[1.4.x] Contract Pack: RemoteTech [v2.1.4] [2017-08-27]

[DanBMan]

Looks awesome, do you think the upcoming version of Remote Tech will break this mod though?

[CaptainKipard]

I don't know how to mod contracts, so can you tell me whether it's possible to fool the game into thinking you've done these contracts when you haven't really?

[bdito]

I don't know how to mod contracts, so can you tell me whether it's possible to fool the game into thinking you've done these contracts when you haven't really?

Yes. You can go into the debug menu and each active contract will be listed under the contracts tab. Click can or con. "can" means cancel and "com" means complete.

[nightingale]

Looks awesome, do you think the upcoming version of Remote Tech will break this mod though?

I tried it last night, and I can guarantee that it will break it! But the fix was easy and is already done. I just need to release it, which will be part of Contract Configurator 0.5.1 - you can expect that this weekend sometime, unless Peppie23 throws a curve ball and releases it before me (in which case it'll still be this weekend, but I'll be scambling to unbreak everything).

I don't know how to mod contracts, so can you tell me whether it's possible to fool the game into thinking you've done these contracts when you haven't really?

Yes. You can go into the debug menu and each active contract will be listed under the contracts tab. Click can or con. "can" means cancel and "com" means complete.

Correct - but the real question is why? Completing the early contracts is not a dependency for getting the later ones offered, if that's what you were thinking. Although I just realized...

Public Service Announcement:

If you are installing this on an existing save with RemoteTech, the contracts will work - but the coverage system will need about two minutes either in flight or in the tracking station to fully initialize. Until then it will assume 0% coverage of all bodies - which means that the contracts offered may not be the ones you expected. New saves are not affected.

[Bluemoon]

Can someone explain, how to fulfill the very first contract for Kerbin? (3 CommSats).

I launched quite some amount of stationary satellites with both omni directional and targeted antennas, covering all of kerbin. But the contract won't do anything, and I don't really understand the requirements.

What does "target: kerbin" or "target: active vessel" actually mean? If I point dish antennas at kerbin or the "active vessel", the contract still shows a red cross for those requirements. I'm lost :-(

[nightingale]

Can someone explain, how to fulfill the very first contract for Kerbin? (3 CommSats).

I launched quite some amount of stationary satellites with both omni directional and targeted antennas, covering all of kerbin. But the contract won't do anything, and I don't really understand the requirements.

What does "target: kerbin" or "target: active vessel" actually mean? If I point dish antennas at kerbin or the "active vessel", the contract still shows a red cross for those requirements. I'm lost :-(

It sounds like you're new to RemoteTech - try checking out their Tutorials page.

[Bluemoon]

It sounds like you're new to RemoteTech - try checking out their Tutorials page.

Nah, I've been using RemoteTech for quite some time and I have no problems to establish the other contracts (like 90% mun coverage etc.).

Just the very first contract (http://i.imgur.com/26gWLOh.png) won't register or something. Can't someone explain (or "translate") what I have to do in order for it to fulfill all the requirements? Contract is filled with ALOT of requirements which aren't really clear from the short description.

For example: My first comsat has a connection to KSC and is in the right orbit, those requirements are green. If I target a dish (with >45 Gm) at kerbin, this requirement also checks green. But if I target (with another dish) the "active vessel" and turn on any amount of antennas to do the same, this will always stay red and won't register. It won't check that I have an antenna, or that

it's activated and powered, or that it has the minimum range... and what do "range: in range of kerbin" and "count: at least 1" even mean? They always stay red, no matter how many antennas I power up.

Also: for any following comsat (II and III), it won't check green their "direct connection" to the previous comsat, although the connection is undoubtfully established.

My comsats work fine, and cover 100% of kerbin for any new vessel with the required range. So what does the contract want me to do? Why doesn't it complete?

[nightingale]

Nah, I've been using RemoteTech for quite some time and I have no problems to establish the other contracts (like 90% mun coverage etc.).

Just the very first contract (http://i.imgur.com/26gWLOh.png) won't register or something. Can't someone explain (or "translate") what I have to do in order for it to fulfill all the requirements? Contract is filled with ALOT of requirements which aren't really clear from the short description.

For example: My first comsat has a connection to KSC and is in the right orbit, those requirements are green. If I target a dish (with >45 Gm) at kerbin, this requirement also checks green. But if I target (with another dish) the "active vessel" and turn on any amount of antennas to do the same, this will always stay red and won't register. It won't check that I have an antenna, or that

it's activated and powered, or that it has the minimum range... and what do "range: in range of kerbin" and "count: at least 1" even mean? They always stay red, no matter how many antennas I power up.

Also: for any following comsat (II and III), it won't check green their "direct connection" to the previous comsat, although the connection is undoubtfully established.

