anyone else think these are inanely specific?

[Franklin]

I mean even the in-atmos tests have an acceptable height/speed range. Like hell I'm going to niggle some satellite into exactly that orbit.

[Bill Phil]

There's a percentage of accuracy where it's fine.

[regex]

http://i.imgur.com/pwGV3qX.png

I mean even the in-atmos tests have an acceptable height/speed range. Like hell I'm going to niggle some satellite into exactly that orbit.

They're actually pretty loose, believe it or not, you can get within about 3~5% of the orbit and succeed. The ArgP and LAN really just set where in the orbit the AP and PE should be, although I'm not sure why that's specified in the contract because KSP doesn't give you that information anywhere else and the target orbit is shown in Map View.

Seriously, that's puzzling. Here is the game starving you of information and yet providing information that is shown nowhere else as a requirement of success.

God, this game is so poorly designed.

Edited July 26, 2015 by regex

[r4pt0r]

I ignore the numbers and just make your orbit match the dotted line in the map view. easy

[Grumman]

Rounding the display to three significant figures or the closest degree would make sense:

Orbit Specifics:

Apoapsis: 5,990,000 meters

Periapsis: 3,680,000 meters

Inclination: 90 degrees

Longitude of Ascending Node: 269 degrees

Argument of Periapsis: 150 degrees

[FancyMouse]

Quite often I'm about to adjust my orbit and the contract is already completed.

[Uncle Mort]

Yes, the accuracy required isn't too great. You can eyeball the orbit. I once took two contracts because the orbits where similar, figuring I could complete both with one craft. The orbit paths where close but distinct from each other. Took the craft up and got a close match with one, 10s later both contracts completed.

[Kegereneku]

"Specific", proportionally-speaking maybe.

But Orbit contracts are way easier than any Part test contract (other than Landed on Surface).

I have yet to see atmospheric test contract generated with parameters that do not ask for conflicting requirement. Part/Speed, Part/Medium, Altitude/Speed (especially since the new aero)

Whereas reaching a specific orbit is only 3 self-helping objectives that can be achieved one after the other at any time : Altitude, Speed, Inclination.

...contract really need to be refiltered.

[Moh1336]

Space flights and orbits are very accurate things for a reason. It's good that Kerbal gives such exact parameters, as that is a realistic thing.

Fortunately for us Kerbal is also very forgiving. I've put up a satellite that was over 600,000km out and it still popped as completed as I was about to adjust my trajectory. It could be a lot worse than it is.

[soulsource]

Look at the objectives. The line "Reach the specified orbit within [something] deviation." will give you the information on how closely you'll need to match the specifications.

[Evanitis]

Why do I have the feeling that the op is struggling to place the apoapsis to exactly 5,986,434 meters while being on a reverse orbit? Ahh wait I know - because we all did so.

[cantab]

While the exact orbits are often weird, the desired precision is I think not. Real satellites will have their orbits chosen specially for the job they do.

The game could do a better job of showing you the orbital elements though. Perhaps a UI element or hotkey that shows the AN/DN compared to the current body (as opposed to a target), and some angle markers drawn in map-view for LAN and Arg of Peri. I don't think I've seen any mod attempt to do that - KER will give you the figures but not in a visual way.

[GoSlash27]

"Resolution" <> "accuracy". KSP accepts orbits that I wouldn't personally consider close.

Best,

-Slashy

[Korizan]

Welcome to space.

All those numbers are required to define the Orbit.

So what you see on the map view as nice little picture of the Orbit nice and easy.

[X-SR71]

Seriously, that's puzzling. Here is the game starving you of information and yet providing information that is shown nowhere else as a requirement of success.

Hey good point. In stock KSP there's no information of your orbit's inclination, for example. Sure there's a visible projected orbit for the contract, but still, showing these numbers, along with dV of stages and stuff like KER shows, should be in stock ksp. In fact, I dare say that should be a feature with much higher priority than setting up satellite relay network..

[Pixel of Life]

I don't mind orbital contracts having specific requirements, but having to fire an SRB at a certain altitude and speed is hella annoying, especially when you're at the early stages of the game when you don't even have access to liquid engines yet (so you could control your speed).

[FancyMouse]

I don't mind orbital contracts having specific requirements, but having to fire an SRB at a certain altitude and speed is hella annoying, especially when you're at the early stages of the game when you don't even have access to liquid engines yet (so you could control your speed).

wow you're unlocking all the way down to probes/solars without touching a single R&D node on rocketary? Are you making yourself a hard life or you're using a different tree?

[pxi]

I ignore the numbers and just make your orbit match the dotted line in the map view. easy

This. I've just tended to eyeball the orbits, it's worked fine for me.

[Franklin]

The fact that there is wiggle room with these details, but they aren't mentioned in the contracts, makes me fear there are a bunch of players like myself deliberately avoiding this contracts because they seem impossibly .... on paper, but once they're accepted you can be loose with them. :/

edit: Okay, a-n-a-l isn't a swear word in that context, Squad. Come on.

[samstarman5]

Hey good point. In stock KSP there's no information of your orbit's inclination, for example. Sure there's a visible projected orbit for the contract, but still, showing these numbers, along with dV of stages and stuff like KER shows, should be in stock ksp. In fact, I dare say that should be a feature with much higher priority than setting up satellite relay network..

Why are micro-managerial details that really aren't that necessary to a game like KSP more important than a communications network? That is being a bit silly, really.

[Sharpy]

Worse was test * in * orbit of the Sun. When I set the apoapsis to the outer boundary (just outside Duna orbit), it was less than a minute within the range; the tolerance was less than 10km margin, something like between "22 583 170 163m and 22 583 178 425m". I actually failed to perform the test within the time margin, luckily a Kraken ate all my contracts somehow, leaving the rest of the game intact (and all the contracts that mattered respawned ready for re-accepting, the money up front to be taken again

[Defenestrator47]

I don't use any mods, play in pure stock. I eyeball these satellite missions, from launch vehicle engine/fuel balance, to nailing the orbit. Matching them is pretty easy, I find, if you know what maneuvers to make, and when.

Hell, I recently completed three satellite orbits with one launch, two in polar of Kerbin, and one equatorial around minmus. Never done a polar-orbit burn for minmus before, but I figured out the window and burned and got there just fine, fuel to spare really.

I find the game much more enjoyable as a puzzle of 'is this going to be enough fuel, are my stages set up correctly, did I remember an antenna to beam crew reports back (I didn't, on my recent duna/ike flyby)'.

The only change I'd like for stock is an aircraft autopilot capable of holding course, altitude, and speed. Manual to telemetry targets is a tedious chore.

[X-SR71]

Why are micro-managerial details that really aren't that necessary to a game like KSP more important than a communications network? That is being a bit silly, really.

You call knowing your plane inclination and stages dV more micro-managerial than a communications network? Really?

[heng]

Anyone else finds this mildly annoying?

Reach approximate orbit, get ready to finetune - fiddling with thrust limiting, waiting for just the right timing to perform .1m/s burns... and suddenly you get "contract completed" before actually doing the last few maneuvers... kinda anti-climatic.

[keeper]

If it meant anything then I'd want to get it spot on, but as it stands once its mission complete its only a matter of time before I terminate flight. Or I end up with All these empty kerbal hotel stacks with a dock, antenna and a solar panel flying around everywhere