Mission or Contract?

[SpacedCowboy]

I see so many threads concerning ("I've got this mission to do this or whatever"), or ("I have to do this because, I'm on a mission)

Wait, is this a self-assigned "mission" (role playing) or a career contract?

Shouldn't a distinction be made?

[Galileo]

Well I look at it like this,  a contract is a contract until it's accepted, only then does it become your mission to fulfill that contract. The term "mission"  is dependent on whether or not you accept the contract.  If you don't accept a contract, then it remains just that,  a contract. 

Now a mission could also be a personal thing,  like a goal to reach a particular place or rescuing that stranded kerbal from Tylo. Personal missions obviously don't require a contract though. 

I can't speak for how others use the terms. I assume for most,  contracts and missions are interchangeable, and I suppose a contract could be called a mission,  it just personal preference. 

Thats my 2 cents and I don't even know if it makes sense,  I just kept going lol.  Hope it helps 

Edited January 5, 2017 by Galileo

[Wjolcz]

I still don't have a clue why they decided to call them "contracts". My guess is that a proper "mission" would make sense and have a clear goal. In a "contract" the goal doesn't matter. You just get paid and that's all you need to know.

[heihei4c]

A "contract" is just an agreement with other parties, where in KSP, you have to meet the obliged goal to receive the reward.

A "mission" is the planning and operation to reach the goal you set up. In which case, it could be the objectives of your contracts, or ANYTHING, like blowing up kerbals for no reason.

[Snark]

The distinction seems pretty trivial to me.  Regardless of what any one person may consider to be the precise definition of a "mission" or a "contract", they're going to boil down to this:

• Mission:  "Thing I want to do, because <reasons>."
• Contract:  "Thing I want to do because <reasons>."

...the reasons may or may not be different in the two cases (depending on one's personal definition of the terms)... but unless it's germane to the discussion (which it usually isn't), the reasons are fairly irrelevant; all that really matters is the "thing I want to do" part.

For me, "mission" is a general-purpose term for any thing-I-want-to-do, whether it's an accepted contract or just some roleplaying thing.  I use "contract" to refer to "any of the things that show up in Mission Control"; there are accepted contracts (which I consider to be one subtype of "mission") and unaccepted ones (which aren't).

 

[Hodari]

16 hours ago, Veeltch said:

I still don't have a clue why they decided to call them "contracts". My guess is that a proper "mission" would make sense and have a clear goal. In a "contract" the goal doesn't matter. You just get paid and that's all you need to know.

There's also the fact that one "mission" could fulfill several different contracts.  You could "test part at launch site", "haul another piece of junk to 18km at 500m/s", "gather science from LKO", "fly-by the Mun", "orbit Minmus", and "plant a flag on Minmus" all by launching one rocket.  Each of those would be a separate contract, but all part of the same mission.

[Fearless Son]

Aye.  Like @Hodari said, I will sometimes combine several "contracts" into one "mission", and maybe a few milestones too.  I will often wait until I have a "critical mass" of contracts I can fulfill in a single mission, then do them all in one go.  I find this is a more interesting challenge than if I were to fulfill every individual contract in an individual mission.  

Say I have a contract to return scientific data from a particular planetary body.  Maybe then I wait for a contract to plant a flag on that body.  Then maybe another contract to take a specific kind of reading at three points on the surface of that planet a few kilometers from each other.  Okay, now we are getting interesting!  Now I know that I need to send a mission with a crew, some kind of rover or runabout, and a bunch of scientific apparatus.  I now have both the incentive (and the seed capital) to plan a more elaborate mission than I would if I just took each contract one at a time.  

[Mastikator]

Contracts serve 2 purposes

Funds

Challenge accepted

Missions serve 2 purposes

Science

Challenge accepted

[TopHeavy11]

See above comments.

[Nathair]

On 2017-01-04 at 8:16 PM, SpacedCowboy said:

Shouldn't a distinction be made?

This is KSP, if you want to distinguish between them you go right ahead. Trying to get anybody else to play or talk about KSP your way is a doomed endeavour.

[SpacedCowboy]

I'm merely looking for clarity ( for the sake of discussion ). Is this about a mission, or is this about a contract?

Certainly not telling anybody how to play or talk about KSP.

[regex]

A mission is when you're doing something.

A contract is something you accept to be rewarded by a third party for doing something.

[Fearless Son]

5 hours ago, regex said:

A mission is when you're doing something.

A contract is something you accept to be rewarded by a third party for doing something.

All contracts are, by definition, missions, but not all missions involve contracts.  

[Superfluous J]

In short: Contracts are things offered to do by the game. Missions are things I want to do. Sometimes those two things are the same and I accept those contracts.

Edited January 7, 2017 by 5thHorseman

[SpacedCowboy]

Okay 5th, You've got some balls.

However, You seem to be hanging a little low to the right!

[regex]

5 minutes ago, SpacedCowboy said:

Okay 5th, You've got some balls.

However, You seem to be hanging a little low to the right!

:groan:

[SpacedCowboy]

Sorry, couldn't help myself

I give up on my point in this post.

Some are just on a mission. Some feel they're contractually obliged.