Concurrent Missions

[Omaha]

What is the greatest number of concurrent missions you've juggled, and what do you average?  Not just how many flights do you have active, but missions that require active participation at the same time, with maneuvers to tend to, landings to manage, etc?

Last night I had two ships departing for Duna, with their departure burns within 10 minutes of one another, while a training mission to Minmus was on its way home and needed my attention to manage aerobraking.  By the time that ship had completed a few laps to decelerate enough to land, the departure window for a vessel going to Eve had come up and I needed to quickly go over there and complete that maneuver.  Then it was right back to the returning Minmus ship to bring it home.  As an added bonus, I then noticed that one of the Duna ships had somehow lost its encounter so I had to jump back there and do a quick (and annoying) boost to line it back up to intercept the red planet.

It had been a while since I had to jump between missions that actively.

[Rocket In My Pocket]

One.

Time warping for decades really doesn't hurt anything in the stock game so I play out each mission one at a time.

Not saying that's the better way to do it or anything, just my personal preference.

[Geonovast]

Usually one as well.  Mainly because I usually play with life support and I really don't want to keep track of all that.  On my massive Dres occupation that I'm currently working on, I disabled Life Support just because of the scope of the mission.  I still dispatched each ship to Dres individually... one of them taking easily 3 years to get there while all 16 Kerbals that were already at Dres sat around doing nothing.  I also all but stopped paying attention to transfer windows because I can't figure out how to use them on inclined planets (aka Dres).

[Omaha]

Spoiler

 

16 minutes ago, Rocket In My Pocket said:

One.

Time warping for decades really doesn't hurt anything in the stock game so I play out each mission one at a time.

Not saying that's the better way to do it or anything, just my personal preference.

I'll do that sometimes, but in this case since the Duna and Eve departure windows were so close together, it was inevitable.  I will probably do the same now that it's going to be months before those three ships will be ready to brake into orbit of their destinations.  Although I do have a few other things I can accomplish in the meantime...

I wish stock had a "jump to time" function or a tracking-station level "warp to next maneuver taking all flights into account" or a way to push a maneuver node further into the future than one orbit.  It can take a lot of clicks to schedule a node for next week when each orbit is only an hour long. 

 

Edited October 11, 2017 by Omaha

[Geonovast]

Are you opposed to mods?  KAC will basically do everything you just described.

[purpleivan]

I think at most I've juggled 4 or 5 missions concurrently. When I'm juggling it's almost always in a career game.

Quite often in career I'll have 3 mission running at the same time. Today I had an Eve mission return to Kerbin while a Jool ship was hopping between moons, with a mission to Eeloo on its long trek there.

Almost forgot bringing home the long duration Kerbin space station crew.

Edited October 11, 2017 by purpleivan

[klgraham1013]

Oh, goodness.  Probably far to many. 

[OhioBob]

I generally don't have more than two or three missions going on at the same time, and I always try to schedule them so I'm not juggling concurrent activities.  I think there has only been one or two times when I've had two vessels that required user input within minutes of each other.*  In most cases I've been lucky enough to have at least a day or more between events.

* This doesn't include rendezvous and docking where the vessels are within physics range of each other.
 

Edited October 11, 2017 by OhioBob

[adsii1970]

I have seven different missions going right now. Kerbal Alarm Clock is my best friend...

[regex]

Define "mission". Technically this

could be considered one "mission" because I was building a station at Dres. For much of that save, up until fairly recently, I also had a probe going that flew by Jool, Sarnus, and Urlum. I only had to tend it every so often but it was an active "mission". Aside from anomalies like building a station I generally have two to three going at a time, sometimes less, sometimes more. KAC makes it pretty easy to handle everything.

[adsii1970]

1 minute ago, regex said:

Define "mission".

Hahaha... that's what I am talking about! Right now, I have five flights heading out to rendezvous at a point in extreme Kerbin sphere of influence. I'm assembling a new station there just because I want to...   I then have a flight heading towards Eve - a larger satellite with several micro landers. There's a flight another of the larger satellites, with micro landers, heading towards Duna. Then there's a mission on Minmus and another mission heading to the Mun. I also have launched a new probe to Jool and a probe towards Sarnus.

