First game of career mode finished. What mods for the next one?

[Raphaello]

Hi,

I am getting to the end of my first playthrough using career mode. I unlocked full science tree (and have 18k science now), sent probes to almost all bodies in the system, manned (Kerballed?) missions to Moho and Duna, captured an asteroid and crashlanded in Moho's sinkhole (poor Jeb). I enjoyed doing contracts (but they got repetitive and boring after some time), building more powerful rockets, creating comm network, doing science and sightseeing. I was a bit disappointed with how small tech tree was - I unlocked most of it just by getting science from Mun and Minmus.

I only used beautification mods (EVE, SVE, SVT, PlanetShine and few others) and convenience mods (MJ, BetterBurnTime, KAC, TAS, TWP and othes) to have a good vanila experience first.

I'm thinking about mods for my second playthrough now. I have though about new mission packs, new science tools and nerfing science input to make it more challenging. New parts are also welcome (KW and B9, I guess) but I don't want to go to the big mods like Interstellar or RSS just yet. I will also play on hard difficulty but will allow reverting as I am still making silly design mistakes.

Which mods would you recommend for me?

 

EDIT: This is my mod list for the new game:

CTT and some other mods it supports (SpaceY HeavyLifters, NearFuture mods, MRS). KAS&KIS, OuterPlanets will also be there. Plus the ones below:

Spoiler

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/index.php?/topic/128204-120-kerbal-research-development/

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/index.php?/topic/136342-122-eve-optimized-engines/

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/index.php?/topic/154629-122-station-science-continued-v212/

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/index.php?/topic/131808-12x-strategia-v150-2016-12-04/

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/index.php?/topic/151262-12-porkjets-legacy-and-how-to-integrate-it/

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/index.php?/topic/72679-12x-scansat-v1611-real-scanning-real-science-at-warp-speed-november-4-2016/

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/index.php?/topic/94432-12x-waypoint-manager-v262-2017-01-25/

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/index.php?/topic/61065-12-final-frontier-kerbal-individual-merits-127-3080/

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/index.php?/topic/68043-universal-storage-1220-for-ksp-12x-07th-december-2016/

 

 

And this is the 'maybe' list:

Spoiler

 

 

 

 

 

This is also a nice thread for mod selection:

 

Edited January 29, 2017 by Raphaello

[Enceos]

I suggest MKS and Galileo's Planet Pack. It's gonna be a whole new game for you.

[nascarlaser1]

if you want a LS mod that is basic (but not too basic) and easily changeable via the settings, look at USI LS. It makes Kerbals need supplies to survive (or to just function, there is a non lethal setting) once they leave Kerbin.

I also recommend any other USI mods from @RoverDude they all rock  and are made to be used together (MKS is a base building mod that uses the USI LS system)

[Epicdreamer]

After playing several science career games with different sets of mods I noticed that a few mods are my must-haves for any save. I would recommend KIS and KAS, Scansat and dMagic Orbital Science, which goes great together with Universal Storage by the way. To expand the kerbal system you could choose for Outer Planets Mod. Getting the little green fella's to Sarnus and beyond is a good challenge!

And lately I fell in love with the Near Future set of mods which makes going for the Outer Planets a lot more fun. Adds quite a few nice parts and a bit of different gameplay to the mix, without getting very complicated.

I'm not to enthousiastic about LS mods. They make the game more realistic, but I got stressed about sending Kerbals up. It takes a lot of gameplay time to manage most LS (resuply-missions). But that's just a personal opinion. I like exploring more. And the extra gameplay systems and parts take their toll on my computer.

[Raphaello]

Thanks for the answers so far, I really appreciate!

I just had a short (1h ) look at USI mods and they really are awesome. I did not know them before and I will definitely try them in the future... but not yet as I want to explore more and to do science more. I feel that USI and Gallileo's Planets are too much as I still want to play it pretty much vanilla-like.

It seems I have (at the moment at least) a similar way of playing KSP to @Epicdreamer and I will most probably go with this suggestion.

Also, how can I make tech progress more challenging?

 

[Epicdreamer]

A mod like dMagic Orbital Science gives you less science points for every experiment in the game, but there are more experiments to play with.

Also you could turn down the science reward slider in the Game Difficulty Options menu. When set to 60% for example, you will need to get out of Kerbins SOI to complete the tech tree.

Another tech tree might be an idea as well. I found playing with parts mods is more enjoyable with for example the community tech tree, which expands the vanilla tech tree with nodes that require more than a 1000 science points to unlock.

The Engneering tech tree has more nodes for the same amount of parts so you need more science points to unlock everything, which makes progression throught the tree and the way you build your spacecraft quite different, even with only stock parts.

Hope this is of any help!

[Raphaello]

I will definitely go with CTT and some other mods it supports (SpaceY HeavyLifters, some NearFuture mods, MRS). KAS&KIS, OuterPlanets will also be there. Some other mods also caught my eye (hidden in the OP). I will also tune down science reward down to 60%.

DMagic has given an excellent suggestion in his response to my concern:

Edited January 29, 2017 by Raphaello