How to delete PDA Contacts in Ostranauts

[Narfy]

How to delete PDA Contacts in Ostranauts EAbuild: 0.14.2.8(64)

It's been driving me crazy how your PDA contacts clutter up with loads of people demanding you to fix their lives, and I couldn't find any instructions on how to remove them.
So I spent a night digging through the .json with no previous experience and found something that works.
But I must warn anyone following this to backup their save file, and that it might break quests or stuff relating to the NPC's you remove.
However it might be worth it to save your mouse scroll wheel and potentially your sanity.

Make a backup of your save file by saving onto another slot.
It's very important to keep a backup as you might accidentally delete your ship character and everything precious to you.

Use your PDA NAVLINK app or check the nav station on your ship to find your ships callsign.

Make a backup of your save file by saving onto another slot. Pretty please~

Navigate to your save folder location, from the game's continue/load screen there's a button to open up the Ostranauts folder.
(On linux this it will be in /home/YOURUSERNAME/.steam/steam/steamapps/compatdata/1022980/pfx/drive_c/users/steamuser/AppData/LocalLow/Blue Bottle Games/Ostranauts)

Open up the folder of your save file's name and then open the zip inside with the same name.
Open up the ships folder and look for the matching .json file with the same callsign of your ship. eg: H-2GD7.json
(If you still have the game open at this point it would be worth quitting to the menu so you don't accidentally overwrite any changes you make)

Right click and open that .json in a text editor like notepad (or xed in linux. You might have to extract it first, if it doesn't let you save your changes later)

hit cntrl F to search for "strPSpec" : "NAME OF NPC" you should be able to find the contact that looks something like this

    {
                  "strPSpec" : "Karina Chinelo Pugh",
                  "aRelationships" : [
                    "RELContact"
                  ],
                  "aEvents"        : [
                    "Became Contact during: Message out of the blue."
                  ],
                  "dictConds"      : {
                    "StatAchievement" : 0.0,
                    "StatAltruism"    : 0.0,
                    "StatAutonomy"    : 0.0,
                    "StatContact"     : 0.0,
                    "StatEsteem"      : 0.0,
                    "StatFamily"      : 0.0,
                    "StatIntimacy"    : 0.0,
                    "StatMeaning"     : 0.0,
                    "StatPrivacy"     : 0.0,
                    "StatSecurity"    : 0.0,
                    "StatSelfRespect" : 0.0,
                    "StatWeird"       : 0.0,
                    "StatThreat"      : 0.0,
                    "StatThreatIntelligent" : 0.0
                  },
                  "fFamiliarity"   : 0.0,
                  "fAnimosity"     : 0.0,
                  "fKindness"      : 0.0
                },

Delete everything between and including the { }, of the NPC you want to remove from your PDA, be aware there might be more information than shown on this example depending on how much interaction you've had with them or quest related triggers and stuff. You could remove multiple contacts this way but be extra super careful.

Be really careful and make sure to not accidentally delete the { }, surrounding other NPC's information above or below who you want to remove.
Save the changes made, if you didn't extract it before you might need to confirm the save.
If you did extract it, then delete the old one inside the zip archive and replace it with your edited version.

Load up your game and check the PDA and verify if they're gone from your contacts. If they're still there make sure you actually saved/overwrote your changes to the file inside of the .zip archive. If you quit the game while editing it, and you have save on quit enabled it will overwrite your changes.

I hope this has been helpful and not busted your game, have fun Honk~ o7