[0.24][WIP] Extra Contracts

[peadar1987]

This is just a thought, but in a later update, if you decide to fine-tune these exploration contracts further, you could involve something similar to ScanSat. Now, I'm not saying that there should be an actual satellite feed window, or anything of the sort, but in the background you could run a similar simulation to that which unlocks portions of the map in ScanSat. You could include a module that lets players "begin exploration" and with that, in a ScanSat fashion, a background function would keep track of what areas have been visited by the rover since that module was activated. Instead of an X km requirement in the code, it would keep track of the area considered to be visited on the surface, and announce completion based on that.

It would probably be easier just to have a version of the mod that plays nice with ScanSat. You'd get a contract to put a satellite in orbit around a planet with certain ScanSat parts on it, with an orbital inclination greater than a given value. Seems to make more sense than for Arsonide to develop a new mapping plugin from scratch.

[theSpeare]

Maybe you could try doing commercial satellite contracts? You can make your own placeholder part and have the masses vary on difficulty. All you have to do is bring this satellite up to a given orbit - although it'll just be one part. You can set it to cost 0 and just have it be a completely useless part that doesn't do anything; it's just there for the sole purpose of acting as a "payload". It'd be nice if you can hide it and only show when it's needed, kinda like when testing contracts come up.

But payload contracts would be somewhat easy, as you could just throw in all those placeholder parts and call them satellites or whatever and just ask the player to insert them into orbit/placethemsomewhereonthesurface etc.

Sound interesting?

[peadar1987]

Maybe you could try doing commercial satellite contracts? You can make your own placeholder part and have the masses vary on difficulty. All you have to do is bring this satellite up to a given orbit - although it'll just be one part. You can set it to cost 0 and just have it be a completely useless part that doesn't do anything; it's just there for the sole purpose of acting as a "payload". It'd be nice if you can hide it and only show when it's needed, kinda like when testing contracts come up.

But payload contracts would be somewhat easy, as you could just throw in all those placeholder parts and call them satellites or whatever and just ask the player to insert them into orbit/placethemsomewhereonthesurface etc.

Sound interesting?

What Mission Controller did was to require you to launch a satellite with a certain number of parts (two antennae, four solar panels, whatever). I kind of like this idea better, if it's possible, it gives you the fun and challenge of making a balanced payload with the parts you need to have as well.

[theSpeare]

I like the idea of the contractors giving you a payload to launch. You, the launch provider, would have more or less nothing to do with the payload but to take it and just deliver it into space. It's a lot easier in terms of programming and simpler for gameplay. "Launch this 5t payload to geosynchronous orbit". Throw it into one of your popular rockets and send it flying! Would feel pretty neat to be in that role.

[Arsonide]

I'm figuring out how to drop waypoints on the map right now, once I figure that out I can make much more interesting objectives, starting with redoing the rover mission again. I have a better idea if I can use waypoints.

Going to sleep for now, but boosh:

That'll make rover missions much more fun than they are now.

Edited July 22, 2014 by Arsonide

[Oicani]

It would probably be easier just to have a version of the mod that plays nice with ScanSat. You'd get a contract to put a satellite in orbit around a planet with certain ScanSat parts on it, with an orbital inclination greater than a given value. Seems to make more sense than for Arsonide to develop a new mapping plugin from scratch.

"Map X% of [planet/moon]"

[Xaver]

This is great! I was waiting for some new contracts types. Someone has seen other mods like this?

edit: i would like to see some finding missions. Maybe your target only pop up and could be seen in map view when you are in a 10 km range or something like that.

Edited July 22, 2014 by Xaver

[AlternNocturn]

Squad mentioned fleshing out the contracts system at a later date, but until that happens, it looks like this is going on my list of must-have mods.

EDIT: With enough new contracts, I can completely ignore the dreaded "test this part" contracts. I know Squad means well but I hate those contracts with a passion.

Edited July 22, 2014 by AlternNocturn

[kiwiak]

I have suggestion for satellite contract. Im not modder, so i dont know if it will be of any use.