My comsats work fine, and cover 100% of kerbin for any new vessel with the required range. So what does the contract want me to do? Why doesn't it complete?

Ah, when I finally got a chance to look at this, I see it's broken.

I'd changed how some stuff works and never when back and verified this contract. Basically the Target: Kerbin and Target: Active Vessel are mutually exclusive and are not supposed to show up in the same parameter. It should only be Active Vessel. Contract Configurator 0.5.2 is up and fixes this issue. Thanks so much for brining this one up, be sure to let me know in the thread if you have further issues.

[Bluemoon]

The contract now successfullly registered all my satellites as soon as I updated. Thanks for taking the time

[Cleric2145]

I love the idea of this pack but are the contracts only supposed to give you something like 18h to complete them? That seems tight for your average Career game, but using Kerbal Construction Time makes them impossible. Is there any way to bump the completion time to be on par with stock contracts, i.e. lasting months or years? Failing that, where would one find the parameters to alter the completion time on the contracts? I'm not having luck finding anything that looks like it in the .cfgs.

[nightingale]

I love the idea of this pack but are the contracts only supposed to give you something like 18h to complete them? That seems tight for your average Career game, but using Kerbal Construction Time makes them impossible.

Looks okay to me (Edit: I swear it's accidental that Gene's agreeing with me in the screenshot...):

Expiration is when an offered contract will no longer be available to be taken. Deadline is how long you have to complete an active contract. All the ones in the RemoteTech contract pack have a deadline of "Never".

Is there any way to bump the completion time to be on par with stock contracts, i.e. lasting months or years? Failing that, where would one find the parameters to alter the completion time on the contracts? I'm not having luck finding anything that looks like it in the .cfgs.

If you still do want to mess around with it, check out the Contract Configurator wiki, specifically the CONTRACT_TYPE node. Here's the attributes related to contract expiry/deadline:

[COLOR=#333333][FONT=Consolas]    // Contract min/max expiry in days.
[/FONT][/COLOR]    minExpiry = 500.0
    maxExpiry = 1000.0

    // Contract deadline in days.  Default is no deadline.
    deadline = 500

[Gatos]

are you kidding me??!!

I'm going to download it right now!

I think those contracts with the recovery mod is what I've been looking for for my Space Program!

I just spent my morning making the Kerbin communication network, but I didn't get any science nor money for it

Adding parachutes to the first/second stage and getting a communication link is going to be profitable now

[nightingale]

For those updgrading to RemoteTech 1.6: Contract Configurator 0.5.3 has been released to address RemoteTech compatibility, but it is not backwards compatible with RemoteTech 1.5. Either upgrade both RemoteTech and Contract Configurator, or don't update either.

[nightingale]

1.0.2, with minor maintenance changes. Download it now!

RemoteTech Contract Pack 1.0.2

• Added dish restriction to inital network contract (the range already limited it to dishes anyway).
  
• Stopped using obsolete ContractConfigurator parameters.
  

[voidheart]

Hello,

I have question about this contract pack (Well, I guess it is really a ContractConfigurator question, but relevant to people with this Contract Pack...).

How is coverage worked out? And is there any way see the coverage CC thinks a body has?

I have a 5 satellite constellation around Kerbin and after declining the initial contract I'm ready for the second. It hasn't appeared yet, and I just wanted make sure the requirements are met on the Kerbin side.

Also I'm wondering how the stock contracts are weighted. Is it worthwhile weighting all custom contracts higher than 1.0? (presuming everyone would prefer to see any other contract ahead of a part testing contract?)

- - - Updated - - -

I have question about this contract pack (Well, I guess it is really a ContractConfigurator question, but relevant to people with this Contract Pack...).

How is coverage worked out? And is there any way see the coverage CC thinks a body has?

I have a 5 satellite constellation around Kerbin and after declining the initial contract I'm ready for the second. It hasn't appeared yet, and I just wanted make sure the requirements are met on the Kerbin side.

UPDATE: So I was just offered the Mun network contract so I obviously do have coverage. I guess the general question stands but as long as my concept of coverage generally matches it doesn't seem like a big deal.

PS. I also saw my first custom contract appear, yay!

[nightingale]

Hello,

I have question about this contract pack (Well, I guess it is really a ContractConfigurator question, but relevant to people with this Contract Pack...).

How is coverage worked out? And is there any way see the coverage CC thinks a body has?

I have a 5 satellite constellation around Kerbin and after declining the initial contract I'm ready for the second. It hasn't appeared yet, and I just wanted make sure the requirements are met on the Kerbin side.

- - - Updated - - -

UPDATE: So I was just offered the Mun network contract so I obviously do have coverage. I guess the general question stands but as long as my concept of coverage generally matches it doesn't seem like a big deal.

