0.24

0.24 Beta release
Released		7/17/2014
Announcement		Kerbal Space Program: First Contract Now Available
Steam		Steam Community
← 0.23.5 0.24.1 →
⇐ 0.230.25 ⇒

Version 0.24, called Kerbal Space Program: First Contract was released on July 17^th, 2014. It introduces mostly new mechanics for career mode and rebalances mostly engines for the large size.

Changes

New

Currencies

• Added Funds and Reputation as new career mode currencies.
• Funds are required to launch vessels.
• Part costs are now used in career mode.
• Resources like liquid fuel and monopropellant now have costs of their own, which figure into the cost of a launch.
• Tweaking a part's resource sliders in the editors will adjust the cost of the vessel accordingly.

Mission Control

• The Mission Control facility is now active in career games.
• Mission Control allows the player to select contracts, review them, and either accept or decline them.
• Added Gene Kerman as advisor in the Mission Control screen, ready to give his opinion about what the player's doing.
• The Mission Control screen also features an 'archives' tab, where previously-completed contracts can be reviewed.

Contracts

• Contracts require to complete objectives, in order to gain Funds, Science and Reputation
• Once accepted, contracts must be completed before the deadline expires.
• Contracts will fail if the deadline expires or if some critical parameter fails (like killing a Kerbal in a mission to rescue him).
• Added procedurally generated 'mission briefings' for contracts, which may even make sense sometimes.
• Contracts come in three levels of Prestige ("Trivial", "Significant" and "Exceptional"). Higher levels offer greater rewards and are usually more ambitious.
• Reputation regulates the amounts of each level of contracts on offer.

Early 'Starter' Contracts

• First Launch: Launch any vessel.
• Altitude Records: Set a new altitude record.
• Reach Space: Escape Kerbin's atmosphere
• Achieve Orbit: Achieve a stable orbit around Kerbin.

Dynamically Generated Contracts:

• Part Test: Perform a test of a part in a specific location, situation and within given flight parameters (when applicable).
• Collect Science: Return or transmit any scientific data from a specific location.
• Rescue Kerbal: Rescue a Kerbal who is stuck in orbit.
• Plant Flag: Plant the Agency's flag on the surface of a given location.
• Explore: Complete several exploration goals for an unexplored location.

Agencies

The record seeking Kerbin World-Firsts Record-Keeping Society

• Added Agencies, which offer contracts.
• Each agency has its own personality traits, which affects the generation of the contracts they offer.
• Agency Logos added from the winners of the Community Logo Design Contest.
• Clicking the agency logo in the Mission Control screen will display extra info about the Agency.

Vessel Recovery

• Recovering vessels now refunds for the value of recovered parts and resources.
• Recovered value varies based on distance from the Space Center. Land at the Runway for 100% value.

Space Center

• Added a universal time clock to the KSC scene UI.
• Added a Pause Menu to the KSC scene, instead of leaving to the main menu immediately on pressing the Quit button.
• The KSC Pause Menu allows saving and loading with a custom filename.

UI

• Added new UI Toolbar, which exists in all game scenes and is mod-friendly.
• Added new UI Widget to display state of ongoing Contracts in Flight, KSC and the Construction Facilities.
• Added new UI Widgets to display the current amount of Science, Reputation and Funds.
• Added Messages UI App, shows messages about contracts and such.
• Redesigned the Resources Panel from flight as a toolbar app, overhauled panel graphics.
• Overhauled the old 'Science Summary' dialog into a complete 'Mission Summary', displaying information about recovered Experiments, Parts and Crew.

Parts

• Added new Vernor Engine, a very powerful RCS module powered by the standard liquid fuel/oxidizer mixture.
• Added new O-10 MonoPropellant Engine, a low-thrust main engine powered by monopropellant.
• Thrust vectoring engines now respond to roll input if they are not along the roll axis. Due to multiple nozzles, S3 KS-25x4 Engine Cluster and R.A.P.I.E.R. Engine always have gimbal roll authority.