One of contract requirements woudl be to launch ship with proper, procedurally generated name, for example komsat75676576.

To keep players from altering orbit of existing ship or changing its name to make it contract required satellite, game shoudl keep track of names assigned to sheeps. But names that were assigned FIRST, IN VAB. So if player changes ships name, it shoudl be still be rememberd somewhere in save file.

Only option is to launch new ship.

Of course there shoudl be other requirements, like power reserves on ship, number of antennas, amount of fuel on board.

[DMagic]

It would probably be easier just to have a version of the mod that plays nice with ScanSat. You'd get a contract to put a satellite in orbit around a planet with certain ScanSat parts on it, with an orbital inclination greater than a given value. Seems to make more sense than for Arsonide to develop a new mapping plugin from scratch.

SCANsat will be getting contracts soon enough. Duplicating or coming up with something similar to its background scanning code (even without any actual mapping data shown) would be a rather complex undertaking, as it requires a number of different components to function correctly.

I'm wondering is it possible to disable the science awards for all contracts? I'm partial to using contracts to fund the space program that allows me to run science missions to unlock the tech tree. As it is now, contracts greatly reduce the need for running specialized science missions.

I don't know if you saw my post in the other contract thread Arsonide, but setting up some kind of config file loader is very simple and could be used to control some global settings like this. You could easily disable, or add some multiplier to science, rep and funds rewards.

[Superfluous J]

I'm figuring out how to drop waypoints on the map right now...

That'll make rover all kinds of missions much more fun than they are now.

There, I fixed that for you.

Take scientific readings at [waypoint].

Pick up [Kerbal] from [Location] and take him to [waypoint].

Test [part] 100m off the ground at [waypoint] traveling at [disgustingly large]m/s.

There's just 3 that I'd love to see.

Sleep well and dream of large uses for waypoints!

[Algiark]

More use for waypoints:

Land this vessel at [waypoint].

Go to a series of [waypoints] in a certain amount of time. (KSP trials!)

Crash this vessel at [waypoint] traveling at [awesomely large] m/s. (Military testing warheads perhaps?)

[Arsonide]

Guys I received a bug report that accepting two station contracts targeted at the same destination might break your save. Unfortunately that's all the bug report said, so I can't elaborate or fix it until I get a chance to test it later.

Either A: avoid accepting more than one base mission at a time for now until I find the bug, or B: if you're brave, do it on purpose to help me find out what he meant.

[Jasonden]

Some ideas for contract types that I'd been thinking of:

* Investigate Biome -- land and acquire science in a biome that you have not previously visited

* Investigate Location -- provide a lat/lon on a body to visit, or a set of them. Fulfill the contract once you take a sample within 10m of the location. Sometimes these might be on mountain slopes, or something, which could require some very creative engineering solutions for visitation!

* Send Supplies -- carry food/water/supplies to an existing station, either yours or one that the computer generates. These could be in orbit somewhere, landed on another body, or orbiting another body.

Anyway, had been thinking about these, and am pleased to see that people are taking up the torch to try to improve the variety and interest of the 0.24 contracts!!

[Ictiv]

It would probably be easier just to have a version of the mod that plays nice with ScanSat. You'd get a contract to put a satellite in orbit around a planet with certain ScanSat parts on it, with an orbital inclination greater than a given value. Seems to make more sense than for Arsonide to develop a new mapping plugin from scratch.

I agree, but there's a difference between a mapping plugin, and one that only has to keep track of a couple of coordinates relative to the rover. Let's say, you activate it at coordinates 4879, 4335. For simplicity, it reads it as 4880 and 4340. It logs "4880, 4340" as visited, and keeps track of coordinate change. If the new coordinates turn out to be closest to 4880, 4350 out of those divisible by 10, then it also marks that as visited. While the coordinates are closest to a "visited" point, it doesn't expand the list of visited coordinates. Once x number of coordinates are marked as visited, it completes mission. ScanSat is much more complex than this, and I think it might take more effort to get relevant information out of it, than to just keep track of visited area in this fashion. Of course this isn't absolutely precise like this, but it does give leeway for exploration in whatever way the player wants to explore. Plus, this could let the mission do more frequent sub-completion notices (even without rewards), so the player doesn't need to drive 5 minutes to be told that now they are half way there and may turn around, on a longer haul.

