Start KSP in "safe mode"

[Snark]

It would be handy to have a way when starting up KSP.exe (by holding down a particular function key, or the like) to force it to start in "safe mode": basically, in pure stock mode with all mods disabled.

This would be useful for debugging problems (i.e. "is this issue a problem with KSP itself or with one of the mods I'm running").

I expect that folks have probably asked for mod switching, including a way to specify on a per-save basis which mods are active. I expect that such a feature would be technically challenging, since mod loading happens at program startup time, before a particular save has been loaded.

What I'm asking for here seems like it would be technically simpler, since it would be at app startup. To make it work, the program just needs to have a "manifest" that specifies what parts/files/etc. are part of the core game, along with their fingerprints.

There would need to be some handling of edge cases, such as if the stock game has been manually tinkered with, but that seems straightforward, just have the game compare the stock files that it's looking for against their fingerprints in the manifest and show a warning if any are missing or altered.

You'd need to find some way of dealing with save games, i. e. what happens when a player tries to load a modded save while in safe mode, but that doesn't seem like a showstopper. Since it's a debug tool, it would probably be OK to take some simple shortcut such as having a separate "safe mode saves" folder, or the like.

Edited October 25, 2015 by Snark

[Nothalogh]

Yep, a stock only mode would be nice

[Guest]

KSP has no drm. You can copy amd paste as many installs as necessary or that you have drive space for. This allows you to test whatever you need to test.

[Gaarst]

Or you can just have a stock install ?

[Guest]

Or you can just have a stock install ?

Exactly. That's what I was trying to say. I do this for every version that comes out. Start with a stock-only install. Copy and paste to a new folder, then add mods. If the modded version acts up, you can go back to the stock install to verify whatever. Even to go as far as differentiating between modded installs. The "readout mods" like KER are pretty safe. Visual mods however are resource intensive and may or may not justify additional installs depending on your pc's capabilities.

[Snark]

Ah yes, quite so. Duh. I guess I never realized there was simply no DRM there-- I just assumed there was, I've never bothered trying to copy the whole KSP tree to a different folder.

Renders the suggestion moot, cheerfully withdrawn.