Favorite Planet Packs and Rescale Mods?

[JedTech]

What are your favorite Planet Packs and/or Planet Rescale mods?

 

The purpose of this thread is just to discuss the fun benefits of playing with Planet Packs and Rescale Mods. Please comment and tell us about your experiences:

• Which have you tried?
  • Which are your favorite?
    • Why?
• Which do you plan on trying?
  • Why?
• What do you think your ideal Planet Pack/Rescale Mod would be?

 

Edited May 11, 2016 by JedTech

[JedTech]

I've played using:

• RSS
  • Really made me  consider just how hard it is for NASA to get things into space. I played without RO and without FAR, so obviously it was even harder for me to build anything that could get into orbit. RSS was a little too much for my stock-a-like preferences.
• SKY (Scale up Kerbalism for You)
  • Really enjoyed the possibility of using stock parts with the added challenge of a fairly large solar system. This pack also rearranges some planets and adds a few new planets as well.
• Outer Planets Mod
  • Lots of new planets to explore. This was fun when combined with Near Future stuff. I recommend a time warp mod to help the time pass faster when going to far away destinations.
• 64K
  • This is the most recent planet mod I've used. I really enjoyed this rescale mod.

 

I plan to try out:

• KScale2
  • Towards the end of my 64K career I felt the rockets I had to create were way too big for the VAB. 
• Stock Size Real Solar System
  • Flying around the real solar system (only stock sized) sounds like a lot of fun. Must try this soon!
• Half Size RSS
  • RSS but half the size. I think this will be my sweet spot!

My Ideal Planet Pack would be:

• A mid-sized Real Solar System (sized similar to KScale or 64K)
• EDIT: Just found this: Half Size RSS

Edited June 23, 2016 by JedTech
found Half Size RSS

[Streetwind]

I'm a tinkerer, and thus my favorite rescaling mod is simply the one that does all of the scales.

 

I've played with RSS before (as part of the whole Realism Overhaul suite), and though it was a fun ride, I ultimately decided it's not for me. I like things a little less realistic, more gamified.

I've also used KScale2, and that one I liked a lot. I ran it with everything else stock style - as in, no specifically uprated engines or anything - and to my great surprise, I found it to almost work better than stock KSP from a gameplay progression standpoint. Particularly, the upgrade thresholds for the launchpad and VAB suddenly coincided with major milestones in a way I've not seen in stock KSP before.

Turns out, the 18 tons default weight tolerance of the launchpad is just about enough to let you launch typical rockets into low Kerbin orbit. You have some leeway for operations there - for example, running rescue missions by rendezvousing with other vessels in LKO - but you're not getting anywhere beyond that. Then you upgrade the pad to level 2, and suddenly you have enough mass tolerance (and vehicle height, you'd be surprised!) to go to the Mun and enter orbit there. You can now do anything you like anywhere in Kerbin's SoI... except that you start being limited by part count a lot. So you upgrade the VAB to level 2. And suddenly, you can also land on the Mun and Minmus and return, build space stations, and do all that fun stuff. And then? Interplanetary travel looms. And who would have thought, suddenly the launchpad feels cramped again. You upgrade that to level 3, and the solar system is yours.

Stock doesn't work that way. A twofold rescaled system does, and it feels so right. It's probably going to be my go-to sizing for the rest of my KSP playing years.

Edited May 12, 2016 by Streetwind

[JedTech]

8 hours ago, Streetwind said:

I've also used KScale2, and that one I liked a lot. I ran it with everything else stock style - as in, no specifically uprated engines or anything - and to my great surprise, I found it to almost work better than stock KSP from a gameplay progression standpoint

Thanks for that great summary! I'm really excited to try KScale2 using Normal career difficulty settings.

[JedTech]

I just discovered Half Size RSS mod by @pap1723. It seems to be exactly what I've been hoping for. Can't wait to try it.

[pap1723]

29 minutes ago, JedTech said:

I just discovered Half Size RSS mod by @pap1723. It seems to be exactly what I've been hoping for. Can't wait to try it.

I hope you enjoy it! That is the exact reason I made it, RSS was too difficult while stock was a bit too easy!

[Daeridanii]

Favorite planet pack? Well, anything by @KillAshley is going to be great, and the New Horizons mod was just updated to V2.0, with a complete rehaul of all its planets. (Well, almost all.) If you want it to be bigger (or smaller,) Sigma Dimensions is just what it says on the box - a universal rescale mod, so you can tweak size to your heart's content.

[KillAshley]

12 hours ago, Daeridanii said:

Favorite planet pack? Well, anything by @KillAshley is going to be great, and the New Horizons mod was just updated to V2.0, with a complete rehaul of all its planets. (Well, almost all.) If you want it to be bigger (or smaller,) Sigma Dimensions is just what it says on the box - a universal rescale mod, so you can tweak size to your heart's content.

ill just leave a small post for the links in my signature (shameless self promotion ftw!)

 

[cxg2827]

It's been a while since I've done a far-reaching career mode, but the last several times I've restarted a career mode with major ksp releases I've played with KScale2. With the new atmospheric model on 1.0, this made the delta v requirement to reach low Kerbin orbit match close to what it was for stock back in 0.9 and earlier (about 4500). 

I've only went as far as Mun, Minmus, and Eve (sucked back into modding), but the scale did add a bit more of a challenge. However with the stock atmospheric height and 2x planet rescaling, being in orbit around Kerbin still felt like orbiting a marble and didn't have a grandeur/emersive feeling to it, and the planet curvature was still very noticeable (personal opinion).

I've also briefly played with 64k scale, and unlocking the tech nodes was a bit challenging and needed a fair amount of terrestrial/atmospheric science gathering to get to orbit and then to the mun.

RSS was fun for a while, but all the extra mods required and RL complexities wasn't for my play style.

I think 3.2 scale or half size RSS might be the sweet spot for me, as I'd want to limit my launchers to stock, KW, and BDB.

Personally, ~6,000 delta-v to low kerbin/earth orbit seems like a solid difficulty level without making it a hindrance to "casual" gameplay.