Looking for mod recommendation

[Giygus]

I started a new game recently, and once I purchased all the tech upgrades, I got bored.  I have not played previously with any mods (besides mechjeb) and so am a little lost.

I would really like a mod to do something interesting with science points, maybe to unlock more parts.  The one I was looking at was KSP Interstellar Extended, as it seems to have a lot of cool engines. However, it seems so busy and complicated, with all kinds of fuel and such, that I just don't feel its worth learning and dealing with.

Any recommendations?

[nascarlaser1]

EPL doesn't add any new engines in, but it lets you build off world. using it you can an entire KSC off world. You do need to learn new materials/crafting trees though. To use it you need to get ore, turn that ore into metal and turn that metal into rocket parts, then use a lot of rocket parts into the rocket.

Edited March 13, 2017 by nascarlaser1

[Giygus]

Well, this is what I was talking about.  The pictures show many more engines and reactors etc...

[Streetwind]

@Giygus: Note that having new parts available doesn't really do anything for your desire to "do more with science points". The parts will just be sorted into the same stock tech nodes you have already unlocked, so the parts will already be unlocked right away too. In order to get new tech nodes to unlock, you need a modded tech tree.

KSP Interstellar bundles one, called Community Tech Tree, which is also available stand-alone. There are other modded tech trees out there as well, but this one is most likely your best choice, for a simple reason: it merely extends the stock tech tree by adding new nodes that branch off from stock nodes. Meanwhile, other modded tech trees might reorganize, change, or outright remove the stock nodes in favor of their own design. While this is fine for newly started saves, it means those other trees are incompatible with installing them into an existing save. And in general, you should follow the rule of the thumb to "never change the tech tree of an existing save", else weird things may happen. The only exception that I know of is installing CTT into a stock save; that should not actually break anything.

Because of the way CTT is built, it works a little differently from other tech tree mods. In those other cases, the author of the tech tree decides where parts should be placed, and that means they also decide which mods are supported. In the case of CTT, the author only provides the tree layout. It is every modmaker's own choice to support making use of these new nodes. This makes CTT guaranteed compatible with everything (except other tech tree mods), because even mods that don't make use of the extended nodes can still fall back to using the stock nodes as normal. But it also means that there may be unused empty nodes here and there if none of your part mods decided to use them, and that there is no handy list to check which mods have explicit support. Maintaining such a list would require keeping up with every single mod available for KSP, after all, and that's pretty much impossible. Still, you'll find that many part mods nowadays do support CTT, and if you are unsure, you can always ask in the respective threads.

So in your case, I would start simply by installing CTT. Then, you can go look for mods that make use of it. If you're only looking for parts, then I would recommend not using KSP Interstellar right away; it does a lot more than just add parts. It adds many new gameplay mechanics as well. It's more of a complete overhaul of the game than a parts pack. You can try it out later, when you're more comfortable with playing modded. Instead, try smaller packs for now, which are more forcused on just parts. For example, try SpaceY Heavy Lifters, which gives you a new size tier of rockets that are even larger than the 3.75m Kerbodyne parts. Comes with tanks, SRBs, liquid engines and various support parts like fairings and nose caps. If you are looking for nuclear reactors, try the Electrical subpack from Near Future Technologies. There's plenty of other nice part mods that you can find by browsing the Add-On Releases subforum.

Finally, there's also Kerbal Research & Development. This mod lets you spend extra science to improve the stats of parts you already have. Not a parts pack, but if it's new ways to use science points that you're looking for, it might be just the thing you never knew you needed

 

Edited March 14, 2017 by Streetwind

[Giygus]

TYVM I downloaded all of it, Near future stuff looks like it will be just the fit!

[DrLicor]

Go for a full RSS/RO install  
It feels like starting over again with everything you've learned.