I feel like I've jumped into the deep end

[Red Dwarf]

So after a few months of playing KSP stock, and I felt like I was ready for something new. So, I installed MKS/OKS, TAC, Karbonite, EPL, and Remotetech. I've been watching Shimmy run that modset, and it looked cool. However, I was unprepared for the shear amount of stuff those mods add. I'm feeling a tad bit overwhelmed.

Does anyone have any advice for a newbie?

[HoloYolo]

Learn the game in full stock. Learn how the aerodynamics and engines work. Dock with no mods. Land on a planet with no mods. Once you feel you understand the game, add 1 or 2 mods. Try the same things again. Keep going till you understand the game with and without mods.

[NathanKell]

Or don't: modding KSP can lead you to need to learn a number of false lessons (the most famous being "drag = mass"), so the longer you spend stock, the more jarring modded KSP can be.

[Van Disaster]

I'd install FAR at least, it'll get you ready for the 1.0 aero ( or you might find you like FAR better & keep it ).

For now I'd ditch TAC & Remotetech, just getting the hang of logistics with all those ISRU mods is going to be enough. Also I think installing MKS means you don't explicitly need EPL? or possibly even Karbonite either. I don't run MKS myself so I don't know for sure.

[stibbons]

That's fairly similar to the mod set I've been running for a while. It can seem daunting at first, but a lot of it breaks down in to simple enough chunks.

1) Start with a new career, and run the first few missions manned. You'll get a basic feel for some of what TAC requires to make sure your kerbals don't have a bad time. Aim for unlocking batteries and solar panels first, because they're pretty important for manned missions and vital for unmanned.

2) Then start launching unmanned probes. Expect to lose contact with a few, leading to crashes and zombie probes in weird orbits. But aim to get three or four with an omni and small dish antenna, all spaced out evenly in the same orbit. That will make further unmanned launches much easier.

3) You will also want to use SCANSat, which is necessary to find Karbonite deposits to mine. I'd strongly suggest installing that, and around this time also launch a satellite with a scanner. Put it in a polar orbit around Kerbin and get used to using it for altimetry and resource scans.

By now you should have unlocked life support containers so you can send Kerbals on longer manned flights without them dying. So start exploring the Mun or Minmus. You can send a manned flight to land and have a look around, or you can start by putting one or two communications satellites in a high orbit around the moon. With some careful planning, that should be enough for a controlled landing of an unmanned probe on the surface. Also get a scanning sat in a polar orbit to look for Karbonite to mine.

From here, you know where the best places to mine are, and you've had a chance to look around. I'd probably pick a resource rich site, and put and unmanned rover on it to scout around for the best place to build a base. From there, you want to be looking at the MKS/OKS doco on assembling surface bases.

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Also I think installing MKS means you don't explicitly need EPL? or possibly even Karbonite either. I don't run MKS myself so I don't know for sure.

MKS adds to and sometimes flat-out replaces parts from EPL and Karbonite. But it still requires those mods for mining and construction to actually work.

[moronwrocket]

I recommend installing Kerbin Construction Time because it allows you to simulate at a body you already visited. You can test how easy landing with your Tug + 45T of whatever really will be. I definitely got some grey hairs with these, because of floppyness caused by the heavy drills on the way too many batteries. (pic 3 below) Not sure if KCT sims work with RemoteTech?

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Be careful on taking lessons learned on MKS base efficiency from Sandbox. SB is all 5-star kerbals, and in Career stars effect how much work you get out of a kerbal. It does give you a feel for how to move things around, and the overall cycle.

You can make fuel without Karbonite with MKS, but it's pretty slow IMO.

Follow Stibbon's recommendations, and i wouldn't worry about MKS/OKS until you've got most of the tech tree unlocked. Start with an orbital kerbin base, and throw on a logistics node when you get tired of shuttling resources up manually. LNs mean no more docking just to transfer fuel either, which can be a big time saver. Kerbals still have to fly themselves.

The C3 acts as a command station for RT, so if you want to land unmanned probes somewhere without atmo, you can put a small OKS station in orbit to provide local control (well, with 6 kerbals in it). For orbital unmanned, you can use maneuver nodes and the flight computer. Ah, the flight computer is definitely worth the trade off in setting up an RT network. It's like a dumb Mechjeb (won't plan for you, or land for you) that does precision burns, but you actually have to "pay" for it with a comsat network, so I'm ok with using it. I put an OKTO2 on all my manned vessels just for the FC.

Edited March 28, 2015 by moronwrocket