Lazy returning player..

[MoridinUK]

So I'm a lazy returning player!

I'm excited by 1.1.3 and want to get back into kerbal.  I used to have a huge list of mods but half of them have died along the way or joined with others and I'm lost!

So I'm asking what do people consider the essential mods?

I always thought, the Kerbal Engineer, Trajectories, Precise mano nodes, enhanced nav ball, alarm clock, window planner, stock fixes, (and cos I'm poo vertical velocity tracker) were all essential.

I'll also be putting one of the USI colonialization mods on.

I did think I'd try using ckan to keep this a bit easier but I can't get it to work either, doesn't recognise my install.

 

[DarkHawkGames]

I don't like playing without Kerbal Construction Time; it makes it take time to build each rocket, also taking into account what parts you have in stock. I also much prefer playing with Stage Recovery. That makes it a bit easier by allowing you to strap parachutes/landing rockets/etc to recover your dropped parts.

[Scarecrow]

I've reduced the amount of mods I use these days, as I got fed up of searching out the versions that were compatible with the latest version of the game.

These days I only play with Kerbal Engineer, Navy Fish Docking Indicator, Kerbal Joint Reinforcement, Kerbal Alarm Clock, RCSBuildaid, Landing Height and Hyperedit.

Helps to keep the loading time to a minimum too.

[Norcalplanner]

If I had to have three mods, it would be MechJeb, SpaceY, and Kerbal Joint Reinforcement.  Enhanced Nav Ball isn't needed anymore, most of the stock bug fixes got incorporated into the game after they hired Claw, and the functionality of Trajectories has been incorporated into MechJeb (along with the transfer window planner).

Other mods which are small but helpful include Portrait Stats and Landing Height Indicator.  For parts, I'm drawn mostly to Necrobones' and Nertea's work.

[kBob]

I have three I consider essential.  All are cosmetic one also has function.  The two cosmetic are this one to change the texture of the navball to something readable (look through the thread posts and try some of the textures people have posted) which makes a big difference.  NavballAdjuster which lets you change the size and color of the markers on the navball (for example I've shrunk the position indicator and made the prograde marker medium green and the retrograde marker medium red -- so much easier to read at a glance) and also lets you have the navball automatically open when you open the map view (and more). 

And finally Indicatorlights which adds one part a LED light (which can be used for example as left/right red green nav lights on a plane) but it's real purpose is to add useful at a glance indicator lights to many parts; for example science parts will blink green if they are in a new biome where you can collect science or yellow if there is still some science you can get (so you can, for example, put them on a rover and zip around the KSP and whenever they start blinking green you know you can grab a quick bit of science); on batteries they indicate charge; on docking ports you get cross-feed indicator and docking field notification and so on.  You can change the colors to anything you want...great mod by Snark.

Starting out that's all you need.  Mods that have Dv readout like MecJeb and KER can be nice but not essential.  Fewer mods means fewer problems too.  But once you've remastered or refreshed yourself on the basics you'll probably then have a better idea of what is essential for yourself: I think it's better to keep things simple at first then get other mods as needed or desired.  Even KAC isn't essential but it's nice.  Of course it also depends on how you play if you want to start out in a fresh career than I think it's in style to not use any helper mods (cosmetic is different) until you've advanced a bit (though MJ does integrate into this with parts that are unlockable at various stages in the tech tree); but in sandbox well anything goes .  Though despite this I still think the stock game should have an optional dv readout and KAC should probably be stock too (or at least its basic functions like setting way point alarms and burn alarms that pause the game).

[MoridinUK]

I don't think I could plan a mission without KER, I've never managed to quite figure out the difference between mechjeb and KER! lol, I do like thie idea I could let it fly itself to orbit though, I get so bored doing them over and over and am uncovinced I have good enough dexterity for some of it.  The unmaned probe without SAS i find almost impossible without using the time warp trick to stop it moving.  I'm just a digital guy!

I love the idea of construction time and stage recovery, even life support but frankly, I can't see me getting far without the verticle velocity mod anyway, I've never managed to land and take off again without it.

 

[Corona688]

What does the vertical velocity mod do?

[MoridinUK]

You could set the desired verticle velocity and it would set your thrust to keep your verticle speed right (but only while the angle of your probe and the twr allowed it, then it went red and warned you it couldn't do it).  It made landing at a specific point (like a moon base) much easier (in my case possible)  It could be used to make your probe hover etc. 

You could set a target m/s like -2 mps or +5 mps.  or 0. 

 

[Corona688]

That sounds very tempting.  I usually use bang-bang control and action-groups for that, momentary pulses of 100% thrust to kill velocity.  You have to be careful with that though, if the deactivation is missed for some reason it'll whip you around.

[Bigbootie]

 

I like all of these for graphics and gameplay.

Chatterer

Distant Object Enhancement

EVE

KAS

Kerbal Engineer

KIS

Planetary Base Inc

Planetshine

Real Plume

SCANsat

Scatterer

Smokescreen

SVE

Surface Lights

Kerbal Alarm Clock

 

[klesh]

Engineer and alarmclock for me, the rest isnt necessary.  

