Balancing contracts (for fun and cash return)

[Warzouz]

After playing my first game with contract, I noticed there are missions I NEVER take.

Explore body (always) : A nice mission when you usually have to get somewhere for the first time. They are unique and quite rare. But, they didn't showed for many bodies I visited (I only got Mun, Ike, Laythe and Tylo). Could be systematic on all bodies like altitude/speed contracts As being unique, those missions could get a high science return.

"Journey" (often) : When you have to fly-by or land on several bodies. They are too rare. Those missions should be the "golden" missions. They should be more rewarding.

Rescue Kerbals (often) : I did it a lot around Kerbin to get Kerbals. I do it quite often around other bodies since I have space stations quite everywhere. The only downside is you have to get them back to Kerbin to end the contract, so you're limited to the empty seats you have in your mission. Contracts could be validated when rescued Kerbals board a space station (such as defined in "build space station" missions) It's a too easy way to get Kerbals. You should get a discount only (50% ?). Rescuing Kerbals around Kerbin should have a much lower cash value (or lower discount).

Recover part or kerbal with ship (never) : They are more complexe to handle : you have to send a "claw" ship to grab that stuff and to make renetry. Usually not worth the effort since it's always ONE part an not a ship. Recovering a whole ship could be more fun (refueling it, docking with it, towing it, adding a pilot...)

Tourists (never, except early game around Kerbin) : Except Kerbin/Mun/Minmus, those are VERY boring. They have low cash value and too random flight path. All kerbals want different things. You'll be stuck with those missions for years and the cash return in not worth it (compare to mining or Journey. This could be vastly improoved. All kerbals should be going on the same planets. And that should be coherent. Not Gilly and Ike, but Duna and Ike...). Landing on Eve, Tylo and maybe Moho for example should get a huge cash bonus. No "Tourist" mission should be set to a place before a "Journey" mission.

Build base (never, except rare opportunism) : I find very little use in bases. I had several, I even "terminate" them because I found unuseful stuff wouldn't have been sent in a real space program.

Build stations (once per useful body only) : Expensive at start, very little cash return. But nice in middle/late game to explore the system. Hopefully the 1.1 contextual contracts will improove this part.

Plant flag (usually) : Easy when you have space stations with landers - or crewed bases... Good to combine with XP grinding.

Science landed or in space (often) : Low cash value but very easy. Could be improved by requiring a specific biome. Could have a distinct cash return for transmited or returned science

Mine Ore (usually) : Again, usually easy, when you have a design of a miner. The cash value seems too high comparing to other mision types. Even bringing ore to parent SOI is not too hard. Only Eve mining is ultra hard. Cash return could decrease with iteration

Asteroid missions (never, my bad) : Cash reurn seems high, but I never did it. I should, though

Part testing (often early game, never afterwards) : Cash return is usually low and parts are usually strange to test. Test around Kerbin (maybe Mun) make sens, but I don't feel it's logical to test parts around far world.

Science survey at target (only on Kerbin early game. never afterwards) : Cash return is low and visit points are usually far away, need a lot of fuel and time. Every time I took them I regreted it a lot. Those should be combined to "curiosities" / eastern eggs or have a much higher cash value

How do you play contracts in you career game ?

[Superfluous J]

Lots of agreement here, with some exceptions:

Rescue Kerbals (Never) For my videos I name Kerbals after listeners and it's harder and more prone to bugs to rename rescued Kerbals.

Build base/stations (Always) I don't always take them, but I always - when going to a new place - try to take 3 of them. I take 1 to make a base orbiting Kerbin, one to make a base orbiting the Sun, and one to make a base orbiting or landed on my destination. Then I build one "base" (that is just part of the ship) that can do all 3, and if possible shed pieces along the way to keep my craft as efficent as possible.

Science survey at target (Often) I like these. Sometimes I do them just to have something fun to do for an hour or two. They're much easier on worlds where you have an ISRU presence and the gravity's nice and light, like Minmus or Gilly.

[passinglurker]

Explore Body: ugh these things... In my opinion they should be an always available thing like the height and altitude contracts I hate waiting for them to turn up and I hate having them dictate what order of planets I visit so I ultimately convinced myself not to wait for them.

Rescue Kerbals: I'd agree if there was a way to level up a kerbal away from the KSC returning them to a recognized station in the same soi works it might cut the viability of interplanetary traveling station scams.

Recover part or kerbal with ship: I keep meaning to use KIS to build whole ships off derelict pods and such but if I did that all the effort would go to waste when I recover them . I'd rather they be more complete ships (at least add a docking port) and have a way to fulfil the contract without rep loss without having to recover them.

Tourists: They better make that new crew cabin pretty early game or we are gonna keep having a "lack of 2 kerbal pod" problem.

Build base: You mean the land a bigger lander contract? until they either make pipes stock or recognize a bunch of smaller craft landed in physics range of each other as a "base" I'm probably not taking these unless I'm doing something unrelated that fulfills it already.

Build stations: If you could level up kerbals at these places but they lose their station status when they are outside their designated SOI it could mitigate some issues with how people game kerbal training and station building contracts.

Plant flag: These should just auto resolve if you have a kerbal already landed on the body. A lot less tedious that way

Science landed or in space: Again these should just auto resolve if you have a craft that can get the job done in the same SOI

Part testing: can be useful for getting some need parts early but they would be really useful if parts that are tested included dependencies as well (jet engines should come with intakes, larger engines should come with larger tanks, wheels should come with wings and control surfaces, ion engines should come with xenon tanks etc...)

