Need help REALLY getting into KSP

[sneff30]

So I've been a casual player for over a year and a half. I've racked up 210 hours of gameplay but never gone past Duna. Every time I get into the game I get obsessed with mods and spend almost all my time just looking up different aesthetic/realism mods. Though RSS has never been a huge eye popper for me, I'm open to it. I need help actually getting into the game. I've taken a career play through only as far as a manned orbiter of Duna. How do I get into the game and really get to a point I can't put it down? What is the right balance of mods? (I'm familiar with almost any mod you can throw at me. I'm certainly not a noob) ((Well for the most part)). Help KSP community!

[klesh]

KW rocketry for some engine options. EVE for clouds. Alarm Clock, Kerbal Engineer. Thats really all you need. Navyfish's docking mod if you can't manage without it. The rest is just candy and if it distracts you from the core of the game, which is playing it, then leave them out for now.

Set some funky goals, let loose a little. Orbit the Sun as low as you can. Send something to Jool. Maybe something with parachutes to Laythe. Check out an asteroid, plant a flag on one.

Send unmanned rovers places. Unmanned Probes. They're lighter and therefore easier to get places, and it'll show you how to do more complex flights without some enormous mothership.

There is lots to do, but you need imagination to create some goals. Form the goals comes adventures you hadn't counted on having.

[sneff30]

KW rocketry for some engine options. EVE for clouds. Alarm Clock, Kerbal Engineer. Thats really all you need. Navyfish's docking mod if you can't manage without it. The rest is just candy and if it distracts you from the core of the game, which is playing it, then leave them out for now.

Set some funky goals, let loose a little. Orbit the Sun as low as you can. Send something to Jool. Maybe something with parachutes to Laythe. Check out an asteroid, plant a flag on one.

Send unmanned rovers places. Unmanned Probes. They're lighter and therefore easier to get places, and it'll show you how to do more complex flights without some enormous mothership.

There is lots to do, but you need imagination to create some goals. Form the goals comes adventures you hadn't counted on having.

Rovers are not my strong suit. I've never been very good with getting them to a place and detaching from the descent stage. And KW is giving me a run for my money trying to find all the patches to make it work in 1.0.4

[DCWarHound]

Rovers are not my strong suit. I've never been very good with getting them to a place and detaching from the descent stage. And KW is giving me a run for my money trying to find all the patches to make it work in 1.0.4

You can fit a decent sized rover in the larger service bays,just remember that some rover wheels have suspension so you will have to place their wheels a bit higher up.

I've been busy working on a mod that autopilots a rover on a planet to do all possible science experiments once the planet has been mapped,not coming along very nicely unfortunately.

[r4pt0r]

So I've been a casual player for over a year and a half. I've racked up 210 hours of gameplay but never gone past Duna. Every time I get into the game I get obsessed with mods and spend almost all my time just looking up different aesthetic/realism mods. Though RSS has never been a huge eye popper for me, I'm open to it. I need help actually getting into the game. I've taken a career play through only as far as a manned orbiter of Duna. How do I get into the game and really get to a point I can't put it down? What is the right balance of mods? (I'm familiar with almost any mod you can throw at me. I'm certainly not a noob) ((Well for the most part)). Help KSP community!

I play 100% stock and have gone everywhere at least once aside from moho and eeloo.

Just wanted to say you play KSP like I play Skyrim. Many, many hours getting the mods just right, play to level ~20 or so, never actually finish the main or guild quests.

Goodluck getting REALLY into it mate!

[cantab]

If realism and aesthetics are your interest, get Real Solar System, Realism Overhaul, and some nice engine packs.

[Madrias]

As another Skyrim player who's had a hard time getting the perfect balance of mods and breaking level 20, I can say this with perfect honesty:

There is no "right balance" of mods. There is only close enough, and that varies from player to player.

As for how to get into KSP a lot, don't be afraid to open up Sandbox once in a while and just do something crazy. Whenever I end up feeling burned out in my Career Science save (I can't get the hang of funds just yet, so I've gone to easy-career mode), I load up Sandbox and set a crazy challenge for myself. Sometimes it's making orbit with only SRB's, or flying to Kerbin's North Pole in an airplane. Other times, it's crazier, like flying to Kerbin's South Pole in an asymmetric aircraft (mind, I'm a keyboard player, so just imagine the amount of rapid tapping of keys needed to fly that), or to get a Firespitter propeller plane to Laythe. Other times, it's to get an electric propeller plane to Eve and fly through the super-gravity and experience all of the purple.

