About those "Build a new orbital station" contracts

[Sonny_Jim]

3 minutes ago, Magzimum said:

If you think that the fuel is excessive, then you just plan your missions too small.

Yes, this is what I'm beginning to realise.  I tend to build the smallest, most efficient rockets that I can (not very Kerbal of me, I know) so that's why I'm finding these contracts unreasonable.

[Magzimum]

58 minutes ago, Sonny_Jim said:

Yes, this is what I'm beginning to realise.  I tend to build the smallest, most efficient rockets that I can (not very Kerbal of me, I know) so that's why I'm finding these contracts unreasonable.

Oh, but I am not saying that you shouldn't do that... keep your efficiency up to that same level! However, if you do happen to have 4000 units of liquid fuel (and the corresponding oxidizer and/or engines that can use just the liquid fuel), you could design an efficient mission to use it all.

Maybe my suggestions were not ambitious enough. Maybe 4000 units of fuel enable you to not only land a Kerbal with some science equipment at 4 different spots on the Mun, but also allows you to land that entire station and lift off a return vehicle for the 7 Kerbals. Then you should wait for a contract that pays you to build a station on the surface of the Mun... and cash in both the orbit station and the surface station in one go (they really don't seem to care if that station does not remain in Munar orbit for more than 10 seconds).

Just collect missions until you're actually putting that 4000 units of fuel to an efficient use. It helps if you have the mission control upgraded, so you can accept more missions.

[storm_soldier2377]

Still better than those contracts that asks you to go retrogade around the sun.

[Clancy]

On 9/30/2016 at 5:13 PM, tjt said:

Great reference...what was that president/s name...JFK? John F Kerman???

"We choose to put a Ginormous Fuel Tank on the Mun, not because it is easy, but because it is HAAHD!!"

[septemberWaves]

Usually I'll take a "new station around Kerbin" contract, a "new station around the sun" contract, and a "new station around [insert planet that I have yet to make a specific reusable transport for]" all at once, if I can find contracts with requirements that I know I'll be satisfying over the duration of time that I colonize that planetary system (which encompasses most possible parameters actually). I'll then build a large interplanetary transport to facilitate colonization of that planetary system, and gradually accumulate contract payments from the station building contracts over the duration of the colonization program (which, considering the duration of most station contracts outside of Kerbin's SOI, usually leaves me with plenty of time). This works well because most of my interplanetary transport vehicles have far higher crew capacity than they need even without cargo, and when transporting base equipment they always end up having several labs, cupolas, and at least one ISRU module. The ship doesn't even need to stay in orbit around the specified body in order to satisfy the contract details so long as it returns there eventually.

[Sonny_Jim]

On 03/10/2016 at 10:53 AM, Magzimum said:

However, if you do happen to have 4000 units of liquid fuel (and the corresponding oxidizer and/or engines that can use just the liquid fuel), you could design an efficient mission to use it all.

This is my point, in the rockets I design, 4,000 units could easily get me to several of Jools moons and back.  Makes very little sense to me to have that much sitting on the surface of the Mun.  In any case, I don't seem to get so many of these contracts now so either it's been tweaked in a later update or the game has noticed that I don't accept them so has stopped offering them to me.

21 hours ago, storm_soldier2377 said:

 

Still better than those contracts that asks you to go retrogade around the sun.

 

Just had one to put a satellite in a polar orbit of the Sun.  Granted, I'm further along in my career now, but still.

[Nich]

I just got 3 station contracts 250k LKO 489k Sun asteroid class E and 345k Duna (on hard difficulty).  All three will be completed by 1 station costing 24,000 to launch (after center stage recovery)

[Kevin Kyle]

Just this weekend I did 2 stations. The one in Kerbin orbit wasnt too bad. Had no fuel requirements and 7 Kerbals. The Mun one was a bit harder though, It wanted what the OP said but it wanted 6000 units of fuel instead. I did it in 3 trips. One for the station and 2 for each half of the fuel. I made a ship to get the station up and to the Mun in one trip. For the fuel, it required 2 launches per 3000 units. One to put the fuel in LKO and another to put the fuel tug in LKO where I docked with the fuel and then took it to the station and docked it. Im not halfway through the science yet. It wasnt as bad as I expected but I clearly lost money on that contract and only broke even on the Kerbin station. I havent hardly explored Kerbin or the moons yet so I will get some practical use out of them. Mostly I just like the challenge.

That being said, It wanted me to do one for Duna and a solar station as well which required 6000 units of fuel too. I didnt take either of those. Maybe in the future I will do those. One thing though, every time I start a new career, I find that I can do a lot more far earlier than the career prior with a lot less than I had before. Knowledge is the key to success, that and some experience. But, I agree, some of those contracts seem all but impossible. Choose wisely I always say.

[Nich]

1 thing to remember it only requires LF.  Nukes run off the stuff only thus launching just LF and no O does make sense as your nuke tugs can always use the fuel in the future.

[Draco T stand-up guy]

On 3/10/2016 at 10:53 PM, Magzimum said:

Then you should wait for a contract that pays you to build a station on the surface of the Mun... and cash in both the orbit station and the surface station in one go (they really don't seem to care if that station does not remain in Munar orbit for more than 10 seconds).

But they do have an irritating habit of putting 'new build' into the contract so that a simple renaming doesn't work.

[Draco T stand-up guy]

On 5/10/2016 at 6:01 AM, Sonny_Jim said:

Just had one to put a satellite in a polar orbit of the Sun.

Oh, now that'd be fun

[Magzimum]

16 minutes ago, Draco T stand-up guy said:

But they do have an irritating habit of putting 'new build' into the contract so that a simple renaming doesn't work.

True, so you gotta wait until you got both (or multiple) contracts, then build a new station that fits both requirements and launch.

[magnemoe]

2 minutes ago, Magzimum said:

True, so you gotta wait until you got both (or multiple) contracts, then build a new station that fits both requirements and launch.

Yes, I tend to accept mun and minmus contracts if they has the correct requirements as I do it with stations going to other planets. 
 

[Terwin]

My last training+tourist flight had station contracts for Kerbin, Minmus and Kerbol, and the launch was paid for by the tourists alone.  Also rescued 3 kerbals on the trip.

Need to remember to up the max contracts in the config file when I install 1.2 so I can be consistent about 6+ contracts per launch...(with the default in 1.2-pre, I usually do more like 2-4 contracts per launch once I have ISRU)