[1.1.3] Contract Pack: Historic Missions [V2.3.0] 23/07/2016 - Display Updates and Mars exploration!

[Whitecat106]

Historic Missions Pack

A collection of contracts for a stock or modded game spanning from the 1930's to 2016 (currently), created using Contract Configurator. Includes compatibility with Real Solar System.

Description:

This pack currently adds 603... yes you read correctly... 603 contracts to the base game following the historic progression of both NASA and its Russian counterparts, each mission has been made into a contract for the game.

I aimed to make a campaign of sorts following through a contract to reach the next, starting with the earliest Sputnik/Vostok and Mercury missions and finally resulting in the International Space Station.

Contents:

- V-2 Rocket Tests (German 1944, American No.20 and Russian R-1V)

- Sputnik-1,2 & 3

- Vostok 1-6

- Mercury 1-7

- Voskhod 1 & 2

- Gemini 1 - 12

- Apollo 1 & 7 - 17

- Soyuz 1 - SoyuzTM-30 (82 missions)

- Apollo-Soyuz Test Mission

- Salyut 1 - 7

- Mir Construction

- ISS Construction

- Space Shuttle Missions (STS-1 - STS-135)

- Pioneer 1 - 11

- Mariner 1 - 10

- Voyager 1 & 2

- Buran Test Flight

- Skylab 1 - 4

- Venera 1 - 16

- Shenzhou 1 - 10

- Tiangong - 1

- Cassini-Huygens

- Magellan

- Ulysses

- Galileo

- MESSENGER

- Surveyor 1 - 7

- Lunokhod 1 & 2

- Pathfinder rover

- Curiosity, Spirit and Opportunity rovers

- Rosetta, Dawn, Hayabusa, Genesis, Sakigake, Suisei, NEAR Shoemaker, Juno and New Horizons

- Ranger 7, 8 and 9

- Shuttle Enterprise ALT Tests 15 & 16

- Vega Program

- Kepler, HSO and JWST

- X-15 Mach Record flights

- Helios 1 & 2

- Explorer 1-5

- ISS Expeditions (SoyuzTM-31 - SoyuzTMA-06M)

- Vanguard 1 - 3

- Cancelled Shuttle and Moonbase missions

- Poppy & Nimbus Programs

- Foton Program

- Space X Missions

 

* RSS version included for all contracts.

** I have produced a series of Example Payloads for the Space Shuttle Missions, to use these, you must install RemoteTech and ScanSat. Drag and drop the Example Craft into your saves/*yourSaveNameHere*/Ships/VAB.

Future Plans:

- The Zond Program

- Soyuz-Progress.

- More detail for the memorial missions of STS-51-L, STS-107, Soyuz-1, Soyuz-11 and Apollo-I.

* If anyone has any suggestions on more future missions which I may have missed please either post in this thread or send me a direct message.

Known Issues:

-If upgrading to a newer version of this Pack (newer than 1.1.0), delete the following files from your GameData directory after installing the new version:

Module Manager.ConfigCache

Module Manager.Config.SHA

I have no idea why but these can sometimes prevent new contracts from being displayed after an update.

 

Practical note:

To get the most out of this pack I would recommend some historically accurate part mods (list below).

I am personally running Linux x64 so... MOAR MODS !!!

But for any Windows users I would recommend installing a mod pack (such as FASA for the early Mercury, Gemini and Apollo missions), completing the contracts and then uninstalling, and then subsequently installing a mod pack for the next series of contracts (Such as Tantares for the Mir/Soyuz missions) in order to save that precious 3.2gb Ram...

Dependencies:

Contract Configurator V1.15.1 or greater - Required for any contract to work.

I would recommend some historic vehicles mods such as:

the Component Space Shuttle (Dev or Unofficial),

FASA,

Tantares,

Kosmos,

OMSK,

US Probe Pack for some realistic parts.

Furthermore for some more meaningful missions E.g(STS payloads), install Remote Tech, Scan Sat or BDArmoury... or all of them!

