My Hopes for Contracts

[Sandworm]

I really really hope that Squad adopts the philosophy behind MissionController mod. There are many creative people in the mod community who could write great mission packs. I am one of them (writing is a large part of my job). I want the ability to describe missions based on a host of variables such as onboard resources (ie fuel/O2 etc) included parts, orbit variables, planets, biomes, speed, altitude, crew count. I want requirements that X contract be completed before Y is available.

But I worry. I worry that, like the tech tree, we won't have any variables to work with. I worry that missions will be limited to "take X part to Y place". I worry that Squad will use contacts as yet another tutorial mode for new players. The worst case scenario would be a situation whereby there are only a handful of contract "slots" such as a fixed number of companies that then randomly repeat based on what parts the player has unlocked in the tech tree.

We will see soon enough either way. I've got a few dozen missions written for the MissionControler mod. Those who played them had good things to say. I'd love to covert these into contracts. I hope I get the chance.

[uui8457]

I haven't even considered the possibility of the contract system being used as another tutorial for newbies. That sound so awful but sadly still like something that may happen.

[Luis]

I'd be absolutely fine with the first few contracts taking a tutorial approach. At the start of your career, you only have a few parts to build with, so missions should be fairly simple. "Set a new altitude record for a rocket", "Put a small satellite in orbit" - that kind of thing. I believe that each individual contract will be optional, so if you want to skip those and wait for a more challenging one like a minmus flyby or something, then you will probably be able to. I wouldn't want the mission text for each contract to do too much hand-holding to explain how to get into orbit or rendezvous with another ship or whatever, but I don't have a problem with the mission objectives themselves starting simple and gettng gradually more challenging. In fact I think that's essential.

[Sandworm]

I'd be absolutely fine with the first few contracts taking a tutorial approach. At the start of your career, you only have a few parts to build with, so missions should be fairly simple.

You've already fallen into the mindset that I pray Squad will avoid. I don't want any "first few contracts". I want contracts to be a system, an API, that allows non-Squad people to write contracts. I really couldn't care less about the contracts Squad creates. They will be dead simple I'm sure. They won't, cannot, incorporate any non-squad parts or resources and must be simple enough to accomplish with the limited orbital data provided in stock KSP (ie no KER/void etc). Even requesting a specific biome on Mun would be difficult in stock.

Flybys and altitude records are exactly the limited descriptors I worry about. How about something more like "A Minmus flyby with at a max altitude of X and max speed of Y over a midlands biome", with differing science/money rewards based on which of those you manage to pull off. Or perhaps "a 3-man pod in orbit around mun for three days, splashing down (ie in water) on Kerbin, with a minimum of 3 units of O2 remaining" (ie you have to be using a life-support mod). Those are the sort of descriptors made possible by the MissionController mod.

Edited July 3, 2014 by Sandworm

[KerbMav]

From memory:

The contracts will be completely optional and they will be created based on the tech level and achievements of the player so far.

Even if there was a line of tutorial contracts you would be free to ignore them and do the others, although I do not think that the first missions possible with starting tech and budget would differ that much from hypothetical "tutorial contracts" that you would not have to do them anyway.

[JonoRig]

I don't think he's referring to the contracts available in the game, more that it will be a system that's open for people to write their own. Aka a system that modders can create "mission packages" for. And I'm sure that even if squad hasn't left it open to allow simple edits, someone will crack it eventually, just look back to when people said planets could never be modded in, now there's more planet mods then I can keep count of, or kerb town...where there's a will there's a way

[Superfluous J]

To make things easy for themselves, Squad will likely be defining either the contracts themselves or the contract systems in the XML config files. It would be very hard for them to test, modify, retest, etc if things were hard coded into the executables.

Therefore, I predict that within about 20 minutes of 0.24 coming out, someone will have figured out how to write custom contracts or custom contract frameworks.

[Sandworm]

Ah, relegated to the "suggestions" forum. Hope and/or criticism = suggestion. I wouldn't mind except for the fact that Squad doesn't take suggestions when it comes to features. As I said, we will all see soon enough.

To make things easy for themselves, Squad will likely be defining either the contracts themselves or the contract systems in the XML config files. It would be very hard for them to test, modify, retest, etc if things were hard coded into the executables.

Therefore, I predict that within about 20 minutes of 0.24 coming out, someone will have figured out how to write custom contracts or custom contract frameworks.

Like they did with their tech tree? Have you looked at how much effort is required to simply rename a tech node? There is no room there for widespread modding. I am in no doubt that someone will break down whatever walls squad erects, but a developer shouldn't assume so much of mod developers.

Edited July 3, 2014 by Sandworm

[Justin Kerbice]

The real worth thing that could happen is to get a contract system as poor as 0.23 career mode as well as stock scenarii/tutorials: just a very few contracts provided (or a repetitive random scheme based on less than 5 base goals) with a poor reward (a few money).

Anyway, people will get their new toy to play with til 0.25...

[Superfluous J]

Like they did with their tech tree? Have you looked at how much effort is required to simply rename a tech node? There is no room there for widespread modding. I am in no doubt that someone will break down whatever walls squad erects, but a developer shouldn't assume so much of mod developers.

Squad specifically made the tech tree "unmoddable" because they wanted to control it in the first few iterations to make sure they got the parts in the right place. I don't understand that logic either - giving thousands of people the opportunity to make custom trees and then seeing which ones of those are popular seems to be a better way to go about that choice - but the fact still stands: The tech tree is a pain to mod by DESIGN. There is no current reason to think they are designing contracts to not be moddable.

In fact, our ability to mod the tech tree in spite of Squad's attempt to (programmatically at least) forbid it is all the more reason to think we'll have custom contracts once 0.24 releases.