"Explore" Contracts Out Of Order?

[Srpadget]

Not sure if this is a contracts bug, or if the game is behaving oddly-but-as-designed. (Possibly related to high Reputation?)

In my latest career save (0.90, lightly modded: EVE, KJR, KAC) I decided I was tired of the seemingly endless grinding-for-Funds in Hard mode and dropped back to Normal. My most impressive accomplishment so far is successfully deploying a probe into a 3-star "minimal deviation" orbit around Mun. (I did unlock the tech for docking port and hitchhiker, in anticipation of those juicy lucrative orbital station contracts, but so far I only did one, and that's just in Kerbin orbit.) Jeb is currently on his way to Mun for the first landing and completion of the Explore Mun contract. I have sent NOTHING to Minmus or out into the Sun's SOI as yet, but I have accepted a couple survey contracts on/over Minmus.

(I was a bit surprised to see those crop up before the Explore Minmus contract, but hey, they're straightforward and I'll be going there soon enough regardless, right?)

And then I got a contract offer for an orbital station around DUNA. (Huh? I haven't been to MUN yet!) Rejected that, and it was replaced by a contract for a surface base on Duna. Rejected THAT.

Next up: Explore Ike. IKE?!?

I reiterate: while I have accepted some Minmus-SOI contracts, I have not sent ANYTHING beyond Mun orbit as yet. (I have seen lots of people here on the forums complaining they missed "Explore" contracts because they jumped the gun, so I am careful not to do that.) I was expecting "Explore Minmus" to show up Real Soon Now, seeing as I have gotten a couple subparts of the Explore Mun contract done, but no.

From "Explore Mun" directly to "Explore Ike". Go to Ike. Go directly to Ike. Do not pass Minmus or Duna, Do not collect 200 Funds.

I have never seen this behavior before. Has anyone else seen these "out of order" Explore contracts? Is Jeb never going to be showered in great huge piles of money just to go to Minmus/Duna now? Is he going to have to (*GASP*) WORK, like do surveys and stuff, to pay for his anticipated ski vacation at the Duna North Polar Cap Winter Sports Resort?? (Say it isn't so!)

[vexx32]

I got one random "Explore Eve" contract shortly after doing one or two Minmus satellite contracts, immediately following a contract to put a research station in solar orbit. I think that while there is a semi-defined order to the contracts, there are random elements as well. I'm not sure if Reputation has any great effect on when those sorts of contracts show up, but I ended up not doing the Eve one and instead accepting a 'Place satellite in orbit around Duna" contract to start, which ended up resulting in Ike contracts showing up.

It's a bit weird, but it's not like you have to accept them or anything.

[tsotha]

The exploration contracts for planetary bodies don't expire and will keep coming back. If you have a limitation on contract count, just leave them until you're ready to do them.

[biohazard15]

The exploration contracts for planetary bodies don't expire and will keep coming back. If you have a limitation on contract count, just leave them until you're ready to do them.

They cannot be declined and have no expiration date, so they will stay in the list until you actually complete them.

[Streetwind]

For me it more or less appeared in the correct order... first Mun, then Minmus, then Duna and Ike together, and shortly after that (without leaving Kerbin's SoI still) Eve. The only thing that's conspicuously missing is an Explore Gilly contract. I was expecting it to show up together with Eve, but somehow it hasn't, despite several Kerbal months passing since then.

Well, my frst solar orbit explorer is now on its way to dip its nose outside Kerbin's SoI for the first time, and in a few days a robotic Duna mission will leave. I'll go see if that makes Gilly show up...

[Janos1986]

I noticed the same when finishing the Explore Eve contract.

Where's Explore Gilly? I even sent 2 separate probes to Eve for it.

Nevermind, actually. Yesterday evening the NaN Kraken ate my Gilly probe. Wiped out from the save file like a fart in the wind.

[ghpstage]

I've not seen the situation described in the OP before without killing contracts by entering SOIs

Though, sometimes the explore contracts don't show up as soon as you clear the prerequisites. Rejecting a few random contracts can fix this.

Edited January 15, 2015 by ghpstage

[KerikBalm]

I haven't had these happen to me yet. But I have been delaying sending a mission, because I don't ave the explore contract yet.

I wish they would be offered somewhere near the actual launch window.

Explore Duna and Ike now? Explore Even now? The launch windows aren't for another 120 days... the Moho window is open NOW, give me a Moho contract!

but no.... so I send up an SSTO, carying a small Ion probe, and launch immediately on a very not optimal trajectory, just to get it out of the way.

Though these missions are kind of fun. I have an orbiter that aerocaptures at duna, and detaches a tiny QBE (? the cheap light one with no reaction wheel or SAS) probed with some static panels, a chute, and some science instruments (don't have the grav sensor yet, boooo high R&D upgrade costs!) before raising the E out of the atmosphere. Then I raise my PE, while the "lander" goes in completely unguided.

Then the orbiter goes to ike, and has enough TWR to land there.

I did the same for Eve (took some aiming to get it on land, so I could also send seismic data)... but I didn't get the Gilly contract (but these were just tests, I didn't intend to do nothing and just time warp ahead, while I still had stations to build around mun, minmus, and more biome science to collect, maybe by the time I my probe gets there, I'll be offered a gilly contract)

[cicatrix]

Generally, if you are able to get to Minmus and back you can do Duna as well. Contracts are random so I don't see anything particularly wrong with it. It's just Kerbal science society is more interested in Duna, as it appears in your case. You're not being sent to Moho or Eloo, you can manage 5 km/s to Duna, after all.

