Contract Complete spam (bug)

[PTNLemay]

I installed contract configurator because I like how it organizes the contracts into types. But upon upgrading to 1.4.2 (I installed it while I was on 1.4.1) something weird has been happening. While playing, I'll get spammed with dozens of "Contract Complete" notifications. They're all contracts I currently have running, but the message offers no rewards. It's just a box that says "this contract is done". The actual contract hasn't been finished, as none of the conditions have been met.

So I uninstalled contract configurator. It didnt' help, the bug is still showing. I then uninstalled Kerbal Engineer Redux and Waypoint manager (the only other mods I had). Reloaded the game, and this is still happening. So I'm not sure if this was something that the mods broke, and the problem is persisting even after I've removed them. Or is it a problem with the game itself?

If anyone has seen something like this before (and hopefully has an idea on how to fix it) please let me know. I'm hoping I won't need to reinstall the game.

 

 

[ceaars]

You're seeing a bug in 1.4.2, and it has nothing to do with any mods you (once) had installed.  (I play on a completely unmodded version, and I'm seeing the same thing.)

Here's what's going on.  It used to be you'd only see "Contract Complete" (if the whole contract was finished) or "Contract Parameter Complete" (if you'd fulfilled one of the contract conditions) if there was a reward involved (funds, science, or reputation), which meant you'd only see the message once (since you can't get the reward for completing the contract - or a "rewarding" contract parameter - more than once).

The bug (hopefully accidentally) set it so that literally all contract parameters being completed are being displayed, regardless of whether or not they give a reward.  Which means you are being spammed with all of those "contract checkpoints" that have to be verified before anything that gives a reward can be given.  So, for example, if you have three contracts that "require the craft to maintain stability for 10 seconds" than any time you switch to a craft and maintain stability for 10 seconds, you'll see "parameter fulfilled" spam for all three contracts.

That's what you are seeing in your second picture.  No doubt the "test the Rhino" contract requires the craft with the Rhino to "be in orbit."  So when you switch to *any* craft that is in *any* orbit you are seeing it tell you you fulfilled the "be in orbit" requirement of your "test the Rhino" contract.  Of course, that's totally useless, because most likely the craft you just switched to does not have a Rhino on board (which is another parameter of that contract).

At the moment it seems the only option is just to delete all the spam the moment you switch to any ship, which is extremely tedious, but if you don't, you'll soon have hundreds (if not thousands) of those messages in your little "alert" area (all of which you'll eventually have to delete) - especially if you are doing a lot of switching between ships and have a lot of contracts with "minor checks" like "be in orbit" or "maintain stability" currently active.

For what it's worth, it looks like completely fulfilling the contract stops at least the spam from that particular contract (since that contract isn't checking any of the little minor things any more).

Also, this doesn't seem to be affecting the contract actually giving a reward; mine have been rewarding normally.

Naturally, I hope they fix this soon - the spam is extremely annoying, to say the least.

[basic.syntax]

This has been reported by other players, and Squad staff have replied about it, in the 1.4.2 update thread. Hopefully it will be addressed in the next update  

 

On ‎3‎/‎28‎/‎2018 at 1:18 PM, radonek said:

https://imgur.com/a/V1zMd

Looks like it, but certainly not in debug log. These look like triggered by 10 second stability, but I've also noticed "contract finished" one for contract that is most certainly not finished. Also, it seems that only two surface base contracts trigger this. I don't have other base contracts, but some "plant flag" and "rescue" and those kept quiet. Both of those basebuilding  contracts are from 1.4.1.

On ‎3‎/‎28‎/‎2018 at 1:32 PM, TriggerAu said:

Hmm, that one looks like it should be looked into

 

On ‎3‎/‎28‎/‎2018 at 4:13 PM, Mark Kerbin said:

Anyway to have contracts NOT tell you when a parameter is met?

On ‎3‎/‎28‎/‎2018 at 8:33 PM, TriggerAu said:

Not that I can see no. I've started discussing it with some peeps. From what I can see for it to spam 100 messages there would have to be 100 params on a single contract, but I'm only aware of like 6 being the most or something like that.

Would be super helpful if you could (if you haven't already) log a bug report for that with the save and logs and we can get some people looking at it specifically

PS. If I dont respond its because Im about to go away for weekend and no internet, have mentioned this to some people too

 

[radonek]

If it's any help, quit to main menu will make most of those messages go away.

[PTNLemay]

Thanks to those who clarified.  I wasn't able to quickly get the contracts done because some involved fairly complex missions to Duna (and the swarm of spacecrafts was still a goo 150 days out).  So I was forced to use Ctrl+Alt+F12 to force the contracts to conclude.

That did indeed fix it, and the spam is gone.  For now... but now I'm scared to accept new contracts.

[ceaars]

4 hours ago, PTNLemay said:

Thanks to those who clarified.  I wasn't able to quickly get the contracts done because some involved fairly complex missions to Duna (and the swarm of spacecrafts was still a goo 150 days out).  So I was forced to use Ctrl+Alt+F12 to force the contracts to conclude.

