Replaying game - What mods?

[PCanas]

Hi folks

I reinstalled the game to give a(nother) go. I've been out for awhile and I'm a bit out of date when it comes to mods so... what wou'ld be your top 10 (+-) mods?

I remeber a few, like mechjeb, scan sat, B9, Ferram aerospace, and... not much more actully

 

Anyway, thanks for the tips

[OhioBob]

The first four I always install with any new KSP installation are:

• Kerbal Engineer Redux
• Kerbal Alarm Clock
• Precise Node
• Transfer Window Planner

I won't play without at least those four tools in the arsenal.

And of course there's this, which countless mods rely on to work:

• Module Manager

After that is depends.  For that last year I've been playing Galileo's Planet Pack (GPP), which completely replaces all the stock planets with a new solar system.  So that requires several mods:

• Galileo's Planet Pack
• Kopernicus
• Modular Flight Integrator

Kopernicus/Module Flight Integrator you'll need for any mod that adds or modifies celestial bodies.

Then there are the visual mods go really well with GPP:

• Environmental Visual Enhancements
• Scatterer

Of course those will work with stock KSP as well.  Using them in combination with the following will really spice up the look of the stock planets:

• Stock Visual Enhancements
• Stock Visual Terrain

Then there are other visual mods that add some nice effects:

• Planet Shine
• Distant Object Enhancement
• Real Plume
• Engine Lighting
• Reentry Particle Effects

And then there are part packs, of which there are many.  To name just a few that I like:

• ScanSat
• DMagic Orbital Science
• SpaceY Heavy Lifters

One more that I'll mention adds some nice sound effects:

• Chatterer

 

Edited October 30, 2017 by OhioBob

[CSE]

Using a life support mod really changes the game. It's more realism and a higher level of difficulty, but it also gives you two new tradeoffs in your mission planning decisions:

• Probes make distant destinations accessible at lower technology levels; crews can get more done at the locations that are within logistic reach.
• For those crewed missions, choose faster transfer times needing more dV and fewer supplies? Or a supplies-heavy payload to support a long-duration minimal-dV transfer?

USI-LS is my favourite. It's easy to get started around the Kerbin system just adding basic supplies to the spacecraft. Then you've got a good variety of processor and recycler parts as you get further up the technology tree and go further afield.

 

Edited November 1, 2017 by CSE
typo

[kerbalfreak]

On 11/1/2017 at 7:31 PM, CSE said:

Using a life support mod really changes the game. It's more realism and a higher level of difficulty, but it also gives you two new tradeoffs in your mission planning decisions:

• Probes make distant destinations accessible at lower technology levels; crews can get more done at the locations that are within logistic reach.
• For those crewed missions, choose faster transfer times needing more dV and fewer supplies? Or a supplies-heavy payload to support a long-duration minimal-dV transfer?

USI-LS is my favourite. It's easy to get started around the Kerbin system just adding basic supplies to the spacecraft. Then you've got a good variety of processor and recycler parts as you get further up the technology tree and go further afield.

 

To you use USI-LS alone, or with other mods from the USI pack, or other mods related?

[CSE]

56 minutes ago, kerbalfreak said:

To you use USI-LS alone, or with other mods from the USI pack, or other mods related?

I used it alone to begin with - I had used TAC life support previously, and just swapped to USI when it came out to see how it played for the early missions where I was just carrying the resources at launch and not recycling or sharing them with propellant/fuel cells. USI-LS had a lower part count for basically the same game mechanics in the missions I was actually flying. At first I used USI-LS with settings to kill kerbals who run out of supplies, but the forums convinced me that it makes for a more interesting game if loss of supply leaves them stranded and in need of a rescue mission.

These days I typically play with USI's MKS and DMagic's SCANSat too for more choices of recycling and ISRU missions. I'd always had SCANSat because I liked running the planetary mapping missions, even though I rarely actually mined any resources I found. Using MKS is a big step in game complexity, though, more like a new game mode than a parts and features pack, and it can tend to dominate a game that it's installed in. I'm not sure I'd have coped with all the modern MKS features back when I first started with USI-LS.

[OhioBob]

Another life support mod is Snacks.  It's a pretty simple way to get introduced to the whole life support thing.