Builds

• Added Windows 64-bit executable.

Tutorials

• Added several new tutorials.

Game

• Added 'Science' Game Mode, where Science is the only currency and Mission Control is closed (as in pre-0.24 'Classic' Career).

Bug fixes and tweaks

Flight

• Asteroids are now able to collide with other asteroids.
• New launches now start with throttle set to 50%, like in older versions of the game.
• Saving restriction when throttled up removed.
• Timewarp restriction when throttled up removed. Engaging time warp now automatically cuts throttle.
• Improved logic for detecting a vessel in 'orbiting' situations.

Editors

• Fixed a bug in the editors where dragging a part off the ship and deleting it straight away would not generate an undo state.
• Fixed a bug where ctrl+clicking over a part in the build area would not reveal the part in the parts list.
• Orientation of VAB scenery rotated so spacecraft orientation is consistent at launchpad.
• VAB Flag moved to the opposite wall.
• Redesigned the Parts List UI 'Footer' section where the symmetry and angle snap options reside.

Tracking Station

• Fixed a bug where map objects were created but never removed, leaving dozens of 'leaked' objects behind.

Space Center

• Launchpad and Runway Launch Dialogs now show vessel costs.
• Added 'Edit' Button to Launch Dialogs, which takes the player to the VAB or SPH to edit the selected vessel.
• Launch Dialogs and Craft Browser now allow selecting vessels with 'invalid parts' (for editing).
• Added new Pre-Flight Checks to prevent launching vessels containing invalid parts or with costs exceeding available Funds.

Solar System

• Kerbin's Solar Day is now exactly 6 hours long (sidereal day is now 59 seconds shorter).
• Slight optimization to Kerbin, Mun and Eve surface shaders.

Parts

• Resource flow mode can now be defined for each propellant on Engine, EngineFX and RCS Modules in the part config.
• Previously useless Engine Nacelle and Radial Engine Body parts have been repurposed as air intake + fuel tank combos.
• Tweaked Costs for almost every part.
• Tweaked Mass for several parts, especially spaceplane fuselage sections and structural components.
• Fixed a potentially gamebreaking issue when activating a Separator if it was the root part of a vessel.
• Fixed a bug where some particle FX (mainly on newer engines) would cause a stream of errors when the vessel was unloaded with the FX active.
• Fixed a bug where StrutConnectors could cause hierarchy issues if linked in certain configurations.
• ModuleRCS can now use multiple resources.

Tech Tree

• Revised R&D node layout so 'control' type nodes have a more logical progression.
• Moved basic RCS parts to tier 4 (from tier 5).
• Added more connections into aerodynamic parts from other nodes on tiers 5 and 6.

Progress Tracking

• Fixed an issue introduced in 0.23.5 where unowned vessels could complete progress nodes.
• Fixed AltitudeRecord progress node (now used for contract generation).

Crews

• Fixed crewmembers not being properly flagged as dead if their vessel was destroyed while unloaded.
• Crewmembers are now keyed by name in the roster, and can properly be added and removed.
• Added reputation reward and penalty for recovering and killing crewmembers.
• Added new unique names for Kerbals, suggested by the Community Logo Design Contest winners.

Misc

• Fixed issue with persistence when reverting to flight.
• Added rich text support to several UI text fields.
• Fixed several cases of texture point-filtering issues resulting in crooked text.
• Fixed potential crash related to reentry FX on Linux when no depthtexture hardware support is available.
• Overhauled all UI screens and text. All text fields using Arial font now use proper Calibri.
• Exposed Gameplay difficulty options to the Alt+F12 Debug Toolbar.
• Updated Credits Scene.
• Fixed permission issues with KSPLauncher which prevented it from properly launching the game on Linux.
• Messages displayed on the upper-right corner in flight are now displayed above the crew portraits instead.
• Removed a 'rogue' tooltip from the Staging Reset button at the VAB and SPH.

Weblinks

• “Jeb's Junkyard” announcement video for 0.24
• Official changelog by HarvesteR