Mods that every KSP player should have...

[tbarcello]

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.

Please, go to Russian space agency and ask them to disable aitopilots on the Soyuz before astranaut from your country goes to ISS next time. Should be a challenge

[legoclone09]

Don't start this. Not again.

[tbarcello]

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.

It is possible to play the game without EVA and Antialiasing, they are not essential by your logic and shouldn't be stock.

If mechjeb and other essential mods are not in stock it's not because they are not essential.

- - - Updated - - -

Don't start this. Not again.

First time doing it. I never said one false word to any hypererit cheater, because it's their game and hey can do whatever. And this stick has both ends.

Edited September 12, 2015 by tbarcello

[Corw]

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

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.

Nope. Chatterer

[Thomassino]

My personal essential mods are:

KW Rocketry

KAC

Some beautiful cloud config using EVE

Distant object enhancement

MechJeb (mostly for information, I use autopilot just for docking)

And New Horizons is great! I wish you happy launching from the moon of a gas giant

[The_Rocketeer]

It is possible to play the game without EVA and Antialiasing, they are not essential by your logic and shouldn't be stock.

If mechjeb and other essential mods are not in stock it's not because they are not essential.

I think you've misunderstood me. I wasn't suggesting that everything in stock was essential (there are many parts I never use, secret locations I don't visit, features I don't utilise e.g. transmitting science). I was saying that everything that is not stock is not essential.

[GoSlash27]

All,

I'm not saying that everybody *should* play 100% stock. I'm just saying that there are no mods that every player *should* have.

There are lots of mods out there that bring different benefits to the table, but none of them are indispensable IMO. I always play 100% mod- free.

Best,

-Slashy

[Yukon0009]

Well yeah you have a point.

[Superfluous J]

Nope. Chatterer

Even Chatterer is an "opinion" mod and while I love it, I don't personally use it because the chatter cuts in while I'm talking on my YouTube Videos. I'm a perfect use case for NOT installing Chatterer.

EVERYBODY should use the stock bug fixes, because Claw has steadfastly kept it bug fixes and bug fixes only. There is no opinion here, these are bugs and he has fixed them. Or kludged them at least

[Mad Rocket Scientist]

Even Chatterer is an "opinion" mod and while I love it, I don't personally use it because the chatter cuts in while I'm talking on my YouTube Videos. I'm a perfect use case for NOT installing Chatterer.

EVERYBODY should use the stock bug fixes, because Claw has steadfastly kept it bug fixes and bug fixes only. There is no opinion here, these are bugs and he has fixed them. Or kludged them at least

Extremely true! However, when I build a replica, I don't want it to explode on other people, so, in some extenuating circumstances, even Claw's bug fixes are not a great idea.

[cantab]

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.

I'm the other way. It's my single least favourite mod, having literally given me a headache from its background hum when I was watching a streamer who used it.

Regarding Mechjeb, my views are simple: Mechjeb is not an autopilot. It's a Swiss Army Knife mod that has about two dozen different features. One or two of them happen to be autopilot utilities. I wish people didn't keep talking as though that's all Mechjeb did. Now I don't actually use Mechjeb; I consider its UI ugly and I prefer Precise Node, Kerbal Engineer, Alarm Clock, and so on. But if you want the ease of installing and maintaining one single mod that can replace what would otherwise take half a dozen different ones, Mechjeb is great for that.

[Superfluous J]

Extremely true! However, when I build a replica, I don't want it to explode on other people, so, in some extenuating circumstances, even Claw's bug fixes are not a great idea.

Those people are part of the "Everyone" group and should install the mod themselves

But I understand your point. I'm working on a contract pack that requires fairly heavy use of the Claw, and due to the fact that you're very likely to Kraken up your game without the Bug Fixes mod, I'm actually making it a requirement.

[The_Rocketeer]

All,

I'm not saying that everybody *should* play 100% stock. I'm just saying that there are no mods that every player *should* have.

There are lots of mods out there that bring different benefits to the table, but none of them are indispensable IMO. I always play 100% mod- free.

Best,

-Slashy

This is almost exactly the view I was attempting to express also.

[RizzoTheRat]

I like ScanSat, and have restarted with RemoteTech which I think should give me a bit of added realism.

