Kerano

I like to complete as many contracts as possible in a single launch (usually 6-7), so my ships in 0.24 typically have a bunch of random parts attached to the top in a hodge-podge manner. Modular Girder Segments and Cubic Octagonal Struts have become my best friends. I'm at slightly over 6 million funds presently, so I don't worry too much about recovering any lower stages except those with the most expensive engines. Typically for my interplanetary missions I'll have a Kerbodyne S3-14400 Tank attached to a S3 KS-25x4 Engine Cluster as the lower central stage, with a probe core + SAS + batteries, and 6-8 Mk16-XL Parachutes attached via girders to slow the descent enough such that I can do a small burn in the last 100 meters to land at a safe speed.

There should probably be a popup menu the first time you approach a stranded Kerbal informing you which key(s) to press to control them. I certainly didn't learn about "[" and "]" until quite a few weeks into my first experience with KSP, and it's not exactly intuitive to expect that's what you have to do.

I originally made this post a couple of weeks before the release of 0.24, but it was hidden away inside another thread so I figured I'd start a separate thread for it here. The difference in format compared to the actual contracts is due to the fact that this was written before I'd seen the update. Without further ado, here are my suggestions for expanding procedural contracts (particularly in the endgame): 1. "Bigwig Kerman, the head of [contractor], urgently needs to get from [location] to [location] on Kerbin, but his regular pilot has fallen ill with kerpendicitis. Fly out to pick him up, and take him to his required destination." 2. "The [spacecraft] orbiting [planet/moon] has suffered a technical fault which has rendered it unable to [generate electrical power/ignite its boosters]. Fixing the fault will require a replacement part to be transported from Kerbin. Send a crew to dock with the station and install the replacement part." 3. "The CEO of [contractor] wishes to inspect the [spacecraft] facility on [planet/moon]. Pick him up from [location] and transport him safely to the facility." 4. "Recent probing has uncovered a valuable source of [unobtainium] on [planet/moon] near [location]. Establish a manned base of operations in this area, including at minimum the following [parts]." 5. "Two of the retiring executives at [contractor] wish to start a rally championship on [planet/moon] near [location]. Design two different man-powered rovers and land them safely together at the location." 6. "Sensors have detected seismic activity on [planet/moon] near [location]. Send a crew to investigate and return samples." 7. "The manager of [contractor] requires [number] tonnes of fuel to be added to the [spacecraft] orbiting [planet/moon] for nefarious purposes. Transport and dock the specified amount of extra fuel to the space station." 8. "The [spacecraft] probe orbiting [planet/moon] has malfunctioned and requires a manual reset. Send a Kerbal to rendezvous with the probe and EVA to fix the problem by making contact with [part]." 9. "The megalomaniacal director of [contractor] requires a tower [number] meters high to be built near [location] on [planet/moon]. Design and land an appropriate tower at the given location. The central pod must be at least [number] meters above ground level when the tower comes to rest." 10. "A shipment of supplies needs to be transported from the [spacecraft 1] on [planet/moon 1] to the [spacecraft 2] on [planet/moon 2]. [Contractor] requires your services to oversee the operation." 11. "The president of [contractor] is on holiday and wishes to take an aerial tour of Laythe. Pick her up from the [spacecraft] orbiting Laythe, descend into Laythe's atmosphere, land, and return to the [spacecraft] in orbit to complete this mission." 12. "An experiment on the [spacecraft] orbiting [planet/moon] has gone horribly wrong, generating extremely hazardous waste. [Contractor] is convinced that the only way to save Kerbalkind from impending doom is to eject the barely contained waste into the sun. Design a craft with a detachable [container] capable of docking with the [spacecraft] to collect the waste, then undock and achieve an orbit intersecting Kerbol. Choose to eject the [container] on this collision course, or allow the entire craft to be incinerated by the star." 13. "Dubya Kerman, the president of [contractor], wishes to set a new record for the longest golfing drive. Pick him up from [location], transport him to the surface of Minmus to take his shot, and return him to Kerbin." 14. "The head honcho at [contractor] is planning a spectacular fireworks display as an engagement surprise for her partner. Design a craft capable of staging at least [number] impressive aerial explosions while the central pod remains intact. Trigger the explosive stages in the air above [location], and land the central pod safely." 15. "The bosses at [contractor] have decided to reward their employees with a company outing to [planet/moon]. Design a craft capable of transporting [number] Kerbals to the destination, and returning them safely to Kerbin." 16. "Important figureheads from [contractors] have arranged to hold a secret meeting on the dark side of the Mun. Pick them up from [locations] and transport them to their destination." 17. "The chief officer at [contractor], an avid golfer with notoriously bad aim, wants for once in his life to score the ultimate hole in one. Pick him up from [location] and take him to the north pole of Moho." 18. "A daredevil manager at [contractor] is determined to ride an asteroid down through Kerbin's atmosphere for his next stunt. Design a craft to take the thrill seeker to an asteroid, nudge it into a path intersecting Kerbin, and ride the asteroid down to an altitude of [number] km. Detach the craft from the asteroid below this altitude, and land safely." 19. "An executive at [contractor] wants to take her family on a skiing holiday. Design a craft which can take [number] Kerbals to a snowy peak above an altitude of [number] km on Kerbin, and land them safely on the mountain." 20. "Someone has eaten all the snacks aboard the [spacecraft] orbiting [planet/moon], making the resident Kerbonauts grumpy. Send a craft from Kerbin to dock with the station and resupply it with delicious treats." Feel free to add to the list. Note 1: [spacecraft] = replaced by the name of one of your active ships [location] = coordinate, biome, or flag/checkpoint (see note 2) Note 2: Instead of giving coordinates/biomes for these missions, rebranded flags - perhaps labelled "checkpoints" - might work well as mission location indicators. Note 3: No spacecraft would need to be added to the game, it'd just use the ones you had in place already. I'm assuming that in the endgame you'll probably have at least one spacecraft in orbit around most planets/moons, and one landed spacecraft on most as well. Thus these missions would trigger using your existing spacecraft - only in the locations where the conditions were met. If you didn't have any spacecraft in locations which met the preconditions for a particular contract, you wouldn't be assigned that contract.

