Damien_The_Unbeliever

You can get the radial attached to a single craft as well with some creative construction: Start the craft with, say, a fuel tank Add the radial decoupler to it Add another fuel tank to the far side of the decoupler Add a pod on top of this second fuel tank Re-root the craft to the pod Delete the first fuel tank ... Profit?

It would help if you could show the contract. Have you paid attention to the first part of the advice -that it must be activated by staging or via "Run test" and which of those you need to use is part of the contract? Also, I know I've been stupid on this aspect more than once, but are you sure you're using the right engine at the right moment?

I'm sorry, but is this "everyone must play the game the way that I want to play the game"? I can't see any real justifications in the above other than them being your preferences.

By (1) are you just basically looking for them to apply a hidden offset so that we say, advance the entire system from its current starting position by (say) 493 days and then call that "year 1, day 1" in that career game? That sounds relatively straightforward to implement. Alternatively, if you want that kind of challenge: Start a new career mode game Enter tracking station Go to maximum forward warp. Go and make yourself a beverage, mow the lawn, or whatever you want to do for an amount of time that won't be exactly the same each time you follow this process Take game out of maximum warp, actually start working on your career.

As someone who's using a trackpad with no middle mouse-button/mousewheel emulation I do wish people wouldn't say things like that.

I've added a new paragraph at the end of that section covering my current understanding - you can build modularly but if you try to combine some new modules and some older modules (that existed before the contract is accepted) you may fail the "launch a new vessel" element of the contract. People have reported mixed results when trying this.

And where can the player see the vessel ID inside the game? As I said, part of this idea would be for us (or squad) to be able to generate craft modification contracts (or change of orbit/planet contracts) and for the player to immediately be able to go to the tracking station and work out which vessel the contract is talking about.

Well, I was also thinking that this would satisfy (my) general desire for, when separating two ships, (even if the docking/separation lines are different from how they originally connected) them regaining their original identities.

A lot of people want contracts that build on existing structures. But in order for this to work, I'd think we'd need to have a unique naming system. My suggestion would be that each probe core/capsule/cockpit could be assigned a unique, irrevocable, un-reassignable name. The rename option would not be available once a name has been assigned. If vessels containing more than one of these parts is constructed (via VAB or docking) then those names would be combined (as much as possible). And even once a vessel is deleted, its name cannot be reused. This would then lead the way to "Add 10 Kerbal capacity to Station X" style contracts - because it would allow you to identify Station X - as opposed to the current chaos where "Add 10 Kerbal capacity to Unnamed Space Ship" could lead to a lot of confusion on which vessel is intended. (Also, initial Base/Station contracts could then specify a required name, but that's incidental)

If the game is really as vague as "an item", then it's probably a bug. If it's more specific than that (which I expect it is) please give the actual text.

I've added an update re: the location messages and the navball marker

I would be more than happy to add a Rescue Contracts section to the OP. The point being that these questions keep being asked (although I've not seen enough of the rescue contracts ones to form a generality) and surely its better to have a single resource here that addresses "Frequently Asked Questions about completing contracts" that many askers can be referred to? Or do you think that there's value to answering each, individual yet duplicate question with duplicate answers? I guess what I'm trying to say is that I'm trying to address actual FAQ on this (sub)forum, but for now I'm concentrating on contracts.

I considered tutorials but I thought this would be a better forum given that this is where the *questions* keep being asked. Also, the description for this forum is "KSP tips and tricks and also ..." and it's not an actual tutorial. TBH, I wrote it with the hope that the mods might consider it for stickying - since it does address a lot of the contract completion questions that seem to *keep* coming up.

I've updated to point out that craft can be recovered or re-purposed. - - - Updated - - - I've added a footnote outlining the technique I've been using for EVA reports. It has always worked for me.

