Starting with mods for the first time

[Drakuba]

I decided to mod my game for more in-depth experience. I used most of the mods Scott Manley uses https://www.reddit.com/r/KerbalSpaceProgram/comments/1upc6g/scott_manleys_interstellar_quest_modlist/ + I added a few others, mostly to ensure proper working of other mods and 1 or 2 because I liked those. But as mod virgin, I have no idea if those mods will work together and if they wont whack my game because I plan to play career

I also created little mod-list displaying mods i plan to use, not to use and im unsure of, because there was alot of them and i didnot wanted to get lost in all of it

dont mind text in "Installation/Configuration Information" its in my native and those are just notes and i was lazy to translate them (but if anyone gets realy interested in filling me in all this mod-thing, i can translate them)

most important is "staženo" which mean if i use mod or not ("?" means im unsure, advice is welcome)

"KSP 1.0.4" means if mod is compatible with my version of game (black ones means im unsure, red ones are meant for older version of KSP yet they might work)

Two heads are better than one, i decided to ask more experienced kerbonauts. And because im in low priority group, first few answers will take a while so please bear that in mind

[hab136]

Unless you're running 64-bit KSP (only official version is on Linux), you may run out of RAM with all those mods. The Windows and Mac versions can only use about 3 GB RAM before they crash. In particular the large part packs (B9, KW) and the graphical enhancements (EVE, Better Atmospheres) use a lot of RAM. You can delete parts you're not going to use to save RAM.

CKAN is a nice way to install mods (and their dependencies). It's also a good way to know whether "outdated" mods can safely be installed.

Deadly Reentry only does G-effects at the moment since stock already does heating. G-Effects is an alternative.

Interstellar Extended is an up-to-date version of Interstellar. Near Future + Alcubierre Warp Drive is an alternative.

Kethane is not needed since there's mining in stock, but you might look at Karbonite instead (and Karbonite Plus)

TAC Fuel Balancer: Also check out GPOSpeedPump

PlanetShine is pretty

I really like Navball docking alignment indicator in addition to DPAI.

[Drakuba]

I now see i should had added more info about my pc and some explanation considering my mod-roadmap, sorry for that

I have 64bit Win7

run 64bit KSP ,but I will switch to 32 because few mods dont support it and I read 64 its unstable (i had 2 crashes in 80 hours of gameplay, not that bad by my books)

red X means im not going to use this mod

green "V" means im going to use this mod \ compatible with KSP version 1.0.4

yellow ? means im unsure about this one

I hoped Active texture management would help me with ram issues, but I was not sure if I realy needed it

thanks for info about interstellar and CKAN, realy helpful. I think I will ditch Docking Port Alignment Indicator and use Navball docking alignment indicator instead, since docking itself is a piece of cake, aligning orbits is the hard part. Karbonite is interesting, I will use those as well. I also decided to ditch deadly reentry, because Ferram aerospace research covers G-forces (if I read that one correctly)

[FancyMouse]

Some thoughts.

1. --force-opengl significantly reduces my ram usage and thus significantly reduces my crash frequency. This is more useful than ATM IMO.

2. Interesting to see you saying docking easier than rendezvous. For me DPAI makes my life a lot easier to dock big ships, and it saves me a lot of monoprop - I used to spend about 3x~10x mono before. I'm also not implying I can't dock without DPAI - it just took more time and effort and I become lazy after I know how to do it by hand.

3. Strongly encourage enhanced NavBall. Ghosting (showing a ghost node/prograde/retrograde when it's at the back of the ball), and sliding (making it not centered at the bottom of the screen to reserve the pixels for showing/clicking ship parts) are just super cool.

[SmashBrown]

You won't need ATM with that list as long as you use -force-opengl.

I would say Space-Y heavy lifters, Ven's stock Revamp, chatterer.. check them out.

[Drakuba]

-force-opengl improved my performance and it probably colided with ATM, because when i removed ATM, it got better. Thanks guys

I also deciden not to go for large part packs, interstellar have plenty of those and loading is a bit longer than stock KSP already

and there is mod list I use (screened from CKAN)

but new problem arised

when i right click certain things (so far i discovered 2, kerbals on eva and KF Large Experimental Rover Body) this hapens, along with FPS drops:

and i cant plant flags, take samples ...

and with KF Large Experimental Rover Body, it was:

Area 0,01

Intake Exposure 0

over and over and over again

Im no modder and i have no experience with modding games. Without hab136 recommending me CKAN , I would most likely messed up instalations of all those mods. I have no idea what causes this, so sorry for bothering you guys but I wont be able to figure it out on my own. I have no idea how to name this issue, let alone find a solution

Edited August 18, 2015 by Drakuba

[Yemo]

If you are new to modding, I highly recommend starting with less complexitiy adding mods.

That would also avoid errors, for example you can not use TAC Life Support and USI Life Support at the same time.

Not sure if jumping from no mods to full realism and so on will work out for you.

For a first look into modding I recommend using a simple ckan mod pack.

I provide one in the SETI thread from my signature (though I m sure there are others around which are more suitable for modding beginners). After installing that, you can just uninstall the 2 SETI mods via CKAN again and the remainder is a fairly good basis for extension. From there you can take it step by step.

[Drakuba]

Seems my problem is randomly generated with random rightclickables.

