Contract system Changes

[KerikBalm]

Judging by numerous posts, I am not alone in thinking that the contracts system in its current implimentation has some issues, so I'd like to make some suggestions:

*Issue #1: Science flows too easily,

In my current career game, Ive pretty much stopped the old biome harvesting tactic... my contracts supply all the needed science.

I propose that we remove *all* science rewards from contracts (While the rep to science admin strategy should still work, as should a nerfed funds to science strategy).

We already have contracts that tell you to go to a specific location, with a specific part.

So have the game check your science archives, unlocked science instruments, bodies already visited (ie, after the exlore contract) and give contracts to go to biome X and get science data Y.

In this system, the game simply gives you funds and directs you to go out and get science the "old fashioned" way - no infitite generic "science data from around X" where an orbiting probe with a thermometer gives unlimited (though at a slow rate) science.

*Issue #2: Contracts become grindy and boring doingthe same types of missions over and over again with random parameters.

Do you really want to launch a 5th satellite? Do you really want yet another habitat for kerbals in Kerbin orbit? probably not.

What you probably do want is to go do something new.

So this proposal would be more of a change, 2 contract catagories - "exploration" and "economic":

Economic - These are your simple launch satelites, build stations/surface bases, etc. These pay funds and rep, but no science.

Rescue missions would go here.

I guess I would include the survey missions, even though those can net you science too.

Part tests go here, and yield no science - these tests are always for parts you haven't unlocked/purchased yet. They don't give you science, but they do let you temporarily use the experimental parts (contract parameters should be set for each part... don't tell me to test a jet on Mun, or a booster in orbit - go ahead and tell me to test an aerospike on eve though, or a jet on laythe, or an ion engine in Moho orbit... etc)

Exploration contracts are basically predefined: like the explore contracts, the altitude contracts, and so forth. These contracts set out milestones for the player to accomplish - possibly include contracts like those I suggested about visiting specific biomes with specific science instruments.

Most of these are scripted:

Currently, the scripted contracts start the player off just going higher and higher (assuming a total noob that doesn't know how to get to orbit).

I propose we add some speed or speed+ altitude contracts after a player manages to get to space/exceed the ~50km altitude contracts... to sort of guide them into orbit.

Add a new contract for docking in space (it can check for new vessels, can it check that two vessels were launched seperately, and then docked?).

-No rescue contracts would appear until this one is completed-

follow with "orbital rendevous around body X" contracts- At least one of the docked craft needs to have its trip logger record that it landed on the body.

There would be seperate limits on the number of contracts you can accept for each catagory (until the final tier upgrade, where contracts are unlimited).

So taking an explore contract doesn't conflict with your ability to launch satelittes and such in the meantime.

*Issue #3: Scripted contracts aren't appearing

Sometimes the game starts offering you contracts to put sats in orbit around bodies you haven't visited, and the explore contract won't come up.

Other times, you'll cross its SOI before the contract comes up... the contract is forever lost to you, and you get no funds for the achievement.

Most people rarely see the intermediate altitude contracts between exceeding 5,000 m, and reaching space.

Suggestion: Scripted contracts would auto complete even if not accepted - you would lose the advance funds, but still gain the rewards.

I think that if these sugestions were followed, the game progression would be better and less grindy.

Newer players would have contracts leading them in the right direction at least as far as getting to orbit. Rewarding new players for adding some horizontal velocity instead of just encouraging them to fly straight up (as with the altitude contracts) is a good thing.

Also I think contracts sending you to biomes to fill out your science archives is a good thing: You're going there because you're missing data, and its not random, and you won't have to do it again. You cross a biome off your list in the archives, and have some semblance of progress/ that you accomplished something, instead of just visiting yet another of an unending set of random coordinates.

Edited February 7, 2015 by KerikBalm

[KSK]

I'm not sure how well this would work in-game, but I thought I'd just throw this out as a discussion point.

Lets get rid of science.

Or more accurately, lets split the current Science system into pure and applied research. Everything that the current Science system does (tech tree progress and use within strategies) becomes Applied Research. Then you have Pure Research as either something that's given to you as a contract for monetary gain, or something that you can add to your missions to generate bonus reputation.

Applied Research is gained from:

Building spacecraft (borrowing this idea from Kerbal Construction Timer).

Landing on, walking on or orbiting around celestial bodies.

Returning craft from orbit.

Parts test contracts.

Materials bay tests, in flight or in space.

Mystery goo observations in flight or in space (I'm rationalising this by assuming that Mystery Goo is biological. Observing biological systems in space drives research into life support systems).

Temperature and pressure readings. (Knowing about thermal or aerodynamic stresses on your spacecraft is helpful for building better spacecraft.)

Applied Research therefore becomes something that partly happens automatically as you undertake missions (to reflect your space program's increasing experience and competence) but is also partly player driven so that tech tree progress doesn't become a scripted sequence of missions that you need to do to get any further.

Pure Research is gained from everything else - sample returns, EVAs, gravioli and seismic measurements, and materials/mystery goo observations landed at various biomes. I'm lumping EVAs into Pure Research because, from an engineering point of view, it really shouldn't matter whether I do an EVA flying above a desert, a mountain range or an ocean.

Edited February 8, 2015 by KSK

[pertrep]

For unimaginative goal oriented achievers who get off on working out how to do fiendishly difficult things with some elegance, Career Mode is a must. It is however, as suggested, a simple construct trying to meet the needs of complicated minds and needs an overhaul along the lines suggested. One additional area, trivial though it seems (I thought I had posted on this but it seems to have gone astray), is how to keep track of all those contracts once you have unlocked Unlimited Contracts, especially when you are trying to use a single launch to fulfill two or three contracts over a long period of time, while other flights are in progress and other vehicles are being built. A two character alphanumeric Contract Number would be handy, as in: log it in the alarm clock, put it in the vehicle name etc. It would also be useful to be able to flag contracts (yellow perhaps) that you have already committed resources to, instead of searching each craft each time to find out what contracts already have a launch.