Science survey at target: these should be combined with a new set of anomalies that spawn at the survey site when you take the contract.

[regex]

I play with the following settings:

Contracts
{
        AverageAvailableContracts = 30
}

CONTRACT_CONFIGURATOR
{
    disabledContractType = ISRUContract
    disabledContractType = RecordTrackContract
    disabledContractType = PartTest
    disabledContractType = RecoverAsset
    disabledContractType = SatelliteContract
    disabledContractType = SurveyContract
    disabledContractType = TourismContract
}

I find those contract types to be odious busywork, totally not fun. Anything else I generally do per whim. Rescue contracts are excellent early in the career but I pretty much ignore them past then.

[severedsolo]

Well lets see... I only do something if a contract is available. (ie, if you aint paying, I aint going).

Explore Body: I use these as good "opening missions" to get to a body. I agree they are a bit hit and miss in appearing though.

Recover part or kerbal with ship: Hate these for the simple reason that it breaks immersion for me. How do they get there? I turn these off.

Tourists I use Tourism Plus so I don't get those stupid "suborbital over sun" contracts.

Build base I actually found the stock ones quite fun with KAS, but they suffer from the same basic problems with stations (below). So I use Base Construction instead (but haven't actually got round to building one yet).

Build stations Not opposed to building stations, but they suffer from a big flaw. What do you do with them when they get up there? They just sit there and are useless. Hence my contract pack.

Plant flag: I use these as a good excuse to send a kerbal out for more science.

Science landed or in space I don't mind these, but Field Research makes it much more interesting.

Part testing I don't mind these, but I generally only take the Kerbin ones, until better paying missions unlock.

Science survey at target These are great. I love sending missions to do these, as they take a bit of planning.

Also, one missing from your list:

Satellite Missions: I like these too, bread and butter and all that. Don't pay bad either.

Edit: I guess what I'm saying is, I prefer contract packs to the stock contracts

Edited August 28, 2015 by severedsolo

[problemecium]

I agree for the most part on rescues in general, but with some caveats:

- I concur that rescuing a whole ship is better than rescuing one piece. Some "hidden" premade ships in the game files would help with that.

- I'd like if recovering parts that are LANDED were removed for now until the terrain colliders are made more stable. Currently the terrain bugs are subtle and insiginficant, but too many times I've had the derelict ship spawn inside the ground, or on a slope so that when I arrive it starts rolling down a really long slope for like 45 minutes (usually to explode at the bottom). Not fun.

- Missions involving rescues of a Kerbal and his/her debris shouldn't count as "failed" when you rescue only the Kerbal. Partially failed, sure, but failing to recover the debris shouldn't carry the same reputation penalty as abandoning the whole mission. The simple solution would be to just have a reputation reward in addition to the funds reward when you acquire the Kerbal.

- Rescue missions NEED something in the flavor text to the effect of "We've offered to let you do the rescue, but if you don't some other agency will handle it." Currently I accept every rescue contract I receive out of an irrational notion that the poor Kerbal will die otherwise, and the result is a huge swarm of Kerbals milling about my space center and absurd prices (over 1 million funds) if I want to buy any more (even if they have cool names like "Bilbo Kerman").

- Build stations: limited to once per body. It's dumb being hired to build a station around Mun with a lab, docking port, and seating for five when I already have one there with a lab, docking port, and seating for five xP

[regex]

- Rescue missions NEED something in the flavor text to the effect of "We've offered to let you do the rescue, but if you don't some other agency will handle it."

Missions NEED sensible flavor text to begin with...

[Korizan]

Pretty much the same.

Orbital Stations really should be a progression like the altitude and speed starter missions.

First one should be build a station then it should be add this then this so forth and so on.

I never do the Base Missions as the stock game really isn't set up for it.

Now if you could say land 3 ships with all the items required for the base within a certain radius and have it count then I would say yes.

Explore body can be fun on minmus a good waste of time driving around to complete and other planets not so much when the site ends up on a vertical wall.

And the recover part, forget it I refuse to use the claw , to many issues with it breaking the physics engine to trust it anymore.

And rescue absolutely as that is the only way I get more crew

[Fearless Son]

- I'd like if recovering parts that are LANDED were removed for now until the terrain colliders are made more stable. Currently the terrain bugs are subtle and insiginficant, but too many times I've had the derelict ship spawn inside the ground, or on a slope so that when I arrive it starts rolling down a really long slope for like 45 minutes (usually to explode at the bottom). Not fun.

In another thread, some people were complaining about the new parts coming out in 1.1 as being too spaceplane-specific when they felt that additional rocket parts were being neglected. To that I have to say, recovering debris from the surface of an extra-Kerbin body is something the new cargo ramp would be ideal for. Have a little rover inside with an advanced grabber unit on one side and a docking port on the other, have it nab the part, drag it back into the cargo bay, dock, then close the ramp and liftoff back to Kerbin.

[Warzouz]

Build stations Not opposed to building stations, but they suffer from a big flaw. What do you do with them when they get up there? They just sit there and are useless. Hence my contract pack.

True, I forgot about satellites. I take them early on and when I target a body.

As for Space stations, I build them everywhere : http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/132464

Perfect for exploring many bodies very quickly. I've got kerbals ready to land or refuel nearly everywhere.