Read the fine print.....

[MrOsterman]

Scene 1

The Administration Offices KSP

Gene:  Rockomax wants us to put a station in solar orbit again.  They're offering an even 400k to put it there.  Can we do that?

Bob:  Totally.  The Howard Mun Orbiter started off as a solar station, that we relocated to a Munar orbit so we don't have to wait 3 years between chances to resupply it.  We can send another one up there.

Gene:  What did the Howard cost to get up there?

Marcy:  150k.

Gene:  I like that budget.  Okay, folks, let's repeat some history.

Scene 2:

Engineering Department, Conference Room 4B

Marcy:  What do you mean your design is going to cost 300k?  We've done this for half that!

Bob:  Yeah, but last time we didn't have to randomly lift 4,000 units of liquid fuel into solar orbit.

Marcy:  Why are we lifting 4,000 units of liquid fuel into solar orbit?

Bob:  It's in the contract.  They won't pay out unless we park 4,000 units of liquid fuel in solar orbit.

Marcy:  Why do they want 4,000 units of liquid fuel in solar orbit?

Bob:  How the Kuck should I know?!?

Marcy:  Did Gene know?  I didn't know.  I gave a cost estimate based on what I didn't know.  I can't do that, you know?  How do you know they want 4,000 units of liquid fuel in solar orbit?

Bob holds up a copy of the contract.

Marcy:  I don't see anything about 4,000 units of liquid fuel in solar orbit.

Bob holds up magnifying glass.

Marcy:  Oh......

Bob and Marcy Together:  4,000 units of liquid fuel.  In solar orbit.

Marcy:  Oh, Kuck.

Scene 3

Administration Offices KSP

Gene:  It won't work.

Bob:  But it works!

Marcy: And it's only 100% over budget!

Gene:  It won't work.

Bob:  You want me to lift 4,000 units of liquid fuel

Bob and Marcy Together:  Into solar orbit.

Bob:  And this flight plan will put 4,000 units of liquid fuel.

Bob and Marcy Together:  Into solar orbit.

Gene:  Won't work.

Bob:  Look.  We lift off here, we rendezvous with the abandoned station KS-2 and we top the tanks of the orbiter.  We take the additional fuel and we push the oribitor and all 4,000 units of liquid fuel into solar orbit.

Gene:  It won't work.  The contract calls for a ~new~ space station.  If you fly a shuttle over to get the fuel and bring it to the station, the station won't be a new construction any more and it won't satisfy the contract.

Marcy:  Are you kucking kidding me?

Gene:  It's in the fine print.

Marcy:  Where?

Gene puts contract under microscope and projects it on the screen.

Bob and Marcy:  Oh.  There.

Scene 4

Outer Space in a Solar Orbit

Sila:  Okay, Mission Control, the Solar 5 orbiter is now in a stable solar orbit.  The view's good from here.

Bob (over comm from Mission Control):  Copy that Solar 5.  Good flight.

Sila:  So what did this end up costing?

Bob:  450k.

Sila:  Wow.  That's like three times the budget isn't it?

Bob:  Something like that.

Sila:  That's rough, man.  And you get paid for being under budget.

Bob:  yep

Sila:  So this project took 6 months and you're going to....

Bob:  Not get paid.

Sila:  That sucks.  Not only am I getting paid, but leaving the Kerbol SOI gets me a hazard bonus.

Bob:  That's nice.

Sila:  Plus the book deal for having been in outer space.

Bob:  Can't wait.

Sila:  And the appearance on the Today Show with Katie Kerman.

Bob:  It'll be one to watch.

Sila:  So, now that I'm out here, how do we get back?

Bob:  I don't know.  You're the one with 4,000 units of liquid fuel in solar orbit.  You figure it out.

Edited December 10, 2015 by MrOsterman

[LordCucumber77]

Quote

 

Funny and often all too true

[Snarfster]

Happens to all of us...

[MrOsterman]

2 minutes ago, Snarfster said:

Happens to all of us...

What really really burned my bacon is that I did the entire mission of getting into a LKO, sending a shuttle over to an abandonned station to get extra fuel, and then got ready to burn out of the Kerbal SOI and noticed "hey..... that one contract item isn't checked any more."  My only conclusion was that the changing to the shuttle and flying around canceled my "new ship" requirement.

I'm glad I was able to sort it out later but man that pissed me off.  It was a fun hour running the mission but still.....

