So... .24?

[webkilla]

According to the "planned features" page on the wiki, 24 will likely focus mainly on the introduction of the Contract system

...and it'll have rewards and penalties

Any ideas on what that might be? Bonus science?

Ultimately - once the money system is implemented - I hope to see to cash rewards (and penalties) for the contracts, although at that point I'd expect to see contracts that say stuff like "put this prefab'd satelite (now avaliable as SubAssembly X) into a 80 to 83.000km orbit around Kerbit in your next launch, reward Y amount of Kerbdosh, penalty for failure so and so"

I mean, it should be simple enough to make some pre-made subassemblies for that purpose - the game already comes with stock rockets and whatnot.

That said, asteroids are fun - but without a means to derive science from them it honestly feels like there's something missing from the update

[Guest]

at that point I'd expect to see contracts that say stuff like "put this prefab'd satelite (now avaliable as SubAssembly X) into a 80 to 83.000km orbit around Kerbit in your next launch, reward Y amount of Kerbdosh, penalty for failure so and so"

Good Christ, I hope not, I don't want the game littering up my flights in progress with random crap. Seems like they already have a more "sandboxey" approach planned that uses your own designs with maybe an additional part for testing or doing science in certain places.

[EvilotionCR2]

I think it will be more like : Create a sattelite with this and this part and then put it to this orbit.

[Guest]

I think it will be more like : Create a sattelite with this and this part and then put it to this orbit.

As long as I can de-orbit the completely useless craft a day later, we're good.

[carazvan]

As long as I can de-orbit the completely useless craft a day later, we're good.

I'd imagine the way it would work is that when you finish and 'submit' the contract the satellite/craft disappears from your map as it's now managed by whatever company you sold it to.

[NovaSilisko]

I'd imagine the way it would work is that when you finish and 'submit' the contract the satellite/craft disappears from your map as it's now managed by whatever company you sold it to.

Or perhaps it could be relegated to its own category a la debris, which is hidden by default.

[Tw1]

Good Christ, I hope not, I don't want the game littering up my flights in progress with random crap. Seems like they already have a more "sandboxey" approach planned that uses your own designs with maybe an additional part for testing or doing science in certain places.

I'm not opposed to some satellite establishing missions, but I also prefer the contracts to be things you can easily tack on to missions you've already planned. Which I think is not far of what they were doing.

[webkilla]

fair enough Regex - though I do hope that it becomes possible to mod that in. Plus, the contracts would only be avaliable in career mode. If that's coupled with a money system then you're already possibly limited to a not-infinite budget

Though how the whole 'budget' and money system might work then becomes the issue. There are several ways of doing that...

1) One way could be for each build you have a finite budget. Doing research and contracts will increase the size of your budget for builds.

- What you don't spend on one rocket doesn't carry over, and your budget is decreased by 20-30% per rocket

- successful recovery of rocket parts refund their cost (empty fuel parts maybe only 1/3)

- successful crew pod recovery also refunds the part cost, but comes with a "Good PR bonus" (Killing your kerbonauts would conversely punish your budget)

- your budget can't go under your starting budget, which allows for simple small-scale rockets that can just barely get to Mün or Minmus and back

- contracts up your budget, as would research (put this satelite into orbit, test the surface of Gilly for seismic whatnots)

2) Another way would be a more classic "you have this much money - spend it wiselly" approach

- The benefit would be that it adds an overall fail-state to the game: If you run out of money, game's over

- successful recovery of rocket parts refund their cost (empty fuel parts maybe only 1/3) - this would encourage creative recovery schemes like putting probe-controls on boosters along with parachutes

- successful crew pod recovery also refunds the part cost, and comes with a "Good PR bonus" (Killing your kerbonauts would conversely punish your finances)

- your starting funds allows for a simple small-scale rockets that can just barely get to Mün or Minmus and back,

- contracts rewards you with money, as would research (put this satelite into orbit, test the surface of Gilly for seismic whatnots)

just ideas - I'm sure Squad already has a plan on how it might work

[Guest]

fair enough Regex - though I do hope that it becomes possible to mod that in. Plus, the contracts would only be avaliable in career mode. If that's coupled with a money system then you're already possibly limited to a not-infinite budget

My objection isn't about limitations, it's about crapping up my tracking station with useless flights and reducing my overall FPS. There's a reason I have persistent debris disabled and don't play with RT (for instance).

E:

I'm not opposed to some satellite establishing missions, but I also prefer the contracts to be things you can easily tack on to missions you've already planned. Which I think is not far of what they were doing.

All signs point to that, which is a good thing IMO.

[cantab]

Good Christ, I hope not, I don't want the game littering up my flights in progress with random crap. Seems like they already have a more "sandboxey" approach planned that uses your own designs with maybe an additional part for testing or doing science in certain places.

Once you've got your money you're free to terminate, deorbit, or designate as debris the craft in question.

