Creating a Custom Mission

[XLjedi]

Now before we get too riled up over the Mission Editor that is soon to be released, let me clarify a bit...

I understand the new Mission Editor will NOT support career mode    That said, I am interested in creating a mission or two that I can use in my current career game. 

What I would like to do is maybe develop a mod with a little Mission Control UI that would allow me to "buy" a mission that maybe uses that feature to unlock parts for technology that has not yet been unlocked on my career tree.  This might enable me to deploy an experimental craft or two that I developed in sandbox mode that are ahead of their time on the tech curve... not sure if a mission can be created that would reduce your funds when selected, but seems like it logically would allow a negative instead of a positive value.  Would also be nice if I could make it auto-complete the mission when the special craft is deployed. 

Does this sort of thing ring-a-bell to anyone?  I don't wish to recreate the wheel if it's already been done.

[VenDei]

This sounds a lot like something that could be done with Contract Configurator already, I think. Specifically I seem to remember that in the "Giving Aircraft Purpose"-Pack you can(could? It's been a while.) buy into certain useful parts if you have not unlocked them in the tech tree already at the expense of funds.

[XLjedi]

@VenDei  Thanks, I'll have a look at Contract Configurator! 

I was kinda wanting to manage it via individual missions though.  I don't want to buy a part to unlock it ahead of time, I just want to be able to deploy a craft with that one (or two or three) unlocked part(s).  Very similar to the "part test" missions that we get in stock.  So I pay to get the mission, it unlocks the parts for a specific craft, I deploy the craft and the mission is complete; part no longer unlocked.  Have to be extra careful now not to crash the craft!  ...else expensive to replace with a new "Skunkworks Order" mission.

 

Edited July 3, 2017 by XLjedi

[VenDei]

Something like this? https://github.com/jrossignol/ContractConfigurator/wiki/ExperimentalPart-Behaviour

If you THEN also require a certain number of funds https://github.com/jrossignol/ContractConfigurator/wiki/Funds-Requirement ,and set the advance negative, the net result should be that you buy certain parts for the mission (well, the blueprints anyway, as you have to still buy them in VAB/SPH to actually build them), and don't have them available anymore upon contract completion - which can be, as I understand it, be just deploying the craft and nothing else (status Kerbin/landed).

[XLjedi]

@VenDei thanks for pointing me to the scripts!

This will be very helpful in the event that I have to build the mod meselfs.

Incidentally, based on what I've described, is it safe to assume I would not be wasting my time creating it then?

Not terribly concerned if final user count is one, but I don't want to build something and then have someone say, "Oh, why didn't you just use this?"  ...and it has like 20 additional features.

Oh wait!  ..are these scripts for Contract Configurator?  So I maybe don't need to build anything then, right?

 

Edited July 3, 2017 by XLjedi

[VenDei]

I'm not aware that there's anything that exactly does what you're proposing. I just pointed to Contract Configurator as possible tool.

And since we're playing a game here, we are actually not able to waste time, as long as we're having fun.

[XLjedi]

59 minutes ago, VenDei said:

I'm not aware that there's anything that exactly does what you're proposing. I just pointed to Contract Configurator as possible tool.

And since we're playing a game here, we are actually not able to waste time, as long as we're having fun.

Thanks again, very helpful!

[SchwinnTropius]

From the looks of things, you might be able to just rewrite a "Haul Xpart to Ylocation" contract to "Haul Xpart to the Launchpad" with Contract Configurator to achieve what you're looking for.

Edited July 3, 2017 by SchwinnTropius
Clarity

[XLjedi]

This Contract Configurator looks to be 90% of what I'd like to do!  ...and basically addresses all the mission config file syntax questions I could possibly have.  Working on my first "Skunkworks Order" (Sword?) mission config file now!

I'm thinking I might want a separate mission for each specific craft I develop in sandbox, and maybe come up with an appropriate (and a bit painful) cost depending on how many "Voodoo Parts" a craft might contain.

Thanks for pointing me in the right direction.

Edited July 4, 2017 by XLjedi