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[0.90.0] Fine Print vSTOCK'D - BETA RELEASE!!! (December 15)


Arsonide

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Additional good missions include:

Probe impacting,

Asteroid retrieval to ground. (This probably shouldn't be done for planets without an atmosphere.)

Retrieving a particular piece of debris (either one you left in space or one that is spawned in space.)

For the debris retrieval here are some good examples of text. you should be able to see where you can convert what items into random phrases.

1. Shortly after you launched Elloo Explorer 13, one of our engineers, Dimble Kerman, realized he had dropped the keys to his wife's rocket scooter in an access panel to a part we repaired for you. Now he needs the keys back before his wife discovers that he borrowed her scooter without asking. We believe it is in a Toroidal Aerospike engine on one of the pieces of debris from the flight. We are greatly concerned for our coworker's ability to go out to the next fireworks show, so in return we began to wonder how to solve this issue. After careful consideration we were stumped and decided to ask someone else. That's where you come in.

2. About the time you entered orbit of Duna with Red Rover, we discovered an unusual weight discrepancy in the telemetry results for the most recent staging. It turns out our janitor, Pantoro Kerbin had accidentally switched a stack of paper wrappings with his Master's thesis on rocket explosions in low gravity environments. Fortunately for Pantoro, the dean of his college was injured in a rocket-assisted para-gliding accident, and was given 4 extra years to get his paper ready. Unfortunately, the section used to line the Rockomax Jumbo-64 Fuel Tank, seemed to contain vital research information that cannot be replicated. We were initially unsure if it was worth the effort, but Pantoro has reassured us that the data included some nice pictures, not just confusing numbers. With the distance to Duna we thought this undertaking should be refereed to experts, and in the absence of that we chose to just call you. So, this puts it in your hands.

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I advise you to check the tracking station before accepting a rover mission to see where the agency is sending you.

I don't know if I'm missing something but I have found no way of doing this. I've only found where the mission targets are after the contract is accepted. How do you find these on offered contracts before accepting?

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I don't know if I'm missing something but I have found no way of doing this. I've only found where the mission targets are after the contract is accepted. How do you find these on offered contracts before accepting?

If they're offered, they show up in the tracking station along with the ones you've accepted. Land/air destinations have names, and you can match those to the contracts offered/accepted.

(They won't show up when piloting a craft, so you can switch into real space / back to the Tracking Station to see which ones are yours and which ones are offered)

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Anything with powered wheels touching the ground is considered a rover juanml82. I do not constrain your creativity other than that stipulation.

As far as missions spawning in difficult areas, that is a good thing in my opinion. I advise you to check the tracking station before accepting a rover mission to see where the agency is sending you.

The Contract System determines what missions are chosen, and I have not modified that system in any way. What I have done is put limitations on my missions so that only a few can spawn at once. Beyond that I have little control over how the system chooses what it chooses. This is part of RNG. There have been times in my testing where I've had many stock missions and not any of mine.

I've found a problem with the orbital matching algorithm, and I'm working on fixing that as well as adding more information to orbital waypoints.

Well, it didn't work. I got the messages about approaching and leaving the area, but the contract never updated.

I like the mod, as it gives you a reason to make stuff - say a Minmus base which I would otherwise skip for another time, or space stations. However, I think the location parameters should be tweaked. I got a contract to build a space station on Duna's orbit, but the required orbit is beyond Ike's orbit. So, while building a space station on Duna is something I'd do, I don't think it's worth it to build it in an orbit where vessels in the Duna system have to expend a lot of delta-v to arrive.

I also think contracts should have bigger rewards. I got a rover contract on Kerbin which pays something like 25,000 credits - but to fulfill it I need to deliver a rover either through a long and boring flight on a big cargo plane which might or might not have the fuel to get back to the KSC, or take a suborbital hop on a rocket (which would definitely won't be recovered at KSC). Maybe there is a way to fulfill the contract while making a profit, but I'm not sure it's possible.