Only recently started using MechJeb to take the drudgery out of repeated tasks, but only use it for stuff I know hoe to do but can't be bothered to, rather than for stuff I can't, or find tricky to do manually.

Kerbal Engineer Redux however is something I consider essential to all my games.

[Stone Blue]

Either Fusebox, or AmpYear for determining total electrical usage and required storage needs in the editor, as well as in-flight power management.

Hullcam VDS if you do a lot of IVA, (RPM goes without saying...)

NavUtilities for atmospheric flight...

Switch Active Vessel and Haystack (or Targetron), if you quite often have many vessels clumped together, and get tired of having to exit and go to the tracking station...

[Wolf Baginski]

The problem with New Horizons is that it needs a lot of RAM before you add anything else.

It's a spectacular product with the recommended mods for stuff such as weather, but I wouldn't use Chatterer. and that's small. It isn't vital. Set ¼-size textures, it can make control buttons look a bit bad but most of the craft I see are still OK. I am going to have to prune some more, because it feels on the verge of crashing.

[tbarcello]

I think you've misunderstood me. I wasn't suggesting that everything in stock was essential (there are many parts I never use, secret locations I don't visit, features I don't utilise e.g. transmitting science). I was saying that everything that is not stock is not essential.

Your definition of essential is far from mine.

Your point is perfectly understood.

IMO it's all about what makes it an enjoyable game to the player, therefore essential would be player-dependent. Someone will find AI combat essential.

[The_Rocketeer]

Your definition of essential is far from mine.

Your point is perfectly understood.

IMO it's all about what makes it an enjoyable game to the player, therefore essential would be player-dependent. Someone will find AI combat essential.

I'm reluctant to get into a debate about semantics, but I don't agree at all. KSP without an essential component or feature would be an incomplete game. It isn't. Mods are wonderful things, but they simply expand on what is already a whole and well-rounded game.

It would be absolutely right to say that KSP is essential to play FAR or Kethane or whatever else you want, but it's completely backwards to say that FAR or Kethane are essential to play KSP.

[Joshwoo70]

Kerbal engineer is a must. ALWAYS would recommend to new players.

Environmental visual enhancements (dont use the stock one that comes with EVE use Avera9eJoe's clouds or Astronomer visual pack.)

NavHud.. ( i personally dont use it but it can be good for newcomers.)

i think thats it!

[tbarcello]

I'm reluctant to get into a debate about semantics, but I don't agree at all. KSP without an essential component or feature would be an incomplete game. It isn't. Mods are wonderful things, but they simply expand on what is already a whole and well-rounded game.

It would be absolutely right to say that KSP is essential to play FAR or Kethane or whatever else you want, but it's completely backwards to say that FAR or Kethane are essential to play KSP.

Well, refusal to debate semantics, and, at the same time, using those semantic differences to proove your point, might seem comfortable, but any ignorance is comfortable.

You define essential as a feature, the game is incomplete without. For you, stock game is well-rounded and complete, but, taking your obvious intelligence, you may imagine, how many players would have a different, or even opposite oppinion on completeness of KSP. And that is relatively speaking.

So the semantic differences have nothing to do with it in this case, actually, because we completely agree on "essential" definition. What we disagree is on "completeness" of the game, which should reenforce my point, made in previous post. Don't you agree?

[The_Rocketeer]

Well, refusal to debate semantics, and, at the same time, using those semantic differences to proove your point, might seem comfortable, but any ignorance is comfortable.

You define essential as a feature, the game is incomplete without. For you, stock game is well-rounded and complete, but, taking your obvious intelligence, you may imagine, how many players would have a different, or even opposite oppinion on completeness of KSP. And that is relatively speaking.

So the semantic differences have nothing to do with it in this case, actually, because we completely agree on "essential" definition. What we disagree is on "completeness" of the game, which should reenforce my point, made in previous post. Don't you agree?

Actually I deliberately avoided definitions and used logic to prove my point.

If you feel that stock KSP is unplayable then that's a shame, but I think you'll find plenty of players in the community willing to prove you wrong. While I agree that this is perhaps a point on which we disagree, I don't think that our disagreement validates any point of yours.

As I've said before, choosing to expand the game with mods is totally acceptable, even preferable for many, but any assertion that the stock game is basically incomplete without them just isn't true.

