Use mods for one save but not for another

[Mast]

Is it possible to use mods only for some saves while not for others?

I've been thinking about taking a shot at Realism Overhaul, but only if it's possible on-the-side. It would be unfortunate if it messes with my current saves.

[Tex_NL]

Within one and the same install the answer would be no. But ... (there's always a but) ... what's keeping you from making a second install of KSP? One with mods, one without. There's nothing keeping you from making as many KSP installs as you like.

Edited February 3, 2016 by Tex_NL

[Dafni]

Exactly what Tex_NL said.

I realized all the eyecandy mods slow my game down, and all the editor/pad scene changes I get during building and testing crafts would tax my system even more. So I just use different installs now. One with all the editor mods, for building and testing, one with all the visual mods for screenshots and scenic Kerbin flying, and one with some part mods and KIS/KAS for those long elaborate missions.

KSP makes it so easy to move crafts and even whole savefiles between installs, I highly suggest this to anyone. Even if its just to keep a spare clean copy of the game somewhere.

Edited February 3, 2016 by Dafni

[Tex_NL]

It is indeed extremely easy to swap out craft and savefiles but make sure you always keep a copy. When you move a modded game into an unmodded install all craft that contain modded parts will be deleted without warning. And once they are deleted they are gone for good. Apart from loading an unaffected back-up or quicksave they can not be recovered!

[Mast]

@Tex_NL I recently moved to Steam, I'm not sure Steam allows multiple installs without messing up somewhere. Does anyone know more about this?

I was thinking about writing something to simply swap between RO and non-RO. It's just a bunch of files in the end, so moving the old saves to an off-site and importing the relevant mods would 'enable' the mods, removing the mods and re-importing the old saves would 'disable' them.

Would be a good excuse to pick-up PowerShell again...

[Evanitis]

22 minutes ago, Mast said:

I'm not sure Steam allows multiple installs without messing up somewhere.

It totally does. You can just copy-paste your KSP folder, and put different mods in the second one. You don't even need Steam to run for playing.

[Mast]

@Evanitis Awesome! That's probably the way to go, so I'll just do that.

[John FX]

I`ve often wanted to have a shared savegame folder spread over a couple of installs, partly so I can build and test on one install, then launch craft on another when both are running at the same time on my machine.

What I would really like is the ability to build craft in one install, launch them on another and then do orbital maneuvers on a third. Maybe when we get multiplayer that can be a thing.

My machine can handle it easily, it`s just the data transfer between running instances.

I`ve thought of having a symbolic link between VAB/SPH folders so I could build on one and test launch on a second but that would not let me launch while playing on a third install and keep all the changes from simultaneous playing and launching. It would allow me to build while launching/playing though which is something at least, often it`s useful to be building in required changes while you are watching the same craft launch and seeing `issues`. It would also allow me to share craft between installs without input from me.

But yes, the way to have different sets of mods is to have multiple install folders.