Something similar happens, at least to me, regarding the "fly over" contracts. They are good in that they require you to use planes which not everyone does. Now, I'm starting with planes since the 0.24 update and I'm not using FAR or NEAR, so better pilots with those mods might think otherwise (and your own testing might have given you better results than me). Here's the thing: most of the "anomalies" are by the poles or in lower/higher latitudes. Which is actually cool - it wouldn't be much of a challenge if they were over the island by the KSC. But for a rookie pilot using stock, it gets complicated to score more than two anomalies in one go - I don't even know if it's actually possible in stock without burning a lot of fuel. And it also leaves the spaceplane in a very inclined orbit, which makes returning to the KSC complicated in a non funny way: changing the inclination at such low orbits requires too much delta-v (more, maybe than what the plane can achieve) and return windows to the KSC can take a lot of orbits. Now, this wouldn't be too much of an issue if the reward covered the price of the spaceplane: hit as many anomalies as you can, land wherever you can, profit. But with the current rewards, you pretty much have to return to the KSC to make a profit - which is what contracts are about.

And on another subject, how about some contracts directing the player towards the actual easter eggs?

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I absolutely love this mod, but I'm having a little bit of a problem. It told me to put a satellite in a polar orbit, which I did. The contract won't complete though, and now I don't know what's wrong. I see there's talk of issues, but I want to rule out that I might be doing something wrong. Everything checks out besides coming within 7% of the target orbit, but as far as I can tell I'm pretty much dead on.

Ud1pUbk.png

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Well, it didn't work. I got the messages about approaching and leaving the area, but the contract never updated.

I like the mod, as it gives you a reason to make stuff - say a Minmus base which I would otherwise skip for another time, or space stations. However, I think the location parameters should be tweaked. I got a contract to build a space station on Duna's orbit, but the required orbit is beyond Ike's orbit. So, while building a space station on Duna is something I'd do, I don't think it's worth it to build it in an orbit where vessels in the Duna system have to expend a lot of delta-v to arrive.

I also think contracts should have bigger rewards. I got a rover contract on Kerbin which pays something like 25,000 credits - but to fulfill it I need to deliver a rover either through a long and boring flight on a big cargo plane which might or might not have the fuel to get back to the KSC, or take a suborbital hop on a rocket (which would definitely won't be recovered at KSC). Maybe there is a way to fulfill the contract while making a profit, but I'm not sure it's possible.

Something similar happens, at least to me, regarding the "fly over" contracts. They are good in that they require you to use planes which not everyone does. Now, I'm starting with planes since the 0.24 update and I'm not using FAR or NEAR, so better pilots with those mods might think otherwise (and your own testing might have given you better results than me). Here's the thing: most of the "anomalies" are by the poles or in lower/higher latitudes. Which is actually cool - it wouldn't be much of a challenge if they were over the island by the KSC. But for a rookie pilot using stock, it gets complicated to score more than two anomalies in one go - I don't even know if it's actually possible in stock without burning a lot of fuel. And it also leaves the spaceplane in a very inclined orbit, which makes returning to the KSC complicated in a non funny way: changing the inclination at such low orbits requires too much delta-v (more, maybe than what the plane can achieve) and return windows to the KSC can take a lot of orbits. Now, this wouldn't be too much of an issue if the reward covered the price of the spaceplane: hit as many anomalies as you can, land wherever you can, profit. But with the current rewards, you pretty much have to return to the KSC to make a profit - which is what contracts are about.

And on another subject, how about some contracts directing the player towards the actual easter eggs?

Make sure the wheels you are using are powered wheels. I don't think your standard landing gears will work in this situation.

Aerial missions suffer an interesting problem balance wise, in that they are too hard for players lower on the tech tree, and too easy for players higher in the tech tree. I have to balance them carefully, and I will continue to look at this. Right now the main problem, I think, is that their difficulty is based solely on the prestige level of the mission, whereas it should also take into account what level engines you have. Keep in mind also, that these don't just spawn on Kerbin. They spawn on any planet with an atmosphere, and not all planets with atmospheres allow air breathing engines. That is why there is no requirement to use jet engines.

