Contract Pack: Advanced Progression - REPLACED

[futrtrubl]

Put the date in the title. Should work with ckan, dont know what AVC is.

Thank you very much. AVC Is Add-on Version Checker. You drop a specially formatted version file in the mods directory and have another online so it can check if the user has the current version.

Edward

[nightingale]

Thank you very much. AVC Is Add-on Version Checker. You drop a specially formatted version file in the mods directory and have another online so it can check if the user has the current version.

Edward

You can check out the file for Anomaly Surveyor as an example. I use GitHub for the "online" portion of the file, Cybutek also provides a server that you can use (but I've never played with it myself):

http://ksp-avc.cybutek.net/

See the KSP-AVC thread for more.

[RKain101]

tjsnh,

Thanks for a great mod. I've been looking for something to push me along as I get back into KSP, and this was just the thing.

That said, I'm experiencing some bugs. I just tried the "Orbit Kerbin for two days" and "Perform an EVA in low orbit" contracts, and am not getting credit for either of them. I've tried this twice, and in both cases the contract was not completed (screenshot taken after successfully returning from the mission).

As far as I can tell, it seems to want me to be in orbit while I'm returning home; this is a bit tricky to pull off!

[nightingale]

tjsnh,

Thanks for a great mod. I've been looking for something to push me along as I get back into KSP, and this was just the thing.

That said, I'm experiencing some bugs. I just tried the "Orbit Kerbin for two days" and "Perform an EVA in low orbit" contracts, and am not getting credit for either of them. I've tried this twice, and in both cases the contract was not completed (screenshot taken after successfully returning from the mission).

As far as I can tell, it seems to want me to be in orbit while I'm returning home; this is a bit tricky to pull off!

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/18288952/contract.png

I was able to complete the first with no issues, but the second is a bit wonky. It needs you to transmit or recover the science to get the vessel "named", and then have the same vessel "returned home" for the second parameter. This will never work if you recover the science by recovering the vessel - the workaround is to transmit it.

tjsnh - I'd suggest moving the ReturnHome parameter into the same VesselParameterGroup as the other things, and giving it the completeInSequence=true flag. You can then remove the define attribute. It has some quirks and it makes things more complicated than they need to be in this case. It's really intended for use when there's multiple vessels in one contract or a vessel that spawns multiple contracts.

[tjsnh]

Thanks for the testing feedback

I haven't been able to re-create the problem with the first contract. Though I will say that my first time playing that one through, the way the timer counts down looks a little misleading on the last day - it looks at a glance like it loops back instead of reaching zero. If it still gives you trouble, please post a screenshot of your "contracts" tab mid-mission, after the timer finishes.

For the EVA contract, I had thought I set the parameters to "transmit OR recover" the EVA report. For now, if you transmit the report it should complete that step. I'll have a look and adjust accordingly in the next patch (which will be a minor bug/typo fix update, this upcoming week) so that it works either way. Note that I used the same mechanism for the contracts to perform an EVA in Mun orbit - so when you get to those ones, just transmit the EVA report to get credit for now.

[RKain101]

I got the EVA contract done, thanks. Still having trouble with the "Orbit for two days" contract...

When I just tried it, I saw the timer ticking down, and it even said "Success"... but the checkmark didn't appear (sorry, I forgot to screencap that part). Once I recovered the vessel, the checkmark for the first objective appeared, but the second objective "Return home" didn't complete (see below).

I've tried this either with a 75km orbit, and going back to the space center to warp 2 days, or a 250km orbit and warping without ever taking my ship out of focus.

I notice that it's calling it "Vessel: Orbiter", while in the EVA contract it used the name of the ship (for example, "Vessel: Dreammaker 3"). Do I have to name the ship "Orbiter" for this to work?

[nightingale]

Seems like the tag "Orbiter" isn't getting associated to your vessel (and renaming your vessel won't help). Can you post your save file and I'll take a look (also let me know the name of the vessel you're expecting should be completing this.

[RKain101]

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/18288952/persistent.sfs

That's my persistent save file. I believe the ship I used when attempting this contract was "Dreammaker 2", though it might have been "Dreammaker 3".

[nightingale]

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/18288952/persistent.sfs

That's my persistent save file. I believe the ship I used when attempting this contract was "Dreammaker 2", though it might have been "Dreammaker 3".

Hmm... can't tell much from that save since the only vessel still around is "Satellite Prototype". I'd need to see what things looked like before you recovered the vessel.

[RKain101]

Okay, that was weird. I restarted the contract, and launched a new vessel... and this time it worked. I didn't change anything - I used the exact same vessel I used last time.

Maybe it's something to do with having multiple relevant contracts going simultaneously? That's the only difference this time - The only contract that was at all relevant for the vessel was the 2-day orbit contract. Could that affect anything?

[nightingale]

Oh that could very much affect it since the tag orbiter is being used in many different contacts. Another reason I'd suggest reworking that a little. That being said, there's probably still bugs in that functionality on my side, especially when we talk about docking or decoupling.

[RKain101]

Thanks for the help, nightingale. And my thanks to both yourself and tjsnh for some mods that have greatly improved my KSP experience.

[Amhran]

Hi Folks,

I'm having the same problem with both the "2 day orbit mission" and the "EVA mission". I have completed both now at this stage. What do you mean by vessel tag?

[nightingale]

Hi Folks,

I'm having the same problem with both the "2 day orbit mission" and the "EVA mission". I have completed both now at this stage. What do you mean by vessel tag?

Internal Contract Configurator speak.

If you look at RKain101's screenshot at the top of this page (the one on the right), you see the "Vessel: Orbiter (new)" line. "Orbiter" is what I'm referring to as the tag. It's not an actual vessel name, but an internal tag that it gives a vessel when it completes the given parameter. In fact, if you complete it with a vessel called "Amhran I", it will then show that name instead in the contract window (but internally it will still keep track of it as "Orbiter").