But complexitiy is what i desire remote tech, ferram, interstellar... its awesome all the conditins requied makes the reward so much sweeter. Plus i play career so i dont get overwhelmed. So far most difficult was ferram, but that just makes the game so much better. I also removed few mods(realism overhaul,...) from list and added a few new ones(science alert,...). I also realy like scansat , but I already have 50 mods installed and dont want even longer loating

[Yemo]

Seems my problem is randomly generated with random rightclickables.

But complexitiy is what i desire remote tech, ferram, interstellar... its awesome all the conditins requied makes the reward so much sweeter. Plus i play career so i dont get overwhelmed. So far most difficult was ferram, but that just makes the game so much better. I also removed few mods(realism overhaul,...) from list and added a few new ones(science alert,...). I also realy like scansat , but I already have 50 mods installed and dont want even longer loating

If you are not using realism overhaul for the progression, you may want to take a look at SETI, using the ckan basic mod pack file from the SETI thread.

It offers a much better career than stock, including tech and contract progression, especially the early and mid game is much better.

There is also a tech tree screenshot with recommended mods in that thread.

[theend3r]

1. B9 is compatible. It may be beta but it's compatible and everything works 100 % (just some prices are off... etc.).
   
2. Definitely get KJR (0 RAM and less flustration).
   
3. Awesome 0 RAM, bug-less utility mods that make the game 100x better:
   
   • Kerbquake
     
   • CollisionFX
     
   • IntakeBuildAid
     
   • StripSymmetry
     
   • SmartStage
     
   • ProceduralFairings.
     

[Drakuba]

If you are not using realism overhaul for the progression, you may want to take a look at SETI, using the ckan basic mod pack file from the SETI thread.

It offers a much better career than stock, including tech and contract progression, especially the early and mid game is much better.

There is also a tech tree screenshot with recommended mods in that thread.

That tech tree looks just like community tech tree , which i already downloaded

1. B9 is compatible. It may be beta but it's compatible and everything works 100 % (just some prices are off... etc.).
   
2. Definitely get KJR (0 RAM and less flustration).
   
3. Awesome 0 RAM, bug-less utility mods that make the game 100x better:
   
   • Kerbquake
     
   • CollisionFX
     
   • IntakeBuildAid
     
   • StripSymmetry
     
   • SmartStage
     
   • ProceduralFairings.
     

I decided to let B9 go, because I read theres ALOT of parts and Im lazy to delete those I dont use. And since I downloaded another mods, like 2 or 3 contract packs ,SCANsat and contract manager, I think I will stop looking for mods and start to play with those already installed

[theend3r]

That tech tree looks just like community tech tree , which i already downloaded

I decided to let B9 go, because I read theres ALOT of parts and Im lazy to delete those I dont use. And since I downloaded another mods, like 2 or 3 contract packs ,SCANsat and contract manager, I think I will stop looking for mods and start to play with those already installed

As you wish but it's a shame to let these go. Especially SmartStage is quite ingenious.

[simon56modder]

There is a huge list of mods on the French wiki (yeah, mod descriptions are in French but mod names are the original ones)

http://wiki.kerbalspaceprogram.fr/index.php/Librairie_de_Mods

If you like a mod name try it

On this page green mods are compatible with 1.0.4, orange are not compatible but some external patches exist to make it work with 1.0.4, red ones aren't compatible anymore.

It lists more than 680 mods for now !

[Drakuba]

Thats french wiki is similar to CKAN, but CKAN will install those mods for you along with all mods requied for proper working

[Yemo]

That tech tree looks just like community tech tree , which i already downloaded

Hardly suprising given that the tech tree aspect of SETI is a massive addon to the CTT...

[Drakuba]

Is SETI more sophisticated than CTT? Because I could not find few parts from karbonite(for sucking karbonite from atmosphere) and KIS/KAS (magnet, pipe attachment port), plus there were some empty nodes

[Yemo]

Is SETI more sophisticated than CTT? Because I could not find few parts from karbonite(for sucking karbonite from atmosphere) and KIS/KAS (magnet, pipe attachment port), plus there were some empty nodes

SETI is more than a tech tree, for example it not only starts with probes but also changes probe cores (SAS, EC, mass and so on) and science experiments (telemetry experiment added to probe cores thanks to LordAurelius). While the parent CTT structure is visible, it has quite a lot of changes all over the place and adjusts part placement.

You should not have empty "in-between" nodes, if you install it using the ckan mod pack from the thread.

Karbonite Scoops are at advScienceTech, together with most of the resource extraction.

The CC-R2 connector port should be available with advFuelSystems, the electromagnet is currently at nanolathing.

[Drakuba]

You sir convinced me

EDIT 9.28. 2015 : that tech tree is amazing, thanks for convincing me

Last question, its not problem per se, but it gets annoying as time goes on. When Im at space center, "contract building", or science lab(browsing tech tree) where I spend alot of time there compared to others (not tracking station thou), game gets brutal fps drops in those areas. I dont have fps measurer or anything like that, it just looks and feels like that. And it "infects" my game the longer I play(after 3 to 4 hours, depends on how much time I spend in research lab instead of flying or assembling, I start to experience fps drops in flight), and it wont fix until I restart KSP, then it start from scratch.

I think i can live with that, afterall I have 60 mods or so, many of them messes with game mechanics but if there is a way to fix this, I will gladly fix it

EDIT 9.30. 2015 : It seems my game dislike either career mode or fully unupgraded buildings. Because with sandbox there were no drops.

Edited August 30, 2015 by Drakuba