Superfluous J

Read the press on the games Creatures and Spore. Then play them. Then vow to not go down that path. Of course it's hard. It may even be impossible. All I can tell you is nobody's done it correctly before, so the expectation is failure.

The shuttle does NOT want to launch due East. It wants to launch into an orbit that matches its target or its mission. Or, it used to want that back when it flew When the ISS flies overhead, it could be going north-to-south or south-to-north (and east of course) but it's never going directly east. This is because its inclination is such as to be reachable by launch sites in Russia. Also, Florida is not on the Equator like KSC is, so even by launching East the Shuttle wouldn't get into an equatorial orbit - even if it wanted to which it never does. The roll program is because it's easier to roll the shuttle in flight than it is to turn the entire launchpad to align the shuttle the way we want it to go on any given launch. They don't have the benefit of the rotation gizmo in their VAB.

Mun. Deep down, you want to be Neil Armstrong and step out on the Moon's surface and say something profound. You can't do that on Minmus, no matter how hard you try.

I'd agree with that if every single game ever in the history of games didn't take similar liberties. FPSs let you carry too much ammo and reload quickly. Those that don't fail. GTA-style games let you run over pedestrians willy-nilly even when you're the "good guy". City simulators delete cars off the roads if they get stuck and can't reach their destinations. You build approximations and hand-waviness into a game because it's a game and sometimes you can't make things absolutely perfect because you don't have infinite time and money. I've seen dozens of alternatives to the tech tree. Heck, I just made one this weekend. But I've yet to see a replacement that worked and was fun, AND actually existed anywhere but in text on this forum.

I would like the unlock cost. Looking over part costs, they don't scale with tech level like unlock costs do. Looking over the stuff in part config files, the only other things that I could see being useful to me would be "mass" and "maxAmount" of each resource, though neither of those is critical.

Thanks. I'm happy with what I've got so far. The tiny bit of testing I've done so far is very promising. I'm really going to beef up the descriptions. In lieu of pictures, I want to give the player as much info as I possibly can to determine what part they're really unlocking. I hope you like it! It has a lot of potential I think

Then we agree, that to make a vertical ascent similarly efficient to a horizontal ascent, we need to make the ship itself inefficient. That's fair.

Funny that you put quotes around "efficiency" for funds, implying it's not "real" efficiency, while then implying that optimizing for pure dV *is* real efficiency in your next sentence. This is at best a difference of opinion and a far better case could be made that it's simply flat-out wrong than that it's purely correct. mk1 pod on top of an orange tank on top of a mainsail has X dV. Radially attaching 6 more orange tanks each with 6 more Mainsails at the bottom adds a smidgen of dV and a wisp more TWR, but adds a MASSIVE cost. Speaking purely by dV numbers, it's better. But I can't think of any objective situation where anybody (but Whackjob) would prefer it.

I made a bad choice. I totally forgot - in my excitement - that the features I'm utilizing for my pack require the version of Contract Configurator AFTER 1.18.1 to work. You'll have to wait for that to release before downloading this mod.