PS. I also saw my first custom contract appear, yay!

Actually, that's a good question. The coverage works by sampling 20 points on each celestial body. The points are distributed across the planet, but all within a -45 to 45 latitude (to be very generous and allow a tight network to be considered 100% coverage). The coverage system will place a fake satellite at each sample point, and ask RemoteTech if that satellite has a connection to back home.

Note that this is pretty expensive. If I did a full coverage pass all at once (16 bodies * 20 points = 320 checks), it takes about 2-3 seconds on my machine. So it checks the coverage fairly slowly - it's rougly two checks every second, such that it takes a little more than two minutes to do a full pass. Oh and it can only do the checks in flight or in the tracking station - RemoteTech isn't active elsewhere.

So that's why it can take some time before some contracts appear or before the contracts that rely on coverage get completed. I have no plans for a way to show the coverage, especially since it wouldn't look very pretty (a few random scattered points, vs. the pretty stuff you get in Cyrik's Map Resource Overlay for SCANsat. I think that visual indication of coverage would be a great feature for RemoteTech, and you should ask those guys about it.

As far as the actual contract pre-requisites, I posted that a few pages back:

Here's a very brief summary of the pre-requisites for a contract to show up:

1. Initial relay - <70% coverage of Kerbin OR does not yet have an antenna pointed at active vessel
   
2. Mun/Minus - >70% coverage of Kerbin AND <70% coverage of Mun/Minmus
   
3. Inner Systems Sat - <20% coverage of [Moho & Eve & Duna]
   
4. Outer Systems Sat - <20% coverage of [Jool & Dres & Eeloo]
   
5. Everything Sat - <20% coverage of [Moho OR Eve OR Duna OR Jool OR Dres OR Eeloo]
   
6. Specific Planet Relay - 20-70% coverage of that planet (ie. have a dish with range pointed at it)
   
7. Specific Moon Relay - 70-100% coverage of the parent body, 0-70% coverage of that moon
   
8. Jool Relay - 20-70% coverage of anything in the Jool system.
   

In additional, you need the appropriate tech unlocked (probe cores + power) as well as an appropriate dish (ie. you can't get a Jool contract without a giga range dish).

Also I'm wondering how the stock contracts are weighted. Is it worthwhile weighting all custom contracts higher than 1.0? (presuming everyone would prefer to see any other contract ahead of a part testing contract?)

The weight unfortunately only applies to ContractConfigurator contracts - it's a weighting against other CC contracts. The stock system works by asking each contract class whether it can generate a new contract (it randomly selects which one to ask). Each class of contract has its own rules for when it can generate a contract, and how many are simultaneously allowed (although in 0.90 Arsonide was kind enough to expose the max count "maxExistant" through GameData/Squad/Contracts/Contract.cfg).

Contract Configurator only has a single contract class, so I cheat this system a little bit by adding multiple copies of it to the stock selection list. How many depends on how many configured contracts there are. It's possible that I'm too low or too high on that formula, but selection bias makes it hard to subjectively tell.

Oh, and if you're interested, ContractConfigurator also provides a mechanism for disabling contract types, (see Miscellaneous section in the wiki), although that's a pretty big hammer, but you can use it if you are just sick to death of those part test contracts.

[lordyod]

So I think this is a bug? Was just finishing up construction of my Minmus network satellites, about to launch them, when suddenly I have 1500 science. A bit surprised I check my notifications and see this popup: http://i.imgur.com/qiontFj.png Huh, that's odd, I don't have any satellites there yet? Here's what I've got set up, hopefully you can make it out: http://i.imgur.com/A0N7v0h.png http://i.imgur.com/9PBzuRE.png Seems like I just randomly hit the right amount of coverage by aiming dishes at Minmus from Kerbin orbit. I had assumed these contracts needed the satellites to be in the body's SoI?

Love this pack by the way.

[nightingale]

So I think this is a bug? Was just finishing up construction of my Minmus network satellites, about to launch them, when suddenly I have 1500 science. A bit surprised I check my notifications and see this popup: http://i.imgur.com/qiontFj.png Huh, that's odd, I don't have any satellites there yet? Here's what I've got set up, hopefully you can make it out: http://i.imgur.com/A0N7v0h.png http://i.imgur.com/9PBzuRE.png Seems like I just randomly hit the right amount of coverage by aiming dishes at Minmus from Kerbin orbit. I had assumed these contracts needed the satellites to be in the body's SoI?

Love this pack by the way.

So the first thing I noticed was that you got 1400 science, when in my contract I had the number at like... 5. Then I realized that's its the admin building's strategies... sigh, that is so unbalanced, thanks Squad.

