Mods that every KSP player should have...

[Pedro_daher]

I bought KSP on steam and I kinda wanna get in the mods... Right now after exploring Jool's moons, I have installed New Horizons mod... But now I wanna get suggestions from you guys on what are the best mods that everyone should have, I hope I'm not asking for that much... Only a list, teehee <3

[Starhawk]

If you're going to use a number of mods, here are some that I would recommend:

Claw's Stock Bugfix Modules

Kerbal Engineer Redux

Kerbal Alarm Clock

Precise Node

Enhanced Navball

NavyFish's Docking Port Alignment Indicator

RCS Build Aid

Editor Extensions

Intake Build Aid

Environmental Visual Enhancements

Chatterer

Asteroid Day

Happy landings!

edit: These are mostly cribbed from Red Iron Crown's list of top 10 essential mods.

Edited September 12, 2015 by Starhawk

[cantab]

New Horizons is awesome.

The only mod I consider truly essential is Precise Node. I just cannot plan manoeuvres properly without it.

Consider Transfer Window Planner to help you work out trips since you can't use stock delta-V maps or online transfer planners. Consider ScanSAT to get your terrain information since kerbalmaps.com only has the stock bodies.

[tbarcello]

New Horizons is awesome.

Why is it?

[Mad Rocket Scientist]

Kerbal Engineer Redux. How many times can I say that.

[CSE]

The CKAN mod manager is useful for installing, un-installing, and especially because it gives you a list of (the majority of) mods that are up-to-date for your KSP version.

[technion]

I've said it before, I honestly don't see how some people play this game without precisenode. I just started by 1.0 career after a break from the game, with no mods. It's all well and good getting to the mun, but even Duna is needlessly frustrating. I'll reinstall that mod before going anywhere else.

[tbarcello]

I've said it before, I honestly don't see how some people play this game without precisenode. I just started by 1.0 career after a break from the game, with no mods. It's all well and good getting to the mun, but even Duna is needlessly frustrating. I'll reinstall that mod before going anywhere else.

They use mechjeb

[Superfluous J]

New Horizons is awesome.

Agreed, though I've only just left Kerbin's SOI so far.

Why is it?

It puts all the current planets in different orbits, so the old methods don't work anymore. It also adds new (and beautiful) planets to explore, including a ringed gas giant that Kerbin orbits. At an angle, so you see the tilt of the rings. Stunning.

As far as the OP's question is concerned, there is only one mod that EVERYBODY should install, and that's Claw's stock bug fix. That (and several others) have already been mentioned so I won't clutter up the thread any further.

[tbarcello]

I thought it's a mod about that probe.

Sounds like fun.

[bigcalm]

I'm trying to "complete"[1] with mostly stock (I have MechJeb, Chatterer and Kerbal Alarm Clock), but in the next iteration, I'm planning on going a little Mod crazy. My current wishlist:

* A mod that gives me hoses so I can transfer resources on the ground without trying to dock them on the ground. (KAS). This should really be in the stock game.

* A mod that gives me more planets to go to, including some tricky ones (Outer planets mod looks promising)

* Life support (RoverDude's version looks better than TAC)

* Boats! Why have oceans when we can't travel them! (Maritime pack)

* TAC fuel balancer

* Something to make docking ports better (KJR or something else - haven't decided).

[1] Land and return from every body.

[tbarcello]

I'm trying to "complete"[1] with mostly stock (I have MechJeb, Chatterer and Kerbal Alarm Clock), but in the next iteration, I'm planning on going a little Mod crazy. My current wishlist:

* A mod that gives me hoses so I can transfer resources on the ground without trying to dock them on the ground. (KAS). This should really be in the stock game.

* A mod that gives me more planets to go to, including some tricky ones (Outer planets mod looks promising)

* Life support (RoverDude's version looks better than TAC)

* Boats! Why have oceans when we can't travel them! (Maritime pack)

* TAC fuel balancer

* Something to make docking ports better (KJR or something else - haven't decided).

[1] Land and return from every body.

I'll recommend KIS as long as KAS already.

[Red Iron Crown]

Starhawk hit most of my list, the only one I'd add is Ven's Stock Revamp, I recently started using it and it makes the stock rocket parts so very pretty.

I should clarify about Chatterer, because from reading its description it sounds silly, frivolous and purely cosmetic, which it is. It is also essential, after playing for a while with it the game sounds positively dead without it.

[Val]

If you're going to use a number of mods, here are some that I would recommend:

Claw's Stock Bugfix Modules

Kerbal Engineer Redux

Kerbal Alarm Clock

Precise Node

Enhanced Navball

NavyFish's Docking Port Alignment Indicator

RCS Build Aid

Editor Extensions

Intake Build Aid

Environmental Visual Enhancements

Chatterer

Asteroid Day

Happy landings!

edit: These are mostly cribbed from Red Iron Crown's list of top 10 essential mods.

I agree with most of this list.

But I'd like to add a few I consider essential, because they are such good quality of life improvements.

Menu Stabilizer - Make any part right-click menu freeze its position on the screen in flight when the mouse is above any part of it.

NoOffsetLimits - Fixes the annoyances of trying to offset something attached to service/cargo bays.

S.A.V.E - Automatic backup of your saves games, so you never lose a career game to a bug. At least not all of it.

QuickScroll - Use the mousewheel to page through part lists. This feature is getting implemented in stock 1.1, I heard.

Other Mods I recommend.

NavHud - Very helpful for lining up to the runway and getting glidepath right during final approach, when landing Spaceplanes and Aircraft manually.

