Contract completion Hints and tips

[Damien_The_Unbeliever]

Since we seem to see a fair few questions in here where people are struggling to complete contracts, I thought I'd try to write as complete a guide as I'm capable of to completing each type of contract:

(As at version 0.90)

General

At the moment, the first paragraph in the briefing is gibberish, but everything else should be paid attention to. If you have limited contract slots available (2 or 7 depending on building level) it won't help if you've filled them all up with contracts that you later decide are "impossible" to satisfy.

For craft contracts (Satellite, base, orbital station) once the contract has been satisfied, you're free to do anything you wish with the craft. The craft could be used to satisfy multiple contracts (provided it meets all requirements) or it could be de-orbited (provided you've planned ahead for this) so that it can be recovered.

Satellite

A satellite contract will show the desired orbit in the tracking station (and in the map view, for accepted contracts). The most common mistake people seem to make is to get the "right" orbit but in the wrong direction. The orbit that you're shown includes a set of bright dots that rotate in the same direction as your vessel should. Alternately, check the required inclination of the orbit - if it's between 0° and 90° then your orbit should be prograde. If it's between 90° and 180° it should be retrograde.

All satellites require power, which in this case means something that can generate power - so (one or more) solar panels and/or RTGs. The "Launch Stability Enhancer" also generates power but since you can't take those into space, don't rely on that (a known bug, as at 0.90, is that the Launch Stability Enhancer unlocks satellite contracts). Batteries alone will not do.

As a general rule, if your satellite is sat on the launch pad then it should already satisfy all of the contract sub-elements except the "Reach the designated orbit" one (and, if you're impatient, "Maintain stability for 10 seconds")

When trying to match the orbit, as stated above the map view will show the required orbit with Apoapsis and Periapsis as well as the Ascending and Descending nodes - these nodes are shown on the target orbit rather than on your own vessel's orbit and so to use them for aligning your own orbit you should burn Normal when your vessel is aligned with the Ascending node or burn Anti-Normal when aligned with the Descending node. Unlike when targeting another object, no dashed lines are shown between these nodes and your own orbit so you have to rely on judgement to decide when your vessel is aligned with the node.

Surveys

Survey contracts will always require you to perform some form of action at particular locations. When a contract is offered, the locations will show up as small markers in the tracking view. Once the contract is accepted, these markers will also show up in Map view. Clicking a marker in map view will offer an "Activate Navigation" option which will cause the marker's symbol to appear on the Navball - however, the direction shown is the straight-line direction to the marker - no matter how much planet may be between your vessel and the target so until you're close to the target, don't try to aim straight for the marker.

For any multi-location contract, you do not have to complete all locations in a single flight/mission. You can also visit locations belonging to multiple contracts in a single flight/mission.

As you enter any (accepted) contract location, you'll receive an on screen message. If that's also the location you're currently navigating towards, it's icon will flash in the Navball. If you exit the location, you'll have another on screen message to tell you so.

If the requirement for a location is "in flight" then there will be an altitude requirement. If the requirement is "below xxx metres" then anywhere above the surface and below that altitude is acceptable. If the requirement is "above xxx metres" then there is no (general) upper limit - you can in theory do these from space but at most orbital velocities, you will require precise timing to trigger the required action at the right time. However, if the action required involves a science instrument (pressure reading, temperature reading, etc) then that instrument may not work in space or upper atmosphere, say, and so may impose its own upper limit.

For "on the surface" requirements your vessel needs to be on the surface but your Kerbals need not be - being on EVA whilst holding the hatch of the cockpit is good enough^* for you to generate an EVA report "on the surface" - except when they actually require a surface sample.

Orbital Station/Base

This contract requires you to "Have a facility supporting at least xxx Kerbals". This means that there needs to be enough space for that many Kerbals. It doesn't mean you have to either launch with that many on board or ever have that many on board (it can even be completely un-Kerballed if you decide to stick a probe core in there). All modules which Kerbals can enter count towards this - so a Mobile Processing Lab adds support for 2 Kerbals but external command chairs do not.

