Allow declining the undeclinable and add RNG

[eddiew]

So here's my thing; it's early in my career. The game is nagging me over and over to "dock two vessels around <a local moon>". I don't want to. I don't care, I've done with that moon, it's farmed out, I probably never want to go back, and the contract is going to cost more to fulfil than it pays by a wide margin. I'm ready to move on.

But I can't cancel the contract. If I delete it by editing the save, I just get another one for the same darn thing. Eventually I crack and cheat it so that the game thinks I have done that docking and finally moves on. Now it wants me to land on a planet that I already have a probe around. I'm not interested in that right now, I'd like to go somewhere new; I wait 6 days for a new contract. Land on the same planet. No... don't want to, next contract. Land on the same... oh for goodness sake!

For the love of kraken-sushi, please put some RNG into the explore destinations! Ideally let us cancel them and hurry it on. 

Really. If a player has been to a body, then the contract system needs to get over itself and start offering OTHER places to go as well. It's fine if "dock two vessels around <local moon>" remains one of the things that can pop up, but it can't be the only thing that ever appears! Sometimes it's just not on a player's todo list ever, resulting in them never doing it, and never getting any explore contracts outside of that one activity that they're not interested in. 

Be more random. If a player ignores "explore Duna" for a month, offer them Dres, or Jool, or Eeloo! Make it up to the player to decide whether or not to take a particular exploration contract. Allow variety.

/grumble

 

[Wjolcz]

I agree. The contracts are really silly 80% of the times. I'm really glad the only thing that matters in my modded career are World's Firsts. They should be the only thing that is mandatory. Who cares how I achieve the goal? As long as I achieve the main thing (landing for example) then I should be done with that goal.

And this is what I did to complete the same contract you're trying to deal with: I landed on the Mun manned in one piece (because it was way easier than doing an Apollo mission) and came back to Kerbin. Then I selected one of my probes orbiting the Mun and just performed rendezvous with another one and all the objectives were then marked as done. It was really dumb.

[Hotaru]

The "Explore X" contracts are a perfect example of the kind of contracts that should be user-selectable, not just whatever strikes the RNG's fancy. So, you want to go to Duna? No, I really, really think you should go to Vall. Because reasons. I'm an RNG. Your argument is invalid.

Tourism is another one. How cool would it be if you could define which destinations you're offering service to? So tourists will quit trying to book flights to Eeloo on Munar Spacelines, Inc. Dammit, guys, I'm not offering flights to Eeloo yet! We haven't even been to Duna! We haven't invented nuclear motors! We haven't even invented Poodles! What could possibly have possessed you to think you can buy a ticket to Eeloo?

Another one is... well, all of them, really. They should all be user-selectable. All it would take is one new screen in Mission Control, with two lists of checkboxes: contract types, and destinations. Select which ones you're in the mood for, deselect the rest, problem solved. 

[Nathair]

2 hours ago, Hotaru said:

The "Explore X" contracts are a perfect example of the kind of contracts that should be user-selectable, not just whatever strikes the RNG's fancy. So, you want to go to Duna? No, I really, really think you should go to Vall. Because reasons. I'm an RNG. Your argument is invalid.

1

 

 

I don't even think they should be contracts as such. Everything on the World's First list should be available all the time as a kind of checklist.

Edited February 1, 2017 by Nathair
Because worst forum software EVER.

[The_Rocketeer]

3 hours ago, Hotaru said:

The "Explore X" contracts are a perfect example of the kind of contracts that should be user-selectable, not just whatever strikes the RNG's fancy. So, you want to go to Duna? No, I really, really think you should go to Vall. Because reasons. I'm an RNG. Your argument is invalid.

Tourism is another one. How cool would it be if you could define which destinations you're offering service to? So tourists will quit trying to book flights to Eeloo on Munar Spacelines, Inc. Dammit, guys, I'm not offering flights to Eeloo yet! We haven't even been to Duna! We haven't invented nuclear motors! We haven't even invented Poodles! What could possibly have possessed you to think you can buy a ticket to Eeloo?

Another one is... well, all of them, really. They should all be user-selectable. All it would take is one new screen in Mission Control, with two lists of checkboxes: contract types, and destinations. Select which ones you're in the mood for, deselect the rest, problem solved. 

Agree with all this. It's kinda baffling to me why 'career' has been left so bad for so long. But who knows, maybe this is the big surprise that Squad have been hinting at for weeks.

[Dr.Wolfram]

You should take a look at Strategia mod, it has an option to activate 'Contract Slot machine', and also it works with GPP