WARNING: This not just a contract pack! It is a totally different way to play career mode. Do not install this on a currently-running career, or uninstall it once installed; I'm not sure what would happen. But if you DO try it, tell me what happens WARNING: This is an alpha release! What does that mean? It means if it screws up your career game, it's not my fault . Please report it but do not expect sympathy, only thanks for the bug report. You should NEVER install this and use it on a current career anyway, even when it's considered a solid release. This is for advanced users who want to modify some of the core gameplay mechanics of Kerbal Space Program's career mode. DESCRIPTION: This contract pack does 3 things: Screws up R&D to the point where you can't use it. Science - therefore - is meaningless in your career. You can ignore it, convert it via a Strategy, or whatever. Adds one contract per part, the cost of which is relative to the part's cost and the reward of which is the use of the part. There is no part testing, no going to Moho or traveling 1500m/s. No right clicking. You take a contract, pay the up-front cost, and get the part. Easy peasy. (You don't notice this in-game, but will see its effects) Sets up each part in it's own hidden tech tree node. This means you don't get to - or have to - unlock a set of parts. You only unlock those parts you need. For many of us, this could significantly lessen the visible parts while building in the VAB. Never use that micronode? Don't take the contract. Ever. It'll never show up in your list. NOTES: The basic starter parts are still available from the start. You gotta have SOMETHING to attach your test parts to! You should turn negative funds ON, or you may accidentally cheat by accepting a contract you can't pay for! The first time you load Mission Control the game may pause as it generates over 200 contracts, one for each part. It will be much quicker from that point on. You pretty much MUST use the new "All" tab that Contract Configurator provides. The Available tab will be way too crowded whenever you have a lot of money. If you have a low resolution, you may have to scroll to see all contracts even when everything is collapsed. There's not much I can do about this. Ironically, this was better before they added the new part categories. DOWNLOAD: Spacedock GitHub INSTALLATION: Within the install zip file is a GameData folder. Within that folder is a ContractPacks folder. Within THAT folder is a PartsUnlimited folder. Put that folder in your KSP GameData\ContractPacks folder that you got when you installed ContractConfigurator. See Requirements below. REQUIREMENTS: Contract Configurator (This is a set of configs for that mod, after all) Module Manager (but what doesn't these days?) COMPATIBILITY: This mod will hopefully be compatible with most if not all other part mods. I tested it quickly with KIS and it seems to work just fine. It may have trouble with any procedural parts mods that unlock size upgrades incrementally, but honestly I don't know how those mods work and don't use them. I'd love to know if they work or not, and if they don't work I'll see what I can do. CHANGELOG: 0.1: Initial test release - missing only balancing of part costs, agency art, and descriptions. Any and all mods should be supported unless they add their own part categories (like Utilities, Pods, Aero, etc) BUGS: You can accept contracts in many situations when you don't have the available money to pay for them. This is outside of my control, but I'm releasing anyway because in KSP 1.2 you can enable "Allow Negative Funds" and your funds show up in red. In previous KSP versions, negative funds was an option but didn't display in red so were confusing. Contracts do not auto-complete in Mission Control. You must exit out, let them complete, and then to back in. It's clunky, but not too bad as you generally won't be taking more than a few of these contracts at a time. TO DO: Balance part costs. Right now most of the contract costs are 30 times the part's cost to unlock in the stock game. I think that'll be okay but I want to balance it between being able to unlock things super quick (which is bad) and slogging through endless missions to earn enough cash to unlock an I-beam (which is also bad). Let me know if you think costs should be higher or lower, and I'll be testing this myself. Part images in the contracts. I don't know if this is possible but if it is, I'll find a way to do it If it's not, I'm working on a "descriptive.cfg" to modify those parts with particularly uninformative descriptions, to better describe what part they are and what they do. To keep the number of contract folders down, I may combine certain categories, like say Payload and coupling with structural. I'm not sure yet if this would be better or worse. Opinions welcome. LICENSE: GNU GPL3. THANKS: To nightingale. Not only for making Contract Configurator and making countless changes to it to accommodate my inane requests, but also for endless patience in helping me understand his frighteningly configurable mod. DONATIONS I do not need donations, but if you want to contribute, please donate to SpaceDock:

It's all logged in the KSP log, in \<root ksp dir>\KSP_x64_Data\output_log.txt or \<root ksp dir>\KSP_Data\output_log.txt depending on if you run 64 bit or not.

I literally have no idea what the split is. I do spend a LOT of time in the VAB though. If you cut out "testing" time as part of "piloting time" then it's even worse, as a lot of the time I spend not building, it's testing stuff.

Wait until 1.2 comes out, as you'll be able to enable auto-strutting in some of your parts. From what I've read, this will work when you dock two things together as well so your space station should be far less flimsy in that version.

This is what I was thinking. SSTO from the surface of Dres? I can do that with a Kerbal! (Actually I don't know if I can. I'm now curious enough to try the next time I have the game loaded, if I remember to try)

Sometimes I need it all done for me Thanks for the sample code. I can't tell you how much it helps. For some reason an explanation frequently does nothing for me while a (well-crafted) code snippet can work wonders on my brain. Also: knowing it's possible (instead of what I assumed, that it was so niche that nobody would have even thought of it but me) helps, so I know I'm not just hitting my head on a brick wall. It's more like drywall, my head well penetrate it eventually.