[Snarfster]

Just now, MrOsterman said:

What really really burned my bacon is that I did the entire mission of getting into a LKO, sending a shuttle over to an abandonned station to get extra fuel, and then got ready to burn out of the Kerbal SOI and noticed "hey..... that one contract item isn't checked any more."  My only conclusion was that the changing to the shuttle and flying around canceled my "new ship" requirement.

I'm glad I was able to sort it out later but man that pissed me off.  It was a fun hour running the mission but still.....

You can make it a new ship by docking something "new" to it. At least, I managed to do it this way at least once.

[egoego]

I really like how you told the story. Made me smile. 

[Rocket In My Pocket]

10/10

Would read again!

[GarrisonChisholm]

Not Too Long, Enjoyed Every Word. 

[pasukaru76]

Heh. ISRU to the rescue, just have the station land and refuel at Minmus before leaving Kerbin's SOI.

A week ago or so I accepted one of the new contextual contracts to take temperature fluctuation measurements on Gilly near a probe I had on the surface. Didn't read the part about needing to make multiple measurements at the same spot, and terminated the probe after the first measurement. Then I realized the contract hadn't actually completed...

[richfiles]

I know the feeling... I LOVE the rescue missions, cause I find rendezvous to be enjoyable, and getting new crew for free, cause they are grateful for being rescued is FAR cheaper than hiring them!

So...

just a minor rescue... Oh... You want me to RECOVER THAT VESSEL TOO!!! 
Get a load of that insane orbit too! Did I mention it's HIGHLY eccentric, and is retrograde!
If I recall correctly, I think it's 250 tons. I've landed one of these on MINMUS... but dear God, not on Kerbin!
Even that stunt took a few loads of the quicksave to get right! It took 4 Mammoths and quite a few drop tanks. Basically, I'd stage the tanks, let them fall, and blow up (hope they blow up, cause they land where you plan to land!). The ISRU (Kethane, back then), Had holding tanks for resources, and basically, the staging was meant to happen in such a way that you dropped your hanging tanks, and then had JUST enough int he storage tanks to touch down... and run out of fuel.

That was with NO atmosphere though... I may just cancel the contract, and take the hit to my rep.

Edited December 10, 2015 by richfiles

[AbacusWizard]

Hey, look at the bright side--at least the fine print didn't say "retrograde."

[problemecium]

lol @ this whole thread.

My tip (if you want it) is to launch a big ship with 4,000 units of LiquidFuel capacity, but not necessarily full. Then refuel it in orbit using a reusable fuel tanker. That, or catch an asteroid in kerbolar orbit and mine 4,000 units of LiquidFuel out of it.

[Hobbes Novakoff]

Two things. One, great story. Two, wait, the game gives us contracts for fuel stations and such? Awesome!

[federicoaa]

Once I accepted a contract to take an asteroid out of the solar system, then I realized it asked for a class D asteroid...

[The Yellow Dart]

Good post and thread.

[AbacusWizard]

So... does anyone know what the exact requirements are for counting as a "new" vessel (obviously *some* part must be built after accepting the contract; do we have more detail?), and how these requirements interplay with docking mechanics?

[richfiles]

I was woefully unprepared for this particular ejection... I did it manned, so I had the ejection pass through Kerbin's SoI, so I could catch my crew. Look at the acceleration, the TWR, and the total thrust... Not m/s... mm/s!  I didn't pay attention to the size of this thing either! XD

I used KAS winches to attach to the asteroid and pull it... Bulk Ions and thrust limited NERVs. Full thrust on the NERVs would tear the anchors out of the rock. I had to limit it to about 10%, plus my ions to keep it all together. I did shopping, ate out, and hung out with a friend while I did this burn! Then I went to bed... THEN I ended the burn, the next morning. 

Edited June 19, 2016 by richfiles

[Elthy]

I got more carefull after realising why the minmus-station got me so much money. 6000 units of fuel and 1500 units of monopropellant.

[magnemoe]

I remember one mission to test an MK3 command pod and 909 in solar orbit, nice and easy I thought, should send some kerbals to Minmus anyways to just use an lander to shuttle them down then send the ship out.

Fine print was orbital parameters, inside of Moho orbit and the margins was just a few km, 

[MrOsterman]

6 hours ago, AbacusWizard said:

So... does anyone know what the exact requirements are for counting as a "new" vessel (obviously *some* part must be built after accepting the contract; do we have more detail?), and how these requirements interplay with docking mechanics?

