[WIP][1.8.1] Epic Space Program - Beta 0.5

[General Apocalypse]

This mod is a contract pack that aims to give the player a from zero to hero path in career mode. It was inspired by the Career Evolution mod. 
Epic Space Program adds 178 new missions for the player to go trough. There are two dependencies for it - Contract Configurator (Thanks Nightingale) and SCANsat (Thanks DMagic) . 
I've created this mod as a personal mod since the career path has contracts far too random for my taste. Since I enjoyed many mods over the years I've decided to share it with you. 

As of now I need to add the contract requirements (done), balance out the rewards (done), revamp some of the text and do some more testing before I push this into beta (done).

You can download it from SpaceDock : https://spacedock.info/mod/2318/Epic Space Program

Changelog :

Spoiler

Version 0.2 for Kerbal Space Program 1.8.1
Released on 2020-02-03

Balanced Rewards
Added requirements for "The First Flights" program

Version 0.3 for Kerbal Space Program 1.8.1
Released on 2020-02-03

Added mission requirements to all 178 the contracts.

Version 0.4 for Kerbal Space Program 1.8.1
Released on 2020-02-05

Fixed bugs that prevented mission completion in The Ranger Program , The Ascension Program , The Belisarius Program and The Enterprise Program

Version 0.5 for Kerbal Space Program 1.8.1
Released on 2020-02-22

Removed the requirement that the probes that perform the first Flyby or Orbit on a natural satellite of a planet must be a new vessel.
Removed the requirement that the survey satellites for the Explorer Program have to be new vessels.
Adjusted "Ground Test" mission objectives to ensure compatibility with the Kethane mod
Various bug fixes

 

Wishlist :

• Support for the Kerbalism mod. (done)
• Support for planet packs.
• Deep space missions.
• Interstellar missions.

Please send me any reports of bugs that you encounter.

Edited February 28, 2020 by General Apocalypse

[TK421]

Can you give a few examples of the range of contracts or progression available?

[General Apocalypse]

3 hours ago, TK421 said:

Can you give a few examples of the range of contracts or progression available?

Sure 

I. The First Flights
Agency: Research & Development Department
Unlocked By: Default
Synopsis: Multiple missions leading to a firm grasp of orbiting Kerbin
II. The Vanguard Program 
Agency: Kerbin World-Firsts Record-Keeping Society
Unlocked By: The First Flights
Synopsis: Send a new probe to execute a flyby of the target body and transmit scientific data while doing so.
III. The Pioneer Program
Agency: Kerbin World-Firsts Record-Keeping Society
Unlocked By: The First Flights
Synopsis: Send a to establish an orbit around the target body and transmit scientific data when in orbit.
IV. The Explorer Program
Agency: Research & Development Department
Unlocked By: The Pioneer Program
Synopsis: Use one or more probes to orbit and cartograph the target body.
V. The Mariner Program
Agency: Kerbin World-Firsts Record-Keeping Society
Unlocked By: The Explorer Program
Synopsis: Land and probe on the target body and send scientific data from the surface.
VI. The Ranger Program
Agency: Probodobodyne Inc
Unlocked By: Ionic Symphonic Protonic Electronics
Synopsis: Send a probe to the orbit of the target, orbit it and then return it to the surface of your home planet
VII. The Ascension Program
Agency: Rockomax Conglomerate
Unlocked By: The Ranger Program
Synopsis: Send a manned expedition to the target body have them orbit and perform a space walk then return the crew to the orbit of your home planet.
VIII. The Belisarius Program
Agency: Probodobodyne Inc
Unlocked By: The Ranger Program
Synopsis: Send a probe to the surface of the target body, gather scientific data, then take off and return the probe to the surface of your home planet
IX. The Enterprise Program
Agency: Rockomax Conglomerate
Unlocked By:The Belisarius Program
Synopsis: Send a manned expedition to the target body, have them land on its surface, perform an EVA then return to the orbit of your home planet
X. The Pathfinder Program
Agency: Probodobodyne Inc
Unlocked By: The Enterprise Program
Synopsis: Land a rover on the surface of the target body.
XI. The Aurora Program
Agency: Integrated Integrals
Unlocked By: The Ascension Program
Synopsis: Establish an orbital station around the target body.
XII. The Endeavour Program
Agency: Goliath National Products
Unlocked By: The Aurora Program
Synopsis: Establish a base on the surface of the target body.

