Sense of Exploring / Temperature scan contracts

[lugge]

OK, a question that bothered me for some time: am I the only one skipping every single one of these kind of contracts?
You know, the contracts where you have to visit 3 specific spots on Kerbin/Mun/whereveryouwant and perform a temperature scan or something?
I mean, really, whats the sense with these?

OK, maybe I am the newb (which I am, I still consider myself a noob after one year of KSP). But I find these contracts very difficult, considering you get these right from the start of your career.

When I started KSP, I didn't know how difficult they are and tried to finish some. Because airplanes are also difficult as a beginner (and due the lack of parts in early career) I tried to visit the spots with suborbital flights, trying to eyeball for the spot in map view. This took a veeerrryyy long time till I even visit one of the 3, and then I finally decided to not do these kind of contracts anymore. Pain-in-the-ass without airplanes, pain-in-the-ass with airplanes when you are a beginner.

Now lets talk about visiting specific spots on Mun/Minmus, which I imagine is even harder.
Targeted landing is a huge feat, like docking. I finally managed to be good at taget landing, this was necessary to send ships to my Minmus colony (which is not on the equator!). However, visiting spots needs you not only to hit a ground target, you have to manipulate your trajectory to go through a specific spot, not only one time, no, you usually have to visit 3 of them!

I mean, really, who does this?

To make it short: I don't get the purpose of these contracts. To hard for a beginner, to grindy for veterans.
Or, maybe, I am doing something VERY wrong and they are easy-as-pie in reality. Don't know.

Regards,

lugge

Edited May 17, 2016 by lugge

[MarvinKitFox]

25 minutes ago, lugge said:

OK, a question that bothered me for some time: am I the only one skipping every single one of these kind of contracts?
You know, the contracts where you have to visit 3 specific spots on Kerbin/Mun/whereveryouwant and perform a temperature scan or something?
I mean, really, whats the sense with these?

 

Take a good look at that contract.

The vast majority of them ask you to check the temp "above XXX meters" or "below YYY meters".

This means in flight/orbit

 

Simply set up a polar orbit, at about the same surface altitude as the above/below line for your contract.

Be patient and wait until your orbit will pass close enough to the observation point, and half an orbit before you get there, gently nudge pro/retro-grade to adjust your altitude at target as needed.

One observing satellite can do several hundred such observations over time, at no additional expense.

 

Now for those pesky landed spots... That is a bit harder and need to be attended to by either a small disposable probe, or by a big expensive manned mission.

 

If your mission is to spots on Kerbin, then get the low altitude and surface spots with an airplane, and *still* get the "higher than XXX meters" missions with a polar orbital sat.

 

The multiple-target temp/air/observation/etc.. missions have the very best reward in terms of cash spent vs. cash return. You can easily get a 10X or even a 50X return on investment.

What they do take a lot of is time. You time in planning and executing the missions.

Edited May 17, 2016 by MarvinKitFox

[ag3nt108]

One effective way to view these missions is as an addition to a regular mission.  For example I try to combine multiple missions into one craft.  Lets imagine I have orbit the Mun, plant a flag on the Mun, science data from space near the Mun and a temp contract.  I can complete one or 2 of the scans.  land some where near by plant a flag and return home to complete 3 out of 4 of my objectives.  Chances are I can include objectives in a second from the 3 replacement contracts.  You don't need to complete all 3 scans in a single mission.

[Blaarkies]

They are harder than the satellite contracts...which are perfect for beginners to get a fine grasp on orbital mechanics. It's not really grindy for veterans(just pick 2-3 contracts of the same moon). But their payoff is slightly less than the satellite missions(at least the mission-time to rewards ration)

But besides that, i agree with the Kerbin missions. They don't nearly payoff well enough, even though they teach noobs how to build, pilot, land planes on weird places...non of which will really help in going to space, but in designing a spaceplane the basics certainly help at some point.

Just pick the ones that seem rewarding enough for their difficulty(look in mapview/trackingStation before choosing the contracts). Watch out for "Gravimetric scans below 40 000m" contracts...grav sensors don't work while in atmospheric flight(last i checked)

It would be cool if those contracts kind off "deplete" after you completed a few: after 5-10 kerbin surveys, the scientists start looking to Mun. There are sometimes a single kerbin survey contract to choose(but never spammed like they are now)