[0.90.0] Fine Print vSTOCK'D - BETA RELEASE!!! (December 15)

[Mykill Metal]

Well the missions are not giving me results again... Just put a satellite in an orbit at 400km at 0* inclination with an antenna and goo canister. It won't give me the contract for putting it in the right orbit. The other things are checked, just not the "correct orbit" one.

evidence - http://i.imgur.com/AQW7WUD.jpg?1

Edit - also... Just noticed that my other contract was for a "Polar Orbit" at 400k. Which for some reason is on the equator at 0* inclination. I'm not getting that one either...

Edited September 1, 2014 by Mykill Metal
addendum

[DMagic]

EDIT: Wait a second...

You sure comments don't work?

I'm looking at a config file that contains:

Yeah, comments can be put on separate lines or at the end of lines in config nodes. The config node system ignores all of that stuff when using HasValue or GetValue.

[juanml82]

Hey, question. I already have a base at the Mun with a capacity for 12 kerbals. I got a contract asking me to create a base on the Mun... with a capacity for 12 kerbals.

If I send a rover with a lander can (and power, antenna and etc) and dock it to the existing base, will it trigger the contract, as I'll have a base with a 13 kerbal capacity and a part of it would have been built after the contract was issued? Or do I need to plan another base with a 12 kerbal capacity?

Ok, to answer myself, it doesn't work. It checks the "have a facility supporting 12 kerbals" but unchecks the "build a base with..." because the base I'm docking it's from before the contract was issued. Maybe it could work if I dock the base to the new rover though, now that I think about it.

[james4832]

Well the missions are not giving me results again... Just put a satellite in an orbit at 400km at 0* inclination with an antenna and goo canister. It won't give me the contract for putting it in the right orbit. The other things are checked, just not the "correct orbit" one.

evidence - http://i.imgur.com/AQW7WUD.jpg?1

Edit - also... Just noticed that my other contract was for a "Polar Orbit" at 400k. Which for some reason is on the equator at 0* inclination. I'm not getting that one either...

I have the same problem, i have an equatorial contract, which requests an Apoapsis and Periapsis of 122km and 111km respectively, and 0* inclination to within 7%. I am currently at 122km and 111km, with 0.000* (i am assuming that this is only to 3s.f.) inclination. This has led me to believe that the 0* inclination is the problem, as 7% of 0 is still 0. To fix this, if possible, could you change the inclination to be +/- 1* from 0 or similar?

EDIT: My orbit is currently at 0.000215950732161567* inclination (according to the persistence file). Also, sorry about using * for degrees, i don't know the keyboard shortcut for the actual symbol

Edit again: I'm stupid, the contract was asking to be at 1122km and 1113km...

Edited September 2, 2014 by james4832

[Arsonide]

Well the missions are not giving me results again... Just put a satellite in an orbit at 400km at 0* inclination with an antenna and goo canister. It won't give me the contract for putting it in the right orbit. The other things are checked, just not the "correct orbit" one.

evidence - http://i.imgur.com/AQW7WUD.jpg?1

Edit - also... Just noticed that my other contract was for a "Polar Orbit" at 400k. Which for some reason is on the equator at 0* inclination. I'm not getting that one either...

Your patch reset did not trigger properly. I assume these were on your board the moment you patched. These are default orbits. This is part of the wonkiness I describe that can happen when a patch reset doesn't properly trigger. If you clear your board manually by going to Alt-F12->Contracts->Tools->Clear Current Contracts, or by fast forwarding by about a week of game time, these contracts will disappear, functional ones will appear, and it won't happen again.

It's not clear enough then.

I thought the multiplier did something else, and I was looking for what constitutes the threshold value that defines the border between low and high altitude. Based on what you just said, the value is instead defined behind the scenes, and you use a multiplier on it.

Problem is, I don't know what the base-value for the altitude is, so the multipliers mean nothing to me. What's the base value and/or base range being applied to altitude before the multipliers?

I'm sorry LowAltitudeMultiplier isn't clear enough for you. Here are the default values I am using for the moment, though I've already patched this to use CelestialBody.scienceValues.flyingAltitudeThreshold in my build as a center point. (This is the point at which the game divides "Flying High" and "Flying Low".) I primarily did this to be compatible with RSS and other custom celestial body mods.

Slash-slash (//) is a commented-out line. You sure you didn't just try an improper way to comment a line out?

I know what comments are... Like I said, the stock ConfigNodes do not support them when dumping to a file programmatically. When parsing one written by a human, they will ignore comments.

Also, not every mod uses stock ConfigNodes for their configuration solution, so I'm 100% sure that if you go look for comments in other mods' configuration files, you will find them.

Yeah, comments can be put on separate lines or at the end of lines in config nodes. The config node system ignores all of that stuff when using HasValue or GetValue.

Programmatically generated ConfigNodes?

Ok, to answer myself, it doesn't work. It checks the "have a facility supporting 12 kerbals" but unchecks the "build a base with..." because the base I'm docking it's from before the contract was issued. Maybe it could work if I dock the base to the new rover though, now that I think about it.