As for Career mode, probe-rovers would be a good starting point. Only thing you lose if you screw up is a computer and a few thousand credits worth of parts, not one of your Kerbals. Set up satellite networks around planets. Make a Mun Base. Land an exploration probe on Eve and return it.

Real Solar System is cool, but the few times I've messed with it (10x Kerbin System being my preferred), it adds to the mild tedium of building to get out of Kerbin's atmosphere. Personally, I play KSP for the engineering challenge of it, and only partly for flying my creations. Lately, I've found it difficult to want to leave Kerbin because the new atmosphere is a lot of fun to play in. Perhaps that's what you could do, if you've got any science left to gather on Kerbin. Build, using Firespitter's electric propellers, a science-gathering airplane and collect as much Kerbin Science as you can. There's even some seaplane floats in there, so you could even land on the water.

Or, alternatively, get a probe-based propeller craft to Eve and gather the science there. Firespitter has a nice little folding electric prop that would be almost perfect for the application, and if you build small enough, you should be able to fit it in a reasonable fairing to send it to Eve, get it past atmospheric entry, and then deploy it in the air to gather some science.

I know, propellers seem to be a recurring theme for me, but that's because lately I've used KSP as Kerbal Flight Simulator.

[Godot]

The absolutely must to have mod for me is Kerbal Engineer Redux.

It gives you (among other things) the values for TWR and dV for each stage.

Without these building rockets is more or less guesswork

[mrclucks]

Use sandbox and try to build a small ssto, then a medium sized one. Then build a medium sized one that can haul up cargo. Do it again for a large ssto. That should take at least 100hours and is very satisfying which each successful step you make

[GoSlash27]

So I've been a casual player for over a year and a half. I've racked up 210 hours of gameplay but never gone past Duna. Every time I get into the game I get obsessed with mods and spend almost all my time just looking up different aesthetic/realism mods. Though RSS has never been a huge eye popper for me, I'm open to it. I need help actually getting into the game. I've taken a career play through only as far as a manned orbiter of Duna. How do I get into the game and really get to a point I can't put it down? What is the right balance of mods? (I'm familiar with almost any mod you can throw at me. I'm certainly not a noob) ((Well for the most part)). Help KSP community!

Seems to me by reading this that what you really need to do is play the game completely stock.

Best,

-Slashy

[Superfluous J]

Make it a point to do an Apollo-style mission to every single planet and moon. Except Jool, of course, but you could save it for last and instead of doing 5 missions do one big mission. If you do it right you'll qualify for the Jool-5 Challenge!

But really. Don't make up a new mod cocktail. Don't look for a reason or inspiration. Go. Those worlds are there to be landed on. Land on them!

[Wjolcz]

Same happened to me a few times. I started focusing on mods and stopped going places. Now I use only KER and KAC, and I'm about to explore Laythe for the third time in my career save. Though I might also get KIS/KAS once I unlock ISRU converter.

Apart from that I try to keep my game as modless as possible.

Edited July 20, 2015 by Veeltch

[Levelord]

As another Skyrim player who's had a hard time getting the perfect balance of mods and breaking level 20, I can say this with perfect honesty:

There is no "right balance" of mods. There is only close enough, and that varies from player to player.

I can't begin to tell you the amount of hours I've dumped into Skyrim trying to get the mods to look perfect....

And now KSP is taking me over D:

Edited July 20, 2015 by Levelord

[Esme]

Seems a bit of an odd question to me - there is no right or wrong way to play the game - do whatever you find engaging, is my advice. For me, I don't get on with Career mode - I've tried it in each of its incarnations, and still I return to Science mode. I like the freedom Science mode gives to my imagination, which inevitably results in me setting my own challenges. Back in 0.23, I had a nice little base set up on Minmus that could refuel ships, courtesy of the Kethane mod. I had intended to use Minmus as a kind of ready-made space station near which to assemble ships to go to Duna and places beyond, to set up little bases all over the system.