[SiriusSam]

I'll help in the dev if you want.

I haven't modded for Kerbal yet, but I'm a good 3d programmer (fractals, procedural planets, physics engines...) and I'm used to modding games.

So contact me if you need a little help!

[Superfluous J]

I'd also love contracts that rely on previous contracts. Mission chains, as it were.

Another use of waypoints (if it's possible). Make one per easter egg, and occasionally send the player to one in an otherwise normal-looking "take readings at [waypoint]" mission. So sometimes we get happily surprised when we land and there's a Mun arch or desert temple there.

[DMagic]

I agree, but there's a difference between a mapping plugin, and one that only has to keep track of a couple of coordinates relative to the rover.

It's not so much the amount or type of data getting recorded that's complex, it's the mechanism for recording and storing such data while the vessel in question isn't loaded. That requires a fairly complex framework with a lot of components. There are probably lots of situations where this would be useful, but it's a question of how much effort you want to put into it, and whether the end result is worth it.

[Arsonide]

Spent my off time tonight polishing up waypoints, making them as reusable and performant as possible, letting it support more than one at a time. Collected a few bug reports.

Hoping that with the source available, these will get used by other contracts. They're going to open up a lot of possibilities. Some contracts will have several of these out, so I'm going to color them pseudorandomly based on the contract seed, so say you get sixteen rover missions on Kerbin, each one with four waypoints. That's fine, but the map is going to get cluttered. Since each mission has different colored pins, you can see which is which. As you visit them and do what you need to do there, they disappear. The shape of the icon will show you what kind of mission it is. These pins are placeholders.

Edited July 23, 2014 by Arsonide

[jakkarth]

I love this mod! I've been enjoying some lovely drives recently across Kerbin.

I am having a problem completing the space station contract thought. I've got two of three checkmarks. The one I haven't gotten is "Build a new orbital station that has power generation, an antenna, and a free docking port." I have constructed such a station, both designing and building after accepting the contract. It has solar panels and an RTG for power generation, communitron 32 and Comms DTS-M1 antennae, and a shielded docking port.

Screenshot: https://imgur.com/AAoMca7

Any idea why it won't mark that as complete? Thanks for the awesome mod!

[Phssthpok]

I just took a contract to put a station in orbit around Minmus, and it completed as soon as I entered the SOI, before I established an orbit.

[Arsonide]

I love this mod! I've been enjoying some lovely drives recently across Kerbin.

I am having a problem completing the space station contract thought. I've got two of three checkmarks. The one I haven't gotten is "Build a new orbital station that has power generation, an antenna, and a free docking port." I have constructed such a station, both designing and building after accepting the contract. It has solar panels and an RTG for power generation, communitron 32 and Comms DTS-M1 antennae, and a shielded docking port.

Screenshot: https://imgur.com/AAoMca7

Any idea why it won't mark that as complete? Thanks for the awesome mod!

I'm not sure if the shielded docking port counts as "free". The mod looks for free docking ports, that are available to dock at. Try opening the shield.

[jakkarth]

I have tried opening the shield to no effect. I'll try docking something to it with a standard clamp-o-tron without shield on both sides (so one is free) and see if that solves the problem. I was convinced it was a power issue for some reason.

If that turns out to be a problem, do you think it will be possible to adjust the code so that it determines if something is docked to the port, rather than if it's free? Ie, make it if state != docked instead of state == ready?

[jakkarth]

I have docked a supply ship to the station that contains a standard clamp-o-tron docking port with nothing docked to it at the moment. The station still does not meet the contract requirements.

Screenshot of unoccupied docking port: https://imgur.com/K0AaMKe

Any further ideas? Is there a debug build I could run to get more information in the log file about why it's not completing?

[Xaver]

Nice effort! I started coding today. Good to have some examples!