Trick to achieving capacity requirement in contracts

[maddog59]

Not sure if this was obvious to everyone else, but it took me by surprise, so I thought I'd offer it to the community. Not sure if it falls into 'Gameplay' or 'Tutorials' ... you be the judge:

I was offered a contract to expand the infrastructure: the condition was to expand the capacity of an orbital station, one that I'd built earlier for a contract, from 7 Kerbals to 30. Then, right below it, it showed that the capacity was already at 31. What had happened was that I'd built the station with a mess of docking ports, and was using it as a refueling station. I happened to have several ships with various capacities docked to it already. All I had to do was accept the contract, go to the Tracking Station and switch to the station, and bob's your uncle - easy money! Must've been the easiest contract to fulfill (in my game, anyhow)! 

[Vanamonde]

It gave you credit for crew modules which had already been added? 

[maddog59]

4 hours ago, mirandamiles said:

Looks better then mine ship. I see some fundamental mistake.

Not sure what you're referring to as a mistake, but I'd be happy to discuss ... This is definitely an abomination to the skies, but it gets the job done! The major portion of the station that you're seeing in the pic is the 'tanker' that I built to resupply the station. I'm working on a more efficient form, where the boosters drop (ala asparagus staging) and are recoverable.   

Edited November 26, 2020 by maddog59

[maddog59]

27 minutes ago, Vanamonde said:

It gave you credit for crew modules which had already been added? 

Yep ... the contract called specifically, by the name I'd given it, to expand the capacity of the station.  It didn't have the usual caveat of "Note: this must be a new station built for ..."

[Spricigo]

On 11/26/2020 at 4:08 PM, Vanamonde said:

It gave you credit for crew modules which had already been added? 

It seems  the modules had been added in between contract generation and contract acceptance. In other words: a happy coincidence of the contract asking for what maddog59 was going to do doing anyways.

On 11/26/2020 at 5:04 PM, maddog59 said:

It didn't have the usual caveat of "Note: this must be a new station built for ..."

The 'usual caveat' for expansion contract is that it refer to some specific pre-existing station.

Something I used to do is to divide the station in modules such as what the expansion contracts usually ask (5crew module, lab module, X resource module, etc...) each with the basic station requirements (control, docking port, power generation). When the expansion contract is finally offered all I have to do it to dock the required parts.

 

BTW, I feel that is more a "question"  than a tutorial.  It just happens the OP already had the answer mostly figured out by the time he posted it.

[VoidSquid]

On 11/26/2020 at 4:50 PM, maddog59 said:

Must've been the easiest contract to fulfill

Easiest imo are the "transmit science from the surface of <CB> / from space around <CB>" - just jump to my rover/lander probe/orbiting vessel, take any science data like temp., and transmit it. These contracts do not say it has to be new science, so even a temp. measurement with zero science value will fulfill the contract.

Edited February 13, 2021 by VoidSquid

[Spricigo]

2 minutes ago, VoidSquid said:

Easiest imo are

Well, if we are nitpicking: "Launch Your First Vessel"

[VoidSquid]

As a side note: that one though is not repeatable, these "transmit science" contracts come up again and again  

Edited February 13, 2021 by VoidSquid

[paul_c]

I've had a "reposition satellite xxxxxx" contract where there is so much slop in the positioning, that the satellite was within the error band of both the old and new positions and simply selecting it to fly was enough to fulfil the contract.

"Test at launch site" contracts are pretty quick too, especially if they are repeats and you already have a craft designed which will do it. SRBs and Liquid fuel engines can be staged with 0% thrust and/or no fuel.