If the base contract requires it to "Be Mobile" then it needs to have rover wheels of some sort. Landing bay wheels do not count.

It is possible to complete these contracts through multiple launches and assembly in space/at the location - but mixed results have been reported when you try to combine newly launched parts and pre-existing parts. Sometimes the use of pre-existing parts causes the "launch a new vessel" element of the contract to fail.

Parts Tests

Parts must either be activated through the staging sequence or be tested by right-clicking the part and choosing "Run test". The contract will state which of these options should be used. All sub-elements of the contract must be satisfied (green ticks when viewing from top-right menu) at the same time as you activate/test the part. It's not enough that you've satisfied all of the requirements at different times during your flight.

For engine/booster tests, the only requirement is that the part be activated in the correct manner - there is no need for the engine to have access to any of the resources (fuel, oxidizer, air, electricity, xenon) which it would require to actually provide thrust. SRBs can be tested with no fuel.

Even if the contract requires that a part be activated through the staging sequence, this doesn't prevent you from having already used the part in an earlier part of your mission:

• If you have already activated the part manually then it will still "activate" to satisfy the contract when its stage is activated.
  
• If the part has already been staged, you can edit the staging sequence during your mission and place the part in a new stage and then activate that stage.
  

For tests requiring low altitudes and high velocities, it can be helpful to launch a rocket at an angle - in the VAB, add Launch Stability Enhancers, then select the root of the craft and use Shift + the rotation keys to set the launch angle. The correct angle to use depends on thrust/weight/desired altitude/desired velocity so may require experimentation.

"Splashed down" tests require you to be in a body of liquid - it doesn't matter how you got there so for some tests it can be easier to slap some rover wheels onto the objects and drive them into the sea.

"Landed" tests require your vessel to be on land. For "Landed on Kerbal" tests, this includes the launch pad before you first activate your vessel so placing the parts to test in the first stage to activate will be enough to satisfy the contract (if its a staging sequence one).

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^*I've had a few people disagree with this one but I've definitely done it on a regular basis. Some or more of these may be key to making this work:

• MK1 cockpit
  
• Plane is stationary within the required location - brakes are set
  
• Click "EVA" on the pilot's portrait.
  
• Right-click pilot, choose "EVA report" - at this point, the contract element gains the green tick
  
• Press "F" to have the pilot re-board the plane.
  

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Any suggestions for more tips I should add in here? I've not really seen anyone struggling with the Altitude contracts and there's already plenty of material on achieving orbit/rendezvous to which I can't think of anything to add.

Edited January 1, 2015 by Damien_The_Unbeliever

[MalfunctionM1Ke]

The sheer need for a thread like that shows the weakspots of Fineprint.

Damien did a great Job of putting all this together.

- I would add that it makes sense to add a parachute to satelites and Spacestations around Kerbin as the contract gives you no Penalty when you de-orbit them again and recover it to get some scratch out of it

Edited December 29, 2014 by MalfunctionM1Ke

[Anquietas314]

For "on the surface" requirements your vessel needs to be on the surface but your Kerbals need not be - being on EVA whilst holding the hatch of the cockpit is good enough for you to generate an EVA report "on the surface" - except when they actually require a surface sample.

In general this is wrong; if you're holding the hatch of a cockpit, that counts as a ladder which in most cases counts as a "flying over ___" (or "in space just above ___" for airless bodies) EVA report. If you can't take a surface sample, you're considered to be flying. It does count as being on the surface however if your Kerbal is standing on the plane, rocket, etc itself, rather than holding a ladder piece.

Otherwise, great tips! Could a mod please sticky this thread?

[Damien_The_Unbeliever]

I've updated to point out that craft can be recovered or re-purposed.

- - - Updated - - -

I've added a footnote outlining the technique I've been using for EVA reports. It has always worked for me.

[Dispatcher]

This would be a good thread to place in the "Tutorials" subforum.

[Anquietas314]

This would be a good thread to place in the "Tutorials" subforum.

Given most people don't seem to actually check that (see number of posts regarding spaceplanes, despite Slashy's tutorial being one of the most active threads there), I think it would probably be better to have it here, stickied.