 

[q p]

Heya looks cool, I added it to my new career save (only had a flyby of the Mun) and I am offered 80 contracts all the way from the first to the last program. I was able to select a 3 star Endeavour contract for a base on the mun with 500k advance pay and no expiration date. From what I can tell there are no expiration dates for any of the contracts offered and everything is available from the beginning, not as a granular process as it was suggested. The advanced payment on some of the contracts might not be balanced correctly if they are meant to be available right from the start. Looks cool, would like to see it balanced a bit more.

[General Apocalypse]

3 hours ago, q p said:

Heya looks cool, I added it to my new career save (only had a flyby of the Mun) and I am offered 80 contracts all the way from the first to the last program. I was able to select a 3 star Endeavour contract for a base on the mun with 500k advance pay and no expiration date. From what I can tell there are no expiration dates for any of the contracts offered and everything is available from the beginning, not as a granular process as it was suggested. The advanced payment on some of the contracts might not be balanced correctly if they are meant to be available right from the start. Looks cool, would like to see it balanced a bit more.

I'm adding requirements as we speak. This is why it is still in Alpha. I should be done in a few hours with it.

The lack of an expiration date is intentional since many players might overshoot a certain date , especially if they make extensive use of mods or are severely time constrained as I am.

Edit : The updates are in and we now have granular progression. Now for the bad part with extensive contract testing and the worst part with the creative writing.

Edited February 3, 2020 by General Apocalypse

[q p]

cool thanks for the updates, seems that it's working as intended. 

Please note that when using Kerbalism (or other mods that remove the KSP area biomes) you are not able to collect science from the launchpad as it requires the stock KSP launchpad biome. So you might want to remove that from the requirement of the 1st contract to enable play for those that run these mods.

Will let you know as I go down the chain if I find anything else along the way, let me know if you need any logs.

[Norcalplanner]

Career Evolution has always been one of my favorite mods.  It's nice to see that this mod looks to pick up the torch and keep things going.

[mid0r]

Thanks man, missed a good contract mod in a long time, gonna give it a try! 

  

10 hours ago, q p said:

Please note that when using Kerbalism (or other mods that remove the KSP area biomes) you are not able to collect science from the launchpad as it requires the stock KSP launchpad biome. So you might want to remove that from the requirement of the 1st contract to enable play for those that run these mods.

 

And I second this as highly important!

Edited February 4, 2020 by mid0r

[HiDeN_GS]

Is he a worker?

Edited February 4, 2020 by HiDeN_GS

[HiDeN_GS]

I figured it out when I saw the NASA logo in your fashion. I immediately realized that the mod is working, because I met this logo in the contract. Thanks for the mod! And thank you for translating the mod into Russian.

[General Apocalypse]

2 hours ago, HiDeN_GS said:

Is he a worker?

Yes the mod is working. In fact I'm playing it right now.

2 hours ago, HiDeN_GS said:

I figured it out when I saw the NASA logo in your fashion. I immediately realized that the mod is working, because I met this logo in the contract. Thanks for the mod! And thank you for translating the mod into Russian.

I did not do a Russian translation but some of the objectives might be automatically translated.

Enjoy.

[General Apocalypse]

Be advised one of the parameters of the Ranger program is broken , you can do the mission and then use the cheat menu to complete it. I'll have a fix up ASAP , ETA 24 hours.

Edited February 4, 2020 by General Apocalypse

[linuxgurugamer]

Does this mud work with any planet packs?

[General Apocalypse]

5 hours ago, linuxgurugamer said:

Does this mud work with any planet packs?

Maybe , each contract is written to affect a body placed in a certain position in the star system. In order to make it work with a planet pack it would need to function algorithmically . I'm more than a few code refactorings away from that happening. 

Maybe I should start a people's wishlist for this mod  ?

[FreeThinker]

5 hours ago, General Apocalypse said:

Maybe I should start a people's wishlist for this mod  ?

Could you please add some late carreer contract that require you to go interstellar and create a colony in another solar system? The reward should scale depending on the distance to the target star system (interstellar vessel are expansive you know).