It will not, the facility missions require a new facility for that contract. Docking to an old facility won't work.

I'm currently setting up an in game window to handle some in game stuff, I'm including options to toggle waypoint visibility, and reload the configuration file without restarting.

Edited September 2, 2014 by Arsonide

[Arsonide]

Anybody have any requests for what should go on here? I would like to only have settings here that affect immediately visible in game stuff, like waypoint visibility. For all the detailed stuff, that's what the "Reload Configuration" button is for.

[SMILIE]

Awesome!

Maybe not only one checkbox for surface/orbital waypoints but two: one for accepted and one for offered contracts.

[Arsonide]

Sounds good. I'm implementing this and trying to track down some issues with that reset. Contract System is a tricky beast. I think I will check out how mission controller blocks stock contracts and have options for that too.

I haven't heard too many opinions on the ISRU contracts, has anybody tried those, and did it go smoothly? After I implemented them they quickly became one of my favorite contracts to do.

[Mykill Metal]

Your patch reset did not trigger properly. I assume these were on your board the moment you patched. These are default orbits. This is part of the wonkiness I describe that can happen when a patch reset doesn't properly trigger. If you clear your board manually by going to Alt-F12->Contracts->Tools->Clear Current Contracts, or by fast forwarding by about a week of game time, these contracts will disappear, functional ones will appear, and it won't happen again.

Nothing happened... Pressed alt+f12 and cleared the contracts. Then fast forwarded a month... No change, contracts still there.

Edit - Spammed it for two minutes and finally cleared them when I went to the hangar by accident from too much spammage.

Edited September 2, 2014 by Mykill Metal

[Arsonide]

Nothing happened... Pressed alt+f12 and cleared the contracts. Then fast forwarded a month... No change, contracts still there.

Edit - Spammed it for two minutes and finally cleared them when I went to the hangar by accident from too much spammage.

Heh, that's stock behavior. It actually cleared them the first time you hit the button, but the contract window will show "ghost" contracts, that are not actually there, until you switch scenes. Switching scenes clears the ghosts.

The ghosts aren't actually in your list of active contracts, they just show on the UI. This caused me a lot of grief a few patches ago, I could not figure out what was going on for the longest.

[Superfluous J]

Anybody have any requests for what should go on here? I would like to only have settings here that affect immediately visible in game stuff, like waypoint visibility. For all the detailed stuff, that's what the "Reload Configuration" button is for.

How about instead of (or in addition to) categories, actually list all contracts with waypoints and allow me to toggle them on and off? Follow Squad's lead where if you right click, it selects just one and unselects the rest but if you left click, it leaves the rest alone and turns just the one you're selecting on and off. And a "select all" button that you can toggle to clear them all or select them all.

[kimiko]

This is just fantastic! Just what I needed :3 Thank you!

By the way: Will there be land-based rescue/pickup missions in the future? As well as "Armageddon"(movie)-style blow up asteroid missions perhaps (I seem to have a strong urge to re-live that scene in KSP )?

[FlowerChild]

Arsonide, I've been loosely following this thread (as well as the other contract mod ones), and noticed you've been having similar problems to what I've run into with stock contracts not being generated due to the number of your own and that kind of thing.

In case you aren't following the contract modding thread anymore, I figured out what's causing this and posted about it over there.

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/86588-Contract-Modding-Information-for-Mod-Authors?p=1391136&viewfull=1#post1391136

Just wanted to pass that along in case it helps you out as the solution is far from obvious.

[Arsonide]

Arsonide, I've been loosely following this thread (as well as the other contract mod ones), and noticed you've been having similar problems to what I've run into with stock contracts not being generated due to the number of your own and that kind of thing.

In case you aren't following the contract modding thread anymore, I figured out what's causing this and posted about it over there.

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/86588-Contract-Modding-Information-for-Mod-Authors?p=1391136&viewfull=1#post1391136

Just wanted to pass that along in case it helps you out as the solution is far from obvious.

I do not modify the prestige levels of missions as they generate, I cater the generation to the prestige level, because yes, it hands out prestige levels at a certain ratio. So I don't believe this would affect me.

However, if this is something that other contract mods are doing, the saturation of non-stock mods might be confusing users. Thank you for the warning though. The fact that I haven't changed prestige levels manually is more of a factor of luck than anything. Now I know not to do it in the future.

Edited September 2, 2014 by Arsonide

[FlowerChild]

I do not modify the prestige levels of missions as they generate, I cater the generation to the prestige level, because yes, it hands out prestige levels at a certain ratio. So I don't believe this would affect me.

Fair enough. Didn't realize anyone had already figured this bit out

Thank you for the warning though. The fact that I haven't changed prestige levels manually is more of a factor of luck than anything. Now I know not to do it in the future.

