Expired vs Declined contracts

[GoatRider]

If you let an available contract expire, do you still get the same -1 reputation hit as declining it?

[Aegolius13]

No penalty for letting a contract expire without taking it.  Letting an accepted contract run out of time is different,  of course. 

[Superfluous J]

Note that the -1 rep hit is not nearly as bad as it seems.

The lower your rep, the more rep you get for completing contracts, and the higher it is the less you get. Therefore, you will tend to not ever get to the top and hover around some number that is natural for you.

Also, having more rep is not useful at all, once you start seeing 3 star contracts.

In short, decline away with wild abandon. You likely won't even notice the rep hit.

[GoatRider]

2 hours ago, Aegolius13 said:

No penalty for letting a contract expire without taking it.  Letting an accepted contract run out of time is different,  of course. 

I have noticed that the penalty for cancelling an accepted contract is only -2, and you have to pay back the front money. And you have until the expiration to do it, which is a long way off usually.

Thanks.

[Superfluous J]

3 minutes ago, GoatRider said:

I have noticed that the penalty for cancelling an accepted contract is only -2, and you have to pay back the front money. And you have until the expiration to do it, which is a long way off usually.

Thanks.

I believe that for accepted contracts, canceling and allowing to expire have the same penalty.

Except allowing to expire uses up a contract slot, of course

[GoatRider]

1 hour ago, 5thHorseman said:

I believe that for accepted contracts, canceling and allowing to expire have the same penalty.

Except allowing to expire uses up a contract slot, of course

I thought that allowing them to expire was a "failure", which is usually much harsher.

By the way, the only reason I'm trying to increase my reputation is that's the only thing left. I have plenty of cash and the science tree is full. I'm at 95%, and I read that it's asymptotic to 100%, so I'm not going to get there. I probably won't even hit 96% before I'm done landing kerbals on all of Jool's moons, it's been a long time since it bumped over from 94.

[Superfluous J]

41 minutes ago, GoatRider said:

I thought that allowing them to expire was a "failure", which is usually much harsher.

Seems odd to me that canceling them would be better than expiring, or vice versa. Though I'll be honest I don't know.

41 minutes ago, GoatRider said:

By the way, the only reason I'm trying to increase my reputation is that's the only thing left. I have plenty of cash and the science tree is full. I'm at 95%, and I read that it's asymptotic to 100%, so I'm not going to get there. I probably won't even hit 96% before I'm done landing kerbals on all of Jool's moons, it's been a long time since it bumped over from 94.

There is a way

Take a strategy that gives you a big boost to rep instead of funds, and then take a contract that gives a ton of funds. While rep gain goes down as you approach 100, it is possible to get - say - 5 rep when you're at 95 if you get enough. I don't recall the exact numbers but way back when the admin building first came out (did it come out with contracts? It's been so long I don't remember) I did it.

[Aegolius13]

1 hour ago, GoatRider said:

 

By the way, the only reason I'm trying to increase my reputation is that's the only thing left. I have plenty of cash and the science tree is full. I'm at 95%, and I read that it's asymptotic to 100%, so I'm not going to get there. I probably won't even hit 96% before I'm done landing kerbals on all of Jool's moons, it's been a long time since it bumped over from 94.

Have you looked at the Admin Building strategies?  Sounds like a relatively rare case when they'd be worth it. 

[GoatRider]

Yes, I'm using the strategy that converts all science to reputation. And I have 3 labs running. The one in Mun orbit and LKO are just about out of data, but the Minmus one went to Duna and then Dres and probably has enough data for eternity.

[Duck McFuddle]

No penalty for letting it expire. 

[Vanamonde]

There's also a choice to turn that penalty off in the pre-game-start options. 

[Zhetaan]

On 1/25/2019 at 7:53 PM, 5thHorseman said:

I don't recall the exact numbers but way back when the admin building first came out (did it come out with contracts? It's been so long I don't remember) I did it.

Mission Control came out with contracts (and Funds and new Career mode, while old Career mode became Science mode) in v 0.24.  The Admin Building came out with strategies in 0.25.