IMHO, what Squad should try and do with contracts is not make them feel auto-generated. Whether they actually are or aren't isn't so important, but I want it to seem like these are new and unique missions, not a string of fetch quests.

EDIT: Also, I don't think all contracts should be something you can just throw onto a mission you were doing anyway. Some might be, fair enough, but others should be things that'll encourage you to do something new, maybe that you wouldn't do just for science points.

Edited April 2, 2014 by cantab

[Random Tank]

But, most importantly, what should the money be called???

Kredits? Kerbdosh? Moneys? Kerbuds? Kerbingos?

[makinyashikino]

I would prefer the satellites actually be prebuilt for simple money-gaining operations, but for the more open-ended/important missions, you get to use your entire creative power. You would still need to design the launcher for the prefab sats. Also, keep those mission-satellites in the same category as normal ones, I like to see all of my past missions orbit around.

[Commissioner Tadpole]

But, most importantly, what should the money be called???

Kredits? Kerbdosh? Moneys? Kerbuds? Kerbingos?

The big boys up there with the K-phobia are not going to be happy about this.

[cantab]

But, most importantly, what should the money be called???

Kredits? Kerbdosh? Moneys? Kerbuds? Kerbingos?

Kuid.

"How much money does medicine for the Kraken cost?"

"Six kuid."

[Godot]

But, most importantly, what should the money be called???

Kredits? Kerbdosh? Moneys? Kerbuds? Kerbingos?

Kerdits ... or, in Analogon to Battletechs C-Bills: K-Bills

[Madrias]

Koins, I think, should be the money.

[Fr8monkey]

This is what the WIKI says about contracts...

A contract is a request by a manufacturer to test their hardware under specific conditions which will be added in version 0.24. It will be randomly created based on a template where only the specific properties need to be set. Accepting a contract is optional but there will be rewards if the contract was successfully finished and penalties on failures. How the rewards or penalties work is not known yet.

Contracts can be managed through the Mission Control building which already exists but has no function without them.^[2]

http://wiki.kerbalspaceprogram.com/wiki/Contract

[Twreed87]

The big boys up there with the K-phobia are not going to be happy about this.

The thing that gets me about it is that nothing in this game, anywhere, uses that kind of naming strategy. They're called Kerbals and they live on Kerbin, but other than that, there's no excessive use of the letter K anywhere in the game. I don't get why people think they're going to start that all of the sudden.

[Nano606]

They have already mentioned what the missions will be like in one of the streams. The missions will be like: Test SAS on the launch pad - $XX (easy), Test SAS on Eeloo - $YY (hard) or Take a gravity measurement on Eve, things like that. You dont have to take them, but you have a limited time to complete the mission if you do decide you want to take it. I like this as it allows you yo get there anyway you want as long as you have the part required.

[Rakaydos]

They have already mentioned what the missions will be like in one of the streams. The missions will be like: Test SAS on the launch pad - $XX (easy), Test SAS on Eeloo - $YY (hard) or Take a gravity measurement on Eve, things like that. You dont have to take them, but you have a limited time to complete the mission if you do decide you want to take it. I like this as it allows you yo get there anyway you want as long as you have the part required.

Which will be interesting once they add biomes to the rest of the solar system. "Test Basic Jet in Jool lower atmosphere" could be a possible mission that people might spectacularly misinterpret.

[Motokid600]

Koins, I think, should be the money.

I like that one.

[Frankenchokey]

But, most importantly, what should the money be called???

Kredits? Kerbdosh? Moneys? Kerbuds? Kerbingos?

Kielbasa? Maybe Kerbals have a sausage based economy.

[KBMODIGITY]

As long as I can de-orbit the completely useless craft a day later, we're good.

I feel that the missions should complement each other, if you can launch a satellite, say a coms one, for further exploration, you should lose massive amounts of whatever monetary units for deorbiting it a day later. It should be set up a satellite network, explore nearby bodies, set up better satellites after better research, and then go to other planets. Should be a progression and not a randomized event. If it is randomized then your first mission might be land on Eelloo, how you going to do that?

[Corw]

But, most importantly, what should the money be called???

Kredits? Kerbdosh? Moneys? Kerbuds? Kerbingos?

Kash. And from I've read contracts are completely optional, so you don't have to taint your skies if you don't want to.

[Guest]

I feel that the missions should complement each other, if you can launch a satellite, say a coms one, for further exploration, you should lose massive amounts of whatever monetary units for deorbiting it a day later. It should be set up a satellite network, explore nearby bodies, set up better satellites after better research, and then go to other planets. Should be a progression and not a randomized event. If it is randomized then your first mission might be land on Eelloo, how you going to do that?

I completely disagree. Setting up a satellite network is a rote, boring task, the same as spamming the Mun and Minmus with science. KSP is a sandbox game, why should I have to follow the same damn progression every time I start up a new career save? That's ridiculous. If you can do a freakin' Grand Tour on the tier 0 parts, go for it. Someone already has.