Timewarp anxiety

[xtoro]

My career mode save is a mess. Thank god for KAC, but I'm doing way too many things at once. I launch a probe to Jool, do stuff on Duna, get more science, get a other Jool contract, so send another probe. Do stuff on Minmus, send something back from Duna and get 20 other things on the go while I'm waiting for my first probe to get to Jool. Finally gets there, do science, return to Kerbin. Second probe for Jool is only halfway there....

I'm sure you see what I mean and run into the same. I feel like just leaving my Kerbals on the other planets for a few years to time warp just so I can get my probes to and from Jool but it seems like a waste of time for the poor Kerbals on the moons and on Duna... But I get anxious to get the missions to far away planets done.

What do you do? Leave them and time warp? Or do you just keep going and pile up the missions while probes and ships are on very long interplanetary trips?

[Wjolcz]

It's perfectly normal. I always send interplanetary probes first. Once they visit the bodies that I want to send Kerbals to, it's time for crewed mission.

And I always do crewed Mun and Minmus missions in one sitting. Launch the game, send crew to Mun/Minmus, do science/contracts/screw around for no reason, go back, turn the game off.

E: It sure is better than doing one mission at a time (launch a Jool probe, tranfer, wait until it get's the SOI encounter, circularize, do another mission). KAC is what makes the gameplay actually active and full of opportunities while other missions are en route to their destinations.

Edited August 18, 2015 by Veeltch

[problemecium]

I use KAC to get the Kerbals in on the swapping out action:

Do a maneuver for a probe and set an alarm for the SOI change; launch a relief crew for the Minmus station and set an alarm for that SOI change; Land on Minmus; switch to the probe after the SOI change for another maneuver and set an alarm for periapsis; launch from Minmus and set an alarm for closest approach to the station; set rendezvous course and alarm for the relief crew; rendezvous the lander; recover Minmus probe; launch the next relief crew; dock with station and trade out crew... etc., etc., etc.

[mikegarrison]

I used to do all that and worry about it like you are describing. Then I finally installed Kerbal Alarm Clock. Now I do all those complicated multiple missions and don't worry about it, because KAC tells me when I need to switch to the next ship with some input required.

[regex]

Sometimes I'll finish up a bunch of missions so I can reset everything. Then I can pile stuff on again. It helps.

[xtoro]

I do use KAC. It's not about missing windows, it's about the waiting... I might do what you said regex. Pull everyone back to Kerbin and probe away. But that makes it feel like I'm wasting time with all the warping. Can't win lol

[Fearless Son]

I do use KAC. It's not about missing windows, it's about the waiting... I might do what you said regex. Pull everyone back to Kerbin and probe away. But that makes it feel like I'm wasting time with all the warping. Can't win lol

Send out all the probes in a short sequence. Then take them over as each one nears its destination in turn. Since they are probes, you do not have to worry about recovery, you can just park them at their destinations.

[peachoftree]

What really helps is using some kind of life support mod, (I recommend USI-LS), it forces yuo to either invest time to make bases sustainable or come back and do resupply / crew rotation missions.

[Guest]

I once successively launched three Mun probes all at the same time. After plotting and executing three free-return trajectories, and three capture burns within 15 minutes of each other, I decided to do one mission at a time from now on.

[xtoro]

I think I'll do one mission at a time... I just hate wasting years

[problemecium]

Then don't. Try what I suggested about taking things in turns.

Contracts tend to give you silly deadlines like 12 years or more, so you can just send a probe on its way and then do other stuff in the meantime with no worries. Or just sit on the contract until you feel up to it - it won't expire for a long time.

If you need to make money rapidly, I recommend going with a bunch of short contracts (data from space around X, plant flag on the Mun/Minmus, test X part landed on Kerbin, etc.).

[MalfunctionM1Ke]

Kerbal Alarm Clock is one of the musthave mods out there.

But the SOI-changes are a mess. Sometimes you end up inside the SOI that you recently left when you start to timewarp, ruining all close approaches.

[keeper]

I too am anxious about the interplanitary time warping, theres something in the back of my head that just tells me I shouldn't - because i'm probably forgetting something.

I think it's because i've gotten so used to doing the 3 - 14 day missions to teh muns, and when they needs more stuffs sending then it's not too far from home.