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Hey, that's pretty good!

Wjolcz

By Wjolcz
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Wjolcz

Wjolcz

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Did you guys know that in 1.2 there are certain contracts that generate points of interest around a landed vessel? These are great for rover missions. I haven't noticed them in previous versions of the game so I assume they are a new thing.

@Arsonide was probably involved in this. Thanks a bunch. Another reason why these guys should get a medal for tolerating my whiny behaviour.

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Snark

Snark

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7 hours ago, eloquentJane said:

This sounds absolutely perfect, especially since I'm planning to make good use of rovers in my upcoming exploration series.

Yep, those missions are a nice addition.

Be aware, though, that those missions can be deceptive-- particularly the ones that say "go investigate an anomaly".  You see the contract, it says "go investigate at point X".  Oh look, it's right there, within a fairly reasonable driving distance of my rover!  I'll go pick it up, easy contract, just take me a few minutes, right?

So, I drive there, and... "No, this isn't the spot after all.  Go investigate over here instead."  So now it's time to drive to another somewhat-nearby spot.

Aaaand.... nope, not this one either.  Go to the next spot.

And the next.

I lost count of 'em, but there must have been at least half a dozen.  There were a lot.

None of them insuperably hard, but... even if it only takes ~10 minutes of driving to get from one spot to the next, that's still a good solid hour that I had to put into that contract, rather than the 10 minutes I was assuming when I picked it up.  That's a pretty big discrepancy.  It's a pretty big time investment for a contract that doesn't actually pay all that much.  There are some contracts out there that I would spend an hour on... but this isn't one of them, and if I had known it would take that much time, I probably wouldn't have picked it up.

Of course, I know there are rover jockeys out there who would enjoy this sort of thing.  :)  So I'm not saying "it's a bad contract"... just, "it's a contract that is very different from what it appears to be on the surface," so caveat emptor.

 

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Wjolcz

Wjolcz

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8 hours ago, Snark said:

Yep, those missions are a nice addition.

Be aware, though, that those missions can be deceptive-- particularly the ones that say "go investigate an anomaly".  You see the contract, it says "go investigate at point X".  Oh look, it's right there, within a fairly reasonable driving distance of my rover!  I'll go pick it up, easy contract, just take me a few minutes, right?

So, I drive there, and... "No, this isn't the spot after all.  Go investigate over here instead."  So now it's time to drive to another somewhat-nearby spot.

Aaaand.... nope, not this one either.  Go to the next spot.

And the next.

I lost count of 'em, but there must have been at least half a dozen.  There were a lot.

None of them insuperably hard, but... even if it only takes ~10 minutes of driving to get from one spot to the next, that's still a good solid hour that I had to put into that contract, rather than the 10 minutes I was assuming when I picked it up.  That's a pretty big discrepancy.  It's a pretty big time investment for a contract that doesn't actually pay all that much.  There are some contracts out there that I would spend an hour on... but this isn't one of them, and if I had known it would take that much time, I probably wouldn't have picked it up.

Of course, I know there are rover jockeys out there who would enjoy this sort of thing.  :)  So I'm not saying "it's a bad contract"... just, "it's a contract that is very different from what it appears to be on the surface," so caveat emptor.

 

Yeah, I've noticed the same thing. There are at least 4 points of interest each time. And it seems they are randomly generated, but I'm fine with that. Opportunity would go back and forth quite a lot too. Can't say if the stock rewards are appropriate or not, but that's because my career is moded in a way that doing contracts always pay off (contracts grant reputation, reputation directly influences monthly budgets).

Edited by Veeltch
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The Aziz

The Aziz

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58 minutes ago, Veeltch said:

Opportunity would go back and forth quite a lot too. .

Lol that's almost exact representation of my contract, all four points were around a crater.

Though I think they're generated not only around controllable vessels, but flags and probably debris too, because I had one far away from anything, so it could be even a separator that survived "landing".