There was initially an issue in older versions with waypoints bunching up near the poles, but this is no longer an issue. If you are getting a lot of contracts at the poles, it is because agencies want you to visit the poles. (RNG) Similarly, regarding your Duna station, I don't necessarily think it's a good thing to limit agency requests to "realistic" constraints, because A: we do not know their needs, B: they are kerbals, and C: gameplay wise, if we constrain to realistic reusable situations, there will be less situations to choose from, and the game will get less replayable. The whole intention of Fine Print is to make KSP more replayable. You say there's a lot of delta V required to get to this orbit, to me that sounds like a challenge, and an interesting gameplay situation for you. Remember, these are stations you are building for the agency, not for yourself.

I enjoy that the RNG occasionally throws oddball requests at you, because people have been playing KSP for years, and I like the idea that I might be able to confuse or challenge them with a request. This is a very intentional design decision on my part, to not constrain the output of missions too much.

Indeed I am planning EVA contracts to easter eggs. New easter eggs that procedurally spawn in dynamic locations, as you can see in my signature. However, right now, I am trying to smooth out the satellite orbits. I know they are frustrating some people, and that frustrates me.

I absolutely love this mod, but I'm having a little bit of a problem. It told me to put a satellite in a polar orbit, which I did. The contract won't complete though, and now I don't know what's wrong. I see there's talk of issues, but I want to rule out that I might be doing something wrong. Everything checks out besides coming within 7% of the target orbit, but as far as I can tell I'm pretty much dead on.

http://i.imgur.com/Ud1pUbk.png

Please quick save, and send me your save in a PM. I need as much information on this situation as possible.

Edited by Arsonide
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I absolutely love this mod, but I'm having a little bit of a problem. It told me to put a satellite in a polar orbit, which I did. The contract won't complete though, and now I don't know what's wrong. I see there's talk of issues, but I want to rule out that I might be doing something wrong. Everything checks out besides coming within 7% of the target orbit, but as far as I can tell I'm pretty much dead on.

The first satellite I've tried to put had the same problem - but it was because I was supposed to put it going from south to north and I put it going from north to south. Maybe you just need to invert your inclination ("just" if you have enough delta-v, that is)
Make sure the wheels you are using are powered wheels. I don't think your standard landing gears will work in this situation.

I though that might be it. Now its a matter of delivering the conventional rover I'm sending to Minmus over there and back to the base.... keeps thinking
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The first satellite I've tried to put had the same problem - but it was because I was supposed to put it going from south to north and I put it going from north to south. Maybe you just need to invert your inclination ("just" if you have enough delta-v, that is)

Might be the case for my Kerbin one, but I'm having the same issue with one I put into a Molniya orbit around Minmus. This one I'm sure is in the right direction.

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Might be the case for my Kerbin one, but I'm having the same issue with one I put into a Molniya orbit around Minmus. This one I'm sure is in the right direction.

I have some fixes in place, but they involve inclinations being generated weird. A polar orbit wouldn't be affected by this, as they generate with a set inclination. Give me a moment to check out your save.

EDIT: Ah, I set the inclination before I do the crazy stuff that's messing everything up. Yes, this is fixed in the next version. My apologies.

Edited by Arsonide
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Love the mod. But wow, things sometimes get out of hand. Let me recap my commercial satellite delivery contracts so far:

1. Kerbin, low-moderate inclination, out past KSO, but inside the Mun's orbit. Cool, can do.

2. Minmus, stationary orbit. No problem.

3. Minmus, polar synchronous orbit. Awesome, stick it on the same rocket as #2. Booya.

4. Solar, HIGHLY inclined (oh, about 120°, which makes it RETROGRADE), oh, and the orbit is mostly higher than Jool. :0.0: Yeah, declined. Thanks anyway.

UtGDiNdl.pngMVZPhPgl.png

UPDATE!

5. Kerbin equatorial, but retrograde, periapsis near enough the Mun that it will definitely eventually impact at over 1 km/sec. The kicker? The contractor is OMB Demolition. :cool: "Gentlekerbs, our goal is clear. We will blow up... the MUUUUUUuuuuuuun!"

