Time required for interstellar travel while conducting local missions and if we will ever get there without ignoring local colonies for years on end in warp.

[jclovis3]

So right now, we can run multiple missions and maxing out your mission load (which is not unlimited as it says in the game), you can have jobs between Eve, Kerbin and Duna that take a relatively small amount of time while still running longer jobs out to Jool and Eeloo, the longest being any mission to pass across multiple planet SOIs along the way to Eeloo. So while you're waiting on years to go by for those distant missions, you're still running some more local stuff and improving your infrastructure (more relays, gas stations, surface rovers and bases, etc.). In the end, I always seem to come down to tourism as my primary mechanism for game play.

The question here though is about the interstellar travel and the time it would take to get to another system. It can take IRL a lot of play time for one of my Jool or Eeloo missions to play out while still handling local stuff. Wirth KSP2, we're going to have colonies that probably require a lot of management over time as well. How long do you think it will take us in real play time before we even get to explore any of these other systems, let alone colonize them and create new space construction in them?

On a side note, it has occured to me that our communication system might need an upgrade as well if we are to send data back in between systems, or control a drone piloted ship along the way. I imagine that the interstellar ships might run on an engine that can only be fired up when far enough away from a star, and will travel so fast that there would be no orbital trajectory to intercept. This could speed up travel times in between systems, but to what end can we expect from this? The restriction on being far from the star might be necessary to prevent straight jumps between planets.

[The Aziz]

On 3/27/2021 at 2:52 AM, jclovis3 said:

How long do you think it will take us in real play time before we even get to explore any of these other systems, let alone colonize them and create new space construction in them?

Depends on how much you use time warp. Because in game it would probably take decades.

That's what I do in my current ksp1 save, I'm done with small scale tasks (because there's nothing else to do) and focus on interplanetary missions, so I just time warp through months like crazy. I don't think there would be that much micromanagement needed. Just build it and let them to their job, expand if necessary. With automated supply missions it shouldn't take a lot of your time.

On 3/27/2021 at 2:52 AM, jclovis3 said:

I imagine that the interstellar ships might run on an engine that can only be fired up when far enough away from a star, and will travel so fast that there would be no orbital trajectory to intercept. This could speed up travel times in between systems, but to what end can we expect from this? The restriction on being far from the star might be necessary to prevent straight jumps between planets

You fire it up once, keep accelerating to the half of the journey, and then turn around and burn backwards to slow down. You've seen the huge ship near Jool, right? That's how it works.

[Bej Kerman]

On 3/27/2021 at 1:52 AM, jclovis3 said:

The restriction on being far from the star might be necessary to prevent straight jumps between planets.

This is a non-problem. There's no reason colossal engines shouldn't be used to also speed up interplanetary travel.

[SpaceFace545]

I feel like it should take a 50 to a few hundred years of travel. but i feel like the devs will simplify it.

[Bej Kerman]

13 minutes ago, SpaceFace545 said:

I feel like it should take a 50 to a few hundred years of travel. but i feel like the devs will simplify it.

I feel like the most interstellar travel will take is 80 years by the time you're at the top of the tech tree.

[SpaceFace545]

18 minutes ago, Bej Kerman said:

I feel like the most interstellar travel will take is 80 years by the time you're at the top of the tech tree.

probably. I just have no clue how the devs want to include multiplayer with time warp.

[Guest]

On 3/27/2021 at 2:52 AM, jclovis3 said:

How long do you think it will take us in real play time before we even get to explore any of these other systems, let alone colonize them and create new space construction in them?

Interstellar missions in KSP2 will be much bigger and harder than KSP1 interplanetary ones with the caveat that Colonies, extraplanetary launchpads and supply route automation will allow you to pave your way with useful infrastructure instead of starting from scratch from down the Kerbin well and being able to only refuel on the road at most.

[minerbat]

1: i expect that stars will be much closer together than in reality for gameplay reasons

2: they announced that you will be able to automatically conduct routine missions without giving them any attention. so you don't have to focus on those