Anyway, I'm trying to push tjnsh to change those contracts to make them simpler. There's at least a couple minor problems with the tag stuff that I need to look at (mainly around docking).

[tjsnh]

I notice that it's calling it "Vessel: Orbiter", while in the EVA contract it used the name of the ship (for example, "Vessel: Dreammaker 3"). Do I have to name the ship "Orbiter" for this to work?

Okay, that was weird. I restarted the contract, and launched a new vessel... and this time it worked. I didn't change anything - I used the exact same vessel I used last time.

Maybe it's something to do with having multiple relevant contracts going simultaneously? That's the only difference this time - The only contract that was at all relevant for the vessel was the 2-day orbit contract. Could that affect anything?

Confirmed it's a bug-ish-thing if you have multiple contracts open with the same "vessal name" in the contract, unpredictable things happen. I didn't run into that while testing, and will patch accordingly for the next release

[tjsnh]

Update posted with the aforementioned bugfixes.

[Pokerdope]

Great contract pack! Having a lot of fun with it in a 64K career save. Your extended contracts are really helping players avoid the dreaded part-test grind. Noticed a bug with the First Orbital Docking contract though that enabled completion of the contract without performing a docking or even having a docking port on the vessel. I think the issue is that the contract is missing the parameter requiring a docking port. I'm using KAS and attached a solar panel to the vessel on EVA which might have triggered something . . . . Anywhoo, great work!

[tjsnh]

Great contract pack! Having a lot of fun with it in a 64K career save. Your extended contracts are really helping players avoid the dreaded part-test grind. Noticed a bug with the First Orbital Docking contract though that enabled completion of the contract without performing a docking or even having a docking port on the vessel. I think the issue is that the contract is missing the parameter requiring a docking port. I'm using KAS and attached a solar panel to the vessel on EVA which might have triggered something . . . . Anywhoo, great work!

Thanks for the feedback. Avoiding the 'part test' grind, and the 'gather science data from around the mun' (with your low-orbit thermometer sat you already had there...) grind, were primary motivations for creating this pack. I like the idea of "space race" style milestones to reach for, and am a little let-down that the stock progression doesn't address this stuff.

Never used KAS, so results may be unpredictable. The parameter to complete the "first docking" contract simply requires something to dock in space (including a big loophole in the docking contract, which I won't get into). There are a couple ways to 'cheat-out' a few of the contracts, in scripting them there were unavoidable tradeoffs to avoid glitches and "chicken before egg" problems. It's on the roadmap to re-visit the script logic for the cheatable contracts for a future update, but not sure when that will be. The next update will be adding additional "late game" focused contracts.

[Kerb O'Naut]

hey well done! just wondering, does Time to Completion calculate in background while away from vessel?

[tjsnh]

hey well done! just wondering' date=' does Time to Completion calculate in background while away from vessel?[/quote']

It did in testing For example, I did the "spend 6 months on a space station" contract and left it going while I was handling a duna probe.

[Mokmo]

I think i didn't read through the whole thing...

So if my Kerbal goes on EVA, it resets the timer for the 2-day orbit mission ?

EDIT: Oh wait, i can't be away from it at all... 8 days will be quite complicated.

EDIT2: I guess something broke the tagging, now with image goodness

Edited March 26, 2015 by Mokmo

[nightingale]

I think i didn't read through the whole thing...

So if my Kerbal goes on EVA, it resets the timer for the 2-day orbit mission ?

EDIT: Oh wait, i can't be away from it at all... 8 days will be quite complicated.

EDIT2: I guess something broke the tagging, now with image goodness

http://i.imgur.com/ztt5Cf5.jpg?1

For the two day timer breaking when you leave the vessel, that's a hard one for tjsnh to fix in the contract, and a hard one for me to fix in Contract Configurator. The problem is that when you EVA, the original vessel no longer meets the conditions (it has no pilot on board). The EVA Kerbal now *does* meet the condition and gets picked up. When you go back on board, the Kerbal disappears, but the capsule now meets the requirement again, so the timer starts over. You could "hack" it by having two pilots on board, but I really don't see a better way for tjsnh to do that part of the of the contract.

For the vessel tagging, everything looks right to me. tjsnh - I'd suggest changing from using the Timer parameter to putting the duration attribute in the VesselParameterGroup. It's effectively the same thing, but should look a little bit clearer to the player (because it'll change the vessel name in the parameter at that point to their vessel).

[Mister Spock]

Wow, I love the look of this mod. I've long wanted some game-related reason to make space stations and such. Do you also plan to make contracts for Mun-bases and planetary colonization?

Thanks so much for your hard work on this. Great idea!

[tjsnh]

Wow, I love the look of this mod. I've long wanted some game-related reason to make space stations and such. Do you also plan to make contracts for Mun-bases and planetary colonization?

Thanks so much for your hard work on this. Great idea!

Future updates will have bases, and stations around other bodies. The pack is in active development, and will expand gradually over time.

- - - Updated - - -

Re Timers;

I'll play around with the duration flag and see what I can get with it.

[P.Lumumba]

I had the problem with the EVA mission as well. Recovered the craft, but didn't get the mission.

Anyhow, I'll try transmitting, it's not a major issue at all.

Great work by the way, thanks!

--UPDATE--

Transmitting did work, so that's just a minor issue.

I do have a problem with the 2 days orbit mission now.

Completed it twice, but I can't get the contract completed.

Last time I double checked, all that was left to do was to return the ship, but upon recovery, nothing happened.

Edited March 27, 2015 by P.Lumumba