But I do not count any mission on Kerbin as being "in progress" because, well, surface of your home world just isn't that much of a risk-taking mission...

[Curveball Anders]

6 minutes ago, adsii1970 said:

I have seven different missions going right now. Kerbal Alarm Clock is my best friend...

Similar here.

Current save has been swinging between 1-2 up to 7-8 active (as in with active alarms and actions waiting).

I try to avoid excessive time warps and prefer setting alarms to fit simple 'house keeping' missions to pad time.

 

[NSEP]

I suggest to maybe send multiple payloads in one launch to solve this. I never had this problem.

[adsii1970]

9 minutes ago, NSEP said:

I suggest to maybe send multiple payloads in one launch to solve this. I never had this problem.

It depends on my self-imposed mission goals...

Remember, there's the real world space agency way... and then there's the Kerbal way!

Edited October 11, 2017 by adsii1970

[Whisky Tango Foxtrot]

5 hours ago, Omaha said:

  Reveal hidden contents

 

I'll do that sometimes, but in this case since the Duna and Eve departure windows were so close together, it was inevitable.  I will probably do the same now that it's going to be months before those three ships will be ready to brake into orbit of their destinations.  Although I do have a few other things I can accomplish in the meantime...

I wish stock had a "jump to time" function or a tracking-station level "warp to next maneuver taking all flights into account" or a way to push a maneuver node further into the future than one orbit.  It can take a lot of clicks to schedule a node for next week when each orbit is only an hour long. 

 

If you have a satellite in a high orbit around a body (such that you can get the maximum timewarp multiplier or close to it) you can set a manoeuvre node and just keep hitting the "next orbit" button (the bottom right button when the node is in its three-button configuration) until your burn time is close to the time that you want to. Then just warp to next manoeuvre and you'll be at the right time.

[Omaha]

19 minutes ago, NSEP said:

I suggest to maybe send multiple payloads in one launch to solve this. I never had this problem.

I try to do this, but sometimes it's not feasible.  Even the two Duna missions: one is a manned landing with three astronauts and one is a permanent robotic lander.  The manned launch uses my tried, tested, dependable Duna vehicle while the lander is using a one-off upper stage attached to one of my most common launch vehicles.  Putting them together would have meant designing an entirely new rocket instead of just launching the Kerbal-capable Duna ship and matching the mass of the robotic upper stage to a compatible launch vehicle.

Doing multiple things at once is often part of the fun for me.  Some single threaded missions can be a bit dull just waiting for transfer windows or rendezvous.  Having a few game weeks of jumping between multiple craft can break the monotony up.  I honestly almost burned myself out on the game during my Duna test runs earlier this year because it got so repetitive, but once I locked in the design and the mission profile, I now look forward to each Duna mission because it's still an exciting little trip.

Sometimes the challenge for me is remembering burn times since the maneuver tool has a habit of forgetting them when you leave a craft and return to it.  I can recalculate them but that's wasted time; I'll often just update the craft name with something like "SHIP NAME (46s)" so I can remind myself when I get back what the next burn is; another feature I've always wanted is a "ship's log" or some way to take notes on a particular ship.  There's pen and paper, yes, but it would be easier (hopefully) if there was an in-game mechanism for just jotting stuff down.

This was a total ramble.  KSP good.  Variety good.

[MaxwellsDemon]

2 hours ago, adsii1970 said:

I have seven different missions going right now. Kerbal Alarm Clock is my best friend...

This.

I don't apply any formal limits, other than what all I personally can keep track of, which tends to keep it to 5-7 missions at a time at most.   But if I launch a probe to Jool or somewhere, I (and my Kerbals) definitely am going to be doing something in the meantime other than sit and watch it coast.   

Edited October 11, 2017 by MaxwellsDemon
spelling correction

[Omaha]

6 minutes ago, Whisky Tango Foxtrot said:

If you have a satellite in a high orbit around a body (such that you can get the maximum timewarp multiplier or close to it) you can set a manoeuvre node and just keep hitting the "next orbit" button (the bottom right button when the node is in its three-button configuration) until your burn time is close to the time that you want to. Then just warp to next manoeuvre and you'll be at the right time.