 

Download:

Release & Source:

SpaceDock

Check out development at the Github repository:

GitHub

 

Want to help a student and part time modder out?

Please consider Donating ! Any donations will be greatly appreciated!

 

To install simply drag or copy the ContractPacks folder into your GameData directory, this will merge the HistoricMissions contract pack with any existing packs. (Please see the Known Issues for a note on updating to a new version of this pack).

You can now decide which Era of missions you want to play (Space Race, Shuttle, Present) see the download for installation instructions!

RSS Version is included in the KerbalStuff download.

 

License:

This modification is Licensed under CC-BY-NC-SA-4.0.

All credit for descriptions of the missions comes from relevant Wikipedia pages and their respective authors.

Many thanks to Nightingale for the creation of Contract Configurator and for his assistance in making the red squiggly debug lines go away !

Thanks also to DunaDirect for invaluable help with bug finding and fixing!

Thanks to Gerishkanov for the creation of many missions and various bugfixes!

 

A big thank you to everyone who has helped out with development by posting in this forum and helping reach the current total of 40101 downloads!

Edited July 23, 2016 by Whitecat106
Update - Release

[nightingale]

Congratulations on the release! And I've said it to you before, but 317 is just a crazy big number (not in a bad way).

[rabidninjawombat]

Wow! This is a huge pack! nice work!

[Demigod]

WOW indeed . With all the other contract packs and mission controller2 I will have lots to do

Thanks for all the work

Edited May 28, 2015 by Demigod

[Toyotawolf]

Sweet Jebus, very cool, and this can be all done with stock? wicked

[biohazard15]

WOAH.

Can I choose between Soviet\Russian and American "ways"? I mean, for example I want to re-create Soviet space program - can I disable all US missions except ASTP, Shuttle-Mir and ISS?

[Whitecat106]

Thanks for the comments guys! Took quite some time to make!

Toyotawolf, At the moment I am pretty sure everything can be done with stock, since I had no mods installed when designing it, I will double check though.

Biohazard15, Not at the moment as such, I based the pack more on a chronological order however many missions branch into other strings, the Russian and American missions sort of diverge and converge as the pack progresses such as the Apollo-Soyuz mission which becomes a 'prerequisite' of the STS and MIR missions. Its a good idea having the separate space programs so I might release the pack in separate American and Russian missions along with the combined in a few weeks once exams are over and I get some feedback on any bugs that may be present across multiple contracts - Better to find them and fix them all at once rather than possibly missing some by mixing the packs. Nevertheless its a good idea!

This pack actually only began as an idea for a contract pack for the Space Shuttle Missions, so these are the 'key' contracts in the pack; as a result some of the Soviet/Russian missions are lacking some TLC - Version 1.0.1 I hope!

[SaturnianBlue]

Awesome, when I get my career started, this'll influence my missions alot, I like to replicate real missions. I do have a suggestion, what more contracts from other nations besides mainly USA and Russia (Ex. hayabusa) ? Also wondering, are the interplanetary missions launched from the space shuttle covered?

Also, weren't the Surveyors landers, and it was Ranger that was an impactor?

Edited May 29, 2015 by SaturnianBlue

[Whitecat106]

SaturnianBlue, I will be releasing some missions from the Chinese Space Program in the next update along with the interplanetary missions from the STS missions (Ulysses, Galileo and Magellan), the Venera Program, the Surveyor program and the Ranger program. You are correct Surveyors were landers and Rangers impactors, I will update my description along with the next update (possibly Saturday).

[KerbMav]

Wow ...

[Mister Spock]

Impressive! I will certainly be trying this at some point. Thanks for all your work on it! A couple questions:

1. As a Windows user, I like the idea of installing parts for earlier contracts, then uninstalling and replacing with other parts for later contracts. But won't this break ships that are already flying around with now-uninstalled parts?

2. Any reason I can't use Kerbal Construction Time with your contracts? I wonder whether things would play out in a roughly historical time line. Knowing KCT, it might take me longer to replicate history, but that's okay.

Thanks again for all your work on this project!