Since we seem to see a fair few questions in here where people are struggling to complete contracts, I thought I'd try to write as complete a guide as I'm capable of to completing each type of contract: (As at version 0.90) General At the moment, the first paragraph in the briefing is gibberish, but everything else should be paid attention to. If you have limited contract slots available (2 or 7 depending on building level) it won't help if you've filled them all up with contracts that you later decide are "impossible" to satisfy. For craft contracts (Satellite, base, orbital station) once the contract has been satisfied, you're free to do anything you wish with the craft. The craft could be used to satisfy multiple contracts (provided it meets all requirements) or it could be de-orbited (provided you've planned ahead for this) so that it can be recovered. Satellite A satellite contract will show the desired orbit in the tracking station (and in the map view, for accepted contracts). The most common mistake people seem to make is to get the "right" orbit but in the wrong direction. The orbit that you're shown includes a set of bright dots that rotate in the same direction as your vessel should. Alternately, check the required inclination of the orbit - if it's between 0° and 90° then your orbit should be prograde. If it's between 90° and 180° it should be retrograde. All satellites require power, which in this case means something that can generate power - so (one or more) solar panels and/or RTGs. The "Launch Stability Enhancer" also generates power but since you can't take those into space, don't rely on that (a known bug, as at 0.90, is that the Launch Stability Enhancer unlocks satellite contracts). Batteries alone will not do. As a general rule, if your satellite is sat on the launch pad then it should already satisfy all of the contract sub-elements except the "Reach the designated orbit" one (and, if you're impatient, "Maintain stability for 10 seconds") When trying to match the orbit, as stated above the map view will show the required orbit with Apoapsis and Periapsis as well as the Ascending and Descending nodes - these nodes are shown on the target orbit rather than on your own vessel's orbit and so to use them for aligning your own orbit you should burn Normal when your vessel is aligned with the Ascending node or burn Anti-Normal when aligned with the Descending node. Unlike when targeting another object, no dashed lines are shown between these nodes and your own orbit so you have to rely on judgement to decide when your vessel is aligned with the node. Surveys Survey contracts will always require you to perform some form of action at particular locations. When a contract is offered, the locations will show up as small markers in the tracking view. Once the contract is accepted, these markers will also show up in Map view. Clicking a marker in map view will offer an "Activate Navigation" option which will cause the marker's symbol to appear on the Navball - however, the direction shown is the straight-line direction to the marker - no matter how much planet may be between your vessel and the target so until you're close to the target, don't try to aim straight for the marker. For any multi-location contract, you do not have to complete all locations in a single flight/mission. You can also visit locations belonging to multiple contracts in a single flight/mission. As you enter any (accepted) contract location, you'll receive an on screen message. If that's also the location you're currently navigating towards, it's icon will flash in the Navball. If you exit the location, you'll have another on screen message to tell you so. If the requirement for a location is "in flight" then there will be an altitude requirement. If the requirement is "below xxx metres" then anywhere above the surface and below that altitude is acceptable. If the requirement is "above xxx metres" then there is no (general) upper limit - you can in theory do these from space but at most orbital velocities, you will require precise timing to trigger the required action at the right time. However, if the action required involves a science instrument (pressure reading, temperature reading, etc) then that instrument may not work in space or upper atmosphere, say, and so may impose its own upper limit. For "on the surface" requirements your vessel needs to be on the surface but your Kerbals need not be - being on EVA whilst holding the hatch of the cockpit is good enough* for you to generate an EVA report "on the surface" - except when they actually require a surface sample. Orbital Station/Base This contract requires you to "Have a facility supporting at least xxx Kerbals". This means that there needs to be enough space for that many Kerbals. It doesn't mean you have to either launch with that many on board or ever have that many on board (it can even be completely un-Kerballed if you decide to stick a probe core in there). All modules which Kerbals can enter count towards this - so a Mobile Processing Lab adds support for 2 Kerbals but external command chairs do not. If the base contract requires it to "Be Mobile" then it needs to have rover wheels of some sort. Landing bay wheels do not count. It is possible to complete these contracts through multiple launches and assembly in space/at the location - but mixed results have been reported when you try to combine newly launched parts and pre-existing parts. Sometimes the use of pre-existing parts causes the "launch a new vessel" element of the contract to fail. Parts Tests Parts must either be activated through the staging sequence or be tested by right-clicking the part and choosing "Run test". The contract will state which of these options should be used. All sub-elements of the contract must be satisfied (green ticks when viewing from top-right menu) at the same time as you activate/test the part. It's not enough that you've satisfied all of the requirements at different times during your flight. For engine/booster tests, the only requirement is that the part be activated in the correct manner - there is no need for the engine to have access to any of the resources (fuel, oxidizer, air, electricity, xenon) which it would require to actually provide thrust. SRBs can be tested with no fuel. Even if the contract requires that a part be activated through the staging sequence, this doesn't prevent you from having already used the part in an earlier part of your mission: If you have already activated the part manually then it will still "activate" to satisfy the contract when its stage is activated. If the part has already been staged, you can edit the staging sequence during your mission and place the part in a new stage and then activate that stage. For tests requiring low altitudes and high velocities, it can be helpful to launch a rocket at an angle - in the VAB, add Launch Stability Enhancers, then select the root of the craft and use Shift + the rotation keys to set the launch angle. The correct angle to use depends on thrust/weight/desired altitude/desired velocity so may require experimentation. "Splashed down" tests require you to be in a body of liquid - it doesn't matter how you got there so for some tests it can be easier to slap some rover wheels onto the objects and drive them into the sea. "Landed" tests require your vessel to be on land. For "Landed on Kerbal" tests, this includes the launch pad before you first activate your vessel so placing the parts to test in the first stage to activate will be enough to satisfy the contract (if its a staging sequence one). *I've had a few people disagree with this one but I've definitely done it on a regular basis. Some or more of these may be key to making this work: MK1 cockpit Plane is stationary within the required location - brakes are set Click "EVA" on the pilot's portrait. Right-click pilot, choose "EVA report" - at this point, the contract element gains the green tick Press "F" to have the pilot re-board the plane. Any suggestions for more tips I should add in here? I've not really seen anyone struggling with the Altitude contracts and there's already plenty of material on achieving orbit/rendezvous to which I can't think of anything to add.

