Ideas for making the station/outpost contracts better.

[Dunbaratu]

The big problem with the 'build a station' and 'build a ground outpost' contracts is that they completely ignore that the whole REASON you make such stations is to *re-use* them. In career mode you just make a station, leave it there, make another one, leave it there, and make another one, etc.

What would make a lot more sense is this:

1: Have the game track the fact that you already have an outpost of a particular type (for example, have it know that there already is a Kerbin low-orbit station, a Kerbin high-orbit station, and a Minmus low-orbit station). For the idea outlined here to work it would also have to track if such a station goes away too. It doesn't matter if there WAS a station once, but rather what matters is whether there IS one at the moment.

2: Only generate a "new" station contract when there is no such station already fitting the contract you were about to generate.

3: If there is a station already fitting the contract goals, then instead of generating a new-station contract, generate one of the following stationkeeping maintenence contracts for it:

3.1: Crew exchange mission: Send up a vessel to the station. Add crew from the vessel to the station, and from the station to the vessel. (They don't have to dock. They can just rendezvous nearby and EVA to each other if you like.) As long as the sum of all crew that went from A to B plus all crew that went from B to A is bigger than mission parameter N, it's enough. (That way you can use the mission to add, remove, or change crew - you don't have to just swap one for one and thus keep the crew count identical). Mission contract will only be considered complete when the vessel is landed back on Kerbin again. Crew onboard vessel on its return trip must survive to count.

3.2: Add Fuel Mission: Count total current mass due to fuel in the station. Call it Fmass_old. Keep counting total current fuel in station. Call new fuel level Fmass_new. When Fmass_new >= (Fmass_old + M), consider the contract completed. Don't bother checking anything else - just that. It will mean, add M fuel to the station, by any means you like (which will of course have to mean sending up another vessel full of fuel and docking with it - either to transfer the fuel or to just leave the docked module there as part of the new, larger station.)

3.3: Expand station mission: Look at what the station currently has on it. Make a mission to add some specific parts to it. (i.e. if it's electric capacity is low, ask to add more electriccharge to it (bring up a battery module). If it has no science lab, ask to add one. If it only has one size of docking port, ask to add other sizes of docking port. If it has a small amount of habitation, ask to add more habitation.)

Those are the general ideas. Once the station is there, let the player KEEP using it for more missions later rather than just making it once and then throwing it away.

[Superfluous J]

I like these ideas in general, Also a "Deorbit X" would be cool for old satellites and stations.

Also, pick a station and damage it by (say) marking all solar panels broken or something. Then have a contract to rescue the crew.

[Bill Phil]

Or add other agency's stations that you do maintenance on, once you're done it's deleted, but the same station config can be reused for later maintenance work on the "same" station.

[arkie87]

I think for the satellite placing and/or base contracts, i think once you complete the contract, you lost "control" of the satellite/station, such that you cannot fly it anymore.

This will be easy to implement once they add multiplayer, since the satellite and/or station will behave just like another player "owns" it, such that you cannot take control of it.

I think this will both add realism (once you deliver on the contract, you hand the base/satellite over to the company that paid you) as well as prevent clutter, from having six minmus bases and 5 mun bases etc...

[Heimdall5008]

I like this ideas. But as Bill Phil stated, it would be an even cooler concept to add a pre-defined station in a pre-defined orbit (like the Kerbals in the rescue missions) and you have to do a contract with this station (crew transport/rescue, refueling, orbit change, docking of additional module, ...). After the contract the station could vanish.

For the current contracts I would also support to limit the maximum number of bases/stations build in one situation. For the bases you could add a biome requirement and limit it to one base per biome. For the stations you could say 2-3 for each low and high orbit.

[78stonewobble]

Well for supplying the station... it could just be a dummy payload module of different weightclasses and sizes.

[Dunbaratu]

I think for the satellite placing and/or base contracts, i think once you complete the contract, you lost "control" of the satellite/station, such that you cannot fly it anymore.

e contract, you hand the base/satellite over to the company that paid you) as well as prevent clutter, from having six minmus bases and 5 mun bases etc...

This will be easy to implement once they add multiplayer, since the satellite and/or station will behave just like another player "owns" it, such that you cannot take control of it.

But that does not solve the problem I wanted solved. It makes it even worse. The problem is that I want to USE the station I made after I made it.

[tater]

All excellent ideas, as is 5thHorseman's idea for damage, and such damage could require repair (engineer), or evacuation. Arkie87's idea is also good, perhaps for SOME such contracts. I think in general KSP needs some "AI" or "NPC" action. Put a station in orbit for some entity, then it becomes a source for those "rescue stranded kerbal" contracts. Perhaps rescue and return to Station X you built for the other program.

More variety is good.

[nightingale]

In the next week or two I'll be releasing Contract Configurator 0.5.0 which will add support for tracking vessels across contracts - which would make it relatively easy to build this type of contract.

[Hyomoto]

Sounds like good additions to me, expanding the contract system will hopefully always be in the cards.