Using stock Parts only...for or against?

[Nuke]

1: play the game till you are bored

2: play mods till you are bored

3: play something else

[J.Random]

What do you all do?

We all decide it for ourselves. You probably should do the same. Or ask your viewers, if your purpose is to entertain them regardless of your own predisposition. Both options are better than starting another meaningless "mods-no-mods" argument here (or trying to promote your channel in this subforum).

[Captain Sierra]

Hey everyone,

I'm making a series on YT and was wondering whether to explore the mods that are available on the spaceport... but I'm in two minds about it! I want to improve the series, but I know a lot of YT-ers use mods and it seems a bit 'same-old' now...

A part of me thinks that they expand the game and offer a wider gaming experience, the other thinks that it's not quite what the developers intended and can almost become cheating...

I mean, i love the challenge of creating huge ships/space planes/cargo planes and weaponised crafts and the pride of knowing you built it... but then I want to have moving parts and things...

What do you all do?

p.s. Here's my latest video if you want to give it a watch.

Refueling Stranded Kerbals, Space Stations, Space Planes & Space Weapons - STOCK ONLY!!

Okay, here's what I see happening here. You seem to be like me. You don't like making things that seem ridiculously off from the stock art style because it feels like you're practically playing a different game. Now, installing B9, AEIS, Novapunch, and Kosmos SSPP, and you'd practically have everything you need to play the game without stock parts, even struts and fuel lines! BUT, I find the combination created isn't usually pretty. Now, that said, it's possible to create beautiful stuff. I used to with B9 and KW.

I also used to do awesome stuff with Lack Luster Labs.

Now, there are a handful of solutions. You can keep your KSP install sterile. You can avoid any large parts packs. Or you can mod stockalike. My major parts packs are Mobius Rocketworks, Kethane, RLA Stockalike, Surface lights, and the inflatable habs. All of those are stockalike and it almost doesn't feel modded. Now, I also have Near Future, which feels less stockalike, but that's an amazing pack if a bit memory hogging. I used to have KW but used it almost exclusively for the fairings so I dropped it in exchange for procedural fairings.

That setup keeps the feeling of stock and the enhanced possibilities of mods. Not to mention I have three times that much in non-parts mods like KJR, enhanced navball, docking alignment indicator, VOID, etc.

[metl]

I have several enhancement mods such as Kerbal Engineer, KJR and enhanced navball. I keep my part options limited to functionality such as KAS and RemoteTech. I'm not a fan of the large replacer packs for the same reasons you just stated.

[Superfluous J]

Play the game the way you want. If you try to cater to everybody you'll either quit or go insane. Your choice which of those is worse.

In my series I've got over 20 active mods and nobody's complained. And if they had, I'd ignore them

[Jean Deaux]

I prefer to run stock, KSP is the very first game I've ever loaded a MOD to play. The only reason I even load mods is simply the game lacks the basic tools to play the game. Design and destination should never be off the cuff. Engineering comes with specific goals and parameters and I personally find the lack of stock planning and search features irresponsibly disappointing. Without a mapping feature, you could literally play the game your entire life and never find/discover some of the great landmarks they've inserted into the simulation. The land maneuvering also lacks a working heading/nav guidance, changes in terrain alter your heading bearings and it's impossible to navigate directly from A to B without some type of autopilot. There's not a modern air/space craft made that doesn't have an AGL indicator, where's mine? This is the space age, we have advanced tools by this technological milestone.

If KSP was all I did for my entire life, I suppose I might not mind so much. But as this sim can only get a few hours of my day, there's just (for me) no way to possibly enjoy or advance beyond the immediate Kerbal system without the use of Mods.