Contract Pack: Giving Aircraft a Purpose (GAP) 2.11 - Milestones, Air Flights, Coast Guard (Now Updated for KSP 1.12.5)

[inigma]

1 hour ago, nobodyhasthis2 said:

Found another bug. Tourist missions can't be queued up. If two are running you will automatically fail one. That means the progression is wrong or details of mutually exclusive missions not present. 

Edit: Got passed it. Easy fix. "Some passengers have weak stomachs. Don't pull 4g. Don't even pull 4g when they are not onboard. The little sods are watching from the terminal building and might not like what the see on other missions"   

SXT parts are recognized in GAP 1.1 (not yet released).

What two missions did you combine?

[nobodyhasthis2]

33 minutes ago, inigma said:

SXT parts are recognized in GAP 1.1 (not yet released).

What two missions did you combine?

Cool on GAP 1.1. Realised what needed changed my design.

The two missions I combined was to take the 2 passengers with weak stomachs, 2 mins flight and no 4g maneuvers. Plus the 4 passenger coast flight. 

When doing the the 4 passenger flight first any maneuver over 4g fails the other mission. Even if those passengers are not present on the flight. So to get passed the 2 passenger flight it must be done first.

The easy fix is just to assume that our nervous passengers are watching from the ground. If they see another passenger flight doing loops they are going to cancel the flight and demand a refund. So once this mission is taken it is best to get done straight away.

[kcs123]

16 hours ago, inigma said:

I had this funny thought...

What if instead of loading passengers for you for Flights 0-99 right at the runway, what about spawning the passengers at the Space Plane Hangar Air Terminal requiring that you pick them up from there?

And instead of moving your plane there to pick them up, encouraging the player to develop and use a shuttle bus to ferry the passengers to your waiting plane on the runway via a contract after SSI-Start designed to have the player create such a shuttle bus that doesn't need to be recovered and sits at the KSC for such use? With no more than 8 passengers max ever to spawn for pickup, I hope it won't be too tedious. The reward for getting the Flight 100+ contracts are to have the convenience of passengers already loaded on your plane (and a large number of passengers too).

 

It might be interesting first few times, but later on, in my opinion it could become too tesdious. Add on top of that KSP kraken that pops up from time to time when few vehicles share close proximity range, especialy when game physics kicks in ...

And it does not add much on chalange for mission. There is something else that I still didn't found in any contract pack. Poped up when i realized that I didn't often land Mk1 pod close to KSC (space planes excluded here).

 

Probably not much people bother with it, but some contract that require to put craft in orbit and land on certain spot on planet might encourage people to do it. You will going to need such skills to deorbit rockets on other celestial bodies when you start to build distant colonies.

Probably it is out of scope for GAP, but I wanted to share idea.

[nobodyhasthis2]

30 minutes ago, kcs123 said:

 

It might be interesting first few times, but later on, in my opinion it could become too tesdious. Add on top of that KSP kraken that pops up from time to time when few vehicles share close proximity range, especialy when game physics kicks in ...

Yes i agree with that. There used to be a thing in the FASA mod where you could bus the crew out to the launch pad. Then send them up the FASA tower for loading into the Saturn 5. It was fun for a few tries but I don't know if bus got used much after that. The glitch physics did not help sell the feature either. So based on passed experience I would also say no introducing passenger bus trips. 

37 minutes ago, kcs123 said:

There is something else that I still didn't found in any contract pack. Poped up when i realized that I didn't often land Mk1 pod close to KSC (space planes excluded here).

Probably not much people bother with it, but some contract that require to put craft in orbit and land on certain spot on planet might encourage people to do it. You will going to need such skills to deorbit rockets on other celestial bodies when you start to build distant colonies.

Probably it is out of scope for GAP, but I wanted to share idea.

I think it does appear in a way. Does Stage Recovery not reward proximity to KSC?