[Frank327]

Explore Duna and Ike now? Explore Even now? The launch windows aren't for another 120 days... the Moho window is open NOW, give me a Moho contract!

Kerbal space program is designed in such a way that time isn't a factor. The factor that determines how far you are in the game is science level and funds mostly. And because moho is such a difficult planet to get to they wait with that contract for a long time. It's done so that relatively new players know what planets they should try and go for if they want to steadily progress through the game. If they're suddenly given the moho contract after minmus just because the window is open then they might quit the game in frustration when they run out of fuel with 3km/s left on the circularization burn.

Besides, the moho window comes up so often that it shouldn't be a factor. Although it would be nice if the planetary alignment in career would start some 60 days before the duna window.

[KerikBalm]

Yes, I know, you bring up something I've thought about suggesting before... starting closer to launch windows for the "easy" planets.

In my pre 0.90 career, My first interplanetary mission was to Moho, the next one was to jool, then Duna, then Eve, Never got around to dres )

The alignment should be that Duna comes up first, IMO

[Srpadget]

Kerbal space program is designed in such a way that time isn't a factor. The factor that determines how far you are in the game is science level and funds mostly. And because moho is such a difficult planet to get to they wait with that contract for a long time. It's done so that relatively new players know what planets they should try and go for if they want to steadily progress through the game. If they're suddenly given the moho contract after minmus just because the window is open then they might quit the game in frustration when they run out of fuel with 3km/s left on the circularization burn.

This, fundamentally, is why I posted on the topic.

Yes, it's true that if you can get to Minmus you can get to Duna. (And, obviously, Ike. Seeing as the best way to reach Ike is to try to get to Duna WITHOUT going to Ike. Ike is a jealous attention-wh*re.) IF, by "get to" you mean "have a vehicle with sufficient delta-v".

So, yes, any of US can get to Duna with a ship that can get to Minmus. But there are a number of psychological barriers there for the beginner, not least of which is the fact that there are notably more SOI shifts and more conic sections along the way, and launch windows suddenly become important in a way that they aren't for Minmus. Then there's always the raw distance (not a particularly valid issue objectively, but certainly an important psychological one for the inexperienced), and the holdover idea from most people's real-life notion that going to Mars is a WAY HARDER THING than going to the Moon.

And then, of course, there's the secondary reason for the original post: my own purely-psychological landscape. I *like* Minmus. It's a fun, carefree, amusing little place. And the game has conditioned me to expect that I'll get to do that delightful slow-motion landing-ballet there sooner rather than later (Mun, then Minmus, then Duna and Ike, then Eve but unaccountably not Gilly; this is the way it's always been and is clearly supposed to always be!), and get paid handsomely for it. I find myself obscurely annoyed that I'll have to go there "on my own dime"...by which of course I mean I'll only get several hundred thousand Funds for knocking off 2 or 3 survey contracts in one mission with a craft that costs a few tens of thousands sitting on the launchpad....

[soulsource]

On the topic of the "Explore Gilly" contract: It appeared in my current 0.90 stock savegame yesterday.

At that point I had already landed three unmanned probes on Ike, and had flags on Duna and Dres, the latter without having a contract to go there. Nevertheless, both crewed ships, from Duna and Dres, were still on their way back to Kerbin when the contract showed up, so probably one-way trips count (and maybe even unmanned trips).

When the Explore Gilly contract appeared, I already had the Explore Eve contract active, but of course not finished, for quite some time.

If I might make a completely wild guess: Both, Gilly and Dres have a relatively narrow SOI, so maybe KSP sees the successful encounter with Dres as an indicator that the player is capable of such precision encounters, and therefore suggests similar challenges.

[Srpadget]

Followup on the initial issue:

I finally got the chance to get back on the game for a bit, and I believe I've established the reason for at least part of what happened in my game.

My initial visit to Mun (which fulfilled the "orbit" and "science from space" parts of the "Explore Mun" contract) were with an orbital probe. This apparently is insufficient to trigger the "Explore Minmus" contract. Today, I followed up with a kerballed lander. As soon as Jeb had done his orbit-insertion burn and was in a nice stable low orbit, the "Explore Minmus" contract became available.

So. One part of the apparent weirdness explained. This is the first time in the 0.24-and-later timeframe that I've sent a probe to Mun before sending crew. And it seems getting a probe into orbit isn't enough to trigger the next "Explore" contract.

I still have no clue why the game offered me IKE just out of the blue like that, but at least the little green guys will get their accustomed grossly-oversized paycheck for kicking back and playing on that fun little ball of minty dessert product!

[Streetwind]

So one Explore contract can be completed by a probe but the next won't unlock unless a manned flight has occurred to the body in question? Interesting observation. I've half a mind to bug report that, because there's clearly a disconnect between what a contract asks you to do and the actual prerequisites for progression.

[Janos1986]

The game now wants an orbital base on Gilly, but I've yet to explore it.

[Aragosnat]

Yeah. There was a link of when the explore contract triggers. Think it was after you complete the Duna and Ika Contract. Then you do the Eve contract. That should pop up the Gilly contract. And to get the Explore Dres contract. You basicly need to do Jool and its moons if I remember right... =.=

[biohazard15]

Yeah. There was a link of when the explore contract triggers. Think it was after you complete the Duna and Ika Contract. Then you do the Eve contract. That should pop up the Gilly contract. And to get the Explore Dres contract. You basicly need to do Jool and its moons if I remember right... =.=

In my last career save, I've got Duna and Ike contracts right after I've explored the Mun. I've got Eve right after I've explored Minmus.