Seems to be something along the lines where when you dock two vessels the vessel you are controlling is the "new" one?

All I know is that I did indeed launch a ship with a refueler attached.  When I got up to a stable orbit with my abandoned station, I detached the refueler, flew over to the station, gassed up and flew back.  This "Broke" the "new" portion of the contract.  Now it MIGHT have worked if I'd docked the entire new station into the old one, refueled and separated again.  I'm not totally sure because at that point in my efforts I just said "F it," and decided it was high time to finally figure out this Asparagus staging.

Which is ultimately what I needed to learn to complete this mission.  Final price tag for the mission was around 260k but I also had some extra stuff I didn't need (like the ISRU convertor and Ore tanks) but my plan was to put it up, get the solar orbit and then move it into an orbit of Minmus to act as a staging point for leaving the Kerbal system.

[richfiles]

As a thought... It occurs to me that a GREAT way to simplify the solar orbits contracts would be to include some basic text descriptors, based on ranges of the periapsis and apoapsis of the desired orbit... For example:

Jebs Junkyard wants you to put X into Solar Orbit between Eve and Kerbin. (a relatively circular orbit that lies within that range)
Sean's Cannery wants you to put Y into a Polar Solar orbit between Moho and Jool (an eccentric polar orbit with a Pe between Moho & Eve, and an Ap between Dres & Jool)
Ionic Symphonic Protonic Electronics wants you to put Z into a Retrograde Solar Orbit between Low Kerbol Orbit and Eeloo (SCREW THIS MISSION!!!) 

Other details could include Near X for an orbit that lies very close to a body's SoI (eg. ...Solar orbit Near Kerbin).
The designation "Very High" Solar Orbit could specify an orbit that passes the orbit of all the planets.
You could also specify a Slightly Inclined, Inclined, or Highly Inclined orbit to specify an orbit's general inclination between prograde, polar, and retrograde.
A number is fine too though... It just flows nicely with the whole described in plain language concept.

It'd provide a good designator of what a contract expects, without whipping out the pen and paper to figure out what those numbers mean.

Edited December 11, 2015 by richfiles

[MrOsterman]

In other news.....

I should do a proper write up but I don't have time this week.  I did have a "Bring back Ore" contract.  I sent a miner to Minmus.  I mined ore. I transferred it to my lander.  I sent the lander back to Kerbal and after two aero captures landed it safely in the water.

And didn't get credit.  I'm not sure if I clicked on the "recover vessel" too fast or if the water meant I wasn't stable but whatever.

Fix?  Put a pod on the landing pad full of ore.  Shoot it up.  Fire parachutes, let it land.  BOOM.  Successfully landed 600 Units of Ore and left it stable.

Take THAT fine print! 

[PT]

3 minutes ago, MrOsterman said:

In other news.....

I should do a proper write up but I don't have time this week.  I did have a "Bring back Ore" contract.  I sent a miner to Minmus.  I mined ore. I transferred it to my lander.  I sent the lander back to Kerbal and after two aero captures landed it safely in the water.

And didn't get credit.  I'm not sure if I clicked on the "recover vessel" too fast or if the water meant I wasn't stable but whatever.

Fix?  Put a pod on the landing pad full of ore.  Shoot it up.  Fire parachutes, let it land.  BOOM.  Successfully landed 600 Units of Ore and left it stable.

Take THAT fine print! 

Fine print strikes back! "Fresh ore mined at Eve :>"

Edited December 15, 2015 by PT

[sdj64]

The one I fall for most is "Oh, that said to take a crew report flying above 18000 meters?" early in career when the high altitude jets haven't been unlocked yet.

Also right now I'm playing a career with SKY, which moves the space center about 20 degrees south of the equator (not to mention 5x scale Kerbin).  All of the "easy" rescue missions are equatorial, and need a 1700 m/s plane change on top of the 7000 or so to get to orbit.

[Kerbart]

I have rapidly upped my lawyer skills with those contracts. Especially when the contract offers a juicy bouncy. $300,000 to put a probe in Solar Orbit? That sounds too good to be true... Aaah, 179° inclination... Yes, it is...

On the other hand, sometimes it pays to think things through and accept seemingly lossgiving contracts. I've accepted a few contracts for stations within the Kerbin system that required large amounts of fuel and where the payment did not come close to the launch cost. And yet I accepted them. Why? I'm going to need a large amount of fuel in stock in orbit anyway, and this will pay for a good chunk of the launch costs.