[Toyotawolf]

Awesome, when I get my career started, this'll influence my missions alot, I like to replicate real missions. I do have a suggestion, what more contracts from other nations besides mainly USA and Russia (Ex. hayabusa) ? Also wondering, are the interplanetary missions launched from the space shuttle covered?

Also, weren't the Surveyors landers, and it was Ranger that was an impactor?

Agreed, as a Canadian i would love to see some things like, put on the Canadarmor Kanadarm on the ISS etc. Lots of nations have contributed to space exploration.

[Whitecat106]

Impressive! I will certainly be trying this at some point. Thanks for all your work on it! A couple questions:

1. As a Windows user, I like the idea of installing parts for earlier contracts, then uninstalling and replacing with other parts for later contracts. But won't this break ships that are already flying around with now-uninstalled parts?

2. Any reason I can't use Kerbal Construction Time with your contracts? I wonder whether things would play out in a roughly historical time line. Knowing KCT, it might take me longer to replicate history, but that's okay.

Thanks again for all your work on this project!

1. I have written the contracts in such a way so that anything that is launched is recovered or deorbited (such as the Salyut, Skylab and Mir series; a final contract involving these is to deorbit and destroy them once all contracts involving these are completed (as in reality,with the exception of Skylab having deorbited due to orbital decay*), for most of the missions, however I understand that there may be issues with the next update I am releasing which includes more 'long duration' missions such as Cassini or Messenger so I think my only advice would be to try to build these probes out of stock parts or a low ram eating parts pack, however I am writing the contracts from now on in such a way that they are completed before the need to remove a parts pack.

2. My choice would certainly be KCT for this pack since although I have included a 'cool down' period on most of the contracts this is no way near the real life gaps between missions (I know I made 317 (well its more like 350 with the next update..) but I did not want anyone playing solely on Stock to start going mad...) So I think that KCT should work well with the pack! Let me know if there are any problems so I can fix them (e.g if contracts just stop showing up beyond say 50 kerbal days after the last then I probably accidentally set it to 50 years instead ).

*By the way, unrelated to this pack, I have actually been working on a system of orbital decay for both on rails and off rails vessels (hopefully during timewarp) which I also hope to share (if it works) soon!

Agreed, as a Canadian i would love to see some things like, put on the Canadarmor Kanadarm on the ISS etc. Lots of nations have contributed to space exploration.

Certainly, the CanadaArm-2 is actually the subject of the STS-100 mission but I will emphasize other nations involvement in an upcoming update.

[White Owl]

Every once in a while I give career mode a shot, and it has never yet kept my interest for more than a couple of days. This mission pack just might change that.

[Whitecat106]

Just a note on the last update, (V1.0.1) - Contains 46 more contracts including the STS interplanetary payloads, the Shenzhou and Tiangong missions - (more to come on them next update), the Venera and Surveyor programs along with some of the martian rovers but not the Soviet Mars 1 or 2 yet, I still have some major work to do on the Soviet side of the pack. I have found one substantial bug in the entire Soyuz series of missions which could prevent progress that has now been fixed. (A contract parameter was checking that you had 3 pilot astronauts hired rather than 3 crew members in the Soyuz capsule). The next update will focus on better integration of the Soyuz series and things to make the 86 missions seem less 'oh lets do this again... and again... and again..'

[Mister Spock]

Whitecat, thanks for your reply on KCT and on uninstalling parts. It's great that you encourage use of KCT! And it sounds like you have a reasonable approach to parts.

The next update will focus on better integration of the Soyuz series and things to make the 86 missions seem less 'oh lets do this again... and again... and again..'

Glad to hear it. I imagine it's going to be a challenge to spice up 86 similar missions, though. I get tired of stock's "put a satellite in orbit" missions after a half-dozen of them. But I expect I'll have more enthusiasm for missions rooted in history.

