Time Code and Expansion

[Jestersage]

I have received a station expansion contract for my Munar station, and I realized that one of my Kerbin Stations (which still have a Rhino attached and plenty of fuel) can dock to my Munar station to satisfy the requirement. However, knowing about timecode of the ship, I am wondering if that is possible-- the Kerbin station is older of the two.

So how does the timecode work? Does it always use the oldest component's timecode to determine whether the end-result would satisfy the contract? Or would my original plan (dock the Kerbin station to Munar station) satisfy the contract regardless?

Edited February 25, 2017 by Jestersage

[bewing]

1 hour ago, Jestersage said:

So how does the timecode work? Does it always use the oldest component's timecode to determine whether the end-result would satisfy the contract?

Yup.

And when you dock two things together, the oldest timecode gets copied to all the docked components.

 

Edited February 25, 2017 by bewing

[Jestersage]

1 minute ago, bewing said:

Yup.

So does that mean I can't use an existing station (station A) to expand Station-B to satisfy a contract placed on Station B?

[bewing]

1 minute ago, Jestersage said:

So does that mean I can't use an existing station (station A) to expand Station-B to satisfy a contract placed on Station B?

Depends on if Station A was launched before you accepted the contract to expand station B or not.

(And whether you've docked Station A to anything older than itself in the meantime.)

 

Edited February 25, 2017 by bewing

[Jestersage]

1 minute ago, bewing said:

Depends on if Station A was launched before you accepted the contract to expand station B or not.

(And whether you've docked Station A to anything older than itself in the meantime.)

 

Station A is definitely older than accepting contract (and older than Station B)

[bewing]

You can test it out in advance if you like. Create a savegame so that you can get back to where you are now.

Focus Station A. Go into the Debug Menu/Cheats/Set Orbit. At the bottom of the screen, select to rendezvous with Station B and hit the button. You will be placed 150m from Station B in the same orbit. Dock. See what the contract does.

Then reload the savegame.

 

 

Edited February 25, 2017 by bewing

[Jestersage]

2 hours ago, bewing said:

You can test it out in advance if you like. Create a savegame so that you can get back to where you are now.

Focus Station A. Go into the Debug Menu/Cheats/Set Orbit. At the bottom of the screen, select to rendezvous with Station B and hit the button. You will be placed 150m from Station B in the same orbit. Dock. See what the contract does.

Then reload the savegame.

Result inconclusive. Upon docking the old station to the new one, the Mission contract ended up referring to the old station. Discarding some parts on the new station changed the referal to its debris.

Mods that I have used: KER, Hyperedit, KVV, Stage recovery, Trajectory

What to say to other people: Not worth the risk. Build and launch new component will be safer.