Setting that base up meant that I learnt how to either and pretty close to a given point or otherwise deal with the consequences, at least in low-G non-atmosphere circumstances. I also learnt how to create vehicles that could double as low-G rovers or even Kerbin-return vehicles if need be. I didn't get to Duna though. That came in 0.90, where I finally managed to get probes to both Duna and Eve - and even partial success at Jool! So I'd learnt about interplanetary launch windows, and taking more care with how much dV my designs have. More recently, I've been pootling around with TAC life support, finding my feet with havingto worry about whether my Kerbals supplies will last long enough. Currently, I have the MKS mod tucked away in a folder, which I really must put some time into learning soon, sa that will allow me to achieve my desire of planting self-sustaining colonies throughout the Kerbol system. And I'm going to trythe Elcano challenge soon, too.

But even thus far, I've had so many adventures, generally as a result of some mistake of mine, occasionally as a result of a success, that I've had a simply wonderful time playing KSP. IAnd that because KSP lets me play it my way. If, like a lot of games, it forced me to play a certain way, in a certain order, it'd be merely a good game instead of a great one. So I think the answer lies within you - how do you WANT to play the game?

[TicTacToe!]

If you're just getting into things, then I recommend an "install as you go" mentality. Start off with whatever you seem essential, and NO more. Then, when you feel you need something, then you download it. When you realise you need bucket loads of delta-v to get a base to Moho, install Near Future. When you realise you need more places to explore, install Outer Planets.

I think if you're just at the point here you're INITIALLY trying to get into it, then installing everything all at once is too daunting and overpowering. A (somewhat poor) example are these minecraft mod pack launchers, I love modded minecraft, but these mod packs with a bajillion mods on them that I've never played with before completely overpower me, even though I love the look of them.

TL;DR: Start off with nothing and add as you go when you realise you're missing something.

With KSP, with nearly everything you can think of, "there's a mod for that".

[soulsource]

Seems to me by reading this that what you really need to do is play the game completely stock.

Best,

-Slashy

I second that. Play completely stock for some time. Calculate stuff (dV requirement and budget, phase angles,...) only using pen, paper, a calculator, Wikipedia and the KSP Wiki. Pilot your craft by hand, especially while landing and docking. Play with reverting and quickloading disabled.

My experience is that many mods reduce the challenge of the game, especially parts mods. By this they also take away some fun. The most rewarding moment I had in KSP was actually my first docking (in stock 0.23.5). It caused a rush of adrenaline that I never before experienced in any other game. Consider, how boring an automated docking maneuver using MechJeb would have been in comparison...

That being said, there are a few mods that don't directly affect gameplay, but add features missing in Stock KSP. For instance Stock Bugfix Modules, Kerbal Alarm Clock, Precise Node,...

[sneff30]

Make it a point to do an Apollo-style mission to every single planet and moon. Except Jool, of course, but you could save it for last and instead of doing 5 missions do one big mission. If you do it right you'll qualify for the Jool-5 Challenge!

But really. Don't make up a new mod cocktail. Don't look for a reason or inspiration. Go. Those worlds are there to be landed on. Land on them!

This I definitely have to do! I've never really even thought of doing. Thank you!

[HoloYolo]

Compete in challenges! They're alot of fun!

[sneff30]

As another Skyrim player who's had a hard time getting the perfect balance of mods and breaking level 20, I can say this with perfect honesty:

There is no "right balance" of mods. There is only close enough, and that varies from player to player.

As for how to get into KSP a lot, don't be afraid to open up Sandbox once in a while and just do something crazy. Whenever I end up feeling burned out in my Career Science save (I can't get the hang of funds just yet, so I've gone to easy-career mode), I load up Sandbox and set a crazy challenge for myself. Sometimes it's making orbit with only SRB's, or flying to Kerbin's North Pole in an airplane. Other times, it's crazier, like flying to Kerbin's South Pole in an asymmetric aircraft (mind, I'm a keyboard player, so just imagine the amount of rapid tapping of keys needed to fly that), or to get a Firespitter propeller plane to Laythe. Other times, it's to get an electric propeller plane to Eve and fly through the super-gravity and experience all of the purple.

