Just got an "Explore Ike" contract

[biohazard15]

Seems okay... except that I've never been at Duna-Ike system before, and I didn't got a contract for Duna. Where's logic with that? "Guys, your target is that big grey space rock. That red thing over there? Ignore it, they didn't paid us enough to go there."

[Dizzle]

That's weird. Usually you get Duna and Ike after exploring Minmus.

[juanml82]

My gut feeling is that you should receive a Duna contract while your ships are on their way there.

Of course, it's a gut feeling. I might be wrong. Maybe you can use the debug menu to spawn that contract, but I'm not sure.

[SkyRender]

Contracts sometimes show up kinda weirdly. And sometimes rather unfortunately as well; if you make a point of visiting Minmus before the Mun (it is an easier target, after all), you will never see the Explore Minmus contract show up.

[Aethon]

Yeah. I always fire off a 'solar science' mission to inter planetary space as early as I can. Since it was on the way out of Kerbins SOI 2 hrs before my first Minmus launch, I've never gotten the explore Minmus contract. I did get Ike though.

Ike is way easier than Duna to explore. It's a logical progression. Heck Op if you have a craft that'll land and return from the Mun it'll probably land on Ike. With a good transfer window Dunas' SOI costs nearly the same as a clumsy mun land/return.

[G'th]

You know technically, it has been a real life goal to probably try for Phoebes (or is it Deimos? I can't remember?) before making a Mars landing.

And it makes sense. Game wise it might be silly to waste time only going for Ike if you're going to the Duna system anyway, but from a "can we even do this?" standpoint, an Ike landing would be more feasible and provide proven infrastructure for landing on Duna.

[Brofessional]

Landing on Ike is no more difficult than landing on the Mun, and it's easier to return from than Duna.

[Sean Mirrsen]

Ike is pretty easy to land on, yeah. Easy to take off from, too. Compared to a return mission from Duna, a return mission from Ike is easy.

You know technically' date=' it has been a real life goal to probably try for Phoebes (or is it Deimos? I can't remember?) before making a Mars landing.[/quote']

Unrelatedly, that's the funniest misspelling of "Phobos" I've seen so far. XD

[Rusty6899]

It kind of annoys me when contracts come up at awkward times, If I'm doing an "Explore Mun" contract, I shouldn't have to go back to the Space Centre during the mission to pick up the "science data from space around" and "Plant a Flag" missions.

I also made a blunder by making a return trip to Moho straight after visiting Duna, so I missed out on what I assume would be a lucrative contract.

[SRV Ron]

A note on those Explore Ike, Mun, Minmus, Duna, Eve contracts. You don't need to send a Kerbal and return him to complete those contract. Just send a probe with a Too Hot Thermometer on a one way mission along with a second one to remain in orbit for future data contracts. Send your Kerbal later to gather samples, plant a flag, and return science.

[Geschosskopf]

Seems okay... except that I've never been at Duna-Ike system before, and I didn't got a contract for Duna. Where's logic with that? "Guys, your target is that big grey space rock. That red thing over there? Ignore it, they didn't paid us enough to go there."

Welcome aboard!

Don't sweat not having the Duna contract just yet. The Ike and Duna contracts usually appear within the same 24-hr day, and in any case both will appear long before the 1st transfer window comes around.

As to doing the Duna-Ike system, it's pretty simple. It only takes about 1100m/s to get there from LKO, which is only a tad more than it takes to get to Minmus. Just consult the delta-V map to make sure you've got enough for what you want to do, remembering that stopping where you want upon arrival at Duna is almost free thanks to aerocapture and it only takes like 500 to get from Duna back to Kerbin, where you can again aerocapture, and use Kerbal Engineer or MJ to make sure your rocket really has this much dV. Also use Kerbal Alarm Clock so you'll make the trip each way on the transfer window day, so your fuel consumption for the transfers will match what the delta-V map says.

[cantab]

Seems okay... except that I've never been at Duna-Ike system before, and I didn't got a contract for Duna. Where's logic with that? "Guys, your target is that big grey space rock. That red thing over there? Ignore it, they didn't paid us enough to go there."

"Ike'll be easy. It's just like the Mun, all we need is to add a few boosters to our orbiter and job done."

[biohazard15]

Welcome aboard!

Don't sweat not having the Duna contract just yet. The Ike and Duna contracts usually appear within the same 24-hr day, and in any case both will appear long before the 1st transfer window comes around.