No worries man. I was beginning to despair about finding a solution to this problem given the lack of documentation so was eager to pass along the info when I discovered it

Edited September 2, 2014 by FlowerChild

[Arsonide]

Fair enough. Didn't realize anyone had already figured this bit out

I knew that they were handed out at a ratio, but I wouldn't say I'd figured it out...I didn't put two and two together that changing the prestige level would throw off that ratio. The fact that I don't change prestige levels is more because I haven't had to. So yeah, luck.

[Minwaabi]

Are the orbital parameters for satellites supposed to be so large? Or did I install something wrong? Here is a sampling of the most recent satellite contracts offered:

On a specific orbit:

Apoapsis: 14,485,219 m ; Periapsis: 14,485,219 m Inclination, Longitude, Argument all 0/undefined

Polar Orbit:

Apoapsis: 16,098,361 m; Periapsis: 12,369,573 m Inclination: 90^, Longitude ascending node: 15 ^, Argument of Periapsis: 49.8 ^

Specific Orbit:

Apoapsis: 28,061,241 m; Periapsis: 18,922,991 m Inclination: 0 ^; Longitude: undefined; Argument: 282.2 ^

Polar Orbit:

Apoapsis: 21,1126,862 m; Periapsis: 16,710,724 m; Inclination: 90^; Longitude 355.8 ^; Argument: 286.7 ^

Usually the smallest orbits I see are for keosynchronous satellites. (I've seen exactly one smaller). These numbers seem extremely large considering most satellites in RL don't go beyond geosynchronous orbit. Is this intended behavior? If not how can I fix it?

[Arsonide]

It really depends on the type of orbit. The randomized ones can go out to the edge of the SOI, but only on harder difficulties. It is weighted to lower altitudes, but it seems like a good thing to make configurable. As always, RNG can give you anything.

[SMILIE]

I found a way to "cheat" with satellite contracts:

I had two contracts to put an satellite into orbit around mun, one in a small about 10 degree inclined orbit and one in a higher more inclined orbit. I built a satellite, put it in the first orbit on arrival at the moon, waited for the contract to be complete and then changed my orbit to match the second orbit and this one also completed.

Maybe check if the vessel has already been used for a contract or require the satellite to be in a stable orbit for a certain time (like DMagic's contracts do).

I will create an issue in the Github bugtracker too!

[Minwaabi]

What do you mean by "harder difficulties?" Is there a difficulty slider or something for this mod or do you mean trivial, significant, missions? If that's the case, is there some way for me to configure it so only trivial ones show up? Also, I take it that orbital parameters are not currently configurable?

[forsaken1111]

What do you mean by "harder difficulties?" Is there a difficulty slider or something for this mod or do you mean trivial, significant, missions? If that's the case, is there some way for me to configure it so only trivial ones show up? Also, I take it that orbital parameters are not currently configurable?

I think he means the little stars on the side. More stars = harder contract

[Arsonide]

What do you mean by "harder difficulties?" Is there a difficulty slider or something for this mod or do you mean trivial, significant, missions? If that's the case, is there some way for me to configure it so only trivial ones show up? Also, I take it that orbital parameters are not currently configurable?

I mean the prestige level, yes. No you cannot disable difficulty levels. There are many things you can configure about the orbital parameters. Take a look at the configuration file. For now, if you only want things at lower altitudes, I suggest disabling orbits other than Synchronous, Stationary, and Molniya. Everything else has a chance to be anywhere in the sphere of influence. Those have locked semi major axes, which cause them to be at generally lower altitudes. Tundra orbits are also locked to a semi major axis, but they go to higher altitudes on the apoapsis.

I do realize that this is not the ideal solution for you, I will look at having configurable altitudes for the random orbits as well in future patches.

Edited September 3, 2014 by Arsonide

[Minwaabi]

I've been tinkering with some of the values in the config and found that:

TrivialDifficulty = 0.025

SignificantDifficulty = 0.05

ExceptionalDifficulty = 0.1

seem to work out okay. That puts satellites much much closer to real world - analogous orbital parameters. Not sure if that's just RNG things but comparing a sample set of 20 before and 20 after the change seems to suggest that it worked. I still get some wierd ones including the occasional satellite that is scarily low now, but that works for me now.

[Arsonide]

I've been tinkering with some of the values in the config and found that:

TrivialDifficulty = 0.025

SignificantDifficulty = 0.05

ExceptionalDifficulty = 0.1

seem to work out okay. That puts satellites much much closer to real world - analogous orbital parameters. Not sure if that's just RNG things but comparing a sample set of 20 before and 20 after the change seems to suggest that it worked. I still get some wierd ones including the occasional satellite that is scarily low now, but that works for me now.

Difficulty isn't just altitude, it's eccentricity as well. I was considering decoupling those.

[james4832]

Difficulty isn't just altitude, it's eccentricity as well. I was considering decoupling those.

Please do that, the reason I got confused over the contract that I did, was because it was pretty much in the same orbit as the mun. Or at least make them only spawn within a certain altitude range i.e. 70km - 500km (that's a realistic range for satellites, right?) With maybe having contracts at semi- and synchronous orbits for higher difficulties?