[roboc99]

Just a note on the last update, (V1.0.1) - Contains 46 more contracts including the STS interplanetary payloads, the Shenzhou and Tiangong missions - (more to come on them next update), the Venera and Surveyor programs along with some of the martian rovers but not the Soviet Mars 1 or 2 yet, I still have some major work to do on the Soviet side of the pack. I have found one substantial bug in the entire Soyuz series of missions which could prevent progress that has now been fixed. (A contract parameter was checking that you had 3 pilot astronauts hired rather than 3 crew members in the Soyuz capsule). The next update will focus on better integration of the Soyuz series and things to make the 86 missions seem less 'oh lets do this again... and again... and again..'

Small Bug, for some reason STS-41 mission is there when starting a virgin career save - seems a bit ambitious to have that appear alongside the V2 missions

Great pack though, well done!

[Whitecat106]

Small Bug, for some reason STS-41 mission is there when starting a virgin career save - seems a bit ambitious to have that appear alongside the V2 missions

Great pack though, well done!

Thanks for letting me know, I am fixing this as we speak and will update in a moment, if you see anymore please let me know since this is a very pesky problem that pops up from too few or two many '{'s or '}'s (hard to notice when editing the contracts in notepad), I have also noticed an issue with the Agents not appearing which I shall hot-fix too.

[severedsolo]

Thanks for letting me know, I am fixing this as we speak and will update in a moment, if you see anymore please let me know since this is a very pesky problem that pops up from too few or two many '{'s or '}'s (hard to notice when editing the contracts in notepad), I have also noticed an issue with the Agents not appearing which I shall hot-fix too.

Try using NOtepad++ - it helps somewhat as it highlights the corresponding closing/opening bracket.

[Whitecat106]

Severedsolo, that would be incredibly helpful! I shall download it now thanks

Okay the fix is up, STS-41-C and STS-93 had some issues and I have made sure the Agencies work again however I still cannot fix the CNSA logo not appearing, checked everything that has worked before but still nothing, I will try and find a solution in the late hours of tonight - My brain is fried right now, spent the last 6 hours working on my new plugin! Check out my blog if you want to know more!

As for now the fix (V1.0.2) is up so feel free to update to the new version to make those 'ambitious' contracts go away, remember to delete the two Modulemanager files though - It seems that whenever any tinkering goes on with Agencies or new groups these must be updated and the normal Alt-F11 Modulemanager update doesn't seem to make the problem go away, so deleting them and letting ModuleManager rebuild them seems to work fine.

[ManuxKerb]

Hi

FIRST: YOU ARE AMAZING! I love this pack!

Could you please distribute your package as a zip file ? If i download your folder from Dropox i get basicly two folders, on in lowercase and one mixed, The Mixedon is filled with empy folders etc. I'nt know if the paths are correct then and so on.

Please zip your pack and upload the zip file.

Thanks

[Whitecat106]

Thanks! Of-course sorry about that everyone! I didn't even notice, I have Zipped the pack and updated the link!

- Next update should be soon, this one will include a fix for the CNSA agency, the Ranger program and an upgrade to the first half of the Soyuz missions so far.

[veryinky]

- Next update should be soon, this one will include a fix for the CNSA agency, the Ranger program and an upgrade to the first half of the Soyuz missions so far.

Oh good, because I'm reasonably sure this description of the Ranger program isn't accurate.

[betony1]

Also, loving it so far

[Whitecat106]

Hi everyone, the next update is up! This update adds some more contracts (mostly individual probe missions) and a some description fixes. Still having an issue with the CNSA logo but I hope to fix this asap.

The next update will feature some more fixes to make the Soyuz missions more interesting, the Shuttle Approach and Landing Tests which will be a prerequisite for the STS missions, the Vega program and (some of) the Luna program. For the moment I have only included Rangers 7,8 & 9 since these were the only successful missions. I will also try to remove all of the automatic text description generation that KSP puts in; which takes away from the realism!

My time is divided at the moment between this mod, the gauntlet of exams for the next 20 days and my upcoming Orbital Decay plugin (see my blog for more), so I will be unable to release a new update for a few days but I will be around to bugfix if anyone finds any nagging issues! Enjoy!