Can we clarify how test contracts work?

[Sauron]

I'm confused: my test contracts aren't working quite as advertised

-I'm not getting a set number of parts to test. Once I finish the contract, the test parts disappear; even when I recover the mission.

-I'm not getting any limit on the amount of test parts I can use.

-The test parts are all costing me funds.

[Bean]

Test contracts are simply test a part under specific conditions, so you get temporary access to a part to use in a ship and if you want it after that you need to unlock it's science node.

So you can use as many of the test parts as you want until you have tested it and then it is removed unless you have already unlocked it or use science to unlock it.

[Sauron]

Hrmm. This isn't quite what the devs advertised. I suppose I just won't bother fulfilling my LV-N contract. It's a free node

[Tortoise]

You just add one test-part to your ship, it doesnt even need to work. Just stage it or right click and "run test" under a certain condition. If you dont have the test part unlocked in the science tree, it temporarily unlocks it for you. When the contract is done, its locked again.

[G'th]

Yeah they're a bit different than how you may have imagined them when we first heard of them, but thats not necessarily a bad thing.

A lot of them are actually puzzles you have to figure out. Like the SRB tests. I've had to do mine by strapping an expendable booster to the booster, whereas when I first tried I kept failing because it didn't occur to me that the point wasn't to use them as part of a normal mission.

[LiveHereNow]

I seem to have the criteria complete as in all the boxes checked but in some instances the "test" itself is incomplete. What am I missing?

[Taki117]

I seem to have the criteria complete as in all the boxes checked but in some instances the "test" itself is incomplete. What am I missing?

From my understanding some parts need to be right click-ed and they have an option to "Run Test" others must be activated WITH STAGING! (Right clicking and activating won't work here)

[Torrack]

LiveHereNow,

I agree with Taki117's comment as it mirrors my own experience with contracts in 0.24. A good example of this is a contract which asks you to test a liquid fuel engine within certain altitude and speed parameters. Often you will find yourself fulfilling all of the 'requirements' of a contract (all the little green check marks are present) however, the contract will not complete. You will need to activate the part in question via staging (i.e. pressing the spacebar) or, depending on the part, you will need to right click the part and select 'run test.' Hope this helps.