Anyway, in some ways, I'm okay with you getting the contract reward in this case... I mean, you did have two sats that were beyond the Mun's orbit with dishes pointed at Minmus... it's hardly the traditional approach, but hey, it got the job done. Now, if the coverage system was perfect, then you'd probably be looking at more like 60-70% coverage and wouldn't have met the contract... but there's enough gaps that you probably hit the right timing and got lucky.

Originally I'd planned for it to have 50 points instead of 20... but then it takes close to 5 minutes to do a full background cycle, which just seemed too long. I may just up the "testing" duration from 2 days to 4 or 5 to account for this.

EDIT: And no, they don't need to be in the SOI. Especially now with RemoteTech 1.6, if you point a dish in the right general direction and happen to catch Minmus you'd get it as counted too.

[Peppie23]

Thumbs up for this mod ;-)

[Exitalterego]

Possible bug report, or maybe it's just me missing something!

I'm trying to complete the first mission in the pack to create the 3 satellite network around Kerbin. Satellite are up, each has an omni to connect to KSC and a dish currently targeting 'active vessel'. All contract terms have been completed, so the shakedown count starts.

Firstly, when the mission states the shakedown is 2 days, the counter actually starts at 6 hours (1 Kerbin day).

Secondly, when the counter reaches 0, it resets without completing the mission.

Here's the screenshot of the network and the contract.

[nightingale]

Possible bug report, or maybe it's just me missing something!

I'm trying to complete the first mission in the pack to create the 3 satellite network around Kerbin. Satellite are up, each has an omni to connect to KSC and a dish currently targeting 'active vessel'. All contract terms have been completed, so the shakedown count starts.

Firstly, when the mission states the shakedown is 2 days, the counter actually starts at 6 hours (1 Kerbin day).

Secondly, when the counter reaches 0, it resets without completing the mission.

Here's the screenshot of the network and the contract.

http://i.imgur.com/jrfeJ8zl.png?1

Nope, I can't explain this, tested and it works perfectly for me. Can you:

1. Confirm you're on the latest Contract Configurator (0.5.5).
   
2. Try waiting another day to see if the contract completes (it sounds like it's just not displaying the number of days).
   
3. Tell me if you're using Earth time instead of Kerbin time? I just tested though - and seems fine for both.
   
4. Confirm it's the same for both the stock contracts app and Contract Window +.
   

[Exitalterego]

OK, so the time display thing was entirely me not reading the contract correctly It does correctly display 2 days.

As for the contract failing to complete, it looks like my particular satellite positions end up having a blackspot with KSC once every 1 day 5 hours. This means that in my case, the contract won't complete. Is it possible that this particular contract is perhaps a little too strict on its requirements? Perhaps changing the shakedown to 1 day or putting up 4 satellite instead of 3? I mean, from eyeballing things in the screenshot, the satellites look pretty much spot on in position.

UPDATE:

Actually, it looks like it be more of a Remote Tech problem. I was doing pretty high warp to get the contract to complete and it seems the RT couldn't update the connections to a new satellite fast enough. This would cause the timer to reset back to 2 days. Slowing warp down a notch fixed things.

Edited January 15, 2015 by Exitalterego
Problem fixed

[bdito]

OK, so the time display thing was entirely me not reading the contract correctly It does correctly display 2 days.

As for the contract failing to complete, it looks like my particular satellite positions end up having a blackspot with KSC once every 1 day 5 hours. This means that in my case, the contract won't complete. Is it possible that this particular contract is perhaps a little too strict on its requirements? Perhaps changing the shakedown to 1 day or putting up 4 satellite instead of 3? I mean, from eyeballing things in the screenshot, the satellites look pretty much spot on in position.

Are they running out of power when they're in Kerbin's shadow?

[Exitalterego]

@bdito Nope, I used the Visual RemoteTech Planner to calculate how much power would be needed in the shadow.

[nightingale]

OK, so the time display thing was entirely me not reading the contract correctly It does correctly display 2 days.

As for the contract failing to complete, it looks like my particular satellite positions end up having a blackspot with KSC once every 1 day 5 hours. This means that in my case, the contract won't complete. Is it possible that this particular contract is perhaps a little too strict on its requirements? Perhaps changing the shakedown to 1 day or putting up 4 satellite instead of 3? I mean, from eyeballing things in the screenshot, the satellites look pretty much spot on in position.

UPDATE:

Actually, it looks like it be more of a Remote Tech problem. I was doing pretty high warp to get the contract to complete and it seems the RT couldn't update the connections to a new satellite fast enough. This would cause the timer to reset back to 2 days. Slowing warp down a notch fixed things.

I'll see if I can change it to make it less sensitive to RemoteTech "jitter" from satellite switching.... but it may be that on high time warp you're just going to get issues like this, sadly.

Good that it's working for you though!