About Outpost Contracts

[Dire_Squid]

I was HOPING to be clever, but I'd prefer getting some insight and foresight before doing what I'm about to do:

I need an Outpost on Minmus, requiring to be able to hold 6 Kerbals, plus at least one docking port and wheels.

Is it possible I can "assemble" an outpost using more than one craft (through stock, Karbonite, and KAS parts) to make this outpost?

I KNOW it'll be expensive, no doubt, but it'll be fun exploring Minmus with multiple crafts, while they're slowly drilling for Karbonite, and a "lab truck" drives to different Biomes OR I have a lander fly up to flat summits of highland hills... (p.s. I'm at the Great Flats, RIGHT BY a hill with a plateau, lel).

Edited March 16, 2015 by Dire_Squid

[Crusher48]

As long as you use the docking ports on the individual ships to dock with each other, you should be able to get the bonus once enough vehicles are combined to meet the requirements.

[Dire_Squid]

So... I wouldn't get that with the Winches/Ports (which DOES come with the "docked" option)?

[Dire_Squid]

Look... this is the last time I'm going to bump this.

I intend to give at least TWO of the crafts a Docking Port (to fufill the contract), but I set up the first craft with a Vertical Stack Winch (set up horizontally), on one end and a Connector Port on the other end (will probably set up some pipe ends with the next one). Since they "dock" when plugged in... do they count in making multiple crafts into an outpost?

[monophonic]

You might get better response at the add on specific forum. Building the outpost from multiple parts certainly works with stock docking ports, as long as all parts were launch after the contract was accepted. I have also heard rumors of tricks that allow all but one part of the outpost to be older, but I have no closer knowledge of those.

I cannot help with the mods though, since I have yet to use any apart from the stock bug fixes one.

[eonmoon]

simple pod for the job, one 2 seat command module, one hich hiker module, your docking port and wheels, or you could mmake a craft from plane parts too for a multi seat minmus rover

[eddiew]

Yes, when you dock crafts together they'll count as a new base - as long as each component craft was launched after the contract was accepted. You can connect via docking ports, KAS pipes, or MKS tubes.

I did exactly this and put my '5 kerbals, lab and cupola' Minmus base together out of MKS modules; those are only 2 kerbals each and the whole thing took 6 deliveries

[stibbons]

That's an awesome looking MKS setup there.

[match]

I don't think KAS pipes work, or at least for the last connection. It may have been the way I had mine set up, though. I didn't test it thoroughly, but I think if pipes are used for the last connection, it doesn't validate the criteria properly. I had winches available and that did work when used with the dock function when connecting.

[Dire_Squid]

simple pod for the job, one 2 seat command module, one hich hiker module, your docking port and wheels, or you could mmake a craft from plane parts too for a multi seat minmus rover

Uhhh, you forget the Lab Module, which ALWAYS puts a damper on my plans (last time I landed on Minmus in Science Mode, before Career Mode came about, I landed the KSP equivalent to a "Bouncy Castle" of a rocket-lander (seated 7, but was ridiculously tall).

Yes, when you dock crafts together they'll count as a new base - as long as each component craft was launched after the contract was accepted. You can connect via docking ports, KAS pipes, or MKS tubes.

I did exactly this and put my '5 kerbals, lab and cupola' Minmus base together out of MKS modules; those are only 2 kerbals each and the whole thing took 6 deliveries

http://i.imgur.com/k9rHqY8.jpg

AWESOME! Now THAT is a base!

I don't think KAS pipes work, or at least for the last connection. It may have been the way I had mine set up, though. I didn't test it thoroughly, but I think if pipes are used for the last connection, it doesn't validate the criteria properly. I had winches available and that did work when used with the dock function when connecting.

Yeah, I have a horizontally-placed vertical stack winch and a connector port (one each, on either side). I figured those would count. The piping will only come to play when I launch a "Karbo-refinery Probe" to refuel the connected ships (partly inspired by Cupcake Landers' "Today, We Kethane" vid).

ANYWAYS, thank you all for giving me the insight and foresight to do this proper (and awesome).

(I just wish I knew how to upload screenshots without using imgur, once it's done).

[eddiew]

...

AWESOME! Now THAT is a base!

Annoyingly it's only the most fundamentals of a base - it's self-contained for life support (once I'd cheated the broken gigantor back) but it doesn't yet have any resource extraction or manufacturing facilities, so I guess it'll eventually run out of spare parts and explode :S MKS is not a thing to invest in lightly, and I certainly didn't make a profit on the contract itself!

The most efficient way I've found of doing station contracts is to

. This one needed some refinement past the initial flight, but can handle any orbit in Kerbin's SOI, and Minmus surface contracts - and the whole thing comes home, so it very quickly becomes a pure profit operation.