Another option would be to have a dialogue box when you click on the contracts button in the VAB, which would list all your contracts along with a checkbox next to each. In this screen you would be able to look at the available contracts, tick the checkbox on the ones you want to try to complete on this mission, and untick the ones you want to leave for a later mission. Ideally you could also drag and drop contracts to reorder them here. If you later decide during construction that you want to add another contract to your "to do list", or remove one, no trouble - just click the contracts button for the dialogue box, then tick/untick the desired contracts.

Edited this post into the first.

I agree strongly with this. The contracts window as it is currently is rather difficult to navigate. My own suggestions are pretty similar to yours: - Allow the contracts window to be resized in the VAB, not just in flight. - Allow the contracts window to be expanded to the left, as well as down. - Provide an option to "sticky" contracts you want to focus on for the current flight (so they're always at the top of the list). - Contracts which are irrelevant for the current flight (e.g. no relevant part installed) should be hidden from view or placed at the bottom of the list.

So after a day playing KSP 0.24, the main thing I'm noticing is that the contracts window is extremely difficult to navigate once you get past the first few missions. I have perhaps 20 active contracts at any one time, and the contracts window simply does not cope adequately with this. It's particularly frustrating in the VAB when the contracts window can't even be resized. Some suggestions: - Allow the contracts window to be resized in the VAB, not just in flight. (✓ v0.25) - Allow the contracts window to be expanded to the left, as well as down. - Provide an option to "sticky" contracts you want to focus on for the current flight (so they're always at the top of the list). (Still needed as of v0.25!) - Contracts which are irrelevant for the current flight (e.g. no relevant part installed) should be hidden from view or placed at the bottom of the list. (Still needed as of v0.25!) Another option would be to have a dialogue box open when you click on the contracts button in the VAB, which would list all your available contracts along with a checkbox next to each. In this screen you would be able to look at the available contracts, tick the checkbox on the ones you want to try to complete on this mission, and untick the ones you want to leave for a later mission. Ideally you could also drag and drop contracts to reorder them here. If you later decide during construction that you want to add another contract to your "to do list" or remove one - no trouble, just click the contracts button for the dialogue box prior to launch, then tick/untick the desired contracts.

Aaargh, stupid Chrome... after a 30 minute download it comes up with "this file is not commonly downloaded and may be dangerous"... I clicked to "discard" the message, but instead it deleted my download. Back to square one...

Danged Steam users, getting the head start on us folks relying on the KSP website.

Uh... trying to download from the KSP website.

From the steam database: Why yes... yes we are.

If the Hype Train is travelling at 300 posts per hour, and the Squad train is updating builds at 500 bytes per hour, at what time will they meet? (Note: this is a joke, don't answer with a serious time. )

The video's awesome too...

That'd be great. Alternatively/additionally, it'd be neat to have the craft file so as to try it out for myself.

Did Crotchety Old Modders get any screenshots of the impressive "Grabatron Ascension" in action? I imagine it must have been quite difficult to get the right tip speed to upright those pieces without landing too hard or overshooting.

Heh, I got the teams right. Didn't want to spoil it by mentioning earlier, but a couple of posts gave hints as to which team was which. Most notable was this one a while back: As soon as I saw that I knew which album belonged to team I Think We Broke It, and the rest was easy to deduce from there.

I thought it was amusing to leave ambiguous. Which time zone? 5:02am or 5:02pm? Technically there's a 1 in 60 chance of it being 5:02 somewhere in the world when they hit the upload button.

Registration date, not post date. Multi-layered troll.

Darn... I'll hold out for tomorrow then.

Maybe it's a hint... the next update will be released at 5:02? Seriously though, getting the 502 error almost every time I try to open a new page now.

Rovers are awesome, particularly if they're big. My over-engineered Monstrosity class rovers from back in 0.23 have almost 7000 m/s of delta-v when flown in pure LV-N mode, and can easily takeoff/land multiple times from most bodies depending on the gravity. All stock parts, apart from one MechJeb unit. I've taken slight variants to the Mun, Minmus, Moho, Gilly, Ike, Dres, Pol, Bop, Vall, and Eeloo. Fully loaded with fuel it's actually quite drivable even on Minmus and Pol... only one it struggles to grip on is Gilly.

Yeah, these have been such a pain for me too. I've taken to copying my longer replies to Notepad before I hit "post", because all too often the message gets eaten by the 502 monster.

Now I'm curious whether you could recover the money from a debris part by using a rover with a claw...

I'll hope for a matter of days then.