I do this but I'll go to the Tracking Station view where you can easily skip a day ahead or set speed to maximum without limitation.  Then I just eyeball the "T-" displays on the craft roster until the one I want is within a few hours.

If a ship is on a course that allows major warping (like an interplanetary transfer) I'll usually just climb aboard and jump to maneuver.  Unless of course that next maneuver is significantly longer than a minute burn!

2 hours ago, Curveball Anders said:

I try to avoid excessive time warps and prefer setting alarms to fit simple 'house keeping' missions to pad time.

 

This is my mindset.  If I can be productive during the time it takes my guys to get from one planet to the next, I'll prefer to do that.  Close out some contracts, test a few prototypes, rescue some new recruits and bring them up to snuff with trips to the moons, etc.

Edited October 11, 2017 by Omaha
grammar

[adsii1970]

6 minutes ago, MaxwellsDemon said:

This.

I don't apply any formal limits, other than what all I personally can keep track of, which tends to keep it to 5-7 missions at a time at most.   But if I launch a probe to Jool or somewhere, I (and my Kerbals) definitely am going to be doing something in the meantime other than sit and watch it coast.   

Exactly. Which is why I say Kerbin-based missions do not count towards that 7 mission count. It's during that time I will tour the oceans of Kerbin, will launch an airship to explore some remote part of Kerbin's surface, or even do a mission to the Mun... I don't like to warp that much...

 

[Geonovast]

5 minutes ago, adsii1970 said:

I don't like to warp that much...

[Ultimate Steve]

In a normal career game I do most Kerbin system missions by time warping and most interplanetary missions concurrently (and I've really only done interplanetary missions in career a few times).

In normal sandbox I tend to do just one.

In Project Intrepid, however, I have:

1. A mothership on the way back from Duna
2. A mothership with ten or more landers on the way to Jool
3. An abandoned mothership around Moho which I may have future plans for
4. A mothership en route to Eeloo
5. Two motherships orbiting Dres
6. A crew stranded on Eve
7. A small ship going to Jool to build a space station
8. Three miniships on their way to Duna
9. A humongous 916 Kerbal spaceship on the way to Gilly
10. A fleet of at least four ships on the way to Eve to rescue that stranded crew
11. More I've probably forgotten about

PI is unique because I'm sort of bound to a storyline and I "only" have 200 years before the world ends.

However, in RO/RP-0 I have construction time which means I can't launch stuff fast enough to have more than one Earth system crewed mission going on at once (not counting the two space stations). I have sent interplanetary probes, about five active ones are currently en route. Once I send crew to other planets (if ever) they will run concurrently.

[Tyko]

I tend to run concurrent missions and use KAC to keep me on track. I like some degree of role-playing and realize that, like NASA, my KSC team can manage multiple projects. I'll sometimes delay a critical long term mission until my best kerbonauts are available - relying on less experienced team members for more mundane missions. In my longest running game I had 2 "A team" crews and a cadre of other experienced kerbonauts. This limited me to 2 concurrent big missions.

I'm currently using BARIS to account for rocket build time too. A combo of time needed to unlock technology, launch windows and BARIS build times seems to keep me on a fairly "realistic" (I use the term VERY loosely) schedule.

[John FX]

Early in my playing I sent a craft to every body in the system all at once. With much assistance from KAC and alarms and auto warp stop.

I cannot find it now but the map screenshot when most of the craft were on their way was rather cluttered.

They all had a kerbal onboard and during the time it took to get there flags were introduced in an update so I was the first player to plant a flag on every body in the system you can land on although admittedly more through luck than planning. It was for the `grandmaster` challenge.

[LordFerret]

4 hours ago, adsii1970 said:

- snip -

I don't like to warp that much...

 

Likewise.

KAC is the ticket.

Not sure what constitutes a 'mission' in your eyes, but I've got 16 ships out there heading different places and/or coming back home.

4 hours ago, Ultimate Steve said:

•  
• A fleet of at least ~ ships on the way to ~ to rescue that stranded crew

Wait... isn't that standard fair for this game?

[Xyphos]

one, until it circularizes Jool and breaks apart into six probes; one for each moon and Jool itself, at which point, I'll juggle them around as they hohmann transfer to their moons.

other than that, I rarely ever juggle, because time is an illusion.