Edited by LongbowEOD
Added contract 5
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Has anyone else had trouble with the tracking center, once you have contracts to put something in a specific orbit? I can see the orbits, but I can no longer select or switch to any spacecraft. The only thing I can think of is maybe some sort of conflict with RemoteTech, since that's the only other thing I have that modifies the tracking screen.

Edit: Bah, everything's broken now. Probably not a Fine Print issue...

Edited by Jarin
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Contract condition "Reach the designated polar orbit..." does not trigger:

The orbit is pretty close, I don't have the patience to do all the tiny 50cm/s burns to get it pixel-perfect.

It would be nice if low-cost or early-game satellite missions had more permitted deviation - later tech makes it easier to fine-tune the position. Also higher-precision contracts could pay more vs "sling it generally northwards"

fMDk7Qbl.png

This is the probe. SCANsat radar, Mechjeb case, KW rocketry tank

Os287Ljl.png

The orbit is going "the right way". If this is a bug, can I force-complete the contract somehow?

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Is anyone else having problems with some of the satellite orbit contracts? They seem to require a precision well beyond the map screens capabilities, without giving us the exact numbers it just becomes a guessing game at some point.

EDIT: Basically ninja'd by the above post haha. You could do what I ended up doing and using the new section of the ALT-F12 menu to complete the mission.

Edited by pokeman
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The orbit is going "the right way". If this is a bug, can I force-complete the contract somehow?

1. ALT-F12 shows the KSP debug screen.

2. Click Contracts tab.

3. Find the contract in the list

4. Click the "Com" button.

5. Profit

Edited by Apollo13
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Arsonide, I have a feature suggestion/request... Supply contracts! They would come in two types, orbital and surface.

Orbital supply contracts would work like they do IRL, requiring you to deliver a payload supplies to an existing Space Station. Surface supply contracts would be similar, except instead of docking, you'd just need to land within a certain radius of a Base (or a marker that your mod places).

Payload wise I'm only thinking about stock items such as crew, fuel, monoprop, etc. While it'd be nice for the payload to support resources implemented by other mods such as TACLS, I'd imagine you'd want to leave that up to the other mod's authors via a plugin system.

Depending on how in depth you wanted to make it, you could also specify what Kerbals should be brought back home to make crew rotation contracts. As for supplies, something as basic as "dock/land with at least 'X' resource remaining" I think would work as a completion parameter.

I scanned a few pages back and didn't see anyone mention an idea like this, but I didn't read all 45 pages so hopefully I'm just not re-hashing an idea you've already seen!

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Supply contracts are a good idea but what if you get a contract to, for example, supply fuel to a station which is already full or has no fuel storage?

Maybe just a generic resource or even a part with a variable weight called 'supplies'? The contract could specify the mission payload size and weight and the payload would show up as a single part in the VAB. Contract would be ended when you deliver the payload to within 1km of the target station and decouple it. (Retrieval is assumed to be handled by those onboard)

And just have fine print delete the payload once you leave.

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About half of the satellite contracts are being given an inclination greater than 180, causing them to appear to be much harder to complete than they actually are. In actuality 7% is a pretty big amount of deviation, and these contracts are pretty easy for the most part. What is actually slowing down the release is my progress getting orbital icons for ascending and descending nodes onto the GUI. I want to get that in as well, and it is being very stubborn.

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Supply contracts are a good idea but what if you get a contract to, for example, supply fuel to a station which is already full or has no fuel storage?

You'd still be able to deliver it. I wouldn't imagine any completion conditions that would require you to offload supplies (minus crew during crew rotation contracts). So as long as you docked and you have at least the minimum amount of fuel/monoprop onboard, the contract should complete.

There'd just have to be checks in place so that the game didn't want you to deliver an entire orange tank's worth of fuel to a Skylab or Mir sized space station! :P

I like your idea of a generic "supplies" resource, though I don't know how easy/hard that would be implement since I'm a KSP modder.

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You'd still be able to deliver it. I wouldn't imagine any completion conditions that would require you to offload supplies (minus crew during crew rotation contracts). So as long as you docked and you have at least the minimum amount of fuel/monoprop onboard, the contract should complete.
Ohh I understand. I thought you meant it to complete when you dock up and transfer it in.
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