[1.02] Contract Pack: Mission Based R&D (v 0.2.2)

[imaspacestation]

This sounds pretty awesome, but would there be an easy way to add our own missions to unlock nodes for other mods?

[maculator]

Passed your mod.

Here are the thing i want to say in no particular order or, just random thoughts (im tired)

-It is fairly balanced, i just wish there were more "sidecontracts" and a few more steps.

-For Rocketsience:

Reach Space, Orbit, Send a kerbal in space, Orbit a Kerbal arround Kerbin, Do an EVA on a stable Orbit, Put two kerbals in orbit, Stay there for a Week.

-The Spacemanouvering was quite complicated, i had to google alot of words, but nevermind thats how the game is supposed to be.

But here i would like more stuff, too. for example reach a polar orbit.

-The Reentry mission was quite cool, would be awsome to have a contract to burn a probe during reentry.

-I dont have a problem with the no sience thing. But i would like to keep playing this save so it wouldve been cool if you didnt kick it out completly. Its your mod so do as you please, but i dont think its a bad thing to leave the sience in the game althou your "costs" at the R&D are really high anyways so it wouldnt crash your storygame. It would just provide some fun and challenge after your story is completed.

-I think a Minimus mission is missing too, maybe you could force the player to use the 3-man capsule and send the whole teem over to minimus to provide a bit more challenge.

-And those plane-missions were awsome, each and every single one. I think it would quite suit the goal of the mod, if the player was forced to do the first 3 or 4 bevore he could even build a rocket.

-There was one thing i missed: rovers. The basic parts could be given early in game and then you could send the player arround the KSC using Waypoints and make him collect a bit sience.

-Im just brainstorming my impressions and wishes here because this mod added a really cool story to the game and most important: some goals to achive. It was quite immersive. So those smaller steps, a tour arround the KSC, making the player visit the poles or some interesting places arround kerbin woul make it even better, i think.

-i must say that the messages when you complete a contract lack a bit of creativity .....

-Didnt find any other bug than the ones i already reported.

-And the Last point i would like to suggest:

After the last mission you could add all the stocknodes as a cluster to your techtree. same thing like the since i would like to keep this save file. And that way i, or anyone else, would be able to add some partmods and use them after completing the main questline.

Hope i explained that one right ... You could do a mission like "Build a Spacebar in Orbit around Kerbin, send Bill Bob and Jebediah over, admire the sunset and return" and then you unlock all the stocknodes.

So thats about it with my suggestions and reports, great mod enjoyed it, and i hope you kepp on working and expanding on it.

Edited June 15, 2015 by maculator

[maculator]

So now that i had some time, here is my full report:

Its not only a report, it is some kind of review too.

I just made some words FAT so those TL;DR guys can also have a review without wasting tooooooo much time.

"Mission Based R&D" gives you a whole new techtree with 32 nodes (31 are unlockable and one starting node).

It eliminates the whole sciencepoint-system and instead you have to do contracts to progress further.

Since there are 31 Nodes, you get to do 31 contracts. It all starts farily easy (build a plane and reach 14km altitude, then return and land)

but over the time it gets a bit more complicated, for example youl have to build a functioning SSTO fly it in space, manage to get an orbit and then return to the runway and land! Boy that was a challenge. And the fact that you only have the parts the mod wants you to have in this stage of your career, there is no "grinding for sience" to get better parts and make it easier. You have the parts provided, a pretty hard contract and now you have to deal with it. For me that was the part were the fun began!

There are some minor issues with some contracts (mostly fixed) and some are missplaced. After a few contracts, there is no challenge in "reaching outer space" (Sending a probe put of the kerbin system in solar orbit), that mission was too easy. And sure i would wish more advanced progression, more tech-nodes, more contracts.

But im fine with the way it is now it is exept of the "missplaced contracts", all well organized and makes total sense.

The Contract description is okay, although it could be a bit more advanced, but the message you get in your mailbox when completing a contract could need a overhaul.

Its always the same "We learned something about XY", or in some cases "We learned a lot about XY" ... wich is good for the R&D and nice to know, but a little text would make it so much better. A brief report, some trivia about the planet i landed on, some input, a joke, anything but "we learned something about XY".

To complete the contracts part; the system itself works pretty good it was a good idea to make the contracts declinable. Because sometimes there were minor issues, like it didnt recognice the situation of the vessel, i crashed, i screwed up, forgott to bring the right experiment etc. .So with the ability to decline it and reaccepting it, the mod kept beeing playable, wich he would not if that contract was undeclinable and bound to some debris chilling in a canyon on the northern mountains...

Finally i would change the prestige level of contracts, its quite odd that theyre all level 1.

I also wanted a "casual" game ... as casual as playing KSP can get .. so i played with this difficulty:

(just that one has some numbers and facts to compare)

AutoHireCrews = False

MissingCrewsRespawn = False

BypassEntryPurchaseAfterResearch = True

AllowStockVessels = False

IndestructibleFacilities = False

ResourceAbundance = 1

ReentryHeatScale = 1.2

StartingFunds = 25000

StartingScience = 0

StartingReputation = 0

FundsGainMultiplier = 1

RepGainMultiplier = 1

ScienceGainMultiplier = 1

FundsLossMultiplier = 1

RepLossMultiplier = 2

Those settings worked pretty well for me. I never had a money problem, although i crashed a lot of vessels and lost two brave men.

Maybe a few words on some choices i mad concidering the settings:

First i always play with "perma death" and no reverting or whatsoever, this is a main part of the enjoyability of this game itself!