As for Career mode, probe-rovers would be a good starting point. Only thing you lose if you screw up is a computer and a few thousand credits worth of parts, not one of your Kerbals. Set up satellite networks around planets. Make a Mun Base. Land an exploration probe on Eve and return it.

Real Solar System is cool, but the few times I've messed with it (10x Kerbin System being my preferred), it adds to the mild tedium of building to get out of Kerbin's atmosphere. Personally, I play KSP for the engineering challenge of it, and only partly for flying my creations. Lately, I've found it difficult to want to leave Kerbin because the new atmosphere is a lot of fun to play in. Perhaps that's what you could do, if you've got any science left to gather on Kerbin. Build, using Firespitter's electric propellers, a science-gathering airplane and collect as much Kerbin Science as you can. There's even some seaplane floats in there, so you could even land on the water.

Or, alternatively, get a probe-based propeller craft to Eve and gather the science there. Firespitter has a nice little folding electric prop that would be almost perfect for the application, and if you build small enough, you should be able to fit it in a reasonable fairing to send it to Eve, get it past atmospheric entry, and then deploy it in the air to gather some science.

I know, propellers seem to be a recurring theme for me, but that's because lately I've used KSP as Kerbal Flight Simulator.

If there is one thing I realllly don't find interesting, it's planes. I guess maybe because I'm so bad at piloting them compared to rockets or what but I guess if you're gonna play you gotta play it all huh? I'll give it a shot!

- - - Updated - - -

Seems a bit of an odd question to me - there is no right or wrong way to play the game - do whatever you find engaging, is my advice. For me, I don't get on with Career mode - I've tried it in each of its incarnations, and still I return to Science mode. I like the freedom Science mode gives to my imagination, which inevitably results in me setting my own challenges. Back in 0.23, I had a nice little base set up on Minmus that could refuel ships, courtesy of the Kethane mod. I had intended to use Minmus as a kind of ready-made space station near which to assemble ships to go to Duna and places beyond, to set up little bases all over the system.

Setting that base up meant that I learnt how to either and pretty close to a given point or otherwise deal with the consequences, at least in low-G non-atmosphere circumstances. I also learnt how to create vehicles that could double as low-G rovers or even Kerbin-return vehicles if need be. I didn't get to Duna though. That came in 0.90, where I finally managed to get probes to both Duna and Eve - and even partial success at Jool! So I'd learnt about interplanetary launch windows, and taking more care with how much dV my designs have. More recently, I've been pootling around with TAC life support, finding my feet with havingto worry about whether my Kerbals supplies will last long enough. Currently, I have the MKS mod tucked away in a folder, which I really must put some time into learning soon, sa that will allow me to achieve my desire of planting self-sustaining colonies throughout the Kerbol system. And I'm going to trythe Elcano challenge soon, too.

But even thus far, I've had so many adventures, generally as a result of some mistake of mine, occasionally as a result of a success, that I've had a simply wonderful time playing KSP. IAnd that because KSP lets me play it my way. If, like a lot of games, it forced me to play a certain way, in a certain order, it'd be merely a good game instead of a great one. So I think the answer lies within you - how do you WANT to play the game?

I had to google Science Mode before replying (That shows how little attention I've paid to it). But that certainly sounds like something that could help. What I've always dreamed of was a sandbox (Full part access) mixed with actually getting science from experiments. I can feel my inner rocket designed dying to get home and play already!

- - - Updated - - -

If you're just getting into things, then I recommend an "install as you go" mentality. Start off with whatever you seem essential, and NO more. Then, when you feel you need something, then you download it. When you realise you need bucket loads of delta-v to get a base to Moho, install Near Future. When you realise you need more places to explore, install Outer Planets.

I think if you're just at the point here you're INITIALLY trying to get into it, then installing everything all at once is too daunting and overpowering. A (somewhat poor) example are these minecraft mod pack launchers, I love modded minecraft, but these mod packs with a bajillion mods on them that I've never played with before completely overpower me, even though I love the look of them.

TL;DR: Start off with nothing and add as you go when you realise you're missing something.

With KSP, with nearly everything you can think of, "there's a mod for that".

