What do you do when waiting for a transfer window?

[cicatrix]

By some perverted law whenever I decide to go anywhere it is always the wrong time for it and I have to wait for a year or so for a proper transfer window. While I can always timewarp towards it this seems wasteful somehow. So I try to pass time by doing local contracts. When in career I plan to get much science from a mission and when the time finally comes my tech tree is nearly open completely so it's a bit disappointing. Do you skip time to the transfer window or you try to fill it with something useful?

[Borsek]

I tend to take multiple ships to the same desto in about a month's timeframe, as soon as they are in orbit I set up KAC and forward time... it's not wasted time if you have 5 ships going to the same place.

[montyben101]

Hmm I timewarp and then send up the crew a few days in advance. When returning I leave them on the surface of whatever I landed on.

[AbacusWizard]

At any given time I often have several long-term missions going at once, so I use the tracking center to keep watch over which one is next due for a maneuver and fast-forward to that time, then execute the maneuver and continue to the next.

If the next maneuver isn't due for a long time, I sometimes feel guilty about "wasting time" and start messing around with airplanes or asteroid captures instead.

[Pecan]

Apparently I lose my Moho transfer vehicle (previously parked in 600km Kerbin orbit).

Last night, coincidentally, there was one fewer 'flight in progress' on the resume game menu than expected. Sure enough ... it's gone :-(

Usually though, I do local missions too. Visiting all the anomalies SCANSat finds, testing new vehicles, relieving crews, etc. I don't mind timewarping a month or two sometimes but more than that there's bound to be something going on.

[Matt77]

I use Kerbal Construction Time which really helps avoid the early-game Mun-spamming for science - my second Mun lander will take another 11 days to build, then just over a day to roll out to the launch pad. I've got a launch window for Duna opening in about 50 days time so I won't be passing time until the window, I'll be wondering if I can squeeze in another Minmus mission before construction has to begin on the Duna mission.

[Bill Phil]

I really have problems with wasting time in this game. I don't want to timewarp, I want to do something productive. But still, there's nothing to do very often. Life support and mining would make more flights necessary, and making rockets take time to build would do it too.

[Chiboko]

Transfer window? whats that? I just Whackjob my way there.

[klgraham1013]

I always have multiple missions going at a time. I try to run my space program as an actual agency, and having it sit stagnant for months, even years, feels wrong.

[Stubby]

During short transfer windows, like Duna and Eve, I do plenty of missions inside Kerbin's SOI. After several missions to the moons, the window opens, and I launch. Then I do more missions to the moons while waiting for the ship to arrive at its destination. Not to mention all of this happens while I wait for ships to arrive at Jool or Eeloo...

[rkman]

I don't want to timewarp, I want to do something productive. But still, there's nothing to do very often.

You can do other missions that takes less time, or take contracts that don't take much time.

For me the reason to timewarp even though i don't want to (in stock), is that if i do smaller missions while a long term mission is underway, there is a large chance i will be to late with checking on the long term mission and overshoot the target.

Imo the lack of something like Kerbal Alarm Clock pretty much forces players to 'cheat warp'.

[Sof]

I play with Kerbal Construction Time.

The time spent waiting for the transfer window is spent building the rocket to go there.