I also find the Field Research and Anomaly Survivor sometimes require specific landing sites. So the idea has merit and has at least be introduced in other packs in some small way. Certainly worth considering.       

[inigma]

2 hours ago, nobodyhasthis2 said:

Cool on GAP 1.1. Realised what needed changed my design.

The two missions I combined was to take the 2 passengers with weak stomachs, 2 mins flight and no 4g maneuvers. Plus the 4 passenger coast flight. 

When doing the the 4 passenger flight first any maneuver over 4g fails the other mission. Even if those passengers are not present on the flight. So to get passed the 2 passenger flight it must be done first.

The easy fix is just to assume that our nervous passengers are watching from the ground. If they see another passenger flight doing loops they are going to cancel the flight and demand a refund. So once this mission is taken it is best to get done straight away.

Are you talking about Wright Aeronautical: Give an airplane ride - Seats: (1-2) and KSC Island Tours: KSC Shorline Tour - Seats: (2-6)?

[inigma]

As far a shuttle bus contract, I've thought about making it a simple TourBus contract instead, getting paid to do tours. Players can recover it fine. This would at least encourage a player to make a bus of some sort for use later.

I do still want at least one plane contract where you have to go pick up 2-4 passengers at the Spaceplane Hangar Air Terminal (the field between the SPH and the adjacent runway fuel tanks. Perhaps just two of the 5 airline contract types:

Airlines-Flight-5 - KSC Airlines: Charter Flight 5 - Seats: 2-4
Airlines-Flight-10 - KSC Airlines: Charter Flight 10 - Seats: 2-4 (require mk1 Crew Cabin)

would require passenger pickup at the air terminal (and subsequent unloading as well) and thus simulate the manual loading of planes real life early aviation required before easier terminal loading was developed.

but the next level of airline contracts

Airlines-Flight-20 - KSC Airlines: Charter Flight 20 - Seats: 4-8
Airlines-Flight-40 - KSC Airlines: Charter Flight 40 - Seats: 2-8 (for science)
Airlines-Flight-101 - KSC Airlines: Flight 101-103 - Seats: 8-80

would be exempt from doing so.

All five contract types are repeatable, so players will simply want to ignore the flights 5 and 10 and stick with higher numbers to avoid the trip to the SPH.

Does this sound like a good mix?  And to make it more clear, I could drop the word "Charter" from flights that don't require a manual pickup of outbound passengers.

Edited January 22, 2016 by inigma

[kcs123]

23 minutes ago, inigma said:

As far a shuttle bus contract, I've thought about making it a simple TourBus contract instead, getting paid to do tours. Players can recover it fine. This would at least encourage a player to make a bus of some sort for use later.

I do still want at least one plane contract where you have to go pick up 2-4 passengers at the Spaceplane Hangar Air Terminal (the field between the SPH and the adjacent runway fuel tanks. Perhaps just two of the 5 airline contract types:

That is slightly better idea, but it is not much of differnce than already existing contracts that points you to collect some science from various points(buildings) around KSC. Having passengers on board for this is not much of difference than that kind of contract.

Well, it is your call if you realy think that is needed to have taxiing a like contract, but no metter how much passengers contract require, I think it will become tedious if you need to do taxi each time before take off. Some of craft designs might need longer runway for take off, so you will need to either, taxi a craft to the terminal spot or use two crafts for that and that could bring again possible kraken problem.

Better idea could be to have requirement for recovering passengers on certain spot, like terminal near SPH. It could be less tedious and can "teach" player to some degree to better control his craft during landing procedure. You can consider that taxi part before take off is already done in background, relieving player from tedious part of contract.

You might even add sentence or two in contract description that some other kerbals already driven passengers to takeoff point, that they waiting you there, but there will not be noone available when you need to recover them. Just for slight immersion purposes.

[inigma]

Now tHIS is bARnstorminG!

 

[Asmosdeus]

The contract pack seems to think that everything I build has Solid Rocket Motors, and thus I can not accomplish the first contract...

