[Career] Annoying Contracts

[Biker Joe]

Ok so I've gone to the Mun and back, but I keep getting contracts to plant a flag on the Mun, which is kind of annoying cos I been there so to speak.

Whats the point of these contracts? are they worth doing?

Anybody else annoyed with any of the contracts they have/keep getting?

[LethalDose]

I'm not fond of getting cool experimental parts that can't be effectively used. e.g. I've been offered contracts to test the Skipper and Poodle when I don't have 2.5 m tanks, and offered to test the basic jet when I don't have air intakes.

But as far as "Explore [other place]" and "Plant flag" contracts, no problems with those.

[Kerbart]

Whats the point of these contracts? are they worth doing?

To make sure you don't run out of funds? Those contracts are like printing money.

[CumpyLustard]

I am not particularly fond of any of the parachute testing contracts. I'm just really used to pretty much waiting until the last second to open my chutes, and now I have to open one between 20500 and 29200m? I prefer to live life on the edge, Research and Development Department!

[Kryxal]

I find the Mun contracts tend to be pretty easy now ... I left a ship there, and if I get a flag contract (or science above, for that matter), I just hop up there and do it in a few seconds.

[Godot]

For me it´s easy .... I only do those contracts that give me enough revenue and are considered by me to be worth getting ... and leave out all others.

After all we have the choice to not accept any and all contracts that are given to us (and I personally would go mad if I would have to do every contract)

As for specific contracts to be annoyed about ...

Only those that demand from me to observe conditions that vary too far from my usual mission profiles and/or are impossible to solve

Edited July 25, 2014 by Godot

[Jean Deaux]

If you were a terrible pilot and needed money, those boring tasks would be perfect. Be thankful you don't need them and can simply ignore or decline them (that big red X there on the right of the screen). A good game considers all types of pilots, good and bad, be glad this one does that.

[Alshain]

I'm not fond of getting cool experimental parts that can't be effectively used. e.g. I've been offered contracts to test the Skipper and Poodle when I don't have 2.5 m tanks, and offered to test the basic jet when I don't have air intakes.

But as far as "Explore [other place]" and "Plant flag" contracts, no problems with those.

I agree with this, I dislike the contract to test things that are way ahead of your current research. It ends up with just stupid craft.

[MarvinKitFox]

Ok so I've gone to the Mun and back, but I keep getting contracts to plant a flag on the Mun, which is kind of annoying cos I been there so to speak.

Whats the point of these contracts? are they worth doing?

What you are describing is better known as a PRINTING PRESS FOR MONEY AND REP.

Get your first Mun contract.

Fly there, land. Plant the flag

DO NOT RETURN your kerbonaut

Get another contract for Mun surface science, flag, etc.

Have Bill climb out of his can, plant the flag, radio about it, climb back in for another nap.

Time spent: 25 seconds. Income: the whole contract.

Rinse, repeat.

[MarvinKitFox]

As for what I hate....

"Test your mark 16 parachute at 2300 m, at 1200m/s, using staging" type of thing.

You have to stage the chute. It is too low to prevent release via tweakables. It is too fast to not get ripped off.

That, or the "Test your bacc solid rocket booster at 19400 - 19600m altitude. At 85 - 89 m/s

WHO THE *^&^& hovers at that exact height?

[thereaverofdarkness]

As for what I hate....

"Test your mark 16 parachute at 2300 m, at 1200m/s, using staging" type of thing.

You have to stage the chute. It is too low to prevent release via tweakables. It is too fast to not get ripped off.

That, or the "Test your bacc solid rocket booster at 19400 - 19600m altitude. At 85 - 89 m/s

WHO THE *^&^& hovers at that exact height?

Yeah I think the test windows are too small. It was hard enough for me to figure out that I'm supposed to activate them when all the things are checked, not after. But not only are the windows very tiny, the speeds are often unreasonable for the altitude. I had to bring my rocket TWR down around 1.7 to get it slow enough at the right altitude, and that was one of the first ones I did!

[Kosmo-not]

The ones that annoy me are the ones that give very little cash, unless they offer a good amount of science.

[SRV Ron]

For those transmit data from orbit contracts, here is a low cost SSTO Stayputnik with a Too Hot Thermometer. Place in orbit and leave there.

And for the Mun and Minmus orbiters once you unlock the big SRB. Use it to boost the SSTO Stayputnik to orbit with sufficient fuel for the orbital insertion. (Use 50% thrust which will place you at orbital level when it burns out. Use an SAS on top so you can do the orbital turn with the SRB.

[Blind Dead McJones]

Procedural contracts are weird. One person got a contract to test the launch clamps on the Mun, which is obviously impossible (in stock anyway). At least with that one they've acknowledged that it's a problem that needs to be fixed, but I don't know if it's a high priority because common sense should tell you not to take the impossible contract.

[Dire_Squid]

My hate is when the time comes to pick up an orbiting Kerbal...

Why?