[MoridinUK]

Karbonite is in stock these days right?

[klesh]

12 minutes ago, MoridinUK said:

Karbonite is in stock these days right?

 

Not per se, but there is a stock mechanism for scanning planets for Ore concentrations, drilling and refining it into fuel.

[MoridinUK]

As long as I have off world fuel!  

[klesh]

Yup!  It works great.  There are a couple of scanning methods to look into.  2 orbital, and one surface.  You do not have to realtime scan and wait to fill in hexes like with Karbonite.   Be sure to look into how it works though, because you'll inevitably run out of electrical charge, or overheat etc.   Also, bring a high level Engineer on the drilling rig (if you're playing Career mode). Have Fun!

[MoridinUK]

Yes, I'm somewhat worried about heat... I've never played beyond first orbit with heat so have no idea how to prepare for it!

 

[klesh]

I have no idea about heat either, and Ive been playing the whole time.  Just slap some radiators on things, big ones, little ones, till they look rad.  The refinery and drills make heat, so put radiators near them.  Then hope for the best.  Sooo Kerbal!

[MoridinUK]

Sounds good to me!

I do wish I learnt to land off world, I always burn more fuel slowing down to land than people in youtube vides do!

[klesh]

Might I suggest Minmus for your initial experiments before you go interplanetary.  The low gravity there and large swaths of completely flat "lakes" (hope a nice ore concentration is on one of them) make it an idea place to hone your landing skills and test out your mining rig.

Its slight inclination makes it harder for some folks to get to, but you can negate that by simply aiming to meet up with it at it's ascending or descending node, so its right on your equatorial plane.

[MoridinUK]

Mun is my frustration, which is why I worry about Duma.  Minmus I can get on and off pretty much as I please, Mun?  I start so many landings with enough dv to get on and off but burn my fuel out on the descent...  sigh... I can do it, just not every time..

 

[Kertech]

Kopernicus

Outerplanets mod

Xen’s Planet pack

Kerbal planetary Base systems

ScanSat

Dmagic Orbital science

Remote tech

Tac Life support

Deep Freeze

Keepfit

MechJeb

HyperEdit

Community Tech Tree

KAS

KIS

ResearchBodies

VesselMover

Safe Chute

Atmospheric autopilot

Cacteye

Kerbal Alarm Clock

Tarsier Space Tech

Champagne Bottle Redux

SSTU

Surface Experiments

Ven’s StockPart Revamp

Crowd sourced science

Eve Biomes

NearFuture   Propulsion Electrical

Connected living space

Infernal robotics

Infernal Robotics rework

Probes plus

Station science

Stock alike station expansion

Kerbal Atomics

Cryogenic engines

Interstellar fuel switch

SpaceY

KWredux

Empty node hider

KER

KJR

VX series engines

Arkas Planet

Contract Configuror

Solar science

Jool Biomes

Kethane

Universal storage

Cx Station parts

 

 

My mod list atm, Essential are KER, KAC, KJR, 

All the rest are there cause I like it

Table seem odd I know, I keep a table so I know what I have, what they're called in folder, version number, game number the build is for and forum link! Did it on a fresh install so a lot of work up front but long term it's SOOOOO much easier!!

[Corona688]

2 hours ago, MoridinUK said:

Sounds good to me!

I do wish I learnt to land off world, I always burn more fuel slowing down to land than people in youtube vides do!

My understanding is that an efficient landing is a quick landing.  Wasted time is wasted fuel, because the longer it takes, the more speed you have to cancel.

So, you want to come down from a high orbit (since it's efficient to decelerate there) into an orbit that doesn't QUITE graze the mun or whatever.  Once you're at the orbit's lowest point, thrust retrograde until your velocity is all gone.  This will leave you falling gently from a kilometer or two, giving you time to get things steady without wasting whole minutes basically hovering.  Don't bother slowing yourself down past 100m/s until you're below a few hundred meters.

This strategy means your lander can't have too outrageously low a T/W ratio though, or you'll end up lithobraking instead of retrobraking.

The logical extreme of this technique is the "suicide burn", where you time it so perfectly that landing and retrobraking are the same step.  This is called "suicide" for a reason though, there's not really much margin for error.

Edited July 2, 2016 by Corona688

[Kertech]

@MoridinUK curious, WoT reference??

[Corona688]

2 hours ago, MoridinUK said:

Mun is my frustration, which is why I worry about Duma.  Minmus I can get on and off pretty much as I please, Mun?  I start so many landings with enough dv to get on and off but burn my fuel out on the descent...  sigh... I can do it, just not every time..

1) build small

2) drop your material bays and empty tanks before you leave

3) Get rid of some engines before liftoff.  You only need a high T/W ratio to land, not to leave.

Makes it so much easier.

 

Edited July 2, 2016 by Corona688

[StrandedonEarth]

5 hours ago, klesh said:

Engineer and alarmclock for me, the rest isnt necessary.  

Navball Docking Alignment Indicator is the one other thing I like to have, simple and useful.