I've never thought of this way. Every time a new mod or KSP version is released, the first thing I do is go in and make sure I get all mods that I had been using in my previous version. This will certainly be my new MO

- - - Updated - - -

I second that. Play completely stock for some time. Calculate stuff (dV requirement and budget, phase angles,...) only using pen, paper, a calculator, Wikipedia and the KSP Wiki. Pilot your craft by hand, especially while landing and docking. Play with reverting and quickloading disabled.

My experience is that many mods reduce the challenge of the game, especially parts mods. By this they also take away some fun. The most rewarding moment I had in KSP was actually my first docking (in stock 0.23.5). It caused a rush of adrenaline that I never before experienced in any other game. Consider, how boring an automated docking maneuver using MechJeb would have been in comparison...

That being said, there are a few mods that don't directly affect gameplay, but add features missing in Stock KSP. For instance Stock Bugfix Modules, Kerbal Alarm Clock, Precise Node,...

I'll admit to docking with Mechjeb... actually, I've NEVER actually docked two ships legit. I've got a rough idea of how to rendezvous though. And no parts pack?! I love my parts packs! But I supposed getting rid of the excessive and overpowered ones would problem do me a world of good.

- - - Updated - - -

You guys are awesome! Sorry to be replying so late, I've had a commute and class all morning and have finally had a chance to sit down in the student union and reply. The KSP community definitely blew me away with this one. I plan to narrow down a list of 4-8 ESSENTIAL mods and use them to accomplish the goals list I'm going to create. My most ambitious at this point is to put a rover on Duna with a orbiting station! Thank you everyone so much for the inspiration! I definitely need to become an active forum user after this.

[carneyvich]

Know what you mean man.

[GarrisonChisholm]

I've been busy working on a mod that autopilots a rover on a planet to do all possible science experiments once the planet has been mapped,not coming along very nicely unfortunately.

...not to hijack a thread, but, will it radio home the science automatically too? And Good Luck with such a project!

[John FX]

For me, the essential mods are info displays from KER and MJ, KAC, realchutes, proc fairings, editor extensions, precisenode, stock bug fix.

Optionals for realism are RWsaturatable, persistentrotation, FAR and DRE, remotetech.

Optionals for the pretties are EVE, scatterer, engine lighting, ambient light adjuster, distant object enhancement,

optionals for gameplay are RasterPropMonitors, TAC fuel balancer, field experience, Kerbal Construction time, Scansat and some contract packs.

I wouldn`t bother with more engines n stuff, you can do it all with the stock ones.

These are just arbitrary categories, some mods fit more than one.

Now go land and return from Tylo, Laythe, Moho and Eve...

Then start a career game with all the realism options.

Then play a fully IVA career game.

Then recreate the Apollo mission as exactly as you can, even down to the fuel margins.

Then install KCT and see where you can get to in 5 years.

And so forth.

The main thing you need is to always be thinking of new things you want to try out.

Lately I have been wanting to land multiple craft on Duna with a single launch and a single craft entering the atmosphere. I`ve been using drogues to slow the main craft then splitting it to activate chutes for all the parts. It seems activating chutes then splitting means the chutes cut and the craft is lost...

[Jett_Quasar]

If you[re looking for a challenge go to the challenges section of the forums. Ironically I'm sure you'll find what you're looking for.

JR

[Tank Buddy]

If you are struggling on some of the concepts of KSP, you need to tone down your mods. Kerbal Engineer is the only mod I would say is a necessity. (RCS Build Aid is also dandy)

You say you spend alot of time researching mods. You could spend more time watching gameplay/tutorial videos. That helped me climb the learning wall.

As for mods, KER and RCS Build Aid are my greatest recommendations. There are tons mods that offer audio/visual improvements, HUD modifiers, additional parts, and much more. Just pick a few and play for a couple of days. See what you like and what is just extra junk.

[Alshain]

If you have only gone to Duna, why not try Eve? Getting there and landing on Gilly is fairly easy. Landing on Eve is fairly easy too (a little harder with heat because of it's atmosphere) just don't take any Kerbals unless you don't care if you leave them there because getting off of Eve is the hard part. Then there is Dres which is... Dres. Boring but fairly easy to get to and land on. Jool is the next step. Last but not least Moho which is quite the challenge to capture into.