That did indeed fix it, and the spam is gone.  For now... but now I'm scared to accept new contracts.

Don't be!  You just need to be strategic about it.  If you pick contracts where every parameter gives a reward, you should be fine (an example is tourist contracts, or "rescue stranded Kerbal" contracts).  Second, contracts that are extremely fast and easy to fulfill (transmit science from X) won't cause a problem.  Finally, contracts that have "non rewarding" parameters that are fairly rare to fulfill WILL spam, but won't do it often because it's unlikely you'll randomly fulfill them (e.g. "be in orbit" or "be stable for 10 seconds" or "have 1000 units of electricity" is bad, but "alt between 55,000 m and 75,000 m," or "velocity between X and Y" still creates spam but is somewhat more tolerable since its much rarer for randomly selected missions you are switching through to monitor to automatically fulfill those).  So if you're not getting a *lot* of spam, you can just "trash" the messages as they appear without getting overwhelmed.

BTW, the "stable for 10 seconds" is really one to avoid right now.  Literally every contract will spam that *every* time you fire and cut your engines and stay "coasting" for 10 seconds....

[Cat Biscuits]

Just want to chuck in to say that Im getting this too.

[nightingale]

For those who want to keep track the bug is #18267.  I'll keep an eye on it since Contract Configurator is especially prone to trigger this bug.  I may look at a workaround (but if I do it's likely to be Contract Configurator only).

[TriggerAu]

Just to add a text note on this one - its being actively worked on and the info in the forum and the tracker has been super useful to nail down the details and repro's

[StoneTJwall]

Is there anything we can do while waiting for a fix?  I'd love to be able to insert (or edit) some code myself to fix this before 1.4.3.

[TriggerAu]

6 hours ago, StoneTJwall said:

Is there anything we can do while waiting for a fix?  I'd love to be able to insert (or edit) some code myself to fix this before 1.4.3.

I dont believe so no. will double check the code when Im home, but from memory no sorry

[nightingale]

14 hours ago, StoneTJwall said:

Is there anything we can do while waiting for a fix?  I'd love to be able to insert (or edit) some code myself to fix this before 1.4.3.

I implemented a (hacky) workaround in Contract Configurator.  It's ugly and brute force (it just deletes the messages as they appear), but it works for stock and CC contracts.

[xChrisx92]

15 hours ago, StoneTJwall said:

Is there anything we can do while waiting for a fix?  I'd love to be able to insert (or edit) some code myself to fix this before 1.4.3.

 

8 hours ago, TriggerAu said:

I dont believe so no. will double check the code when Im home, but from memory no sorry

When can we expect the next patch to be up to fix this issue?

[Snark]

1 hour ago, xChrisx92 said:

When can we expect the next patch to be up to fix this issue?

If you're talking about the next official KSP patch:  Squad generally makes it a practice not to announce release dates for that kind of thing in advance.  (Making History was very much the exception there, when they actually announced its release date beforehand).  So the answer to "when can we expect the next patch" is presumably "as soon as it's ready." 

 

[xChrisx92]

1 hour ago, Snark said:

If you're talking about the next official KSP patch:  Squad generally makes it a practice not to announce release dates for that kind of thing in advance.  (Making History was very much the exception there, when they actually announced its release date beforehand).  So the answer to "when can we expect the next patch" is presumably "as soon as it's ready." 

 

Oh I see, thank you.  

[ceaars]

And just as a heads up to the folks that (like me) really like playing in Career mode, another type of contract to be especially way of accepting until the bug is fixed is the "Put a probe into a specific orbit" (either existing or newly launched)... Those without fail have multiple parameters that will almost always be fulfilled by virtually ANY ship you focus on every single time you focus on them (including the "stable for 10 seconds" one that spams every time you accelerate - 10 seconds later).  I took three of those last night without really thinking about it and literally set about almost immediately completing them to clear them off of my contract list, and for each of the three satellites each time I switched focus to take care of a maneuver node on my way to the target orbit I would rack up an average of 60-100 notifications (since I was simultaneously fulfilling three contracts with about five parameters each *several* times per maneuver).  By the time I got all three into position and cleared the contracts I had probably erased a total of 700-800 notifications!

[StoneTJwall]

14 hours ago, TriggerAu said:

I dont believe so no. will double check the code when Im home, but from memory no sorry

Thanks for working on this.  It seems like a bunch of silly bugs got past QA and testing in 1.4 and following.  I hope you guys get it all sorted out.

[TriggerAu]

9 hours ago, xChrisx92 said:

 

When can we expect the next patch to be up to fix this issue?

I wish I could say, but I'm not in the comms team

We are working through a lot of the feedback and stuff and you'll usually find updates about dates and stuff via the KSPWeekly

[xChrisx92]

15 hours ago, TriggerAu said:

I wish I could say, but I'm not in the comms team

We are working through a lot of the feedback and stuff and you'll usually find updates about dates and stuff via the KSPWeekly

Thank you for responding, I will make sure to check the KSPWeekly for any updates. It just makes playing career mode extremely frustrating having to alt+f12 to temporarily fix the issue everytime you accept a new contract.