[Damien_The_Unbeliever]

This would be a good thread to place in the "Tutorials" subforum.

I considered tutorials but I thought this would be a better forum given that this is where the *questions* keep being asked. Also, the description for this forum is "KSP tips and tricks and also ..." and it's not an actual tutorial.

TBH, I wrote it with the hope that the mods might consider it for stickying - since it does address a lot of the contract completion questions that seem to *keep* coming up.

[Pecan]

The thing is, people don't read stickies either - just look at the number of times we've had to tell people to press '['/']' within 2.5km to take control of a Kerbal targer in a rescue mission.

In tutorials, active threads have a much longer lifetime - here it's likely to be driven down and off the first page very quickly (and the people who don't read tutorials or stickies are definitely not going to look on P2!).

[Anquietas314]

The thing is, people don't read stickies either - just look at the number of times we've had to tell people to press '['/']' within 2.5km to take control of a Kerbal targer in a rescue mission.

Well, I don't see a sticky - or any thread at all on the first page - in either forum that has anything close to that in the title, so I don't see the point of your example. At least if something's stickied in this forum, there's a decent chance they'll notice it between opening the page and clicking the "post new thread" button. If it's in tutorials, they have basically no chance of doing that.

If it's somewhere in the giant 35-page sticky on important things to pass on... yeah, I made it as far as page 3 before getting bored with that. Pretty much nobody reads a huge thread all the way through, unless they were participating in it from the start.

[Damien_The_Unbeliever]

I would be more than happy to add a Rescue Contracts section to the OP. The point being that these questions keep being asked (although I've not seen enough of the rescue contracts ones to form a generality) and surely its better to have a single resource here that addresses "Frequently Asked Questions about completing contracts" that many askers can be referred to? Or do you think that there's value to answering each, individual yet duplicate question with duplicate answers?

I guess what I'm trying to say is that I'm trying to address actual FAQ on this (sub)forum, but for now I'm concentrating on contracts.

[Damien_The_Unbeliever]

I've added an update re: the location messages and the navball marker

[AndrewBCrisp]

A question about the Orbital Stations / Bases contracts: in order to fulfil the contract requirements, is it necessary to launch the station/base from Kerbin in one launch or can a station or base be built modularly over several launches?

[Anquietas314]

is it necessary to launch the station/base from Kerbin in one launch or can a station or base be built modularly over several launches?

From what I hear, you can launch stations in multiple pieces. I don't know about surface bases but I guess it should work. I find it easier to just launch them in one piece though - I just throw them away anyway, so why bother with all those expensive RCS ports/tanks etc for docking?

[Damien_The_Unbeliever]

A question about the Orbital Stations / Bases contracts: in order to fulfil the contract requirements, is it necessary to launch the station/base from Kerbin in one launch or can a station or base be built modularly over several launches?

I've added a new paragraph at the end of that section covering my current understanding - you can build modularly but if you try to combine some new modules and some older modules (that existed before the contract is accepted) you may fail the "launch a new vessel" element of the contract. People have reported mixed results when trying this.

[Spheniscine]

If the requirement for a location is "in flight" then there will be an altitude requirement. If the requirement is "below xxx metres" then anywhere above the surface and below that altitude is acceptable. If the requirement is "above xxx metres" then there is no upper limit - you can in theory do these from space but at most orbital velocities, you will require precise timing to trigger the required action at the right time.

There is one exception to the "no upper limit" rule - if you are doing barometric or atmospheric analysis (sensor nose cone) scans, you need to be in the atmosphere. You can just "graze" the very top of the atmosphere to avoid deorbiting though as long as your apoapsis is high enough.

[Anquietas314]

barometric or atmospheric analysis (sensor nose cone) scans

Temperature scans can't be done in "high orbit" either, which is a problem for Gilly apparently.

[Louella]

I've been having problems trying to complete a few contracts, one for testing a Seperatron, another for the lvt-45 engine.

