to be found.   You can be in control of the satellite, but that's not required.

Again, I'm on 1.11, a stock installation.   If you're pretty sure you have everything in order and it's still not completing, perhaps a mod is causing the problem?

 

 

Here are some pictures of the situation. Can anyone tell me what I'm doing wrong?

[vv3k70r]

3 hours ago, Sokar408 said:

Here are some pictures of the situation. Can anyone tell me what I'm doing wrong?

As I understand the game mechanics they are detecting stuff from its orbit away to the dark but only to nearest planet orbit. I guess on this orbit You will not find much - go near Eva and see to Kerbin or go slightly past Kerbin and see up to Duna orbit.

FOV to Kerbin orbit You have (triangle measured from the Sun You can cover) is quite narrow if game mechanics works that way.

Edited January 7, 2021 by vv3k70r

[Superfluous J]

15 hours ago, 18Watt said:

I did notice something odd about the Sentinel Comet contracts.   I was not able to detect comets with existing satellites.   If I put a new satellite on (any) solar orbit, it found the comets just fine.

The comet contracts do not specify a new launch is required, and all the boxes are checked with existing satellites.   However, for some reason existing satellites would not complete comet contracts.   They do still work for asteroid contracts though.

Edit:  I am now trying to replicate this, to make a bug report.   And now my existing Sentinels are all finding Comets (and asteroids) with no problems!   The issue is real, I definitely observed it, but I haven't found a way to replicate it consistently.   If anyone finds a way to consistently replicate the issue with comet contracts and existing sentinels, please report.

Any chance your original "old" satellites were from a version that didn't have comets? The part may have gained a "detect comets"module in the upgrade, and existing ships wouldn't have the module.

[bewing]

First off, you've got a bunch of mods, so this could easily be a mod-interaction bug -- if there is a bug at all.

Second, all those things you've detected so far are asteroids, not comets. Comets have tails on them.

 

 

[18Watt]

3 hours ago, Superfluous J said:

Any chance your original "old" satellites were from a version that didn't have comets? The part may have gained a "detect comets"module in the upgrade, and existing ships wouldn't have the module.

No, I made a brand new save to test this.

Also, my first guess was perhaps a mod was causing problems for the OP.   However I play 100% stock, and I saw the issue too.   Although frustratingly I can’t reproduce it consistently.

I wonder if @vv3k70r has a possible answer- when I was testing yesterday all my orbits were closer to Eve.   If I find time today, I’ll try testing with orbits close to Kerbin, to see if I can reproduce the issue more reliably.

@Sokar408, thank you for the photos.   According to your screenshots, I can’t see anything wrong you are doing.   I do not think the issue is mod related, because again I do not use mods, and I saw the issue.

[Sokar408]

 

26 minutes ago, 18Watt said:

No, I made a brand new save to test this.

Also, my first guess was perhaps a mod was causing problems for the OP.   However I play 100% stock, and I saw the issue too.   Although frustratingly I can’t reproduce it consistently.

I wonder if @vv3k70r has a possible answer- when I was testing yesterday all my orbits were closer to Eve.   If I find time today, I’ll try testing with orbits close to Kerbin, to see if I can reproduce the issue more reliably.

@Sokar408, thank you for the photos.   According to your screenshots, I can’t see anything wrong you are doing.   I do not think the issue is mod related, because again I do not use mods, and I saw the issue.

I only use Near Future and some visuals mods. But from what I can gather, you would suggest I simply try to send up a new Telescope?

[18Watt]

3 minutes ago, Sokar408 said:

 

I only use Near Future and some visuals mods. But from what I can gather, you would suggest I simply try to send up a new Telescope?

Actually, if possible, try moving the orbit of your existing Sentinel closer to Eve's orbit.   (Not so close that you get an intercept...).   Maybe try to make it about 1/3 of the distance from Eve's orbit to Kerbin's.   Not sure if that will work, but vv3k70r is suggesting that possibly orbits too close to the target planet (Kerbin) are not working.   If that is accurate, then perhaps moving your orbit closer to Eve's orbit will allow the contract to complete.

[Sokar408]

2 minutes ago, 18Watt said:

Actually, if possible, try moving the orbit of your existing Sentinel closer to Eve's orbit.   (Not so close that you get an intercept...).   Maybe try to make it about 1/3 of the distance from Eve's orbit to Kerbin's.   Not sure if that will work, but vv3k70r is suggesting that possibly orbits too close to the target planet (Kerbin) are not working.   If that is accurate, then perhaps moving your orbit closer to Eve's orbit will allow the contract to complete.

I'll try but since my contract doesn't say it wants me to find comets / asteroids near Kerbin, I'm a bit skeptical. I'll report back.

[vv3k70r]

3 hours ago, 18Watt said:

I wonder if @vv3k70r has a possible answer- when I was testing yesterday all my orbits were closer to Eve.   If I find time today, I’ll try testing with orbits close to Kerbin, to see if I can reproduce the issue more reliably.

Cheat the orbit, warp time and see.

 

[18Watt]

2 hours ago, vv3k70r said:

Cheat the orbit, warp time and see.

 

Well, that wasn't it either.   I put a Sentinel in a roughly circular solar orbit, AP/PE ~ 13,135,829km.   That's just barely inside Kerbin's orbit.  And the comet contracts completed.

[ctbram]

I confirm this contract appears to be broken.  I an in the right orbit, have power, have sentinel, has antennas with range greater the Eve.  Have been in orbit now (no time warping) for three damn years and have not detected a single asteroid.

Now the contract specifically states asteroids will be detected "passively". To me, this means I should have to do NOTHING. but wait.   No going to the tracking station and actively tracking things.  If so then the person that wrote the contract needs to go to a dictionary and look up the word PASSIVELY!