Edited February 5, 2020 by FreeThinker

[General Apocalypse]

6 hours ago, FreeThinker said:

Could you please add some late carreer contract that require you to go interstellar and create a colony in another solar system? The reward should scale depending on the distance to the target star system (interstellar vessel are expansive you know).

That would require some support from the creator of the Contract Configurator mod @nightingale
I'm not sure if it's technically possible at the moment. Also the FTL mods I have tried so far are quite heavy , maybe if there's wormhole/starge mod it might be feasible. My game loading time is about 4 minutes on a PCIE3.0 x4 SSD  so I'm not sure how many more mods I can add before the my PC becomes too bogged down by them.

However as I promised I'll start a wishlist and see what time I'll find in the future. Given the fact that we're still in beta it might take quite a lot of time before that happens. By colony the best I can do is give you a mission for a gargantuan orbital station and a base on the interstellar planets.

[FreeThinker]

2 hours ago, General Apocalypse said:

 Also the FTL mods I have tried so far are quite heavy , maybe if there's wormhole/starge mod it might be feasible.

I'm not mean to travel  by FTL, I'm mean to travel with more feasible future (KSP 2) methods like Fusion Engines and antimatter drives

Edited February 5, 2020 by FreeThinker

[linuxgurugamer]

3 hours ago, General Apocalypse said:

However as I promised I'll start a wishlist and see what time I'll find in the future. Given the fact that we're still in beta it might take quite a lot of time before that happens. By colony the best I can do is give you a mission for a gargantuan orbital station and a base on the interstellar planets.

You could make that depend on certain mods, such as Civilian Colonization being available, having a certain population at a base for a period of time, etc

[FlashMcGaggins]

Greetings all,

This is my first attempt at installing a mod. I can't seem to get it working. I tried adding the folder directly to the Gamedata folder but the missions are not showing up. I've tried opening my existing game and starting a new career and neither seems to work. Any tips on how to get the missions to show up would be greatly appreciated!

Maybe I have to get to a certain point in the career progression first?

Thanks!

[General Apocalypse]

3 hours ago, FlashMcGaggins said:

Greetings all,

This is my first attempt at installing a mod. I can't seem to get it working. I tried adding the folder directly to the Gamedata folder but the missions are not showing up. I've tried opening my existing game and starting a new career and neither seems to work. Any tips on how to get the missions to show up would be greatly appreciated!

Maybe I have to get to a certain point in the career progression first?

Thanks!

Did you installed the requirements ? ContractConfigurator and SCANsat  are both needed. You can use CKAN to do that for you.

[FlashMcGaggins]

I did not! I'll chalk that one up to being a noob, lol. Thanks for helping me out! 

[Rover 6428]

looks promising Apocalypse, I'll try it out

[Moncasta]

Looking great! Thx

[Morphisor]

This sounds awesome, would it currently work for JNSQ?

Doesn't need to be 100%, cheat menu works - as long as I can justify it to myself that I'm good enough 

--

Update: gave it a try on a new career save, so first impressions are for the 'First steps' contracts only:

I feel there are way too many small steps in separate contracts here, AND they each have a very large reward for an early contract, especially considering the ease involved. I had the funds slider set to 60% and was getting almost 40k per contract, when the first four contracts are no more than getting off the ground and doing science in air/on launch pad. That's 150k+ profits before even going beyond the very basic first tech node.

Looking at the rest of the contracts in this group, it's the same small steps, while 2nd science node already gives anyone easy access to achieving orbit.

I did however appreciate making the stayputnik and some batteries experimentally available for the first 2 (unmanned) contracts, why those things ain't unlocked right away in stock are beyond me.

My suggestions for adjustment: Aggregate the first steps contracts into a smaller number, where steps that fit logically together are milestones within a single contract instead of separate contracts. Decrease the reward for each milestone significantly; the overall reward can be higher, but all together the rewards should be reduced by AT LEAST 50% and possibly even 75%.

Edited February 10, 2020 by Morphisor
Update

[General Apocalypse]

There might be a reduction (~25%) of rewards in the future - the number of missions will likely stay the same though. The idea is not to make it too hard for people when it comes to using funds. The Explorer program is a veritable cash cow by design since I want people to have the liberty to fail without cursing their life.