Returning Player could use some advice

[WLLP]

Hello Fellow Exploers,

I am returning after a few years and could use some advise on how compile an up-to-date mod pack. I have lots of questions first off, is Ckan still somewhat unsupported? I've been doing a little testing and some mods seem either missing or out of date. Is manual install still your go to method or not?

Next my first real big mod choice seems to be life support. Back when I started playing TAC was THE life support and that was it now it looks like two others have grown up the USI LS and Kerblism. I have to admit that less resources put me off somewhat of USI but after some more reading it seems like its not less per say just its all grouped together under supplies. It also seems to work really well with Roverdudes other mods witch are always a treat so it is very tempting.

So on the other hand we have Kerblism witch seems to be TAC plus other good stuff. I really like that there seems to be a robust wiki for it and a compatibility list is quite helpful, but if I want to use it I would need some other base/station builder as USI's seems to not be compatible.

So if you have anything thoughts on witch life support mod you preffer let me know, or if you would strongly recommend hand making the pack over ckan. I'll probably have more questions base off witch life support pack I want to go with, so stay tuned.

Edit: I also am going to make it based around Unkerballed start mod.

Edited September 9, 2019 by WLLP

[WLLP]

Oh I should also mention I would like to have some sort of background processing. It looks like Kerbalism dose that natively. So that would be another pro, as for the USI all I could find was installing the mod background processing would have "unexpected results" I know that there is a stock way to do all this, it calculates how much resources your vessel has used and applies it all at the loaded state. So if you fine folks would have a suggestion as to witch is preferable?

I guess I would worry that maybe there's a reason SQUAD has the background process the way it dose. Will Kerblisum lag with too many ships?

[DStaal]

On 9/9/2019 at 6:43 PM, WLLP said:

Oh I should also mention I would like to have some sort of background processing. It looks like Kerbalism dose that natively. So that would be another pro, as for the USI all I could find was installing the mod background processing would have "unexpected results" I know that there is a stock way to do all this, it calculates how much resources your vessel has used and applies it all at the loaded state. So if you fine folks would have a suggestion as to witch is preferable?

I guess I would worry that maybe there's a reason SQUAD has the background process the way it dose. Will Kerblisum lag with too many ships?

Kerbalism is basically going to be your only option for background processing, I believe.  And note that other mods may or may not be supported in conjunction with Kerbalism - since they change so many core mechanics of the game, it's basically up to them.  Parts mods should be fine.

CKAN still works, with varying support via mods.  Note that many mods haven't bothered to update their .version files in the last couple of releases, because no changes were needed in the mods - so set CKAN to allow back to at least 1.6.

[SpinkAkron]

UnKerballed Start is a little outdated at the moment. I've been painting my house this summer and haven't had time to do much of anything else. Painting season will be ending soon so I've just started trying to reacquaint myself with KSP.  I've used CKAN without any problems. For some mods I use JSGME.

I am always bouncing back and forth between life support mods. Each of them has some aspects I like. I really love what Kerbalism does with science transmission. I wish that part of it was standalone.

[Sir Mortimer]

On 9/11/2019 at 1:59 AM, SpinkAkron said:

I really love what Kerbalism does with science transmission. I wish that part of it was standalone.

Try using this configuration instead of the default: https://github.com/Kerbalism/KerbalismScienceOnly/releases

Using this will enable only the science part of Kerbalism, and disable everything else. You should be able to use any other life support mod with it.

[SpinkAkron]

Awesome thanks!

 

[WLLP]

Sweet guys thanks so much for the recommendation! I think I'll have to make 2 packs with either LS and play a bit to find the one I like the most. My next question is about Remote Tech. How dose it compare with the Commnet? I think the time dealy would be a neat mechanic to play around with.

[DStaal]

11 hours ago, WLLP said:

Sweet guys thanks so much for the recommendation! I think I'll have to make 2 packs with either LS and play a bit to find the one I like the most. My next question is about Remote Tech. How dose it compare with the Commnet? I think the time dealy would be a neat mechanic to play around with.

RemoteTech is basically full realism mode, from what I understand.  Commnet is just enough networking to notice - you have to worry about what types of antennas you have where, but that's about it.  There's also CommNet Constellation which is somewhat in the middle - it adds 'channels' to CommNet, so you can have vessels only talk to others on the same channel, but it doesn't add all the rest of RemoteTech.

[WLLP]

Ok, well it took me all week to iron it out but I think I’ve made my own take of a Unkerballedstart mod pack, in the flavor of the classic SETI that I got a lot of good use out of in its hay day. The configs still need some tweaking and I might add/remove a few part mods but I think as far as core mechanics go I’m set. I’ll post a list of the mods I chose later but the short list is USI LS combined with Kerbal Health. From what I could tell Kerbalism could replace both soon. But there’s a conflict with remote tech, plus I really want to try out USI Kolonization properly. Thank you guys for the tips and pointers I’ll try to get the full list on here so others can use this to help them get and idea for pack, plus if you guys see something that redundant (I had two types of Gemini style cmd pods at one point!).

[AzraelZephyrian]

On 9/9/2019 at 6:05 PM, WLLP said:

Hello Fellow Exploers,

I am returning after a few years and could use some advise on how compile an up-to-date mod pack. I have lots of questions first off, is Ckan still somewhat unsupported? I've been doing a little testing and some mods seem either missing or out of date. Is manual install still your go to method or not?

Next my first real big mod choice seems to be life support. Back when I started playing TAC was THE life support and that was it now it looks like two others have grown up the USI LS and Kerblism. I have to admit that less resources put me off somewhat of USI but after some more reading it seems like its not less per say just its all grouped together under supplies. It also seems to work really well with Roverdudes other mods witch are always a treat so it is very tempting.

So on the other hand we have Kerblism witch seems to be TAC plus other good stuff. I really like that there seems to be a robust wiki for it and a compatibility list is quite helpful, but if I want to use it I would need some other base/station builder as USI's seems to not be compatible.

So if you have anything thoughts on witch life support mod you preffer let me know, or if you would strongly recommend hand making the pack over ckan. I'll probably have more questions base off witch life support pack I want to go with, so stay tuned.

Edit: I also am going to make it based around Unkerballed start mod.

I've played with USI and Snacks.  Snacks was insane in terms of mass required for interstellar/long-duration interplanetary.  I much prefer USI.  I can't say I have played with TAC or Kerbalism--here's why:

IRL, you can fit life support in a capsule.  The Apollo fit the air recyclers and supplies all in the CSM, which was 2 modules.  Adding a water recycler (takes uh...emissions...and distill+reverse osmosis or something to that effect) would add negligible space.  Forcing separate recyclers and so forth on every craft with decent duration is a bit excessive, and not terribly realistic.  It only makes sense for very long missions, with a large crew and no per-pod recyclers.    

That's just my opinion, anyhow. 

If someone made a plugin with B9Partswitch to switch pods to all recyclers in the VAB, adding a bit of mass and cost, I'd say those mods would be absolutely perfect, though.  Maybe I ought to do that... I need to take a look at B9's implementation.  

Might also be a good idea to add "recycler materials" as a resource that is slowly consumed.  That way you could load up your pods with integrated recyclers, and have a realistic penalty.  Recyclers do wear down--the chemical process of CO2-->O2+carbon compounds requires a catalyst, reverse osmosis membranes can clog and so forth.  No need for a lot of parts: just integrated ones and a few small radial "recycler materials" tanks, plus supplies to compensate for imperfect recycling.