[inigma]

25 minutes ago, Asmosdeus said:

The contract pack seems to think that everything I build has Solid Rocket Motors, and thus I can not accomplish the first contract...

what engine are you using? does your craft have any mod parts on it?

[nobodyhasthis2]

On 1/22/2016 at 6:43 PM, inigma said:

Are you talking about Wright Aeronautical: Give an airplane ride - Seats: (1-2) and KSC Island Tours: KSC Shorline Tour - Seats: (2-6)?

Yes

Although wait out to see if they are exclusive combinations on my second playthrough. The contract flowchart starts in multiple places. So it is possible that there is a set of conditions that break contracts because they don't appear an expected sequence. Right now I need to investigate some more. All I know is there has at least been one case where a mission is failed without passengers being present. I need to see if this is a can be done in a predictable fashion. 

[inigma]

1 minute ago, nobodyhasthis2 said:

Yes

Although wait out to see if they are exclusive combinations on my second playthrough. The contract flowchart starts in multiple places. So it is possible that there is a set of conditions that break contracts because they don't appear an expected sequence. Right now I need to investigate some more. All I know is there has at least been one case where a mission is failed without passengers being present. I need to see if this is a can be done in a predictable fashion. 

Let me know if you can reproduce it. I've raised https://github.com/inigmatus/GAP/issues/158 to address this. Feel free to comment here or there.

I found a better place for Jebediah's Tool Shed.

[inigma]

Finally got around to adding a starter TourBus contract... to make about 1000 funds, 1 science, and 1 rep point - for when you're really broke and need a job to restart your program. Hopefully in future versions it will be funds aware. Players will be required to pick up passengers for the Airlines Flight 5 contract so this bus will come in handy then... hence its relevancy for GAP.

Edited January 24, 2016 by inigma

[inigma]

I fixed the SSI-Start contract to list all parts required, and to require all parts that SSI gives you. Here's an example car:

[nobodyhasthis2]

Got an odd bug. Leaving a rover parked anywhere in KSC between missions can cause it to vanish. With error "vessel not loading missing parts unknown"

What does unknow parts mean?

 Is this a bug in take command perhaps. I suspect the way it works can cause problems. 

EDIT: Really glad I caught this one early it destroys the campaign by feeding Kerbals to the Car-kraken.

EDIT: This one does seem to very repeatable using just the standard parts. Leave buggy packed on runway. Go to VAB and launch a rocket. Let that crash. Go back to space center. Buggy vanished with "vessel not loading missing part unknown". Kerbal driver is kaput.

Edited January 24, 2016 by nobodyhasthis2

[inigma]

 What contracts are active? Missing parts mean parts are not loaded in KSP. Do you have any part mods installed? 

[inigma]

20 hours ago, nobodyhasthis2 said:

Got an odd bug. Leaving a rover parked anywhere in KSC between missions can cause it to vanish. With error "vessel not loading missing parts unknown"

What does unknow parts mean?

 Is this a bug in take command perhaps. I suspect the way it works can cause problems. 

EDIT: Really glad I caught this one early it destroys the campaign by feeding Kerbals to the Car-kraken.

EDIT: This one does seem to very repeatable using just the standard parts. Leave buggy packed on runway. Go to VAB and launch a rocket. Let that crash. Go back to space center. Buggy vanished with "vessel not loading missing part unknown". Kerbal driver is kaput.

I was unable to duplicate this. Do you have a craft and save file I can test it with?

[inigma]

On 1/24/2016 at 10:16 PM, nobodyhasthis2 said:

Yes

Although wait out to see if they are exclusive combinations on my second playthrough. The contract flowchart starts in multiple places. So it is possible that there is a set of conditions that break contracts because they don't appear an expected sequence. Right now I need to investigate some more. All I know is there has at least been one case where a mission is failed without passengers being present. I need to see if this is a can be done in a predictable fashion. 

