Contract Order,Visibility,Assingment and Triggers

[K77LostNSpace]

Contract Suggestion

Contract Order

1: Having the ability to reorder the contracts from top down. So you can complete objectives in the order you expect them to happen.

Contract Visibility

2: Complete missions have an option to hide from the list or reorder to the bottom automatically.

Contract Assignment

3: Being able to assign contracts to stages in the hanger. Such as color code or some other indicator the stage has a contract attached to it. Having an indicator box around the stage that the contracts objectives are ready red/green status.

Contract completion triggers

4: Not always requiring staging to trigger complete of test parts.

[Technical Ben]

I can vouch for 4. I've just spent 10 mins trying to figure out why my mission keeps failing, and I was right clicking to activate, instead of staging.

[freedomispopular]

Yeah, I'm not a big fan of requiring contract objectives to be completed via staging.

[Kerano]

I agree strongly with this. The contracts window as it is currently is rather difficult to navigate. My own suggestions are pretty similar to yours:

- Allow the contracts window to be resized in the VAB, not just in flight.

- Allow the contracts window to be expanded to the left, as well as down.

- Provide an option to "sticky" contracts you want to focus on for the current flight (so they're always at the top of the list).

- Contracts which are irrelevant for the current flight (e.g. no relevant part installed) should be hidden from view or placed at the bottom of the list.

[dryer_lint]

I agree, especially with the fourth one.

[Northstar1989]

Sorting through contracts is currently a pain in the rump. I agree 100% with all of these

These changes would improve the UI significantly, without any real change to the balance of gameplay (#4 would change balance a bit, but you can already use engines with action groups before activating them for the contract with staging), so I see no reason they shouldn't be included in the next update...

Per #4, I think the contract completion triggers should be multiple- i.e. staging OR right-clicking works. This is just to make it easier on the player.

I'm surprised all of this wasn't included in 0.24 on release, considering how much time the devs said they spent tweaking and polishing 0.24 with tester feedback. Then again, maybe the addition of the Contracts window itself was an addition that wasn't originally present in the first version of 0.24...

Regards,

Northstar

[Technical Ben]

Oh yes, it's an "or" option. It's just that mechanically it makes little sense to favour just one option. Even re-activating an engine in multiple locations (say one on kerbin, one on the mun) would still give real data, so a "only one use allowed" restriction of the staging option is not really worth it, even for the "challenge".

[greyman]

I don't know if this has been mentioned already perhaps (or even if it's possible in game just unknown to me) but I would find it really useful if on the Contract window it told you whether or not you have the part to test (for those contracts which involve testing parts). Perhaps even not display contracts for testing parts you have not yet unlocked (or a toggle to hide them)?

[Roastduck]

It says in the contract before you even accept it the conditions under which the test must be done, including how to activate it, be it via staging or right click-"run test". I think the system as it is works fine, since in actual part testing, they make sure parts work on their own (right click-run test), THEN they test them in the context of a launch (activate via staging)

I don't know if this has been mentioned already perhaps (or even if it's possible in game just unknown to me) but I would find it really useful if on the Contract window it told you whether or not you have the part to test (for those contracts which involve testing parts). Perhaps even not display contracts for testing parts you have not yet unlocked (or a toggle to hide them)?

When you accept a part contract to test, you are given access to that part if you don't have it already. Once you complete the contract, access to the part is removed until you unlock it permanently

[Kerano]

Another option would be to have a dialogue box when you click on the contracts button in the VAB, which would list all your contracts along with a checkbox next to each. In this screen you would be able to look at the available contracts, tick the checkbox on the ones you want to try to complete on this mission, and untick the ones you want to leave for a later mission. Ideally you could also drag and drop contracts to reorder them here. If you later decide during construction that you want to add another contract to your "to do list", or remove one, no trouble - just click the contracts button for the dialogue box, then tick/untick the desired contracts.

[greyman]

When you accept a part contract to test, you are given access to that part if you don't have it already. Once you complete the contract, access to the part is removed until you unlock it permanently

Ah thank you, I did not know/notice that.

[Technical Ben]

I think it appears in green too (or blue) so it's a different colour to normal parts.