Parts Tests

Parts must either be activated through the staging sequence or be tested by right-clicking the part and choosing "Run test". The contract will state which of these options should be used. All sub-elements of the contract must be satisfied (green ticks when viewing from top-right menu) at the same time as you activate/test the part. It's not enough that you've satisfied all of the requirements at different times during your flight.

For engine/booster tests, the only requirement is that the part be activated in the correct manner - there is no need for the engine to have access to any of the resources (fuel, oxidizer, air, electricity, xenon) which it would require to actually provide thrust. SRBs can be tested with no fuel.

Even if the contract requires that a part be activated through the staging sequence, this doesn't prevent you from having already used the part in an earlier part of your mission:

• If you have already activated the part manually then it will still "activate" to satisfy the contract when its stage is activated.
  
• If the part has already been staged, you can edit the staging sequence during your mission and place the part in a new stage and then activate that stage.
  

All the requirements are green, I activate the engine, it doesn't register as completing the contract, and I don't know why. The parts are in their own stage, I get the craft to a point where altitude and speed requirements are met, I activate them, and it doesn't work.

[Damien_The_Unbeliever]

It would help if you could show the contract. Have you paid attention to the first part of the advice -that it must be activated by staging or via "Run test" and which of those you need to use is part of the contract?

Also, I know I've been stupid on this aspect more than once, but are you sure you're using the right engine at the right moment?

[Louella]

there's the screenshots of the contract, and the ship I built in flight.

as far as I can tell, it's the right engine, and it meets the height and speed requirements, but it doesn't fulfil the contract, and I don't know why ?

[tsotha]

From what I hear, you can launch stations in multiple pieces. I don't know about surface bases but I guess it should work. I find it easier to just launch them in one piece though - I just throw them away anyway, so why bother with all those expensive RCS ports/tanks etc for docking?

Somebody on an earlier thread was saying you can use pieces that existed before the contract as long as you change their configuration through docking.

[Anquietas314]

Somebody on an earlier thread was saying you can use pieces that existed before the contract as long as you change their configuration through docking.

Yes but the question was about launching a brand new station in several pieces, not trying to use parts of an old station in the construction.

as far as I can tell, it's the right engine, and it meets the height and speed requirements, but it doesn't fulfil the contract, and I don't know why ?

That's clearly a bug then, either post a thread in the support forums about it or file an issue on the bug tracker (read the threads in my signature first though).

Edited January 3, 2015 by armagheddonsgw

[Louella]

I got it to work today. I deleted all the parts from the KSP folder, and then used the patcher to restore them. Might have been something to do with that.

Even though my ship I was using was made after I accepted the contracts, I built a new one, so it might have been that as well.

Either way, it works now, so \o/

[davidparks21]

I've added a new paragraph at the end of that section covering my current understanding - you can build modularly but if you try to combine some new modules and some older modules (that existed before the contract is accepted) you may fail the "launch a new vessel" element of the contract. People have reported mixed results when trying this.

Does anyone know how this works exactly? I've succeeded in adding probe cores to a vessel I keep docked in orbit at kerbin and it's triggered it as a new vessel, but when I tried to join a new vessel with an existing planetary base on Duna it did not trigger. I'd really like to know when it is acceptable to join new and old parts and when it isn't without the full launch.

Edited January 11, 2015 by davidparks21

[davidparks21]

Oh, after some experimentation I think I have it figured out, at least to a usable degree. It appears that the vessel that is identified as the primary vessel when docking has something to do with the type of vessel it is defined as. If you want to join a new piece of equipment with an old piece of equipment try setting the old one to something low level like debris, and the new one will always be the primary (and hence satisfy the 'new' portion of the contract).

I tested it out in a number of cases and they all worked, and I could change the results by changing the type of vessels being docked. If you do it wrong you can just undock, change the types of vessels and redock and it works as far as I can see.

In my case the vessel 'Base' is pretty high in the pecking order, so whatever I connected to it submitted to the dominance of 'Base'. When I changed that same base to 'Debris' and the thing connecting to it to be a 'Base' it worked!

I didn't work out the exact pecking order, and docking items of the same type seemed to produce non obvious results. If anyone has the patience to figure it all out in detail I'd love to see it.