Contracts losing IDs, fixing save instead of alt+f12

[Mythos]

It seems broken contracts are a problem that existed for long (I remember around 1.3 I had a "build base on asteroid" contract, that could never be finished) and recently new incarnations of similar problems are created (I had a "attach antenna to satellite" problem). Here are two recent examples with good explanation of the savefile content and how to solve:

Is this a bug or I do something wrong? - Gameplay Questions and Tutorials - Kerbal Space Program Forums

Attaching a new part to a Satellite for a contract: A glitch or my mistake? - Gameplay Questions and Tutorials - Kerbal Space Program Forums

In my recent save I now encountered a "repair antenna of satellite" contract. I suppose this is one where you need a repair kid, never done any of those. But again, the save is messed up: The contract points to no vessel ID at all, and the mentioned vessel name refers to no existing vessel as well. It seems the satellite has never been created in the first place.

Well, there is a way to solve this (except alt+f12): Create another satellite and make the IDs match. But since my contract data is already erroneous, I would need to know, how the contract likes to call the ID.

• For a rover construction contract, it is called "roverVslId" (see first link)
• For a satellite construction contract it is called "constructionVslId" (see second link)
• For a repair contract it is called "..."?

Also since I'm the developer of the KML savegame editor, I'd like to include some checks and fixes about contracts in the next upcoming version, so that any players not so keen about text file editing, get a tool at hand. So any more details and other known problems with such excellent descriptions like the above are very welcome 

[VoidSquid]

Thanks, @Mythos , it is a really really useful tool, part of my KSP toolbox for years. Didn't need it often, but for the few times, saved me a lot of sweating and cursing and some pulled out hairs!  

[Mythos]

There is even more confusion about those "repair part X on vessel Y" contracts (type = VesselRepairContract). I also need to know what part is referred to by ID. Again I don't know how the attribute is called on the contract side (directly under the CONTRACT tag, I do know how it is called under the PARAM (RepairPartParameter) section). Additionally I don't know what ID on the part side it refers to. There is a "uid", "mid" (seems to be = uid) and a "persistentId" (!= uid). For vessels there is only a "persistentId" (in my 1.11 to 1.11.1 save) that is used in correct contracts. For parts I only found a "recover part from orbit" (type = RecoverAsset) contract, that seems to be intact, and that one uses the part's "uid".

Has anyone ever finished a "repair part X on vessel Y" contract? Maybe only whithout leaving the game between accepting and finishing (maybe in works in RAM, but fails as soon as the save is considered).

[Mythos]

Ok with some guess work I managed to fix the VesselRepairContract with my unreleased build of KML. There is no need to have ID attributes directly in the CONTRACT node, the attributes within the PARAM node are sufficient. Just a typical kerbal test procedure:

• built a new "not really a satellite" probe with antenna
• tried to break the antenna while driving around, didn't get it done
• placed a solar panel, broke that, wanted to copy the state over to the antenna
• figured out that I had the wrong antenna
• used KML to replace (rename) the antenna to the correct one and change that to broken
• renamed the probe to the name given in the contract
• used KML to repair the contract, automatically figuring out the vessel and part IDs from the given names
• realized I had no engineer ready, hired a new one
• wondered why I always think of elderly males when I encounder "...dorf Kerman" and find a female
• tried not to forget a repair kit, checked there are some in the rover storage
• drove the engineer over to the probe
• forgot to leave chute and jetpack at home, messing around a bit to make place for the repair kit
• realized my engineer is a noob and lacks the skill to repair the antenna
• used KML to copy the career and flight log from another level 1 kerbal, now she has skill
• fixed the antena with the engineer
• nice green checkboxes on the contract, heureka!

Edited March 4, 2021 by Mythos

[Mythos]

I just released the KML version that can help fixing this.

Still the main idea of this post was not to be an ad, but to get some more feedback from anyone else with similar problems and I might extend the check and repair functions based on that