NavBall Up Default - Sets the Map view Navball up by default.

- - - Updated - - -

...

I should clarify about Chatterer, because from reading its description it sounds silly, frivolous and purely cosmetic, which it is. It is also essential, after playing for a while with it the game sounds positively dead without it.

Agree 100 %. The game's so lifeless without it.

[GoSlash27]

Because nobody's said it yet:

No mods!

1) keep it 100% stock

2) learn how to all the stuff that you "can't do"

3) ???

4) Profit!

Best,

-Slashy

[Sharpy]

Because nobody's said it yet:

No mods!

1) keep it 100% stock

2) learn how to all the stuff that you "can't do"

3) ???

4) Kraken!

Best,

-Slashy

FTFY.

If you want to go "all stock" then just install Claw's Stock Bugfix Modules.

Unless you consider the Kraken to be such an indispensable feature that reducing frequency of its appearances is spoiling the "pure game" experience.

[Superfluous J]

Because nobody's said it yet:

No mods!

1) keep it 100% stock

2) get stuck doing all the stuff that you "don't want to be forced to do"

3) ???

4) Profit!

Best,

-Slashy

I fixed it too

I don't use mods to make up for any shortcomings in my abilities. I use them to make up for shortcomings in THE GAME.

Edited September 12, 2015 by 5thHorseman

[Pax Kerbana]

Agree with Slashy.

I don't understand what's wrong with the navball, maybe because I haven't used enhanced?

MechJeb is just silly, it's like a mod for a FPS that takes you to the boss because "I could've beat the level anyway"

If any mod entices me it's Kerbal Alarm Clock...

[Red Iron Crown]

There's lots of mods that fall into the "Not something I can learn to do" category. Visual and sound effects mods, system rescales and new planets, new parts and gameplay mechanics, for example.

Let's not do the MechJeb debate again.

[Starhawk]

Because nobody's said it yet:

No mods!

1) keep it 100% stock

2) learn how to all the stuff that you "can't do"

3) ???

4) Profit!

Not even the Asteroid Day mod Slashy?

Happy landings!

[TheCardinal]

It all depends on your personal preferences. Personally i like so many mods that i often run into trouble (memoryshortages).

One thing you should really try is aviation lights. Not only for your aircraft but for all craft (rovers, rockets etc.)

[Yukon0009]

No enviromental mods Slashy? The stock games starts to make your eyes bleed after you've used enviromental mods long enough.

[The_Rocketeer]

I stand with a foot on both sides of the boundary.

I think people who buy the game and mod it before they even try it stock have missed the point. In that sense, AFAIC there's no such thing as an 'essential mod'. If it was genuinely essential, it would be stock. MechJeb and PreciseNode are cases in point. It's possible to play the game without manoeuvre nodes and SAS-piloting at all - it's hard, but possible. Adding features that do too much for you takes the fun out of it for me. I have tried MechJeb, but personally I think its for people who don't like flight sims. PreciseNode again has it's place, but I like the imprecision of stock, it makes you plan for what can go wrong, e.g. correction burns and contingency fuel supplies.

Having said all that, some mod packs really are brilliant. I especially like the ones that make space feel more like home for your little kerbs, like modular base parts (Bobcat had some good ones I recall) and life support, and ones that add functionality that doesn't exist otherwise, like KIS/KAS. Although I love visual upgrade/effects packs also, I don't think they're at all necessary and they do tend to give my computer a serious workout.

[Maukse]

KIS+KAS; allow you to load/unload a lot of stuff from cargoplanes, and make ISRU much more easy

MechJeb; I only lately switched to KER for the calculation/design; mechjeb still can sometimes be usefull for its autopilot

KER

SCANSAT

RPM (+vesselview) - geat IVA

RCS-balance helper mod

KAC

That all for me !

[Superfluous J]

I don't understand what's wrong with the navball, maybe because I haven't used enhanced?

What's wrong with the navball is twofold, in my opinion:

1) It's in the center of the screen, which is already too-short vertically during takeoff, and in order to see my whole rocket I'd have to scroll way out.

2) Its size is a function of the UI size. I like a big navball but don't want JEB'S FACE TO TAKE UP 1/4 OF THE SCREEN.

ENB does several other things but I don't use those, as what Stock does is fine for me in those instances.

If neither of these things seem important to you, then you should not use the mod. If anything any mod does seems unimportant to you, then you should not use them as well.

MechJeb is just silly, it's like a mod for a FPS that takes you to the boss because "I could've beat the level anyway"

While I agree that letting MechJeb handle all the hard stuff is taking away a huge part of the game, some people don't want to play the game that way. They only want to build, or they want to do 15 runs with their ISRU fuel lifter and don't want to "cheat" with Hyperedit to fill their tanks. I say more power to 'em.

Also, while I've not done it I was thinking of telling MechJeb to launch a given rocket a dozen times using a dozen different ascent profiles, to see which was the most efficient. Also, the exact same launch with several different rocket configurations. You know, using the computer for what it was designed for: exact repetition. Then, I'd know the exact best launch - at least for the kinds of rockets I tend to build. I personally think this is a "good" use of MechJeb.

If any mod entices me it's Kerbal Alarm Clock...

It should. It is in a very short list of mods that I personally think ARE stock. As in - I won't play without them unless I'm playing a challenge that bans them.

FTR those mods are:

Editor Extensions

Kerbal Engineer

Stock Bugfix Modules

PreciseNode

Kerbal Alarm Clock

RCS Build Aid

Tweakable Everything