But the EVA contracts don't specify "standing on". Trust me, I've been doing plenty of survey missions with EVA reports required, no ladders, and visiting multiple sites, flying between them. And for "parking brake", yes, you can select the brakes (bottom of the three small buttons right of the altitude gauge) and they'll stay permanently on (until the button is reselected or you press the brake key again)

You have to do the EVA report anywhere within a region, from ground level all of the way up into space, I believe. You don't have to be stood on the ground. So, you can go EVA, not even let go of the hatch, do the EVA report and then climb back in to the aircraft.

So far as I recall, 5k, 11k, 22k, 33k, 56k. If there's one in the "40k" range, I've never been offered it - and I do tend to plan flights to hit each level as closely as possible.

You can also hold down shift to get finer adjustments also, if you want still want to get multiple parts aligned (not as part of a symmetry set) but find the default increments too large.

I think whatever limits are set there'll be some people (or their style of design) that is always just a bit over whatever limit has been set. If the first limit was bumped to, say, 22t, I'm sure you'd then find a new group of players who can keep coming up with 23t designs and call for the limit to be raised again.

If a part is translucent (as the parts your showing in both screenshots are) then they're not attached to the ship at all. If you were to launch either vessel now, you'd find that those parts are missing. for most (all?) parts, if they have green nodes showing when you first try to attach them, then you have to match one of those green nodes to an existing one on the vessel (match in terms of position and approximate orientation, you don't have to match the size of green nodes). That's why the parts your showing haven't attached. If you don't mind sacrificing one of the green nodes (i.e. you're not planning to build both up- and down-wards from the strut) then another alternative to get them attached would be to a) attach the strut's centre to the end of your arms, then use the new rotate and offset tools to realign the strut as you want:

With two exceptions, most nodes with pre-requisites treat them as "OR" prerequisites rather than "AND" - so long as you have one of the pre-requisites, you can unlock the node. I'm not sure if that's the actual intention but it has existed in this form for quite a long time. If you consult the wiki, you'll see the pre-requisites listed - only Ion Propulsion and Nuclear Propulsion require multiple pre-requisites.

I think the upper limit is the top of the atmosphere - i.e. you have to be "in flight" rather than in space, but other than that, that's it. So far as I can see, all of these contracts are just either above or below some limit (unlike the older FP contracts which did have narrowly defined windows)

Unfortunately, your use of such terminology can add to confusion, rather than remove it. There are "." characters used to separate parts of version numbers, but they very definitely are not related to decimal numbers (which I think most people would think of if your refer to "decimals"). In normal usage, these characters are (I believe) referred to as periods (US) or full stops (UK). Either of those is a better characterisation than "decimals". And in general, they're just separators - maybe the world would be a better place if a different separator had been picked for version numbers, but the surely some people would wonder what a 0:90 ratio means...

I believe that (by default) it will auto-update, unless you've changed the options via the properties. I'm not sure what it will do for mods (if that's what you mean by addons) so I've changed mine to update on launch so that, when I become aware that the update has been released, I can remove all mods before launching the next time. But maybe I'm being overly cautious here.