Are you working for your contracts, or are they working for you?

[Parkaboy]

One thing I found out a few updates ago was that, while KSP's contract system is a little random and repetitive, and mostly doesn't resembles how a space program works, it does have something working for it: it's flexible enough so that we can choose to play in the way we want to play. Personally, I like to play an immersive game - I don't lauch crafts full of unneeded parts just for testing purposes, and I mostly try to accept contracts that make sense for the game I'm playing.

So here I'm asking: are you doing the same? Do you choose the right contracts to make your career game feel alive, or you play for the challenge? Do you accept everything that Mission Control offers you, or do you skip contracts until you get the one you're looking for?

And do you use any special strategies to twist the contract goals to your purposes? Let me give a few examples:

Satellite Contracts: So you got a contract to put a sat in orbit around the Mun. A good idea is to put a thermometer or another reusable scientific instrument on board, so that sat can be used to do the "get science from space" contracts. But sats usefulness don't stop there. If your sat has an engine and fuel, you can actually move it from its orbit after completing the original contract. This means it can be used to complete a few "survey" contracts (those that require you to get a reading while flying above a certain altitude). Put the sat in a polar orbit, pick the right contracts and you can keep using it forever (though that strategy isn't very good for planets with atmosphere). And if your sat has an engine, you might even use it to do a "test part in orbit" contract!

Space Station Contracts: Stations may seem useless to the untrained eye, but they're actually pretty handy to have around. Visual survey missions require a ship capable of landing or at least doing some pretty drastic plane changes. Leaving this lander in orbit of the targed planet/moon and refueling it can be more efficient (or at least cheaper) than sending a new lander for each survey mission. Also, if your station has a lab, it can be used to reset the materials bay and goo cannister, so you can have these instruments in your lander and use them for each new biome visited. "So one station's good", you might say, "but what's the point of accepting multiple station contracts for the same celestial body? I don't need more than one station!" You might be right, but keep in mind that you can dock the new station with the old (as long as you already fulfilled the contract requirements), so the new contracts can be treated as expansion contracts for an old station. It's kind of cool to have a huge station capable of housing over 30 kerbals around Minmus, trust me.

Survey Contracts: The cool thing about survey contracts is that they can be done multiple ways. A simple and economic one is by using robot rovers. As long as they aren't visual surveys, a rover can do multiple survey contracts in a planet - but you should be careful to accept contracts to sites that are near the rover's position, or you'll have to drive for hours. For moons with low gravity, such as Minmus, a small ion-propelled probe can be even more effective, since it can have enough delta-v to perform dozens of surveys.

So, what do you say? Do you have any special strategies to make contracts work in new ways?

[Laie]

As to your first question: early in the career, it's definitely me working for the contracts. Later on, there's enough contracts working for me.

So, what do you say? Do you have any special strategies to make contracts work in new ways?

Certainly not "new". My standard mission to $anywhere usually includes three Kerbals and a lab. Without any changes to the vessel, I may complete one or several station contracts along the way. I'll return science and plant a flag anyway -- if someone's gonna pay me for it, so much the better.

Problem is that one needs to go interplanetary in order to see a good payout for these contracts, and I like to have action groups and large docking ports before I seriously leave Kerbin SOI (iow, I first max out the buildings and then go to Duna). So I have to work in order to get the buildings, then have a lot of easy money and nowhere to put it.

Edited January 4, 2015 by Laie

[DBT85]

I've not yet gotten to the point of putting satellites up for a contract, I'm still cocking up basic launches and orbits without the manoeuvre nodes lol.

My plan however is to re-purpose satellite contracts once the contract is complete. So, if I got a polar contract, put the required kit on board to use it for SCANSat for example. Or if one of the equatorial satellites, some of the parts to help me use Remote Tech.

[Taleric]

I just play career to have science with some consequences and motivation to build efficiently. I'm the guy that wishes DRE, RT2 and life support were stock.

I select the easiest best paying missions, transitioning mid/late game to bundles that cover larger missions. I find long atmosphere flights tedious but love rovers so all Kerbin location missions are out but I'm game for other planets.

For the most part I like the missions and am just very picky. I love the kerbal skills addition to .90!

[Superfluous J]

After the first few launches (where I'm mostly doing the starter contracts to generate the funds to upgrade critical buildings), I find it pretty easy to refuse contracts I don't want to do and instead build up a portfolio of contracts that will allow me to do what I want and generate a hefty profit.

Recently I built a Karbonite drilling station on Mun. So I took a contract to build a land station on Mun and attached my Karbonite stuff to that. And there was a "Plant a flag" contract so hey, why not? And on the way I had some part testing stuff in LKO. I'm going up so sure. I'll take your ion engine with me. For that much money I'd be dumb not to.

I made like a million bucks setting up that Karbonite base. And now I don't need to spend as much on fuel

[AbacusWizard]

Early on in 0.90 I got a contract to put a space station in orbit around Minmus, so I built one with a research lab, a crew lander, and a probe lander and sent it up with Jeb, Bill, and Bob. Before I launched it, I also accepted a contract to put a space station in orbit around Kerbin, so I got credit for both of those with one station.

Once the station reached Minmus, I started accepting various contracts for visual surveys and scientific readings on or near its surface, and used those to guide my choice of landing sites as I collected science and made sure that each of the kerbalnauts got to plant a flag at least once for experience.

When they had had enough of that, I accepted a contract to put a space station in orbit around the sun, built a ship that had enough parts to qualify as a station, sent it to Minmus orbit to pick up our three heroes, popped out of Kerbin's sphere of influence just long enough to count (for the contract, for science, and for experience), and then took them back home to Kerbin's surface.

Now I have plenty of money, a complete tech tree, three Level 3 kerbalnauts, and an uncrewed space station holding plenty of fuel and a probe lander I can use to play Minmar Lander minigames for fun and profit whenever I want. Good times.