While I can see that you're keen to convince me otherwise I'm afraid I won't be willing to compromise on this point, and since we're leading this thread off its intended topic I suggest we leave it there.

Edited September 15, 2015 by The_Rocketeer

[tbarcello]

I don't see how we are leading it off topic, since topic is "essential mods"

And our disagreement does exactly proove my point, which states that every player would decide the essentiallity for themselves.

I've seen many going stock in this community. And many going mod. I also seen statistics on mods usage. If you suggest that people going stock are majority, they aren't, but that doesn't prove anything, it's just a side note.

[The_Rocketeer]

The topic is "Mods every KSP player should have", not "essential mods", and not "mods that tbarcello thinks are essential and The_Rocketeer doesn't".

Our disagreement proves nothing, since I maintain that you're wrong in suggesting that KSP necessarily requires augmentation or modification to be played and enjoyed.

I also said nothing about majorities. The fact that a player mods a game does not mean that they find it unplayable or unenjoyable stock.

As I feared this discussion is really getting into the long grass. How about we just let others make up their own minds who they think is right?

[tbarcello]

The topic is "Mods every KSP player should have", not "essential mods", and not "mods that tbarcello thinks are essential and The_Rocketeer doesn't".

Our disagreement proves nothing, since I maintain that you're wrong in suggesting that KSP necessarily requires augmentation or modification to be played and enjoyed.

I also said nothing about majorities. The fact that a player mods a game does not mean that they find it unplayable or unenjoyable stock.

As I feared this discussion is really getting into the long grass. How about we just let others make up their own minds who they think is right?

Once again you fail to understand, which point I'm trying to prove. I'm not trying to prove, that game is incomplete or flawed. EVERY game is flawed, there is no flowless game and complete/incomplete - is up to game disigner.

Now a player will decide whether stock game missing essential features that in their opinion should be there, as without it THEIR game experience would be significantly worse. When you remove a mod from such player and his experience worsened significantly, that mod is essential for that player.

What I've proved, with your kind disagreement, is exactly that - each player will define essential or not by themselves.

Try to understand, that even though sun orbits earth, nobody cares, because of the proportions. Therefore earth orbits sun. When 10 people will say essential mod, and 10 will say stock, that means essential is person dependant.

That's all I was prooving. Reread it, try to get it - your choice. I'm out, life's too short.

[The_Rocketeer]

Once again you fail to understand, which point I'm trying to prove. I'm not trying to prove, that game is incomplete or flawed. EVERY game is flawed, there is no flowless game and complete/incomplete - is up to game disigner.

Now a player will decide whether stock game missing essential features that in their opinion should be there, as without it THEIR game experience would be significantly worse. When you remove a mod from such player and his experience worsened significantly, that mod is essential for that player.

What I've proved, with your kind disagreement, is exactly that - each player will define essential or not by themselves.

Try to understand, that even though sun orbits earth, nobody cares, because of the proportions. Therefore earth orbits sun. When 10 people will say essential mod, and 10 will say stock, that means essential is person dependant.

That's all I was prooving. Reread it, try to get it - your choice. I'm out, life's too short.

I get it, it's just still wrong. Well, I don't get the bit about the Sun orbiting the Earth (...?) but I get the bit about you thinking essential is subjective. I don't think it's subjective at all. The fact that the option to supplement the game exists doesn't, under any circumstance, make the supplement absolutely necessary (which by the way is the definition of 'essential'). You might decide it's necessary for you from now on, but that doesn't make it so, it just means you prefer the mod to stock and wouldn't choose to go back. Good for you, but if the mod didn't exist and had never existed, would you really never play KSP? I doubt it.

More importantly, if there were no mods at all, would the game fail commercially because it was no fun? The simple fact that it was successful enough to attract a fanbase even before mods were available suggests not, and that's without even considering the number of players who still prefer to play stock even given the choice, or keep a stock install in parallel with a modded one.

Lastly, many games lack features that the fans wanted devs to put in, but the fact is the fans were fans because the game was good even without those features. Monopoly doesn't have rules for buying property abroad or running your office from the Cayman Islands to avoid paying taxes, but just because I might want those features and find the game less fun without them it doesn't make them essential.