Explore the Mun Contract Not showing up

ShadowElite · February 2, 2016

This is basically a quick question to clear up some issues. I recently completed a contract to do a fly by the mun, I ended up doing orbit on mun and I am not sure if this is the caused of it. I find it really odd that I get the land on Duna contract and it seems to skip the Mun contract and shows up Minimus instead. When will this land on mun contract show up? Will it ever show up? Do I have to skip contracts that will lead straight to this? Is there a way I can bring this back if it did happen to be a bug?

I really wanted the contract and I am afraid I will have to move on without it? Is there a way I can bring it back or am I forever done?

Streetwind · February 2, 2016

The thing with KSP is, almost all contracts are optional. IIRC the only ones you must complete are the starter ones - launch your first vessel, escape the atmosphere, achieve orbit. And even then, the 'must' applies only if you actually want to unlock the other contract types. But as long as you somehow had sufficient money, you could pretty much ignore the mission control building entirely and fly wherever you want. The game will neither reward nor punish you for doing so. However, if you are a new player and you are not quite sure what you are supposed to do next, the mission control building is a fairly useful resource, because it sometimes offers contracts that mimic a progression, in order to gently guide you to a new goal.

Additionally, the game tracks your progress in the save file, and will attempt to give you contracts for things you've recently proven yourself capable of, and the next step beyond that.

Finally, contracts are assigned to you randomly - all contracts, including progression related ones, which are 100% optional and exist only to guide new players.

As a result of these things, it's fairly easy to encounter "skipped" contracts - because the more you do, the more likely it is that one of your actions accidentally rendered a contract redundant. Since all contracts are optional, all contracts can be rendered redundant without any long-term negative effects, apart from the gut feeling of somehow "missing out". You'd therefore do well to learn to ignore that feeling

The specific contract you mention, "Explore the Mun", comes from a template that procedurally generates "Explore <body>" contracts based on two conditions: 1.) you have not entered that body's SoI yet, and 2.) the game judges you as capable of entering that body's SoI, based on the parts you have researched and the previous tasks you have completed. Now you instantly see why you are not receiving this contract type for the Mun: you no longer qualify for it, because you already entered the Mun's SoI in the pursuit of a different, unrelated contract. You have, however, not entered the SoI's of Minmus and Duna, and thus you are eligible to receive this contract type for them. Since both Minmus and Duna are reachable with the same parts and only 10%-25% more fuel than you need for the Mun (which you have already reached), the game also judges you capable of taking those next steps.

And why did you never receive the "Explore the Mun" contract before you entered its SoI? Because all contracts are assigned randomly. It simply didn't show up in time. This actually happens to a lot of players, because building rockets takes zero time and most players spend barely one or two Kerbin days (barely 6-12 hours) between first achieving orbit and first entering the Mun's SoI. That's sometimes not even enough to generate any new contracts at all, because they usually take 3-4 Kerbin days to expire. And if no new contract is generated during the short window where you qualify for "Explore the Mun", then well, it has a grand total of 0% chance to show up for you If, however, you were faffing around in low Kerbin orbit for weeks on end, you'd be almost guaranteed to see this contract at some point.

Edited February 2, 2016 by Streetwind

Geschosskopf · February 2, 2016

Basically, ti's like this:

1. Whether or not the "explore" contracts appear is totally luck of the draw

2. The only thing that affects the chance is if you go to the planet before the "explore" contract appears. In that case, then you'll certainly never get the contract. IOW, "explore" contracts only appear for places you've never been to before.

3. But because of #1, waiting to go somewhere until an "explore" contract comes up is usually pointless. It probably wasn't going to appear anyway. In general, if you start seeing other contracts for a planet (science data, build a station, etc.) but haven't seen "explore" yet, odds are it's not gonna happen.

tater · February 2, 2016

It's not random, I'm pretty sure it's tied to reputation. Make a copy of a save where you have not been to the Mun's SoI, but you think you should have that contract. Edit the copy and up your rep a ways. See what happens.

Snark · February 2, 2016

It's also worth bearing in mind that there are all these "World First" achievements, which are basically automatic, invisible contracts that pay you lots of cash when you go somewhere and/or do something for the first time.

So you're still going to get lots of cash for orbiting the Mun, landing, etc. Admittedly, you're not going to get the extra bonus of an explicit "Explore the Mun" contract (as per the explanations the above posters have already given).... but you're still gonna get tons of cash.

So the moral of the story is, don't worry about it. Just go places and do stuff, you'll get rewarded. If you happen to get lucky and have a chance to snag one of those "Explore ___" contracts along the way, then great, but don't wait for such a contract. It may never come, and even if it does, it's not worth the hassle of waiting for it.

ShadowElite · February 3, 2016

Thanks. Il see if I can skip a few contracts to try and show up but I will pretty much ignore it. I just found it kind of odd that It jumped me on dunas or mimmus contract isntead.

Streetwind · February 3, 2016

3 hours ago, ShadowElite said:

Thanks. Il see if I can skip a few contracts to try and show up but I will pretty much ignore it. I just found it kind of odd that It jumped me on dunas or mimmus contract isntead.

Yesterday's devnotes may be of interest to you, by the way. Turns out the Exploration contracts are getting reworked in 1.1 to remove this sort of confusion.

ShadowElite · February 3, 2016

13 hours ago, Streetwind said:

Yesterday's devnotes may be of interest to you, by the way. Turns out the Exploration contracts are getting reworked in 1.1 to remove this sort of confusion.

I am very happy to hear that, It seems like this contract generator thing needs to be remodified a bit. I cant seem to deny the duna contract which I am clearly not ready for and havent even landed on the mun yet. I am thinking they should just put those kinds of contracts in the milestone service via a checklist instead having it as a base contract.

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Explore the Mun Contract Not showing up

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