Ah one more issue with the generic config: sortKey = 0020000 ... advanceFunds = -0020000 These are specific to the parts, and are based on the part cost. Sortkey isn't a big deal (though it's nice) but I need the advanceFunds to be logically larger based on the stock prices.

1000. Or whatever the highest is. I got it by setting up my strategies to give me rep instead of science AND money, and then completed a big contract. If you try to inch your way there you'll never make it due to diminishing returns, but if you smack it with a hammer it'll fall into place.

I'll try it when I can. So it'll just automagically make a one-off contract for each part in the aero tab? That seems brilliant, and maybe I'll understand it one day Though I vaguely recall using "@part" in my failed attempt at the Scavenger contract pack, and it gave the internal part name, not the external one. So it'll say something like "Unlock the noseCone" which is the internal part used by the code instead of "Unlock the Aerodynamic Nose Cone" which is the user-facing name of the part in the game. Speaking of brilliant...

I've started so many careers I can break it down into groups: I got bored and wanted to try a different mod cocktail. I started getting so many bugs it became unfun. I actually reached the goal I'd set for myself. A new version came out and I wanted to start fresh for whatever reason. Those are the "big 4" I think.

Like how my car won't lock with the engine running. There's no technical reason why it can't, but dumb people (or in GPS's case the turrists) have caused the manufacturer to limit my options.

Whew. I have a contract pack that technically works and is usable in-game, so long as you don't have any mods with parts in them installed. I'm not quite ready to release but I'd love feedback if anybody wants to give it a try. THIS WILL SCREW UP ANY GAMES YOU PLAY ON THE INSTALL. I think if you just uninstall everything will go back to normal, but don't guarantee anything. This is not "just" a contract pack; it eliminates R&D and puts ALL parts into their own contracts, that you must complete to unlock the part. It also basically makes the "Available" tab in Mission Control useless, but the new "All" tab that Contract Configurator supplies makes this pack pretty workable. Technically, all parts are available from the start but the higher tier ones are pretty expensive. This is by design so don't tell me about it as if it's a bug What I'm looking for is thoughts on pricing. Is it too low? Too high? I based the costs off of the cost to unlock the part in the stock game. I took that number and multiplied it by 10. Also, some questions for @nightingale or anyone else with experience in contracts: Is there a way to make this generic, so that when new parts are added in the stock game or a mod is installed, it "just works"? Right now I've got a huge config with one contract per part, and it's a bit daunting. I didn't write the whole thing, I did it with a likely-equally-daunting batch file (that I've included in the zip. It won't run at all if you try, unless you edit it. You have to know a decent bit about grep, sed, head, tail, and regular expressions to even have a chance at figuring it out. I did add comments though). Right now, I'd have to modify that batch file to find part configs from other mods and there are multiple reasons why that's not an ideal solution. I understand if this is too vague of a question. I'm not hopeful, mostly I'm just hoping Why is my logo not coming up? It comes up when I don't have any ContractGroups but when I added them, it's now a white square. Is there a way to put images in a contract description? I'd love to put a picture of the part in the contract. I also think the stock game should have these pictures on test contracts. Download Image of the "No Icon" problem.

I think that isn't just "the only difference." It's a fundamental difference, and it's a huge one. It's like how "The only difference between Quake and Minecraft is that in Minecraft you build stuff."

Haha I meant for weight balancing only but that would be nice too

The problem is it's not that reasonable to think Kerbals knew about all the planets - except maybe poor little Eeloo - long before they discovered spaceflight. They probably didn't know about Gilly, Pol, and Bop either but still. What I'd like for "fog of war" would be unknown surfaces. And when you do know the surfaces, for them to be more varied than they are now. Actually woudln't that be an awesome update? You think everything's normal until you reach a planet for the first time, and start realizing that the normal typical map of Duna was just what they could see from Kerbin, and the ground below your craft is as varied and intriguing as Mars...

I never experienced this phenomenon, with anything larger than the most extremely simple craft. Is it possible that in 1.0.5 you were new at the game and hadn't tried anything large yet, and now in 1.1.3 you're better at the game and trying your hand at more complex craft? And yes it's annoying, but it's part of the game, at least for now. The best you can do at the moment is to just turn RCS off once it's done the bulk of the work getting you lined up, and let reaction wheels and engine gimbaling do the last bit.