The ReentryHeatScale is at 120% because 100% is to week. Even 120% is a joke but well i wanted to play a real light weight ksp for this one (from looking at it now, i would recommend to use DRE).

The startingfunds were enough and i left the FundsGain- and FundsLossMultiplikator at 100% because the money was quite enough and i you keep the ratio between them you can always decline a contract and just have to payback the payment you got in advance (and some funds ofcourse).

As i mentioned bevore those settings done the job for me, now onto the mods i used:

Overhauls:

"MissionBasedRD"

Parts:

"ModularRocketSystem"

"SpaceY-Lifters"

Contracts:

"MissionController2"

"ContractConfigurator"

"ContractConfigurator-KerbinSpaceStation"

"ContractConfigurator-AnomalySurveyor"

Tools:

"KerbalEngineerRedux"

"PreciseNode"

"RCSBuildAid"

"TransferWindowPlanner"

"WiderContractsApp"

"WaypointManager"

"NavballDockingIndicator"

Misc:

"ModuleManager"

"TemperatureGaugeKiller"

"StockBugFixModules"

"StockPlus"

I think this one shuld be quite clear:I choose to have as less mods as possible.

I put in the "MissionController2","ContractConfigurator" and those two contract packs becaus sadly Missionbased R&D doesnt provide some "side contracts".

Im fine with that, but wanted to add some variety. Thats why i choose to add some more contracts. I don`t know if its planned to add more. If yes; great. If no; well shouldnt be a problem too, there are many packs out there to add.

As fot the parts:

The two packs i have are the only two out there supported by this mod. If you install anything else; it wont show up. Keep that in mind.

But those packs are more than you need. (really! I`ll explain in a few lines)

"ModularRocketSystem" adds in a whole lot of bits and pieces to fill those "gaps" in the stock parts, it is well integrated in the tech tree and fits in perfectly.

I would say this pack made my playthrough a more complex and fun thing. It makes building your rockets and probes and planes easier; you get more pieces wich can do the job, and therefore a better variety in design opportunyties.

The "SpaceY-Lifters", are doing the same with a slight disadvantage, in some missions they`re just overpowered. So the balancing could use some adjustments there.

(Mainly im talking about that "reaching outerspace" - thing, since it comes after the "Heavy Lifting"- Contract, you unlocked quite a good setup of parts to launch your vessel with shire power streight up into outerspace...)

Those are the mods you should give a try with this. As fo the "Tools" and "Misc" Those are things i really enjoy/need:

All the tools make it a little easier to plan and execute missions. I don't want to use a autopilot, i just wanted some gadgets to do all the math for me.

So thats almost all what i wanted to say. Those 31 contracts were some pretty decent fun, and a good challenge.I would only wish for some more contracts, a bigger tree, and some "advanced textwriting". In my opinion the planes should be the first thing to do and after a number of those contracts you could slowly start your rocketing career. But after all this mod is a real must have!

I mean it is like a whole new game. You progress and unlock, are provided with challenges, and "guided through the game".

It is so rewarding and so much different from the stock game.

The last bit to make it perfect would be: stock nodes after completing the last contract to make it playable with mods after youre done with the story.

And i wouldn't disable the science. (Nobody can affort 10k science per technode and it would give the "lategame" ,after your storyline is completed, a purpose)

If you don't want to "lose" yourself in grinding science to unlock things you need to grind science for things ........... ... .... just give it a try

If you want a "casual" style KSP, having a "mainstory" and an "end" .... just give it a try

If you want something different with about 15h playtime .... ... just give it a try

I'll give it a 8.5/10 "would give a try"

You're free to keep all the grammar and other mistakes, since this is not my foreign language.

[Probus]

Congratulations on the release! I love tech trees. I am definitely gonna give this one a try! I might want to talk to you about a similar idea for a "tech tree". I will PM you.

[Borogove]

First off, I really like this mod -- it's particularly clever how completing each difficult contract unlocks the parts that make that contract easy.

I'm having trouble with the Asteroid Science mission, though. I have rendezvoused with an asteroid, EVA'd to it, taken surface samples, and returned the science twice with no completion. Am I supposed to be using one of the survey scanners instead of taking a surface sample or something?

[maculator]

This was something really cool with potential, sad to see its dead now

[Stone Blue]

On 1/22/2016 at 0:37 PM, maculator said:

This was something really cool with potential, sad to see its dead now

Please dont make statements like this unless you are the mod developer, or have been in contact with the dev, or someone else has made an "official" statemant, verified, that mod development has been ceased.

Do you even know FOR SURE that it does NOT work in 1.0.4 or 1.0.5?

There have been many old mods that have been picked up by other people who came across them somehow... Just declaring a mod "dead", out of the blue, just because the thread hasnt had any activity in awhile, doesnt really do any good...

 

[maculator]

6 minutes ago, Stone Blue said:

Please dont make statements like this unless you are the mod developer, or have been in contact with the dev, or someone else has made an "official" statemant, verified, that mod development has been ceased.

Do you even know FOR SURE that it does NOT work in 1.0.4 or 1.0.5?

There have been many old mods that have been picked up by other people who came across them somehow... Just declaring a mod "dead", out of the blue, just because the thread hasnt had any activity in awhile, doesnt really do any good...

 

Trust me I loved this mod. Was a "one of a kind" mod. And I would've loved to download it a gain and give it a test. If there was a download link.

So I guess you could eventually say its dead.