As to doing the Duna-Ike system, it's pretty simple. It only takes about 1100m/s to get there from LKO, which is only a tad more than it takes to get to Minmus. Just consult the delta-V map to make sure you've got enough for what you want to do, remembering that stopping where you want upon arrival at Duna is almost free thanks to aerocapture and it only takes like 500 to get from Duna back to Kerbin, where you can again aerocapture, and use Kerbal Engineer or MJ to make sure your rocket really has this much dV. Also use Kerbal Alarm Clock so you'll make the trip each way on the transfer window day, so your fuel consumption for the transfers will match what the delta-V map says.

Well, I'm not a new player, I was referring to my fresh 0.24 career

By the way, I've got "Explore Eve" contract even before Ike, right after I've explored Minmus. Which actually makes some sense - Eve is easier to land to than Duna or Ike (except if you're using Deadly Reentry...).

Anyway, I've got Duna contract after I've declined couple of testing contracts. I just want to do Duna and Ike contracts in one flight to save some budget

[KingPhantom]

the contracts are random . i got them not in a order

[Geschosskopf]

By the way, I've got "Explore Eve" contract even before Ike, right after I've explored Minmus. Which actually makes some sense - Eve is easier to land to than Duna or Ike (except if you're using Deadly Reentry...).

Landing on Eve is the easy part. Taking off again is the challenge .

But the order of the "Explore whatever" contracts could definitely use some work. As mentioned above, Minmus has traditionally been the 1st target of most players because it doesn't require as much of a rocket as Mun. As for interplanetary stuff, that's governed by transfer windows and Duna is NOT the 1st one to come due. At the start of a new game, windows for Moho, Dres, Jool, and Eeloo all come up before Duna's, and Eve is the last one for a new destination (Moho repeating several times in between). It would be nice if the contracts appeared in the same order as the transfer windows. Even better, ALL the "Explore" contracts should become available at once up front, like the 4 initial contracts to reach Kerbin orbit.

[Vanamonde]

The contracts are coming from external organizations, and their interests and time schedule are not the same as yours. They want you to test their new jet engine when it's ready for testing, for example, and maybe they're hoping there's a mineral they want on Ike that doesn't seem to be present on Duna.

[Jean Deaux]

As I've read the contract system to be programmed; contracts are dynamic, which means they are randomly generated. As they are randomly generated, they may not always appear in the sequential order you might expect them to be. Some missions may have weights to them to make them appear more frequently, or only after a certain condition is met, but such is the "fun" of random. Don't stress too much over this, life works funny like that.

[Geschosskopf]

As I've read the contract system to be programmed; contracts are dynamic, which means they are randomly generated. As they are randomly generated, they may not always appear in the sequential order you might expect them to be. Some missions may have weights to them to make them appear more frequently, or only after a certain condition is met, but such is the "fun" of random. Don't stress too much over this, life works funny like that.

Actually, this is a fairly serious issue. Players do science to unlock parts so they can do the cool things they envision as the ultimate direction of their game. All this costs money, which can only be obtained from contracts (unless you have a mod that lets you mine resources you can return and "sell" for cash on vehicle recovery). So what players can do at any point in the game is controlled to a large extent by what contracts are available. However, the base "Explore" contracts appear in a semi-fixed order that completely ignores the fact that players are accustomed to doing Minmus before Mun (it's easier AND has more science per landing), and also ignores the immutable timing of transfer windows. And there's a penalty for not following this Squad-imposed order of visiting places, in the form of "Explore" contracts not appearing if you go there before the contract spawns by itself.

All this conspires to compel players to do certain things, and only certain things, in a specific order, if they want a healthy cash flow. IOW, it restricts the freedom that KSP has previously been all about. Naturally, budgets and research restrict what you can do at any given time, but they don't by themselves force you into specific courses of action. This is what irks me. For example, it's not uncommon to research the tech tree enough to do a reasonable Jool mission by the 1st time its window comes around in a new game, which is before Duna's. Why shouldn't this still be an option for the motivated player? Sure, the travel time to Jool is long enough that its "Explore" contract might come up before the ship gets there, but it might not, and if your ship enters Jool's SOI before then, you'll never get that money. Which you need because you just spent it on the Jool ship. So out of fear of bankruptcy or fear of having to do another dozen test contracts to avoid bankruptcy instead of doing what you want to be doing, you're stuck with playing by the schedule set by Squad.