Contracts flags - Mine ore!? I don't even have a drill!

[zeekkay]

There should be a set of behind the scenes flags that determines what kind of contracts are available.

The main idea is that contracts offered should be within reach of the player's current research. My hopes in this is that existing mods could

also take advantage of this to offer more feasible contracts.

Examples:

No contracts that require lifting more than 10 tons without the 2.5m rocket engines unlocked. (ex: part testing)

If a lifting contract is assigned, then the part that needs lifting can't exceed 25% the maximum launch base weight. (Unless the player can afford the upgrade, weight of the object is calculated without fuel)

No landing contracts without landing gear available.

No rescue contracts without at least having probe cores available. (I know you can stack pods, but it doesn't seem realistic)

No mining ore contracts until the drill is unlocked or can be unlocked at that time. (Unless a mod is causing this)

[Hcube]

There should be a set of behind the scenes flags that determines what kind of contracts are available.

The main idea is that contracts offered should be within reach of the player's current research. My hopes in this is that existing mods could

also take advantage of this to offer more feasible contracts.

Examples:

No contracts that require lifting more than 10 tons without the 2.5m rocket engines unlocked. (ex: part testing)

If a lifting contract is assigned, then the part that needs lifting can't exceed 25% the maximum launch base weight. (Unless the player can afford the upgrade, weight of the object is calculated without fuel)

No landing contracts without landing gear available.

No rescue contracts without at least having probe cores available. (I know you can stack pods, but it doesn't seem realistic)

No mining ore contracts until the drill is unlocked or can be unlocked at that time. (Unless a mod is causing this)

I disagree on some points :

The contacts should make the player upgrade the KSC. If you're not asked to do anything that you can't do with your current KSC, then you will never feel the need to upgrade and it will be boring as hell

Same for landing contracts. It's a ton of fun to try landing with struts instead of gear. If i'm never tasked to land until i reasearch the landing gear, then why would i research it at all ?

Regarding needing 2,5m engine for >10t payloads : still not agree, it's a good challenge to launch something with early rockets, makes you create intelligent ways like asparagus staging, optimize your flight path...

Even for the drill : a drilling contract is kind of a heads-up that tells you "hey, how about researching a drill now?"

And if anything doesn't suit you, you can always refuse the contract.

The only contracts i don't like are the really absurd ones like "test Kickback SRB on escape trajectory out of Eeloo"

Or "take a tourist on orbit around jool, then suborbital around the sun, etc..."

Edited October 7, 2015 by Hcube

[zeekkay]

Uhhhhh, you said you disagree on some points, you mean all of it?

Again my hopes were to make the contracts more "feasible." In an ideal gameplay contracts should be challenging, but do-able. The examples I listed off there were just examples. My suggestion isn't about "put these specific conditions in for these types of contracts" as much as it is a check/balance on what is offered, and keeping feats three tiers away from showing up. What point is there in offering something you can't do? To me this sounds like a break in gameplay.

This might be a bigger issue with mods than with vanilla ksp, but the fact you're testing boosters in orbit and landing with struts screams that there isn't much thought put into how contracts are offered.

[Arsonide]

Contracts have quite a few flags that they keep track of. They watch your progression levels, your available technology, your facility upgrades, and your available assets. However, the harder contracts might intentionally push these boundaries a bit. ISRU contracts do watch for ISRU research, for instance. If they are appearing before you have researched ISRU technology, this might indicate that your contract configuration file has been altered somehow.

Some of the other examples are examples that not all players might agree with. I know I would be able to land a vessel without landing legs, for instance.

[Joonatan1998]

I think choosing the contracts you take should be a part of the game.

If you can't do something, don't take the contract.