I duplicated this and have fixed this for all passenger contracts in GAP 1.1. It was a douzy of a fix.

This is because the vessel check was NOT looking to see what passengers are loaded before defining the vessel used for the contract. I've moved that parameter check under the contract's vessel definition so only that vessel with those passengers are counted for that contract.

Edited January 25, 2016 by inigma

[StevieC]

Do you think you can add recognition of FireSpitter parts, particularly their biplane parts, especially for the "first plane" contract?

[inigma]

40 minutes ago, StevieC said:

Do you think you can add recognition of FireSpitter parts, particularly their biplane parts, especially for the "first plane" contract?

GAP 1.1 will recognize any aircraft with an intake or engine that has a built in intake, so yes.  I am doing the final balance pass on GAP 1.1 and a few other tweaks. GAP 1.1 should be out this week sometime.

[inigma]

Speaking of... GAP Development update:

Contract Configurator 1.9.4 is finally out, so this means I've now going through my QA checklist before GAP 1.1 release: https://github.com/inigmatus/GAP/issues/20 which I hope to release this week.

GAP 1.1 will be a massive update...jumping GAP from 34 contracts to a whopping 50 contracts as I have now developed basic aircraft milestone contracts based on @maculator's Kerbal Aircraft Builder's contracts. Everything in Kerbal Aircraft Builders was absorbed into GAP, with agencies and faces changing here and there to fit the GAP storyline. KAB as an agency still lives on in the crew cabin flight test contracts as it made best sense to memorialize KAB there but KAB's influence will be felt in many of the new contracts. You can see the near-finalized GAP progression tree here: https://bubbl.us/?h=934b/5fc8d0/37aoS1/A8mNuU&r=2134139252

A number of surprising bugs have been squished, and this week I focused on wrapping up all loose ends for GAP 1.1, and completing an initial draft for contract balance. I really want to focus on QA though this week, actually playing the contracts out to get a feel for the balances, as I really want this version of GAP to be on the mod review radar. If you would like to help me beta test GAP 1.1 now for the next day or two, it's ready (except contract rewards/experience balances which I need to input from: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1vmZkfWamAaeuTsKL1_yes4l-eoMTrmJZ9zvgp3NkjaM/edit?usp=sharing). Feel free to download the current dev version from GitHub: https://github.com/inigmatus/GAP and be sure to install Contract Configurator 1.9.4. Let me know what you think if you do!

Edited January 25, 2016 by inigma

[Kowgan]

This is some great job, inigma! I regret not knowing this earlier! Thank you so much for the effort put into this mod.

[Ringkeeper]

i have a problem with the "Drop 2 Buoy" Contract.

The contract does not detect the transmitters. I used the buoy from this buoy thread .

 

I use also Remote Tech. Could it be, that this is the reason your contracts don't detect the transmitter? Also when i switch to the buoy after recovering the plane and transmit the requested data this does not get recognised.

[inigma]

1 minute ago, Ringkeeper said:

i have a problem with the "Drop 2 Buoy" Contract.

The contract does not detect the transmitters. I used the buoy from this buoy thread .

 

I use also Remote Tech. Could it be, that this is the reason your contracts don't detect the transmitter? Also when i switch to the buoy after recovering the plane and transmit the requested data this does not get recognised.

buoy recognition is improved in GAP 1.1 slated for release later this week.

[maculator]

Just started a fresh career to ttest the **** out of this pack, so far its amazing, just like I hoped.

Getting my ships to water is a bit tedious and the reward doesn't really compensate the funds I gotta spend to complete the missions.

I NEVER used boats before so I didnt really know how and what to do, but now that I got the hang of it its really funny, I just hope squad equips the KSC with a smal harbor or boat ramp in the future.

Spoiler

PS: @inigma 1. The link in the contract configurator post linking to this thread is broken and 2. Is there anyway you could put the original KAB flag in the pack? I really love it and would love to see it living past the KAB pack. Thanks