I can't rendezvous for the life of me, without MechJeb!

An official rendezvous tutorial would be nice, so I can pick up these unlucky orbiting buggers!

[Dire_Squid]

Yeah I think the test windows are too small. It was hard enough for me to figure out that I'm supposed to activate them when all the things are checked, not after. But not only are the windows very tiny, the speeds are often unreasonable for the altitude. I had to bring my rocket TWR down around 1.7 to get it slow enough at the right altitude, and that was one of the first ones I did!

At least you didn't have to activate BACC Boosters at 4400m altitude, going at 400-650 m/s (it was impossible).

[MarvinKitFox]

My hate is when the time comes to pick up an orbiting Kerbal...

Why?

I can't rendezvous for the life of me, without MechJeb!

An official rendezvous tutorial would be nice, so I can pick up these unlucky orbiting buggers!

Simple guide to kerbal-rescue rendezvous...

Launch to basically the same orbit as your rescuee.

Align plane to match as closely as you can.

Drop your orbit until your are about 1km below him.

Wait until you catch up. This may take many orbits.

Once he passed withing 2.5 km, you can "[" to the kerbal, and EVA=fly him visually to your ship.

The hardest part is to remember that he needs a berth to be rescued in. Bit embarrasing to "rescue" a kerbal, then realise you don't have a seat for him.

[Murph]

At least you didn't have to activate BACC Boosters at 4400m altitude, going at 400-650 m/s (it was impossible).

400m/s at 4400m sounds pretty easy to me. Take the basic Aeris 4A design, swap the central section for a BACC, profit from what should be a fuel-cost only mission (i.e. you should be able to recover 100% of the parts at 100% rate by landing them back on the runway). 400m/s might need a power dive from higher altitude, or maybe 4 turbojets instead of 2, but it's certainly very doable.

Anyway, the secret is to carefully read the contracts before accepting them, and simply decline (without any penalty) any which sound too difficult for you. Personally, I've yet to encounter a single contract which couldn't be completed, and I've enjoyed the challenge of achieving some unusual flight characteristics.

[Rusty6899]

The most ridiculous one I had was testing the S3 KS-25x4 Engine Cluster in orbit around Kerbin.

Obviously I couldn't stack anything underneath it, so I ended up putting it upside down at the top of my rocket. I only had a tiny unmanned command module to use as well, so my rocket looked completely ridiculous. The contract was far too lucrative to refuse though.

[Xavven]

Contract parameters are way too specific and contrived.

Test a Mainsail on an escape trajectory from Kerbin? Why not just test it in orbit? What exactly would the manufacturer be learning from how their rocket performs on an escape trajectory? Relativity, my friends - microgravity is microgravity whether your trajectory is circular or hyperbolic.

Test a stack separator in orbit around Eve between 91,000m and 94,000m altitude. What's so special about that particular altitude that would make this test useful?

Analogy: Test this ping pong paddle at Yellowstone National Park at an altitude of 7,000ft - 7,200ft. Only then will we know we have built our ping pong paddles correctly and that they perform within spec!

[AgincourtDB]

As for what I hate....

"Test your mark 16 parachute at 2300 m, at 1200m/s, using staging" type of thing.

You have to stage the chute. It is too low to prevent release via tweakables. It is too fast to not get ripped off.

That, or the "Test your bacc solid rocket booster at 19400 - 19600m altitude. At 85 - 89 m/s

WHO THE *^&^& hovers at that exact height?

Have you really gotten contracts with a window that small? I've gotten 1000m windows with reasonable speed requirements (watch the contract window with your finger resting lightly on the space bar, quoting Star Wars ["Aaaalmost there... aaaaalmost there"]), but I haven't seen anything like the above. I could do it with mechjeb, but not hardcore.

[Mars Mullo]

Yeah I think the test windows are too small. It was hard enough for me to figure out that I'm supposed to activate them when all the things are checked, not after. But not only are the windows very tiny, the speeds are often unreasonable for the altitude. I had to bring my rocket TWR down around 1.7 to get it slow enough at the right altitude, and that was one of the first ones I did!

I find these super easy if you change your thrust and fuel load on your Solid rocket. That way you can achieve those speeds and altatudes easily. Sometimes it is on the descend and others it is on the ascend.

As for rocket engines I mount them on top of frames above the booster and then put the capsule and parachutes above that.

When you land back in the light grassed areas around the KSP I hover the mouse over the area where the "recover craft"button drops down and click on it in the half second time you get to recover the craft before it topples over and blows up.

Also sometimes you can deploy a chute and use that to slow the descent down and achieve the airspeed at the altitude on the descent. And dont forget you can specify the altitude to deploy chutes too.

Those engineering settings make it easier .. thrust, fuel and chute altitude... try it

Hope that helps

[AdmiralTigerclaw]

There's always the physically impossible contracts, like the one I just got.

Test launch stability enhancer...

On the Mun.

*Tries his hardest not to snrk and laugh before declining that contract.*