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septemberWaves

septemberWaves

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@Snark I feel like that's actually ideal for my purposes. Any bases with exploration rovers that I create will be landed near intersection points of several biomes. If I simply hold off the biome exploration until I get one of those contracts, I'll be able to accumulate biome science at the same time as completing the contract. I realize though that it's far from perfect for everyone.

Also, I feel like making it something of a challenge to find the right spot is actually somewhat realistic. A satellite may pick up what appears to be a point of interest on the surface for a rover to study, but the rover will have to do a fair amount of searching before finding a location that's actually likely to provide good data.

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Snark

Snark

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6 minutes ago, eloquentJane said:

@Snark I feel like that's actually ideal for my purposes. Any bases with exploration rovers that I create will be landed near intersection points of several biomes. If I simply hold off the biome exploration until I get one of those contracts, I'll be able to accumulate biome science at the same time as completing the contract. I realize though that it's far from perfect for everyone.

Also, I feel like making it something of a challenge to find the right spot is actually somewhat realistic. A satellite may pick up what appears to be a point of interest on the surface for a rover to study, but the rover will have to do a fair amount of searching before finding a location that's actually likely to provide good data.

Oh, absolutely, no disagreement with you there, on any of your points.

My gripe is not so much "hey, it's a dumb contract"-- different people like different contract types, after all.  So it's a foregone conclusion that no one person, myself included, will like all of them, and there's nothing wrong with that.

Rather:  the thing that bugs me is, I like contracts to be very clear up-front.  "Here's the effort you need to put in, and here's what the payoff is."  I don't like it when either the success criterion or the payoff is vague.  If it's going to be a case of "you'll have to investigate a lot of points, not just this one that we're starting with"... then say that in the contract description, so that the player can make an appropriately informed choice about whether to pursue that contract.  As it stands now, it just feels kinda like a bait-and-switch to me.

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Chiron0224

Chiron0224

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I actually got one in 1.1 so they aren't brand new.  It's kind of a funny story, I had a Mun landing go really bad on me and used the tried and true "get out and jump at the last second" method of saving my Kerbal's life.  So he was stranded on Mun with no EVA propellant (having used it to try not to hit the surface to hard) and the mission comes through.  And I had the experience of not realizing what I was getting into when I accepted it.  I ended up sending a probe controlled rescue craft to land near him and just had him use that to finish up the mission and then come home.

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Sharpy

Sharpy

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14 hours ago, cephalo said:

Probably should terminate those missions heh.

Why? Perfectly good for 'send science from surface of X' contracts.

And as spare parts. My Duna circumnavigation would be far less enjoyable if I terminated the Jetwing once it ran out of fuel, leaving me without a replacement antenna.

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samstarman5

samstarman5

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21 hours ago, Sharpy said:

Why? Perfectly good for 'send science from surface of X' contracts.

And as spare parts. My Duna circumnavigation would be far less enjoyable if I terminated the Jetwing once it ran out of fuel, leaving me without a replacement antenna.

You can always switch what's left to a debris marker if you want to maintain the equipment on-site. That way it won't get tagged for a future contract.

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Sharpy

Sharpy

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2 hours ago, samstarman5 said:

You can always switch what's left to a debris marker if you want to maintain the equipment on-site. That way it won't get tagged for a future contract.

...and may be swept up in debris cleanup when amount of debris exceeds allowable number.

(and trust me, with Kraken that can happen very rapidly.)

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samstarman5

samstarman5

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18 hours ago, Sharpy said:

...and may be swept up in debris cleanup when amount of debris exceeds allowable number.

(and trust me, with Kraken that can happen very rapidly.)

Then you set the number higher.

Can also experiment to see what craft types might attract contracts, and whether any don't. That is one thing the game is all about. Experimentation and finding things out.  If you want to save craft, then it will be worth finding a way to keep it.

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Sharpy

Sharpy

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3 hours ago, samstarman5 said:

Then you set the number higher.

 

How high? I don't want the game bogged down with 800 pieces of debris. And with Kraken, a base of 2000 parts can suddenly become 2000 pieces of debris instantly.

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