Why is it asking me to activate the LV-T45 liquid engine AFTER I've splashed down?

[NitroPenguinn]

It says "once all conditions are met, activate the part". One of the conditions is that I splash down. I used the part as my second stage rocket, and the detatched it (using the 909 as my final stage). I splashed down, but didn't complete the quest. That's when I read the note again. Whaaaaaaaaaat?

Snip of the thingy:

http://i.imgur.com/N94zEqb.png

Edited December 27, 2014 by NitroPenguinn

[Anquietas314]

Don't worry about what the contract says; they're randomly generated and consequently quite stupid sometimes. All you need to do to pass the contract is land the engine in the water, then activate it. It doesn't care if the engine is already activated; just add an empty stage and stage it

Also I wouldn't recommend doing those contracts - they generally pay so little it's not worth your time, never mind launch costs.

[The Yellow Dart]

That is just the way squad decided to do things. There are several states a contract can require, such as flying, orbiting, landed, and splashed down, and it randomly puts a state with a testable part to make up a contract. It doesn't check whether it makes sense to activate a rocket engine while splashed down. You have to wait to activate the staging icon until you are splashed down, you can do that in one stage by right clicking the rocket to activate it on the pad, then activate it again with the space bar after you're in the water.

[Jason Patterson]

In general the conditions of a contract must all be met simultaneously. Even if they're stupid (and most of the "Test X while splashed down." ones are...) that's what is required to complete the contract.

There are exceptions, but these are laid out in the contracts window in a more obvious fashion. An example would be the Explore the Mun contract, where it is stipulated that you need to land on the Mun, collect science, and a couple of other things. These missions are listed with major subcategories, each of which offers its own rewards.

[DeMatt]

The corporation that gave you the contract wants you to test their part under specific circumstances - specifically, dunked in a body of water.

Theoretically, you need to put the engine at the top of your rocket's staging sequence and not use it until you reach the correct environmental situation. In practice, you can get around the limitation in one of two ways:

1. Use an action group (or just use its right-click menu) when you want to activate it in flight, and only officially stage it when you reach the ocean;
   
2. Rearrange the staging sequence to put the used engine at the top of the sequence again, and stage it again. Note that this tends not to work very well.

[Sirrobert]

Once all conditions are met, activate the part.

So you spash down, THAN activate the part. How is that confusing?

[Kesa]

He is asking you to activate the LV-T45 liquid engine AFTER splashed down. Do not detach it before splashed down. Then activate it through the staging process. If you already have activated it, you can reorder your staging inflight the same way you do in the VAB.

There is not much logic in that type of contract. It is bring that part there, then activate. If you also do find a use of that part in your craft, it's better, but it's not what the contract is asking.

[Torquemadus]

I suspect that the idea is that they want you to test the part after surviving a splash down to see if it still works.

If the part has already been activated during the flight, you can edit the staging sequence and add it to new staging events. This allows you to "activate" it as many times as you like for contract completion purposes. This is very handy, as you can complete engine test contracts by using the engine to get to where you need to be.

[Reactordrone]

It will always be difficult to test an LV-T45 splashed down if you no longer have one attached to your ship

[NitroPenguinn]

Okay............... thanks for the help guys. I don't know why I expected a mission issued to me by a Kerbal to make perfect logical sense. But I'm learning!

[Dispatcher]

If we look at it from a gameplay point of view, there are generally multiple ways to look at a contract's requirements and interpret them. There is the rationale that an ordinary player might use (for example, fly a rocket using the test engine, after landing, since the contract says "landed"). Then there is a broader interpretation (landed can mean that its may be launched from the land launch pad or runway without having been flown first). Then there is a more creative approach which is simpler, cheaper, faster and still technically satisfies the contract (fire an LFE with no fuel tank used or fire an SRB with all propellant having been emptied out in the VAB first). The player may learn how to think of the contracts as puzzles, most of which are solvable.

The same is true of the testing of parts after splashdown, as discussed in other posts above. Its kind of like an IQ test; hopefully you and I will score better than most Kerbals would, if left to themselves.

Edit/ spoiler: For contracts requiring tests after splashdown, I use a crewed capsule, all the science instruments I want to (or can carry), a small SRB and one test part (usually mounted on the capsule nose; I use radial chutes). I fly eastward shortly after launch. Its a fairly cheap way of doing splashdown tests, yet tends to maximize rewards.

Edited December 27, 2014 by Dispatcher

[Rolanvorxariat]

I wish there was some sort of testing facility/range... it would make more sense, in terms of realism.

[Sirrobert]

I wish there was some sort of testing facility/range... it would make more sense, in terms of realism.

Not that realism is relavant in a game...

No it doesn't. New planes/plane parts (the closest equivilant to testing contracts) are flown by a specialized test pilot in real flights to test. And they have to stick to some VERY strickt altitudes/speeds/other conditions during the tests

[moogoob]

You'd think the engineers would just dunk the engine in a swimming pool themselves.

[Kesa]

You'd think the engineers would just dunk the engine in a swimming pool themselves.

They already did. but now, some scientists want to know how the see water differs from their pool. Which better tool than a rocket engine?